When it comes to virus and malware in general, not much surprises me anymore. Which will put things in perspective when I say what I saw recently impressed me. A lot.

A client contacted me because a computer had gone through a virus infection and AFTER it was seemingly removed, the computer was very slow. I looked into it, and looked into it. There was something off, but all my usual scanners were not detecting anything major. And THEN, almost by accident, a major outness came into view.

Several programs, legit programs, were behaving oddly. Very oddly. When I finally got to the bottom of it, my jaw had dropped. Somebody had subverted the computer and turned it into a “bot”, meaning it was being used by other people, a lot of people, without the consent of the owner. That in itself was not surprising – it happens every day.

But what was surprising was the method used to infect the computer and carry out its subversion. It was so covert, so devilishly brilliant, that it fooled all current scanners I threw at it. And it almost escaped me while using advanced manual detection tools. Almost, fortunately, but that was a first. Never seen anything like it, ever.

It was so bad that it was one of the few occasions where I recommended re-installing the computer’s operating system from scratch. It was the only way to make absolutely sure no part of the infection remained.

I created a copy of the original hard drive to play with the infection afterwards in a controlled environment, and learn from it.

As part of the handling I put in place a better security system based on my model, and hopefully that will close the door to the possibility of it ever happening again.

Microsoft just released 16 security updates as part of its monthly update schedule. This is the largest amount of updates released in 3 years.

Five of the 16 updates were labeled “critical”, nine “important”, and two “moderate”.

The updates address the Windows Operating System itself, Microsoft Office, and Internet Explorer.

All these updates were released a few minutes ago, at 1 p.m. ET.

If you have Automatic Updates enabled in your Windows computer you don’t need to take action for these updates to install, except maybe a restart at the end of the updates. If Automatic  Updates are not enabled, it is strongly recommended you download and install these and any other outstanding Windows Updates.

Individual malware strains are still in the raise, per the latest data reported by PandaLabs. In the 3rd quarter this year, 20 millions new strains were created worldwide. Per AV-Test.org, over 14 million were created in October alone. Compare that to 2013, where an average of 5 million were created every month, or 2009, when  it was “just” a little over 1 million per month.

The most common type of malware are still Trojans, with 78% of all infections, while the most geographically affected areas worldwide remain Latin American and Asian countries.

Given these facts, a good security setup for your computer and good web surfing habits are now more important than ever.

As it is usual with phishing scams and malware campaigns, a trending topic is used to attract attention. In this case the Ebola virus disease, a subject that has spiked public interest recently, is being used as a theme.

Therefore, beware of suspicious emails with Ebola mentioned in the subject or body of the email. Such emails may contain links used to direct users to websites which collect personal information or contain malicious attachments that can infect a computer.

The best way to protect yourself against such attempts is to

1. Do not follow unsolicited web links or attachments in email messages.

2. Maintain up-to-date antivirus software. See this article for my ideal security set up for a computer.

3. Contact a computer security expert if you suspect you have fallen victim of a phishing scam or malware campaign.

Security breaches, security leaks, passwords leaks, stolen information, stolen identities. These subjects seem to be more and more present in the news in recent times. Although I wouldn’t necessarily trust all news and news sources and the slant they put on the news, there is nonetheless a situation here that seems to have worsened with time.

An alternate title for this article could be What’s “Two-Factor Authentication”?

In the simplest possible way, it could be defined as an access procedure that adds an additional step to the normal verification process. Abbreviated TFA or 2FA.

Although it might sound foreign to you, as a matter of fact you probably already use it to some degree or another. An example of it is using an ATM machine. To access your account you need two steps: 1) Have and swipe your ATM card and 2) enter the pin number for it.

By no means perfect or impenetrable, this method however does raise the fence, making it harder for hackers to get their dirty little hands on your information. Because of that, the method has gained popularity in recent times.

The possible credentials are a) something you know, such as a password or pin number, b) something you have, such as your ATM card or a phone and c) something you are, as in a fingerprint or any other similar bio-metric authentication. Two of these three are required in two-factor authentication.

For the regular user, if you come across the option to use it, I would recommend it, especially for things like online banking, and any online activity that you consider sensitive. It might save you from some future potential headaches.

Or so a story circulating on Facebook states. You might wonder how is that related to the usual subjects covered in my articles. It turns out it’s a social engineering effort.

If you click on the link in the news item, it will take you to a page where you will be told there is  a Java update to be installed since your current one is out of date. Although the number of suspicious-raising elements in such statement are numerous, many people will go ahead and “update”. Needless to say the request is not legit and you should, of course, not do it. If you must update Java at all, go to the source (http://www.java.com) and update from there. Or ask me if you need help.

Oh, and for the Game of Thrones fans, it has not been cancelled. 🙂