Privacy Archive

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

List of public DNS services

By derek | Filed in browser, Malware, Phishing, Privacy, Uncategorized

Until fairly recently, nobody bothered with changing their DNS server. Everybody used the ones provided by their ISP. Today, there are several providers worldwide that provide free public DNS service with additional features like  blocking known malware sites,  blocking known phishing sites, parental controls and some even say that their services are quicker and more  reliable.

Here are a  few of the  better known and more reliable ones . It's up to you to choose the one that has the  features or protection that you want.

You will  find instructions on  how to change DNS addresses on their webpages.

OpenDNS
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Google Public DNS
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

Norton DNS (Symantec Corporation)
198.153.192.1
198.153.194.1

ScrubIT (ScrubDNS Inc.)
67.138.54.100
207.225.209.66

DNS Advantage (Neustar Inc)
156.154.70.1
156.154.71.1

Comodo Secure DNS (Comodo Security Solutions Inc.)
156.154.70.22
156.154.71.22

Share
Tags: , , , ,

Misleading Google adverts

By derek | Filed in browser, microsoft, Privacy, scams, Warnings and Alerts


Many of us in the security community are concerned about misleading adverts. This one in particular has started to make waves within the wider Technical support community. It is frequently displayed on blogs & forums offering free technical support and appears designed to fool a user into thinking that they are getting Microsoft Technical Support, when in fact the link goes to a site that makes you pay for help and assistance  that has absolutely no connection to Microsoft as a company
The advert below is the one in question. Click on it to get a full size image

We all understand that adverts are a necessity in todays world to defray costs in running a website and an occasional rogue or misleading advert will slip through. I use Google adsense here on this blog and hope that all the adverts will be honest and above board. All webmasters, blog owners and Forums admins do need to keep an eye open for such adverts. Google must take a high degree of responsibility and start to police its advertising system more closely and weed out these deliberately misleading adverts.

The Company Justanswer.com who publish the adverts should be ashamed of themselves and I ask all readers to avoid that company and any others that use such underhand tactics to drive vulnerable visitors to their site.

Share

Beware of fake shopping sites

By derek | Filed in browser, Exploits, firefox, microsoft, mozilla, Phishing, Privacy, scams, Warnings and Alerts


With the seasonal shopping season well underway, watch out for fake shopping sites and phishing emails trying to get your identity & credit card details.

A slightly different approach came into my inbox today which asked me to confirm the item in my shopping basket. Now I haven’t shopped with Littlewoods online but you can be sure that thousands of people have and the same scam will be applied to just about every well known online shopping site this season.

The email looks quite believable
littlewoods_email

The website if you follow the link looks exactly like the real Littlwoods shopping site Account sign in page EXCEPT that the real Littlewwoods or ALL reputable shopping sites will have a Padlock icon and the  site address will start with HTTPS and the address bar will turn green to show that you are on a secure site

This screenshot shows the fake site and I have blanked out the address for safety reasons
littlewoods_web

These show how a genuine site will appear in Internet Explorer 8 on left and Firefox on right. Both show the padlock icon and a green safe address bar. A genuine shopping site will always start HTTPS to show a secure site when you are asked to put in any details. The front page of the site might be a normal http:
Unfortunately a lot of well known shopping sites haven’t yet signed up to the Extended Valuation green bar very secure system yet so watch for the closed padlock and HTTPS in the address bar to show a secure site. In Firefox browser the closed padlock is on the bottom right hand corner of the page, not in the browser address bar

littlewoods_IE real_littlewoods

I strongly recommend using ROBOFORM which keeps all passwords in a secure encrypted database that only you (not a keylogger or malware) can access and use it to create safe secure passwords

RoboForm: Learn more...

Share
Tags: , , ,

WOW wowmatrix keylogger

By derek | Filed in Exploits, games, Malware, Phishing, Privacy, Rogue Software, scams, Warnings and Alerts


I was notified of a google advert for a fake wowmatrix site. The original genuine wowmatrix is seen by many games players as not completely within the rules of the games
Wowmatrix is an addon that makes it easier to update and install other tweaks and addons to your game. Obviously using a fake version that downloads false addons & tweaks and installs them leaves you open to a lot of problems.

The advert on google looks like a search listing and it is only apparant that it is a sponsored listing or advert on close inspection

wowmatrix Read the remainder of this entry »

Share
Tags: , , , , , ,

Microsoft Lottery Spam

By derek | Filed in Exploits, Malware, microsoft, Phishing, Privacy, scams, spam, Warnings and Alerts

We seem to have a new batch of the Microsoft lottery spam emails again

These have a @live.com email address with what at first glance looks like it could be a proper microsoft or MSN email address ( they of course are not genuine Microsoft or associated with Microsoft in any way)

DO NOT fall for the scam & try to ring the 070240****** number . it is a premium rate number that will have along recorded message on it and cost you £0.50 per minute

You won’t get any money from these scammers but they will get money from you

I have blanked out the full email address and phone number from the image to save the unwary

MSlotteryscam

Share
Tags: , , ,

Phishing

By derek | Filed in Exploits, Malware, Phishing, Privacy

I mentioned previously HERE that the criminals doing these phishing attacks are changing tactics to make it harder for the antiphishing measures to block them

We are seeing many more phishing attempts using the same technique of sending an HTML page as an attachment to an email and asking you, the victim, to fill in the form

Many people are falling for this, even more than those who click on  link in an email. Read the remainder of this entry »

Share

More HMRC Phishing and very difficult to block

By derek | Filed in Malware, Phishing, Privacy, Warnings and Alerts

I am getting concerned at the latest phishing attacks aimed at UK citizens who have to submit tax returns by November

The Anti-phishing sites are unable to block the sites or warn you that you are on a phishing site  because the html is a web page on your computer so NEVER checked

Even if you press submit, it bounces immediately to the genuine HMRC site so isn’t blocked Read the remainder of this entry »

Share

Outlook Web Access Social Engineering Malware Scam – Security Labs Alert

By derek | Filed in Antivirus, Exploits, Malware, microsoft, Phishing, Privacy, Warnings and Alerts

Websense® Security Labs™ ThreatSeeker™ Network has discovered a new wave of malicious attacks claiming to be an update for Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA). Victims receive a message leading to a site to apply mailbox settings which were supposedly changed due to a “security upgrade.” Read the remainder of this entry »

RoboForm: Learn more...
Share

Kaspersky 2010

By derek | Filed in Antivirus, Malware, Phishing, Privacy


Share

12345 the most popular phished Hotmail password

By derek | Filed in Malware, Phishing, Privacy

The phishing attack that exposed the details of 10,000 Hotmail users has revealed that 12345 was the most popular password of those caught out, according to a security researcher.

That’s alarming news given the glut of information and warnings that pepper the internet, especially given the fact that the second most popular password was 123456789.

The information was revealed by security research Bogdan Calin on his blog. Calin reviewed the list of 10,000 Hotmail accounts posted on PasteBin by hackers and discovered that of the 9,843 valid passwords, 82 of them used one of these two numbers.

Also popular, and equally weak, were the passwords 12345678, 1234567 and 111111 – which all featured in the top ten.

RoboForm: Learn more...

via ’12345′ the most popular phished Hotmail password | IT PRO.

Share