This came out in late August, but is still very relevant – have a look at Symantec’s List of the 100 Dirtiest Web Sites of Summer 2009.

While over half of the sites are porn, that isn’t what Symantec means by “dirty” – they are specifically referring to sites with malware attached, where just viewing the site can unleash problems on computers.

Symantec says it like this:

It comes as no surprise that 48% of the Dirtiest Web Sites are, well, dirty— sites that feature adult content. However, other Dirtiest sites run the gamut of subject matter, including sites dedicated to deer hunting, catering, figure skating, legal services, and buying electronics. Viruses are the most common threat represented on the Dirtiest list, followed by security risks and browser exploits. Simply clicking through to a site with these threats could put you at risk of exposing your computer to infection, and worse, put your identity, personal and financial information into the hands of cybercriminals.

CNet has the story here

The Symantec page with the list is here

Trojans are making a comeback as the preferred way to get info from comprimised users. This article from Channel Insider has details about “Clampi”, a particularly ugly little variant.

Sporadic reports are surfacing that the authentication credential stealing Trojan Clampi is regaining momentum and poised to begin a new round of stealthily siphoning cash from the bank accounts belonging to compromised users.

Channel Insider has a follow up here.

CNet reported about this back in late July:

LAS VEGAS–Hundreds of thousands of Windows computers are believed to be infected with a Trojan called “Clampi” that has been stealing banking and other log-in credentials from compromised PCs since 2007…

Pretty unpleasant stuff – make sure your anti-virus software is up to date, and run Malwarebytes on a regular basis as a way to find trojans and other malware that may have snuck on your system.

Wired Magazine has a quick story about the “10 best things we’ll say to our grandkids”.

My favorite is “Our bodies were meat and supported by little sticks of calcium”.

It’s pretty good – check it out here.

In a previous post, we pointed out how just browsing the web these days can possibly infect your PC with malware. To show how dangerous surfing can become, Symantec recently released their list of the “Dirtiest Websites of Summer” – the top 100 infected sites on the Internet based on number of threats detected by their software as of August 2009. The list identifies websites that could compromise security with risks including phishing, malicious downloads, browser exploits, and links to unsafe external sites.

Some interesting findings from the study:

• The average number of threats per site on the Dirtiest Websites list is roughly 18,000, compared to 23 threats per site for most sites
• 40 of the Top 100 Dirtiest Sites have more than 20,000 threats per site
• 48% of the Top 100 Dirtiest Web sites feature adult content
• 3/4 of the Top 100 Dirtiest Web sites have distributed malware for more than 6 months
• Viruses are the most common threat represented on the Dirtiest Websites list, followed by security risks and browser exploits

You can read more about this research at Symantec’s website. If you suspect your PCs are at risk, or if you want to ensure your website doesn’t get hijacked by cybercriminals, contact us. We can help.

Related articles:

• Symantec lists “Dirtiest Web Sites”
• Virus Security By Leveraging Community And Clouds
• Smartphone users need more security

A recent study by the Kelsey Group reveals that more small and midsized businesses are using digital media, specially the Internet, to promote or advertise their business. Their study, conducted with research partner ConStat, indicates that the penetration of digital/online media increased from 73 percent in August 2008 to 77 percent in August 2009, while that of traditional media such as TV, radio, and print decreased from 74 percent to 69 percent during the same period.

This is a clear indicator that the Internet has become an important source for many businesses to generate and manage their business. Potential business can come anywhere – from their website, queries in search engines, online ads, and lately even social networking sites. According to the study, for businesses that track lead sources, the percentage that does so using the Internet has increased from 22 percent in 2008 to 30 percent in 2009.

Although the Internet can often be a scary for many SMB’s and their prospects place with threats such as spam, malware, phising, and more, this study reveals that it is still a source of tremendous value for those who know how to use it effectively.

Related Information:

• If you’re a Microsoft Partner you can access my 5W50 Webinar “Building Your Online Marketing Engine” If you’d like a copy of the presentation don’t hesitate to drop me an email and request it
• Online Media Ad/Promo Use Eclipses Traditional Among SMBs

Organized criminals believed to be based in Eastern Europe are robbing small to midsized US businesses of millions of dollars via an elaborate scheme aided by malicious software. Recent reports reveal that over the past few months, several businesses have fallen victim to unauthorized fund transfers whereby hundreds of thousands of dollars from the businesses’ bank accounts have been transferred to accounts in Europe, and in some cases, to the accounts of willing or unwitting accomplices in the United States.

According to the reports the victims, usually the company CFO or owner, were sent malicious software as attachments to email, which when opened remained resident on the victims’ machines and stole the victims’ passwords to their online banking websites. The cybercriminals used this information to initiate transfers from their accounts of up to US $10,000 at a time to evade notice and detection from their bank’s anti-fraud or money laundering detection systems and protocols.

Your business might be at risk. Make sure you are protected from this type of fraud by securing your PC and network from malicious software. Do not open suspicious-looking attachments and make sure you have the necessary protection in place, such as firewalls, antivirus software, and other methods of protection. Need help? Contact us today.

Related articles:

• Comment: online banking? No thanks
• Know When Something is Being Installed on Your Machine
• Cybercrime victim? 3 telltale signs and what to do

As a result of the past year’s economic climate, many small and medium-size businesses have increased their efforts to mitigate risks and lower costs—and more and more are turning toward remote IT support to fulfill those goals.

Remote support tools allow IT providers to support an entire company’s computing infrastructure, wherever and whenever needed, from their own offices. This helps address the needs of a market that significantly benefits from doing more with less— small and medium businesses.

Some of the benefits of remote support include:

• No travel time. As long as the issue doesn’t require on-site support, you won’t pay for time spent traveling to your site.
• No waiting. Response time is faster because support staff can address your needs immediately with online access to your machines and servers.
• Less work interruption. Because support can be done remotely, much support work can be done after hours, or behind the scenes as you continue to work. No more downtime while support staff takes over your physical desk.
• Lower costs. IT support staff can work on all of your computers simultaneously from their own offices, saving time – and therefore money.
• Proactive monitoring prevents problems from ever happening. Instead of waiting to come out and fixing your infrastructure when it’s already broken, remote support provides ongoing network monitoring, management, and unlimited remote support that prevents problems from occurring in the first place – all for one fixed monthly fee.

Contact us today for details on how our remote IT support solutions can help your business stay on track.

In a rather dubious honor, Honk Kong wins for the most messy, constant, and destructive spam proliferation. They are truly under attack there right now.

Yahoo’s tech site has an article about this here.

The article says:

Hong Kong is under siege from legions of “zombies” attacking people with spam and leaving in their wake a trail of destruction costing millions of dollars a year, analysts have warned.

Beware: It’s pretty messy out there!

Commodore 64

I never actually had one of those cool Commodore 64 units – I actually got started in the whole thing in the mid-80s direct with PC.

Since you asked, my first unit, purchased in 1985 for about $3000, was an AT&T AT6300 screamer with a 80286 CPU (“Turbo AT”) at 12MHz, with 640mb of RAM and a 20mb hard drive running DOS 3.3. Sweet!

This is a link to a site that describes my exact unit: The Trailing Edge.

eWeek has a nice little ditty about looking back at the author’s first Commodore 64. It’s pretty good. Find it here.

Commodore 64

Virtualization is generating a lot of buzz in IT circles these days because it promises to dramatically change the way many companies manage and operate their IT infrastructure. Virtualization is a broad term that covers the creation of virtual computing resources—such as storage, the network, or even an entire machine. For example, using virtualization you can create virtual machines on one computer, each running its own operating system.

According to research from the Yankee Group, 26% of medium businesses (100-499 employees) and 43% of enterprises (500+ employees) are using server virtualization today, and within 24 months, the percentage for medium-sized businesses is expected to increase to 69%. Among small businesses (20-99 employees), 23% are using server virtualization in production servers, and 8% of very small businesses (2-19 employees) are following suit.

Here are some examples of how you can take advantage of virtualization:

1. Reduce capex and opex. If you run a fair-sized organization with multiple servers, you can reduce your capital expenditures for new equipment or upgrades by purchasing a smaller number of machines and running your server workload off of them. Over time, this will reduce operating expenses because you’ll have fewer machines to maintain, less power and space consumed, and more machines more fully utilized.
2. A cost-effective way to keep IT running. Some virtualization solutions include features that allow virtual machines to quickly recover in case of disaster or application downtime. Virtual machine loads can be transferred in real-time from one physical machine to another. This means that your accounting application or warehouse management system will always run even if the original machine it’s installed on goes down – if it’s installed on a virtual machine that can intelligently transfer the application to a standby system.
3. Test multiple types of machines and run multiple applications on different operating systems. With machine virtualization, you can run multiple operating systems on a single PC. Thinking of running Windows 7 but are afraid some applications might not run properly on it? Use virtualization to run Windows XP within Windows 7. Want to use a Mac but your email is tied to Outlook? No problem! Buy a Mac, and use third party software to run Windows inside it.

Curious about virtualization and how it can help your business? Contact us today to explore ways that virtualization can increase your efficiency and lower your costs.