Why FBI Moneypak Should Be Avoided

The summer of 2012 will be forever marked by the avalanche of surreptitious and highly disturbing ransomware, one of which is FBI Moneypak - a deceptive virus that has already affected thousands of home systems all over the United States. It is impossible to start writing about this infection without mentioning that tens of different malignant programs based on the same attack methods could be analyzed alongside the virus in discussion as tens of analogous examples have been reported attacking computer owners in Canada and all across Europe, from Portugal to Sweden. Nonetheless, FBI Moneypak is a perfect model of the truly devious and dangerous applications which have been designed and distributed to trick regular Windows users into paying fines for crimes that actually have no legal reasoning.

FBI Moneypak is a ransom-ware Trojan better known by names Citadel or Reveton, and this infection can expose the registry to multiple malware components. Infected dynamic link library files, executables and other elements are programmed to take over Windows Registry almost immediately after ransomware infiltrates the computer. With reconfigured registry values, hijacked processes and removed administrative controls, schemers can immediately lock targeted computer's screen and present a bogus message. The fictitious notification is supposed to be represented as a legitimate warning from the Federal Bureau of Investigation - a well-known governmental agency, respondent to the United States Department of Justice.

The name and the logo of the department are used illegally for the malignant purposes of cyber criminals, a force that the FBI fights instead of taking its side. Schemers are smart enough to understand that only a strong, reliable and respectable name of the FBI could gather enough attention and trick more people into trusting completely fake accusations and eventually giving in by paying the aggressively demanded fines. The bogus alert, allegedly forwarded by the FBI, might be filled with statements about your browsing habits, pornographic videos' distribution, illegal music downloads and potential malware existence. Below these incriminating and intimidating claims you will be notified that unless you pay the demanded fine, your computer could be confiscated and you could be arraigned, facing a fine as big as $100,000.

Most infected computer users will find it difficult to remove FBI Moneypak even if they realize the scam because of the seemingly irreversible system's lock-down. Despite this, there are a few tricks that could be used to regain access and delete the vicious infection. Some users will be able to remove the Trojan using system restore function after rebooting their PCs into Safe Mode with Command Prompt, whilst others could try the Safe Mode with networking feature. In this case, one should download legal, automatic FBI Moneypak removal software, disable startup programs and install adopted tools within normal mode of the operating Windows system. Overall, it is tremendously important to delete the vicious cyber criminals' tool and refuse any bogus statements or accusations as they are completely simulated and can only bring financial detriment.

Research made in September, 2012
http://www.anti-spyware-101.com/

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Important Points You Should Know About SSL Certificates

Advantages of SSL Certificate:

In the cyber world, day-by-day crime is increasing, and a demand for security is rising. It is time to secure your E-commerce business. Secure Socket Layer is a security seal that provides authentication to the website. When a visitor visits your site, he will check for the security and legitimacy of your site. It provides encryption for data that flows in the tunnel between website and user's browser. It runs on private key and public key. Encryption should provide by trusted certified authorities. There are many authorities like Symantec, Thwte, RapidSSL, GeoTrust, etc. An SSL certificate has to pass certain document validation, and after the owner can get a certificate by trusted authority. Cheap certificate, EV certificate, Wildcard certificates are different types of the certificate that are available in the market. There are many advantages of SSL, which we will discuss here. Let us discuss them one by one.

Advantages:

· It provides an authentication to the website for his monetary information.

· When Customer provides information remains in the form of coding so others cannot see it.

· Allow security with a padlock in the address bar. When a customer sees padlock, his confident will boost.

· It provides 99% browser compatibility.

· SSL has a featured of unlimited re-issuance and flexibility.

· It provides an Additional guarantee from dollar 10,000 to dollar 1million in case of any fraud or cheating with customers. SSL gives an assurance to the customer whom they are secure on the e-commerce site.

· SSL carries a simple and hassle-free issuance process.

· Phishing is a critical situation of the cyber age, and SSL saves visitors from phishing frauds.

· When users look at https URL, they can easily understand and put trust on the website.

· With the expansion of E-commerce, security becomes a critical issue, and it can help online business in this way.

· Cost-efficient solution so every size of business can adapt and secure their identity.

· It increases more profit for enterprise by providing online security.

Conclusion: SSL is a mark of security that protects us from phishing and other frauds. We referred advantages of SSL. It is very essential for a company to protect its website. It is very useful in boosting customer's confidence. According to a survey, more than 20% sites have not installed SSL certificate. We can see that there are many offences do take place in cyber technology. SSL is a popular medium to show legitimacy of your site. When a customer looks at the green padlock on the site, he feels safe in transact online. Now it is time to enroll for SSL certificate.

Sophie is an experience technology columnist writing for various blogs and website on website security. Sophie's favorite area of interest is to share her knowledge about importance of SSL certificate and their installation.

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Why Should You Install Antivirus in Your Computer?

Nobody can live without the internet these days. It has become a very important part of our daily lives for many reasons such as social networking, researching for studies, fun and games. We cannot let go of these reasons easily and therefore it is very important to keep your personal computer healthy and clean. What corrupts your computer? Yes the answer is computer viruses. The internet, these days is becoming the home for so many viruses that can ruin your computer completely which is followed by the whole drama of formatting, rebooting, etc. Having an antivirus installed in your computer is the best and perhaps the most effective solution to keep your PC virus free.

Now, there are a lot of antiviruses that you can buy or get for free these days. But the trick lies in getting the latest ones because the viruses keep updating and therefore you need the latest antivirus to combat with these viruses. You have a very serious decision to make as many companies are advertising and marketing their product with such intensity that you might get confused.

An antivirus is a program that works with the basic principle of scanning all the files in your computer for viruses and other malware and then removing the viruses. The software that works within any antivirus are programmed in a specific way. Firstly it uses a Virus dictionary that checks all the files in your computer for any possible viruses. Secondly it detects any fishy malware or anything dubious in your computer that might be sporting some virus.

Another really good reason to have a great antivirus for your computer is to defend your account from hackers. Hackers are those computer savvy guys who have the ability to infiltrate personal information like credit card info, banking accounts etc from your personal computer. They can use this information to further create problems for you by making illegal transactions and using your account for other illegal things. Getting someone's financial information to steal or crack might not be the only reason for hacking. They might just be having a little fun. An antivirus program helps your computer by protecting against these hackers taking over your accounts.

Some antiviruses can be really expensive but there is also a wide range of antivirus programs that you can just download for free. Select the best antivirus that can keep your computer healthy and virus free.

Click here to know more about IT support services.

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How the VPN Works, and Why Should I Care?

Mostly everyone in the world surfs the Internet, because of that fact; you should know how theVPN works. Before going into more details on how the VPN works let's see what is creating the need for a VPN. In today's society, it is rare when someone does not spend time each day online. Yet many Internet users are unaware that there is no privacy online, and that it takes little effort for hackers to steal their identity. In the last few years, identity theft has risen to an alarming rate, it is estimated that an identity is stolen every six seconds in the United States alone. Hackers have found it easy to buy a part from a local computer store and then go to sites online that teach them how to use the part and hack into websites. Criminals no longer have to buy a gun and rob you that way. They can just sit at a coffee shop and hack wireless users sitting around them. They have discovered that the Internet can be an information gold mine that can pay them big dividends without taking too many risks. It is safer, to steal someone information, than going rob a bank.

The thing is that almost every device can be hacked. It can be a laptop, smart phones, and even tablets. When you are online, someone can steal your information from anywhere in the world if you are not protected. We are facing a real global problem. Due to this major global problem, it is important for you understand how the VPN works, and how you can benefit from its use. We can say that the VPN can be the solution to a global problem.

Well, it's now time to go into the details of how the VPN works. A VPN is a program that offers privacy while on the Internet. For those who are not familiar with a VPN, it stands for a Virtual Private Network. It takes the regular internet, a public domain with numerous inherent security problems, and turns it into your own personal, private internet. A VPN uses software called tunneling protocol to burrow through the unsecure public internet, which hides all of your sensitive data in a 1024-bit encrypted tunnel along with a dynamic IP (Internet Protocol) address. This might sound too technical, but what this really means is that all of your online activity is hidden from prying eyes including your ISP (Internet Service Provider), hackers, neighbors and anyone else who wants to see, manipulate or steal your important data.

That is how the VPN works, the software protects your data and your online privacy. Large corporations often get VPNs established through giant technology companies, which supplies the hardware and software, but that is too costly for typical small businesses, medium-sized organizations, and home users. There are affordable and user-friendly Virtually Private Network alternatives that keep sensitive information of business and home computer users secure.

Wilfredo Orama is a Certfied Information Security Advisor with a vast of experience on how the VPN works, and to find the most affordable and complete VPN solution. For more information please visit:

http://surfsafevpn.com/wp-content/themes/NewSurfSafeVPN/photoshield.php

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Why You Should Wear Dark-Colored Sunglasses When You Shop at the Grocery Store in Future

The rate of personal technology growth is absolutely out of control, and we certainly live in a very interesting time. It's great to see all these new techno-gadgets, and all the different ways they simplify our life. Our smart phones are now smarter than we are, they know where we are at all times, and they know what we wish to buy something before we've even thought about it.

Are they reading our minds? No, the reality is that humans are somewhat predictable based on past behavior. Something that psychologists have known for a long time, and soon your artificial intelligent personal tech device will know almost inherently.

Not long ago, there was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal on July 12, 2012 by Emily Glazer titled; "The Eyes Have It: Marketers Now Track Shoppers Retinas." Just when you thought it was safe to go out, the Minority Report with Tom Cruise, that popular Hollywood movie is now upon us. Do you remember when Tom Cruise was walking around a shopping mall, and every time he looked at an advertisement, it changed for his particular preferences? That is interesting isn't it?

Perhaps in the future when you are in a crowded shopping mall with people all around you, those advertisements and marketing screens will change for you, rather than someone else, because you are a more frequent shopper with an unlimited balance on your American Express card, whereas someone next to you who is shopping with only a few dollars in their pocket, and food stamps won't get a second look from the artificial intelligent mini-billboard.

So what is a person to do, as our privacy is being invaded every time we go out in public? Should we hide in our homes, and never go out? Should we never use the Internet, never buy a smart phone, and never use electronic money? Indeed, we wouldn't be able to send an e-mail, visit a website, or even turn on our cable TV. Why, because you will be tracked every time you do anything, and you can never escape this futuristic world which is coming at us so fast, people aren't ready for it yet.

If you are bothered by your local grocery store tracking your eyeballs as you walk down the aisle to see which products you look at based on their color, price, and the type of item, then perhaps you can wear dark-colored sunglasses so that they can't get a good look at where you are looking. Of course, you're still going to give yourself away if you use one of those rewards cards at your local grocery store.

In other words, you may as well face it, they already know more about you, than you may know about yourself. Yes, it's an interesting world, an interesting future which is coming for you, whether you are ready or not. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Personal Internet Privacy. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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Should You Take Free Promotional USB Thumb Drives From Trade Shows? I Wouldn't

Did you know one of the tricks that hackers often use is to drop USB thumb drives in a parking lot outside of the Corporation and make it look like it just fell out of someone's purse, out of their pocket, or off their key chain? What invariably happens is that if they leave 10 of these in the parking lot, three of them will be used on a computer device because the individuals who found them are interested in seeing what is on them (curiosity killed the cat syndrome), or they wish to use them for moving their own data, or storing it for later, a free USB drive from heaven?

Thus, if you put 20 USB thumb drive devices in the parking lot, and 10 of them are found without being run over or crushed, then the odds are that three of them will be used by an employee inside the company. They may use that USB thumb drive device on their personal computer at home, or put it into a computer at work. The hackers embed code on the USB thumb drive, even though its directory claims to be empty, and they use that to extract passwords to get into the system later. It's amazing how well this works. These hackers are quite diabolical indeed.

It was also discovered that CD-ROM's with small business information on them have been given away as free promotional items, and used by sneaky individuals to invade someone's computer, allowing them to deliver ads onto the user's platform. Well, with all this known and these sneaky spyware and hacker tactics often using human and innate characteristics and behavior, I'd like to ask you a question; have you ever taken a free promotional USB thumb drive at a tradeshow booth? Haven't we all? How do you know those are safe to put in your computer?

Why would you put anything in your computer unless you knew it was safe? How do you know the company giving it away knows it's safe? They may have purchased them by the thousands from a reseller manufacturing them in China. Are you beginning to see some of the challenges here? Any time you load software on your machine, computer, tablet, or even smart phone, or any time you upload an app, you are risking infiltration by hackers and those who create spyware.

Now then, back to the question which is the title of this article; "should you take free promotional USB drives from trade shows?" Absolutely not, and for all the reasons I mentioned above. Indeed I ask that you please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Cyber Security Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/

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