Virusremovalguidelines

Encryptor RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) virus is a new era of ransomware distribution. Among all the cyber threats launched, ransomware attacks are garnering more attention lately. These attacks have gained intensity over time with attackers moving a step ahead by evolving vicious and harmful tactics to launch RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) attack. RaaS Distribution is a practice where threat actors put their ransomware up for sale. It is then purchased and leveraged by other criminals who are technically unable to develop their own variants. Thus RaaS is gives even novice cyber-criminals an opportunity to launch sophisticated & profitable attacks. Most of the ransomware code packages are free to deploy with a profit-sharing model in which the author shares with the affiliates some percentage of earnings on the code package bought. This earning usually ranges from 25% – 30%. A new RaaS virus discovered in the dark web works like a similar legitimate software affiliate ...

The Internet Giant Google is striving continuously to fight irrational traffic and puts to use several filters & machine leaning models. It further makes collaborations with advertisers, publishers, tech ad companies, law enforcement agencies & other third-party corporations in order to locate & avoid potential threats. Still a recent report bared many popular Android apps that tracked user’s behavior & carried out a tremendous multimillion-dollar ad hoax strategy. A report from BuzzFeed News Investigation exposed around 125 Android apps & websites that have stolen millions of dollars through a forged advertising network. In response to the incident, Google clamped down & blacklisted several apps & websites and tightened its restrictions. Method of Operation of Ad Fraud 1. Scammers from a fake front company “We Purchase Apps” purchased established & legitimate applications on the Google Play Store from the developers. With the purchase, scamm...

Utility Chest is a deceptive application that is available for free downloads from its official site. The application may appear legitimate and claim to be useful with other inbuilt utilities like: 1. Online Calculator 2. Currency Converter 3. Maps 4. To-Do List 5. Translators & More The Utility Chest extension also offers convenient web search & claimed additional utilities like search for images, news etc from your Chrome Address Bar for free to lure users to download the application. However, to get all these proclaimed benefits this extension presents certain pre-conditions in front of users. These include: * Replace New Tab page to Utility Chest to provide these features * Read and Change all your data on the websites you visit. * Display Notifications * Manage your Downloads * Manage your apps, extensions & themes. The app may appear legitimate as it claims to be enhanced by Google to gain user confidence. However, if a user agrees to these terms he/she la...

Major IT security breach occurred in the information system of Cathay Pacific Airways that compromised the sensitive information of up to 9.4 million people. Let us read more to know about this data protection breach & how to protect yourself against this cyber breach. Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, the flag carrier of Hong Kong suffered a major Data Security breach. This Data Security Event is the worst damaging cyber attack ever to hit an airline. The theft compromised highly sensitive information of 9.4 million customers. Out of this total number 3, 80,000 passenger’s financial details were stolen. 1. Personal Data: Passenger Name, Date of Birth, Nationality, passport number, Identity Card Number, Address, Email, Phone Number, customer service remarks, frequent flyer programme membership number, Historical travel information 2. Credit Card Details: * 403 expired Credit card Numbers, * 27 Credit cards with no CVV Information stolen varies from passenger to passenger Rea...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 10 October 2018 Update or Version 1809 has a long list of bugs that apart from making Windows 10 PCs unusable also resulted in the loss of personal files. Let us read more to know what these bugs are and their fixes. Windows 10 Version 1809 Update: Windows 10’s October 2018 update – the sixth major release of the Window’s operating system – code-name Redstone 5 comes with numerous bugs that not only renders your System unusable but also results in the loss of personal files. This second semi-annual update of Windows 10 in 2018 aimed to introduce a new set of features to enhance productivity, security and performance of Windows 10 PCs. However, this new updated version of Windows 10 has not been well received by users who have already started telling horror stories about the new update. Soon this update is expected to become a scary anecdote in Microsoft’s history again. If user’s system had Known Folder Redirection (KFR) enabled, the OS version ...

Another Tech Support Scam associated with McAfee was reported last week after a user was asked to provide his credit card details & personal information to renew the anti-virus subscription. The scammers aim of stealing user’s sensitive information & earning illicit commissions on the subscription purchase. Tech Support Scams refers to communication frauds wherein a scammer claims to offer a licit technical support service & use scare tricks to make victims pay for unnecessary technical support services like fixing a manipulated device, platform, or antivirus problems. How a Tech Support Scam works? In the event, scammers call the victims & claim to be technical experts or representatives of the renowned companies like Apple or Microsoft. Other scammers bombard the victim’s screen with pop-up warnings of a detected virus or malware. After earning the trust of innocent users, they ask the users to install certain applications that provide them remote access to u...

According to the reports by Bloomberg Business week, China conducted a giant corporate surveillance back in 2015. A Chinese microchip, about the size of a rice grain, was reported to have been found concealed in the Supermicro’s server motherboards that were used by over 30 US Companies, including government contractors, tech giant APPLE INC & largest web marketer AMAZON.COM INC. Further, the reports revealed that this extensive attack relied on the microchip that was inserted in the servers during the manufacturing process in China. The tiny chip was originally developed by the US IT Company, “Super Micro”, but later compromised by the government-affiliated groups during equipment assembling. The chip enabled the Chinese spies to sneak in major US Intelligence, military agencies, major banks & US based business internal servers through compromised devices. The technology developed by Elemental Technologies is renowned to have helped stream Olympic Games online, commun...

FakeSpy Malware was first discovered by Trend Micro researchers in June 2018. FakeSpy aimed of compromising Android devices to purloin text messages, contacts, call records & bank account information of the users. Cyber criminals used SMS as a doorway to plunge Trojan in potential android devices. To your surprise, FakeSpy Malware also serves as a course for Banking Trojan. Based on the implications, researchers found that this Malware Campaign targeted South Korean users & has been in active mode since October 2017. The widespread Malware Campaign is now heavily vicious towards Japan & Korean Android Users and the bad guys smartly tuned the fake spy to modify its configuration as it conquers several countries. In the event, the targeted victims receive a mobile text message disguising as a legit message from Japan based Logistics Company. A mere click on the link in the SMS would redirect the innocent users to malignant web-page. The infected page contains a ...

Technological advancements continue to create a friction-less lifestyle in all aspects ranging from the digital workplace to personalized customer experiences. Twenty-five years ago, making cash withdrawal, depositing a paycheck, paying bills meant taking a trip to your bank or service centers, interact with concerned people. This is not all! Lack of online presence also involved a lot of paper clutter, account management, & other cumbersome tasks that caused a lot of inconvenience. Online existence of businesses and services has made our lives a piece of cake. It is deemed as a useful lifestyle innovation. From customer experience standpoint, technologies such as online banking, online bill payment, online travel booking, and flight check-ins reflect an appetite for smoother, instant processes. Online transactions remove almost all inconveniences along the customer journey & provide a stellar customer experience. Technology has enlightened lives in general, but, as we know...

Google+ Announced its Shut Down After a Software Glitch exposed Info of 500k Accounts Google Plus, an Internet-based Social Network owned and operated by Google was launched in June 2011. This social media platform experienced a l ot of fanfare in its initial years  and posed as a possible competitor to Facebook. The  service had over 10 million users  just two weeks after its launch. Now, the world has been taken aback by Google’s out of the blue announcement of  Google+ closure . According to the announcement made Google, Google+ would be  fully shut down by August 2019, to allow users to download and migrate their information. What differentiates Google+ from its counterparts? Google+  was created to serve as a  social spine for Google’s disparate services  like Adwords, Youtube etc. Each service provided by Google had access to the features implemented in Google+ refraining the tech giant from implementing the same social features indep...

The world of Cyber security is familiar with the name, Lukas Stefanko, the renowned cyber researcher responsible to enlighten general mass with his critical researches. Lukas Stefanko works at ESET- a famous brand in IT security universe. With his 7 years of services for the organization, Lukas has proven his worth many times with his curiosity to expose threat programs & false apps. Regarded as one of the front end contributors in IT security, Lukas started his career as Malware Analyst for Windows Platform. Stefanko was able to sense the growing popularity of android at an early stage and knew the future of cyber security shift towards it. The challenges and lack of then expertise to deal with such issues excited him and motivated to take the challenging role of Android Malware Analyst. With his stipulations proven true, and as the world shifted the focus to in hand technology, the cyber criminals began targeting android. The added advantage of being...

IT Security researchers have unmasked a new malware, GhostDNS, which has hacked over 100,000 residence routers & changed their DNS settings. This widespread DNS Trojan campaign aims at hacking the web-pages & stealing login credentials of the users. The newly discovered GhostDNS malware seems to be related to its scandalous predecessor, DNS Changer Malware that could turn the inconspicuous network router into a vital tool for hackers. The malware would tamper the router & its DNS settings. Following this successful vandalizing, malware would redirect the users to the malicious versions of the legitimate banking websites or other legit pages. This paves a way for the bad guys to steal user’s account credentials, PIN numbers & passwords! According to the report by CyberSecurity firm, Qihoo Netlab 360, GhostDNS is starting to grade up its efforts to gather sensitive information with a whole new bunch of scanners. In this event, the attackers try to curb the p...

Kevin Haley has been associated with Symantec from last ten years now and handles the Product Management for Cyber Security & Response as a Director! Kevin has strengthened Symantec’s operations and has contributed a lot in the success of channel business strategies. Security & Response project at Symantec is specifically responsible to keep Symantec geared up with the cyber threat definitions updated almost real time! This could be only possible with timely integration of the logical cure for the entire discovered and reported cyber security threats world-wide! It seems a cumbersome task to organize! That is where the experience & expertise of Kevin Haley comes in Play! Kevin leads the Symantec’s Global intelligence Network that gathers all these reported cyber security threats via different mediums. With the Intelligence applied by the think tank at Symantec under Kevin’s Supervision, This Global Intelligence Network all these samples are then verified and churned ...

Imagine you launch Skype on your system to connect with your friends and Skype Virus loads! Skype enables millions of individuals & businesses around the globe to send instant messages, share files and make free video & voice one-on-one or group calls. It is widely used & recognized telecommunication software that can be customized and used on mobiles, computers or tablets. With the increase in the use of this widely recognized software, cyber-criminals have grasped Skype as a new scaffold to carry out their devious activities. The first cyber threat was reported in year 2007 when the worm w32/Ramex.A impacted the Skype Users for Windows. Skype users narrated that their accounts were being used to send spam messages to their contacts instantly. These spam messages included the links to sites such as LinkedIn & Baidu. Following the worm attack, the users were advised not use to use their Skype credentials on different sites & services and set up two-step veri...

Instagram, the second most preferred social media platform among millennial has now caught the eyes of threat actors.   A recent string of Instagram Phishing Scam have terrorized Instagram users wherein cyber-maniacs target popular influencers – with over 100,000 followers. What is it about this app that makes it so wildly successful? Instagram is a popular social networking service owned by FaceBook where people share photos, videos etc.  As social media sites have grown in numbers by leaps and bounds, the following features give this online global network an edge over other social media platforms: The clever design choices, Implementation of fine filters to edit the pictures, Provision to tag people who hold an account on Instagram, Provide location information, People’s desire to connect to a growing revenue stream is met by Instagram better than any other social media platform. The popularity of Instagram has made it a prominent target in the cyber-cr...

Guide to Remove Google Chrome Critical ERROR Scam Pop-up Have you encountered the above Error message on your browser screen? It seems like you are in a mush. Google Chrome Critical ERROR  is a misleading advertising pop-up displayed to trick users to call a fake support service and demand a whooping amount from them to fix the issue that never existed. The error is known to be associated with a scamming network. The browsers targeted by this networking scam include: Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer History of Critical ERROR scams Google Chrome  Critical ERROR  scam has evolved from different forms of red screen scams. The  RDN/YahLover.worm!055BCCAC9FEC Infection Popup  is one such scam spotted earlier in August this year. The error message displayed in the Pop-Up is misleading to scare users into thinking that their computer is infected with the imaginary  RDN/YahLover.worm!055BCCAC9FEC  computer viru...

Over the past few months, banking  Trojans  have disseminated their global impact by almost 50 %.  The appropriate security measures adopted by banks to strengthen their processes have proven futile with the never-before seen tactics evolved by the developers to facilitate the theft of online funds. Banking Trojans  continue to be a popular tool among cyber maniacs for stealing user’s banking details and draining bank accounts. The discovery of  Danabot, another Banking Trojan  in a row is an evidence to establish the fact. With the widely- reported initial campaigns in Australia, this banking Trojan later expanded its reach to European countries particularly Austria, Poland, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, its latest target being United States.   What is DanaBot? DanaBot is a modular Banking Trojan , first discovered in  malicious email campaigns  targeting Australian population in May 2018. This malware is programmed in  Delphi , an Int...

Banking Trojans are not new to the cyber-crime world. It is a malicious computer program designed to gain access to confidential banking information. This type of malicious system program is built with a backdoor to allow third parties to gain access to the system. As the security technologies especially in banking domain continue to improve, malware codes are being constantly evolved to evade detection. The financial cyber-crime landscape is hence, constantly changing and evolving to keep pace with the rising awareness and the increasing effectiveness of banking controls. With the increasing popularity of mobile among people for carrying out any transaction, cyber-criminals have embraced mobile as their platform of choice to carry out fraudulent activities. Since 2015 there has been a tremendous increase in the design and launch of fake mobile apps to deceive users. The nature of fake application depends on the goals of cyber-criminals who use different strategies to build and...

Facebook Vulnerability : 50 Million Users’ Account Hacked The Social Media World is ruled by Fackbook! This Social media giant  is not just platform but a lifestyle. For millions of people, Facebook has become the synonym for internet. To get online on Facebook is their daily ritual and they follow it with great determination to connect with their friends and family. Since the Launch of Facebook on February 4 2004, this social media platform managed to touch the hearts of more than 2.2 billion people. This unprecedented growth has made this online social communication platform a powerful global network. All this popularity has made Facebook a prominent target in cyber crime world. In recent years, the company has faced intense issues of all sorts. This includes problems pertaining to: Fake news, Instigating speeches,  Political influence campaigns . Guilty of not protecting user information after the Cambridge Analytica  broke etc. Facebook is already attemp...