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Malware

“No Virus Wednesdays” A Huge Hit!

More Than 900 Virus And Malware Infections Eradicated Thanks To Tech Experts’ Free In-Shop Scanning Service.

More than 900 virus and malware infections have been eradicated as a result of Monroe-based IT services company Tech Experts’ “No Virus Wednesdays” war on computer viruses, spyware and junk e-mail.

We are incredibly pleased with our results so far!

We’ve had more than a dozen PC users bring in their computers to be examined, and have successfully removed dangerous infections on all of the affected machines.

In July, Tech Experts announced its “No Virus Wednesdays” program, offering computer users basic spyware and virus removal services at no charge each Wednesday in July, August and September.

Since Wednesday tends to be our slowest day of the week, we decided it would be better for our techs to be destroying viruses and spyware instead of sitting around twiddling their thumbs. That’s why we decided to give away this valuable scanning and disinfecting service for FREE on Wednesdays.

It’s clear that PC infections are on the rise, and in many cases, computer users aren’t aware they’ve got a problem.

Several computers we repaired were infected with trojan-horse type malware, which was tracking the users activity on the Internet.

One machine alone had 493 distinct infected files!

Of the computers we have examined, half either did not have anti-virus software installed, or the anti-virus software was disabled or expired.

We’re obviously very concerned about how safe computer users are when they’re on the Internet which is why we’re extending our “No Virus Wednesdays” program through the end of the year.

The Tech Experts “No Virus Wednesdays” program works like this: Users who would like their computers checked and cleaned of spyware call Tech Experts’ special “No Virus Hotline” at 734-243-1500 and set up an appointment to drop off the computer late Tuesday afternoon, or first thing Wednesday morning.

The computer will be evaluated, disinfected, and available for pickup as soon as it is ready, usually late Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning.

Computers will be checked for over 1000 types of spyware, thousands of different viruses, as well as Trojans and keyloggers.

Any malicious software that is discovered will be removed, and a complete report provided to the client.

By having users pre-schedule their appointments, the company can plan for this work and provide the service at no charge, while still maintaining its normal weekly workload.

FAIR WARNING: This free service is scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis and limited to Wednesday appointments only. Call right now for your appointment!

Critical Bugs Plague Quickbooks Online Edition

The federal government’s cyberdefense arm has warned users of the popular QuickBooks small-business accounting software that they risk losing data and control of their PCs to hackers.

According to two advisories published by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT), the ActiveX control that enables Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks

Online Edition contains flaws that attackers can exploit simply by getting users to view an HTML e-mail message or visit a malicious website.

Of the two bugs discovered and reported by US-CERT, the one spelled out here is the most dangerous. Not only could attackers seed a vulnerable Windows PC with malware, US-CERT, but “an attacker can also retrieve files from a victim’s PC.”

Copenhagen-based vulnerability tracker Secunia ApS ranked the vulnerabilities “highly critical,” its second-most serious threat rating.

QuickBooks Online Edition is a Web-based subset of the traditional on-disk software, and it uses a subscription pricing model that starts at $19.95 per month.

According to US-CERT, Version 9, and possibly those prior to that, contain the ActiveX vulnerabilities. US-CERT recommended that users update to Version 10 as soon as possible or, failing that, set the so-called “kill bit” to disable the control.

Doing that, however, means that users won’t be able to access QuickBooks Online through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the only browser supported by the service.

Intuit’s support site showed no mention of the bugs today. Ironically, one of the documents in the Online Edition’s support database, entitled “What is the ActiveX control for, and is it safe?” answers: “The short answer is yes, our control is safe.”

ActiveX vulnerabilities in non-Microsoft products are nothing new, of course. Just over a month ago, for example, a critical ActiveX flaw was spotted in Yahoo Widgets, a development platform that runs small, Web-based, gadget-like applications on Windows desktops.