PC Doc Pro – Fake Site Exposed

Many of you will be aware of sites such as Antivirus 2008 and it’s many variations, PC Doc Pro and many other rogue software sites. A lot have also clicked the links to scan their computer only to find that their machine has hundreds of errors and then to repair them the user has to pay anything between $29.95 and in some cases as much as $90 for the program, only to find that it doesn’t actually do anything.

One such program is PC Doc Pro, which was installed on a clean installation of Windows Vista Ultimate. The system was scanned with PC Doc Pro and found no less than 572 problems, of which 31 were classed as ’severe’.

This product, along with many others like it, claims that it will repair these problems, frequently allowing users to clean around 50 and then being prompted to purchase the full version to fix the rest. In this instance, PC Doc Pro will cost you $29.99 for a 30 day license!

Proof? Click Here and watch the video created by Web of Trust, and do NOT fall victim to these rogue programs, they will only cause you more problems and you will not get a refund either. (New video coming soon – updated September 22)

Many users have traditional antivirus, antispyware and firewalls installed, but this type of rogueware cannot be detected as a threat, although there are tools available to remove this fake software and the malware embedded into it.

You can however, protect yourself by using the simple browser add-on for Internet Explorer and Firefox. To date it has approximately 900,000 downloads and provides safety ratings on 20 million websites.

Web of Trust rates sites on standards of trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety. Once installed as a small BHO, it will place a safety rating on search engine searches and also checks links in emails. This takes it further up the ladder aimed at improving online safety for all users.

It’s information is gained from a variety of anti-phishing groups, anti-spammers groups and also driven by community members who can rate a site based upon their own experiences.

You can read more about how this works and how to participate, or just download the add-on by clicking here.

Edit: PC Doc Pro has now been ‘rebranded’ as a Registry Cleaner costing $30 for the Pro version with 30 days ‘Live’ support and $61 for the Platinum version with 365 days ‘Live’ support.

Now, why pay for this when you can get an equivalent program for absolutely free?  The Registry is a fragile place and best left to those who know what they are doing, but the Registry is also littered with files that no longer serve any purpose.  You can remove them easily and at no cost quite safely with a click of your mouse.  For your safety a backup is made BEFORE any changes are made so you can reinstall the backup if necessary.

Click here to learn more

Related article:
Free Registry Defragger

Click to join FreePCSecurity

Protect YOUR browsing with Web of Trust….Click Here

© Free PC Security 2007 – 2009

Technorati Tags: Fake Site Exposed, PC Doc Pro, Rogue Software, Free Tools, Free PC Security, Web of Trust, Rogueware, Protection, Malware,

The Advancement of the Keylogger

A keylogger is a program that runs in your computer’s
background secretly recording all your keystrokes. Once
your keystrokes are logged, they are hidden away for later
retrieval by the attacker. The attacker then carefully
reviews the information in hopes of finding passwords or
other information that would prove useful to them.  For
example, a keylogger can easily obtain confidential emails
and reveal them to any interested outside party willing to
pay for the information. 

Keyloggers can be either software or hardware based.
Software-based keyloggers are easy to distribute and
infect, but at the same time are more easily detectable.
Hardware-based keyloggers are more complex and harder to
detect.  For all that you know, your keyboard could have a
keylogger chip attached and anything being typed is
recorded into a flash memory sitting inside your keyboard.
Keyloggers have become one of the most powerful
applications used for gathering information in a world
where encrypted traffic is becoming more and more common.

As keyloggers become more advanced, the ability to detect
them becomes more difficult. They can violate a user’s
privacy for months, or even years, without being noticed. 
During that time frame, a keylogger can collect a lot of
information about the user it is monitoring.  A keylogger
can potential obtain not only passwords and log-in names,
but credit card numbers, bank account details, contacts,
interests, web browsing habits, and much more.  All this
collected information can be used to steal user’s personal
documents, money, or even their identity. 

A keylogger might be as simple as an .exe and a .dll that
is placed in a computer and activated upon boot up via an
entry in the registry. Or, the more sophisticated
keyloggers, such as the Perfect Keylogger or ProBot
Activity Monitor have developed a full line of nasty
abilities including:

· Undetectable in the process list and invisible in
   operation
· A kernel keylogger driver that captures keystrokes even
  when the user is logged off
· A remote deployment wizard
· The ability to create text snapshots of active
  applications
· The ability to capture http post data (including log-
   ins/passwords)
· The ability to timestamp record workstation usage
· HTML and text log file export
· Automatic e-mail log file delivery

All keyloggers are not used for illegal purposes.  A
variety of other uses have surfaced.  Keyloggers have been
used to monitor web sites visited as a means of parental
control over children. They have been actively used to
prevent child pornography and avoid children coming in
contact with dangerous elements on the web.  Additionally,
in December, 2001, a federal court ruled that the FBI did
not need a special wiretap order to place a keystroke
logging device on a suspect’s computer. The judge allowed
the FBI to keep details of its key logging device secret
(citing national security concerns). The defendant in the
case, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., indicted for gambling and loan-
sharking, used encryption to protect a file on his
computer. The FBI used the keystroke logging device to
capture Scarfo’s password and gain access to the needed file.

AVG Anti-Virus Installation Guide

This video tutorial will show you how to install AVG Anti-Virus.
If you have Norton or McAfee I personally wouldn’t pay their
fees especially when you can have this protection for free.
If you have any other Anti-Virus and intend to install AVG,
please uninstall any other Anti-Virus program that you may
have.
AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is one of the most popular
solutions to provide basic security protection on home and
non-commercial PCs and is used by millions of people worldwide.

Important

Create a backup of your system or a restore Point before making any changes

Can also be viewed in Windows Media Player by clicking:
AVG Installation

Fighting off Viruses

Advancements in Antivirus Software Suites

Protecting your computer from a virus is getting harder
and harder each day.  While it may border on the paranoid,
it goes without saying that you can’t leave your guard down
for one second.  Even corporate giant Microsoft has found
its own systems compromised on more than one occasion. 

Remember the “good old days”, before the advent of the
Internet and downloadable programs?  Life was simple then
in terms of computer viruses.  With the primary way in
which a virus could be transmitted being limited to floppy
disks, the ability to catch and eradicate the virus was a
lot easier.    By today’s standards, it used to take quite
a while before a virus was able to infect a computer and
slow down the system.  The antivirus software of that time
was typically able to identify and eradicate viruses before
they caused too much damage.  Additionally, computer users
were pretty savvy on how to protect themselves in terms of
scanning all floppy disks before copying them to our
desktop. 

The Internet helped change all that.  The Internet
provided a conduit by which viruses could move from host to
host with lightening speed.  No longer could a computer
user just worry about floppy disks as points of entry, but
they now had to worry about email, email attachments, peer-
to-peer file sharing, instant messaging, and software
downloads.  Today’s viruses can attack through multiple
entry points, spread without human intervention, and take
full advantage of vulnerabilities within a system or
program.  With technology advancing everyday, and the
convergence of computers with other mobile devices, the
potential of new types of threats also increase. 

Protecting Your Computer
Luckily, the advancement of antivirus software has kept
pace with current virus threats.   Antivirus software is
essential to a computer’s ability to fend off viruses and
other malicious programs.  These products are designed to
protect against the ability of a virus to enter a computer
through email, web browsers, file servers and desktops.
Additionally, these programs offer a centralized control
feature that handle deployment, configuration and updating.
A computer user should remain diligent and follow a few
simple steps to protect against the threat of a virus:

1. Evaluate your current computer security system.
With the threat of a new generation of viruses able to
attack in a multitude of ways, the approach of having just
one antivirus software version has become outdated.  You
need to be confident that you have protected all aspects of
your computer system from the desktop to the network, and
from the gateway to the server.  Consider a more
comprehensive security system which includes several
features including antivirus, firewall, content filtering,
and intrusion detection.  This type of system will make it
more difficult for the virus to penetrate your system.

2. Only install antivirus software created by a well-
known, reputable company. 
Because new viruses erupt daily, it is important that you
regularly update your anti-virus software.  Become familiar
with the software’s real-time scan feature and configure it
to start automatically each time you boot your computer.
This will protect your system by automatically checking
your computer each time it is powered up. 

3. Make it a habit to always scan all new programs or
files no matter from where they originate.

4. Exercise caution when opening binary, Word, or Excel
documents of unknown sources especially if they were
received during an online chat or as an attachment  to an
email. 

5. Perform regular backups in case your system is
corrupted.  It may be the only way to recover your data if
infected.

Recommended Antivirus Software
There are numerous applications available to consumers.
With a little research, you can pick the program that is
right for you.  Many programs provide a trial version,
which allows you to download the program and test its
abilities.  However, be aware that some anti-virus programs
can be difficult to uninstall.  As a precaution make sure
to set up a System Restore point before installing. 

Here are a few programs, which typically receive high
marks in terms of cost, effectiveness, ease of use, and
customer service.

The Shield Pro 2005™ provides virus protection and hacker
security through ongoing support and updates. When a virus
breaks out, The Shield Pro 2005™ promises to provide a
patch within 2-3 hours and a fix for the virus within 5
hours. You can set your computer to update viruses weekly
and run a complete virus scan.

BitDefender 9 Standard provides antivirus protection, as
well as Peer-2-Peer Applications protection, full email
protection, and heuristics in a virtual environment.  This
provides a new security layer that keeps the operating
system safe from unknown viruses by detecting malicious
pieces of code for which signatures have not been released
yet.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal 5.0  program is simple to
install and use. The user only needs to choose from three
levels of protection.  It allows updates as frequently as
every hour while promising not to disrupt your computer.
The program also offers a two-tier email protection feature
and round-the-clock technical support.

PC-cillin Internet Security  combines antivirus security
and a personal firewall-for comprehensive protection
against viruses, worms, Trojans, and hackers. It also
detects and removes spyware and blocks spam. It even guards
against identity theft by blocking phishing and pharming
attacks.

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition is a free downloadable
antivirus program that has received high marks for its
reliability.  In the past, free downloadable antivirus
programs have been viewed skeptically because of issues
relating to its reliability.  However, AVG from Grisoft,
remains one of the best-known free anti-virus programs
available.  While AVG cannot be installed on a server
operating system and there is no technical support, it
still makes a good choice for many home computer users.
The best part is that since it is free, you can try it with
no further obligation necessary.

Fighting Spam

How prevalent is Spam?  According to Scott McAdams, OMA Public Affairs and Communications Department (www.oma.org):

“Studies show unsolicited or “junk” e-mail, known as spam, accounts for roughly half of all e-mail messages received. Although once regarded as little more than a nuisance, the prevalence of spam has increased to the point where many users have begun to express a general lack of confidence in the effectiveness of e-mail transmissions, and increased concern over the spread of computer viruses via unsolicited messages.”

In 2003, President Bush signed the  “Can Spam” bill, in December of 2003 which is the first national standards around bulk unsolicited commercial e-mail.  The bill, approved by the Senate by a vote of 97 to 0, prohibits senders of unsolicited commercial e-mail from using false return addresses to disguise their identity (spoofing) and the use of dictionaries to generate such mailers. In addition, it prohibits the use of misleading subject lines and requires that emails include and opt-out mechanism. The legislation also prohibits senders from harvesting addresses off Web sites. Violations constitute a misdemeanour crime subject to up to one year in jail. 

One major point that needs to be discussed about this: 

Spam is now coming from other countries in ever-greater numbers. These emails are harder to fight, because they come from outside our country’s laws and regulations.  Because the Internet opens borders and thinks globally, these laws are fine and good, but do not stop the problem.

So what do you do about this? 

Here are the top 5 Rules to do to protect from spam.

Number 1: 
Do what you can to avoid giving your email address out on
the net.  

There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to.  If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back.

Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open
source project geared to fight Internet “spambots” and “spam
spiders”, by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses

A couple of suggestions for you: 

a) use form emails, which can hide addresses or also b) use addresses like sales@company.com instead of
your full address to help battle the problem. c) There are also
programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it, it is difficult or impossible to read your email address.

Number 2: 
Get spam blocking software.  There are many programs out
there for this.  (go to www.cloudmark.com or www.mailwasher.net for example).  You may also buy a professional version.  Whatever you do, get the software. It will save you time.  The software is not foolproof, but they really do help.  You usually have to do some manual set up to block certain types of email.

Number 3:
Use the multiple email address approach.

There are a lot of free email addresses to be had.  If you must
subscribe to newsletters, then have a “back-up” email address. It would be like giving your cell phone number to your best friends and the business number to everyone else.

Number 4: 
Attachments from people you don’t know are BAD, BAD, BAD.

A common problem with spam is that they have attachments and attachments can have viruses.  Corporations often have filters that don’t let such things pass to you.  Personal email is far more “open country” for spammers. 

General rule of thumb:  if you do not know who is sending you something, DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT.  Secondly, look for services that offer filtering. Firewall vendors offer this type of service as well.

Number 5: 
Email services now have “bulk-mail” baskets.  If what you
use currently does not support this, think about moving to a new
vendor.  The concept is simple.  If you know someone, they can send you emails.  If you don’t know them, put them in the bulk email pile and then “choose” to allow them into your circle.  Spam Blocking software has this concept as well, but having extra layers seems critical these days, so it is worth looking into.

 Bob Matharoo has also written an interesting article on Spam,  check it out here