The Way I See It!

July Tech Tips - Adobe Users Beware & More

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on July 29, 2009

Computer, Info

Hackers may slip through hole found in Adobe tools

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2009-07-26-adobe-hackers_N.htm

Glitch in antivirus software troubles PC users

Misfires mistakenly flag clean files as malicious, send PCs into tailspins

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31853138/ns/technology_and_science-security/

The results can range from annoyance to outright meltdown of the machine if critical files are targeted. Last week some people using McAfee Inc.'s antivirus software said their computers crashed because of a false positive.

McAfee said the false positive only happened on older versions of its software that are no longer supported by the company. Newer versions won't have the problem.

CA apologized for the problem Mandell and others encountered and said its last major false positive was three years ago.

"Minor false positives happen periodically, but CA has historically maintained an industry low rate of false positives," the company said in a statement.

PCs could be hit next in Web attack

South Korea says cyber attackers used IP address in five nations

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31849331/ns/technology_and_science-security/

North Korea was originally a prime suspect for launching the cyber attacks, but the isolated state was not named on a list of Web sites from five countries where the attacks may have originated, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) said.

The attacks targeting dozens of government and business sites in South Korea and the United States did not cause major damage or security breaches, experts said, but the KCC warned a new phase at 1500 GMT on Friday could cause severe damage to PCs.

The attacks saturated target Web sites with access requests generated by malicious software planted on personal computers. This overwhelmed some targeted sites and slowed server response to legitimate traffic.

The so-called "distributed denial of service" hacking attack spreads viruses on PCs, turning them into zombies to simultaneously connect to specific sites, unbeknown to owners, experts said.

U.S. officials would not speculate on who might be behind the attacks but noted that U.S. government Web sites face attacks or scams "millions of times" a day.