Swine flu scammers out in force
Say swine flu and you're guaranteed to get people's attention.
Spammers and scammers hope to exploit that curiosity and fear. Some want to sell you things. Others want to sneak malicious software on your computer so they can control it or steal your private information.
The subject lines are catchy -- "Swine Flu in Hollywood!" or "Madonna Caught Swine Flu!" -- but bogus.
The goal is to get you to click on a link or open an attachment.
Michael Greene, an Internet security expert at PC Tools, says don't do it.
"And if you open that attachment it's going to be infected and your computer will get infected and it's going to download on to your computer something that will send more spam and it will also try to steal your passwords."
Jorvis Evers at Mcafee Security says it's really easy to protect yourself. Delete all Spam dealing with the swine flu. Never open an attachment. Never click on a link.
"If you want to find out about swine fly don't click on links that appear in emails, don't click on links that appear on social networks, the little links on Twitter, they are so anonymous just Tiny URL.com and some code name."
Skip the email and go to trusted sources of news for swine flu updates.
Free help
McAfee Cybercrime Response Unit was launched earlier this week. It's a free service for anyone who wants to check for malicious software on their computer. The scan will tell you in you've been the victim of a cybercrime or are at risk of being a victim.
"If you have malicious software on your computer that is stealing all of your passwords or capturing your credit card numbers as you type them into an online shopping site, or you have been to a website that we know has been distributing malicious software, we will know and tell you what to do next," said McAfee's Jorvis Evers.
PC Tools offers ThreatFire. This free program uses behavioral protection technology to block potentially dangerous software from being installed. "Even if you have an antivirus program, this is an extra layer of protection on top of that,' says Michael Greene.
That's because ThreatFire looks for malicious behavior rather than known threats.
"It watches everything that happens on your computer looking for malicious behavior, for instance capturing your keystrokes or stealing data," said.
ThreatFire cans stop new threats that have not been seen before by spotting the malicious activity.
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Spammers and scammers hope to exploit that curiosity and fear. Some want to sell you things. Others want to sneak malicious software on your computer so they can control it or steal your private information.
The subject lines are catchy -- "Swine Flu in Hollywood!" or "Madonna Caught Swine Flu!" -- but bogus.
The goal is to get you to click on a link or open an attachment.
Michael Greene, an Internet security expert at PC Tools, says don't do it.
"And if you open that attachment it's going to be infected and your computer will get infected and it's going to download on to your computer something that will send more spam and it will also try to steal your passwords."
Jorvis Evers at Mcafee Security says it's really easy to protect yourself. Delete all Spam dealing with the swine flu. Never open an attachment. Never click on a link.
"If you want to find out about swine fly don't click on links that appear in emails, don't click on links that appear on social networks, the little links on Twitter, they are so anonymous just Tiny URL.com and some code name."
Skip the email and go to trusted sources of news for swine flu updates.
Free help
McAfee Cybercrime Response Unit was launched earlier this week. It's a free service for anyone who wants to check for malicious software on their computer. The scan will tell you in you've been the victim of a cybercrime or are at risk of being a victim.
"If you have malicious software on your computer that is stealing all of your passwords or capturing your credit card numbers as you type them into an online shopping site, or you have been to a website that we know has been distributing malicious software, we will know and tell you what to do next," said McAfee's Jorvis Evers.
PC Tools offers ThreatFire. This free program uses behavioral protection technology to block potentially dangerous software from being installed. "Even if you have an antivirus program, this is an extra layer of protection on top of that,' says Michael Greene.
That's because ThreatFire looks for malicious behavior rather than known threats.
"It watches everything that happens on your computer looking for malicious behavior, for instance capturing your keystrokes or stealing data," said.
ThreatFire cans stop new threats that have not been seen before by spotting the malicious activity.
For More Information:
Spammers Trying To Cash In on Swine Flu Frenzy
Spammers seize on swine flu to pitch bogus meds