Category Archives: Consumer Alerts

Password Safety In A Connected World

It has become increasingly common for personal and professional social media accounts to become ‘hacked’, or taken over by someone who doesn’t own the account. Twitter’s help center points out that this occurs from weak passwords, a pre-existing password-collecting virus on your computer or by entrusting your login credentials to malicious third-party websites and applications. Read more…

Regents of Louisiana spreading Sirefef malware

I was given a suspicious website link pointing to the website belonging to Board of Regents of State of Louisiana. This link points to the main website hxxp://regents.la.gov/, followed by /wp-content/upgrade/<numbers>.exe, where <numbers>.exe represents several random numbers, followed by EXE extension. A link looking like the following one hxxp://regents.la.gov/wp-content/upgrade/<some_numbers>.exe seems suspicious at first glance. Websites […]

Massive U.S. cyberattack planned by Anonymous

“In the cross hairs of anonymous” The hacktivist group Anonymous announced phase one of a massive cyberattack, called Op USA,  on U.S government and banking websites scheduled for next Tuesday, May 7. The White House, the NSA, and the FBI are included on a list of high profile government targets, and 133 financial institutions including the […]

BadNews for Good People

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Bugs. Creepy, crawly, never-really-know-where-they’re-hiding, infestations of bugs. If we could just see them all, we would rid our lives of bug infestations with doses of (environmentally friendly) spray. But what about the bugs that we can’t see? What about the bugs that have snuck past, and infiltrated the hidden corners of our lives, then quietly Read more…

avast! Antivirus gets cameo role in Movies vs. Life viral video

A YouTube video called Movies vs. Life compares scenes embellished with movie magic to their real-life equivalents. We like to think that an avast! Antivirus cameo during a computer hacking scene (pay attention around 0:22 seconds) is one of the reasons that this hilarious video has gone viral. A round of applause from avast! to […]

The Next Phase of Mobile Advertising: Conversing With Your Phone

Imagine this: You’re walking past your favorite store and your phone buzzes to ask you if you like the new spring collection. Or maybe it wants to know what you think about the new running shoes displayed in the storefront just up ahead. Conversations with your phone aren’t just something to imagine anymore; recently companies Read more…

High profile site scares users

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We come across a plenty of malware reports every day. Sometimes we have to deal with some special cases, where a respected vendor is involved. This time it was the Dell driver download site. The “Download file” link leads to this unexpected screen (our user complained about a false positive): Well, being an average user, […]

Visualizing A DDoS Cyber Attack

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As you may recall from earlier posts in my blog, a denial-of-service (DDoS) attack occurs when hackers flood a target website with large amounts of traffic. This traffic is often generated through the hacker’s botnet, or network of infected computers. Usually, when a cybercriminal launches a DDoS attack on a website, there isn’t much for Read more…

Recommend avast! and earn premium protection for free

Once you start using avast! Free Antivirus, you quickly realize what a quality product it is and want to share it with your family members and friends. We have created an easy way for you to recommend avast!, and at the same time earn points toward a free 1-year license of avast! Internet Security. The […]

Are Google and Bing Serving You Safe Search Results?

New research has concluded that despite best efforts to keep search results clean, Google and Bing often serve malware-infected sites among their top search results. This malware (or malicious software) can include sites infected with viruses, Trojans, computer worms, and more, making it extremely important for consumers to pay close attention to what they click. Read more…