malware

Infopackets Reader Mike B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I just read John Lister's article on ' 700M Android Phones Contain Chinese Spyware ', and I have a related question. I've just bought myself a Windows 10 phone (Lumia 640 XLT LTE). I like it, but am ... unsure what I need to do, if anything, about antivirus / malware protection. I'm a bit paranoid about this stuff and keep my home PC up to date and protected, and backed up. I read in a number of places that it's not necessary to have antivirus / anti-malware software on the Windows Phone. Is this true, or do I need some form of malware protection ... (view more)

Google is to take harsher actions against sites that it determines house malware or attempt to steal user data. Repeat offenders will effectively be hidden from view from many users for 30 days. The changes are to Google's Safe Browsing feature, ... which vets sites for malicious content. The feature is built into the Chrome browser and made available for other online tools. It's also built-in to all the links from Google search results, regardless of the user's browser. When Google detects a site is potentially harmful, it won't take users directly to the page when they click on ... (view more)

Opponents of proposed changes that could make government surveillance of computers easier have warned time is running out. The changes will take effect on December 1 unless Congress passes a law to stop them. The debate involves the Federal Rules of ... Criminal Procedure, which is effectively the rulebook of the judicial system. Rule 41 sets out how search warrants work in federal cases. Earlier this year the Supreme Court agreed to a request from the Justice Department for three changes to Rule 41. The first is an exception to the usual principle that a local judge can only issue a search ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jason B. writes: " Dear Dennis, I recently upgraded my laptop to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1. After a few days of the upgrade, I keep getting a strange DLL error message stating that 'SysMenu.dll could not be found'. The error ... message always seems to appear right after I boot or reboot the computer, and about 2 or 3 minutes after I gain access to the desktop. The error message is: 'There was a problem starting C:\PROGRA~1\COMMON~1\System\SysMenu.dll. The specified module could not be found.' I have searched Google from high to low on how to fix this error, but the solutions ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Gerry O. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am running windows 8.1 and have a program that reports an ntdll.dll failure. Will an upgrade to Windows 10 (not clean install) create a new ntdll.dll file, would I need to do a clean install of ... windows 10? Is there another way of getting a clean ntdll.dll file without upgrading? " My response: The file ntdll.dll is typically located in c:\windows\system32, and in very old versions of Windows (such as Windows XP), in the c:\i386 directory. The ntdll.dll file is a legitimate dynamic link library file (DLL) and is referred to as the "NT Layer ... (view more)

A newly-identified piece of malware has achieved arguably the ultimate goal of cybercriminals. "Nemesis" is able to infect a Windows computer before the operating system is loaded. The malware is a particularly nasty form of a rootkit . That's ... software which is able to inappropriately access some of the core components of a computer (both hardware and software), often disguising its actions. A rootkit is a serious problem because it's often completely undetectable, which means that it can easily override antivirus software to carry out malicious tasks. In this case, the Nemesis ... (view more)

Facebook is to warn users when it believes a government is trying to hack their account. The company is giving few details about how it will detect such attempts, or which governments may be involved. The warnings will appear when Facebook has ... reason to believe an "account has been targeted or compromised by an attacker suspected of working on behalf of a nation-state." According to Facebook, the message is not meant as an indication that Facebook's own servers or systems have been compromised - whether by a government or anyone else. Early Warning System Instead, Facebook will ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader John P. writes: " I just upgraded to Windows 10. Yesterday I went to go use the Edge browser, but it immediately opened with window stating that my computer has a serious virus and then asked me to call 866-628-4936 to remove the ... virus. The whole time the window was open, there was a computer-generated voice speaking to me. I realize this is a scam, but there is no close button to shut it off. [Other numbers associated with this scam include: 1-866-928-0684, 1-866-436-9418, 1-866-978-1337, 1-866-560-5093, 1-866-362-8280, 1-866-453-2895, 1-866-594-0204, and 1-866-582- ... (view more)

According to security firm Symantec, the proportion of spam emails has fallen to their lowest levels in 12 years. It's the first time since 2003 that the majority of emails are not spam. While the figures are compiled from a variety of sources, the ... main source comes from customers using Symantec security products containing some form of email filtering. That could mean the report is slightly distorted towards those who find spam especially problematic, and thus overstate their level of spam. Overall, Symantec estimates that 49.7 percent of email messages contain spam. This covers all email ... (view more)

Kaspersky Lab, one of the biggest security software firms, says its own internal network was attacked by hackers. The company heavily implied that a national government was behind the hack. Owner Eugene Kaspersky says the hackers were able to access ... confidential internal data relating to research and development into new and improved security techniques. The attack didn't delete or change any data, or affect any performance. The company is also quick to stress that no customers were affected by the move and that it's products continue to work as designed. Attack Method Impressive, ... (view more)