Safeguard your smut

Word on the street is virus authors have turned vigilante. A newly discovered Trojan deletes unlawful files.

Called Erazer-A, this Trojan is spread through peer-to-peer networks and chat rooms in the guise of useful program files.

Once executed, it searches a system for folders used for peer-to-peer applications, such as AVI, MP3, MPEG, WMV, GIF, and ZIP. Any porn, warez, music or other matching file type found in peer-to-peer directories is then wiped out.

According to the seventh annual Web@Work survey conducted by security firm Websense and research firm Harris Interactive, women are more likely to download spyware at work, but call for help more quickly (64%). Like asking for directions?

Men, however, spend more time on average surfing the Web at work for personal use.

Be careful of Internet search results, McAfee warns, as you could be clicking through to a site harbouring spyware. A study showed there are at least 285 million clicks to malicious sites as a result of search queries generated by US users alone.

Word on the street is virus authors have turned vigilante.

Ilva Pieterse, ITWeb contributor

Apparently, hostile sites accounted for as much as 72% of results for popular keywords, such as "free screen savers", "digital music", "popular software", and "singers".

A scary thought: sponsored, or paid for results are more risky (8.5%) than non-sponsored results (3.1%).

Kenneth Kwak, 34, a former US government computer security specialist, has been locked up for five years following the hacking of his former boss`s computer.

Kwak had installed software on the machine that allowed him to view his ex-boss`s e-mail and browsing, which he bragged about to his colleagues. Not smart.

Something a bit cleverer, although unfortunately so, comes in the guise of botnets being used for Google Adword click fraud.

In order to escape fraud detection programs, corrupt publishers have begun hiring botnets as tools to illegally click on Google ads, making their advertisers pay for bogus clicks.

Companies are being urged to install the latest Microsoft Exchange Server patch, despite reported glitches it is causing to some mobile devices.

The update fixes a remote code execution flaw, rated "high vulnerability level" by Symantec, in the Exchange calendar function and affects Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003 SP1 and SP2.

The glitch (users cannot send e-mail messages from a mobile device or from a shared mailbox in Exchange 2000 and Exchange Server 2003), although irritating, is not as serious as the actual threat of the flaw. Microsoft assures users that it has issued a workaround.

Sources used: SearchSecurity, The Register