malware

Criminals are capitalizing on a busy sports summer to fool people into clicking on soccer, golf and even paintball sites infested with malicious programs that can compromise privacy or worse, says a Czech Republic-based security software seller. The sites are on what Prague-based Avast Software...

As the 2010 World Cup reaches its climax this weekend, hundreds of millions of football fans are busy scouring the Web for news on the globe's biggest sporting event -- and cyber-criminals are waiting for them to make one wrong click. Security experts had been predicting a bonanza for online...

One of the most oft-repeated warnings about computer viruses is that if you visit an adult-themed website you're more likely to get a one than shopping online or reading the news. Computer security company Avast! wanted to test this Internet assumption. So the company analyzed infected web sites...

The Czech Republic-based computer security company Avast! found an "overwhelming popular culture theme" among web sites infected with programs that spew spyware and create other threats for computer users at home. Sites on what the company calls its "Most Wanted" list are collected by a community...

An FBI investigation has led to criminal charges against three men responsible for XP Antispyware 2010 and allegedly a wide range of other bogus home computer security software that scared victims in more than 60 countries into paying $100 million over the past three years. Three men are named in...

Apparently thousands of Facebook users were struck again by messages from friends claiming "sexiest video ever" and referring to a thumbnail of a woman riding a bike. But they were fake messages hoping to lure users into clicking the link and infecting their computer with malware, or spamming it...

Brian Yoder, vice-president of engineering for the anti-virus and spyware firm CyberDefender, told me in a phone interview that his company is predicting a cyber criminal event when Tiger Woods returned to golf at the Masters this week. Why? Because celebrity names and their misdeeds provide...

Perhaps it's time to tell your employees to stay off Facebook while at work. And maybe it's time to tell your kids to also stop spending so much time posting status updates or clicking video links.It's official, Facebook is the most popular social media network and because of that, it also causes...

Despite the use of anti-virus programs, the safety of banking and shopping online continues to be threatened by hackers and malicious software creators who take advantage of the fact that most of us use the same computer to bank online as we do to play on Facebook or let our kids, and their...

Within hours of last week's earthquake in Haiti, charities were scrambling to respond to the catastrophe. So too were cyber-criminals, who were looking to exploit unwitting Internet users seeking to donate to the relief effort. It has gotten so bad, the FBI and others have issued warnings to the public.