I was checking my email earlier when I saw an interesting article on a new type of social-network worm:

“Security company ESET’s analysis of Win32/Inject.NBL reveals it to be an interesting piece of malware.” “This instant messaging-based bot has the following functions built into it:

• download
• update
• rm
• msn.msg
• msn.stop
• aim.msg
• aim.stop
• triton.msg
• triton.stop

In other words, it can download files, update itself, remove itself, and send messages through MSN Messenger, AIM and Triton, spreading itself on those networks. This is a nice chunk of functionality.”

What next – A virus that decides whether it likes you or not? Are viruses becoming more intelligent? The first viruses were more an annoyance than anything else; soon to be followed by the destructive type of virus that lurks on your system undetected until its clock reaches zero-hour and it delivers harmful payloads that wreak havoc with your machine. Around the same time they were equipped with their own SMTP engines, enabling them to mail themselves as an attachment to a bogus email-message on the internet to any email addresses that they could find on the host machine…You know the story.

Not long ago appeared the network-aware variety of virus that actively sought out unprotected paths in cyberspace to infest anything from individual computers to entire networks: The first signs of intelligence.

Nowadays worms are infecting individual machines and adding them to a collective, using those collectives as botnets to launch mass DDOS attacks, send and relay spam and [illegal] porn.

As computers develop in sophistication, will we one day see independent malevolent data-entities roaming the web, looking for a computer to possess and set up home in, like some form of information-based AI? In my opinion it’s not that far off being a future reality given the right circumstances. Could our computers eventually at a future date become a separate living collective entity – Life; but not as we know it? Maybe it’s already starting to happen?
Is “Skynet” only a piece of science fiction from the Terminator series; or will some similar lifeform eventually evolve? Will that lifeform be malevolent? In my estimation, if it actually did happen, probably not; given that it would have access to nearly all of human knowledge and be able to devise intelligent and productive concepts for itself from that information. Without doubt it would probably be hard to live with; particularly initially, but I feel that soon certain people would befriend it and it would learn from them as well as they from it. Could such an entity become a new “god” that lives in cyberspace? Would there be a Cyber-Fundamentalist cult? What are your thoughts on this?

Have you ever visited a site and been redirected straight to a page saying something like:

“WARNING! Your computer is infected! Our initial scans have detected a possible malware infestation on your computer. Click here for a free full scan.”

So this advertiser is claiming to have scanned my files without my permission and found malware? Alarm-bells sound straight away. Whether I click “Scan Now” or “Cancel” their alleged malware scanner begins working: Clever that, as there’s no internet communication as such during this “scan”; and the only thing that’s been loaded onto my computer is a Flash animation.

Before I can think clearly the “in-depth scan” is over and reports that I have X amount of trojans and Y amount of other malicious programs on my PC! Wow: The only way that they could have got on there is if the advertiser had just put them there. I cancel the page and run a malware scan using XoftSpySE. The scan reveals 10 low-risk spyware cookies; at least 6 of which were put there by this advert. The Ad goes on to tell me that I should pay for their software which can find malware that other programs can’t…

Years ago I once downloaded a program called “Spyware Nuker” which used advertising tactics just like this, onto a clean install of Windows 98SE on a new hard-drive which I’d formatted in FAT32 that day. This HD had never been exposed to the internet before then but Spyware Nuker found oodles of malware and claimed it had fixed all of the problems. I uninstalled Spyware Nuker and ran Ad-Aware free edition – It found a trojan and loads of spyware that Spyware Nuker had planted on my system.

My guess is that the program you’re now considering downloading will do much the same. Here’s what actually happened:-

The URL that you typed redirected your browser to the advertiser’s URL, where the ad including a small flash animation and a few spyware cookies were loaded up to your HD. The “Scan Now/Cancel” panel was overall linked to a single link, which told the flash animation to run. After it had run, feigning a scanner GUI, the window uploaded a few names of various malware components at random from a database on the server and displayed them as infections on your computer.

The intention was for you to say

“OMG I have these infections that my current antispyware missed – What a clever piece of software! I must buy it now.”

Probably when you purchase it it’ll upload all those infections to your computer along with some others, it’ll then eradicate the infections it says it found, leaving you with the others it wasn’t supposed to find: Now you have a compromised system that is at the mercy of whoever has paid the highest price for use of your new bot – And worst of all if you’re not that computer-savvy, you’ll never know anything about it unless your ISP contacts you with a complaint.

Advice: If you ever see an Ad appear telling you that your computer is infected; close the page or ignore it – Don’t even bother with it. You might try telling the webmaster of the site that you intended to visit about this; as the webmaster may be unaware that their new advertising that they’ve just signed up for is run by unethical enterprise.

Remember, on the internet; if it sounds too good to be true then it is: 999 out of 1000 times there’s no “probably” about it.  If several reputable programs find no spyware, then one that you’ve never heard of informs you that your computer is infested; it’s fairly safe to assume that you’re being conned; especially if that program is over-hasty to grab your business at all costs.

Some advertising does have a funny side though:

————————–

Seriously now:

*Shazza recommends*

XoftSpySE Anti-Spyware

-NO CONS HERE – GUARANTEED-

As a user of XoftSpySE myself I can thoroughly recommend it to anyone seeking a thorough and comprehensive defence against spyware.

Designed to scan the user’s complete computer system to detect spyware parasites and quarantine the infected files for immediate protection, XoftSpySE is your fast, dependable anti-spyware defence.

§ Complete PC scanning, including running processes, registry entries, files and folders

§ Detects and removes: adware, spyware, pop-Up generators, keyloggers, trojans, hijackers, and malware

§ One of the largest spyware definition databases in the industry

§ Automatic definition and feature updates

§ Fast, powerful, and easy to use

§ Comprehensive customer technical support

§ Protects against identity and credit card theft

See this product in action for yourself:

To discover more and get a FREE scan Click Here!