crankygeek_tech_notes

Google has started warning users if they are about to visit a webpage that could harm their computer.
The warning will pop up if users click on a link to a page known to host spyware or other malicious programs.
The initiative comes out of a larger project cataloguing programs that plague people with unwanted ads, spy on web habits or steal personal data.
Google is one of several companies trying to act as an “in-flight adviser” to ensure people stay safe online.
Web watch
The warnings will be seen by anyone using the search engine who clicks on a link to a site identified as harmful by the Stop Badware coalition.
Google, PC maker Lenovo and Sun set up this initiative in January 2006 to identify dangerous software and the websites that try to trick people into installing these malicious programs.

Initially the warnings seen via the search site will be generic and simply alert people to the fact that a site has been flagged as dangerous. Eventually the warnings will become more detailed as Stop Badware researchers visit harmful sites and analyse how they try to subvert users’ machines.
The warning suggests that people try a different site but if they want to continue to the potentially dangerous webpage Google will not stop them.
A research report released in May 2006 looked at the safety of the results returned by a search and found that, on average, 4-6% of the sites had harmful content on them.
For some keywords, such as “free screensavers” the number of potentially dangerous sites leapt to 64%.
The keywords are used to entice people to access the website.
The research report was partly sponsored by McAfee’s SiteAdvisor which also warns people when they are about to visit potentially harmful sites.
Another company ScanSafe has also created the Scandoo search engine which overlays its warnings on results produced via Google and MSN.
“Most dodgy websites that have spyware or are infected with viruses come through search,” said Eldar Tuvey, chief executive of ScanSafe. “Because they are the ones that people do not know as well and find through searching.”

Scammers are using bots to create bogus eBay accounts that boast trustworthy profiles in a new scheme to rip off buyers, a security company said Monday.

The scam, said Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fortinet, is a new twist on an old con where criminals set up bogus auctions, rake in the proceeds, and then scram, never intending to ship anything to buyers.

Long-time eBay users, however, have gotten wise to such double-crosses, and have learned to avoid auctions where the seller has little or no transaction record and/or little or no buyer feedback.

The new dodge, however, makes that defense useless.

According to Fortinet, the racket uses a bot to create a large number of fake accounts, then applies a spider to scavenge eBay for 1-cent “Buy Now” items, then purchase them. full story here

AS VEGAS (AFP) – Organized crime is winning the Internet security war, specialists warned at the world’s foremost gathering of computer hackers in Las Vegas.The online peril is no longer brilliant young social outcasts penetrating networks for notoriety; it is international crime rings swiping billions of dollars with keystrokes and malicious computer codes, cyber cops agreed.

Ironically, potential champions in the battle for Internet privacy were sought among the thousands of hackers that made pilgrimages to the US gambling center nicknamed “Sin City” for the three-day DefCon 14 conference. finish story here