Prince William’s wedding is more dangerous than porn

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

It is bad enough, for someone with no great interest in the monarchy, that the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton has now dominated TV, print and online news outlets for the past 24 hours solid. I know I risk being verbally scolded by the twin-pronged pro-Royalty army that is the combined forces of the blue-rinsed brigade and readers of Heat magazine, but I think I can safely say that the forthcoming Royal wedding is now officially bad news. I can also say that you would be safer searching for porn than searching for news about the Royal nuptials.

Security researchers at the Websense labs have uncovered the first wave of poisoned search engine results to wash onto Google and Yahoo alike, using everything from promises of ‘Prince William Wedding Photos’ through to the much more generic, and likely all the more successful as a result, ‘Prince William Wedding’ as lures to sites which will hit the unsuspecting and unprotected visitor with the latest drive-by download attacks.

(more…)

Can Microsoft Security Essentials beat Norton?

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

What do Microsoft and Symantec have in common? The obvious answer is that both are offering a new security package. In Symantec’s case it’s Norton Internet Security 2010, which I looked at a few weeks back. Microsoft, meanwhile, is today due to release Security Essentials, its free replacement for OneCare, formerly codenamed Morro.

They’re also both companies dogged by the sins of products past. (more…)

Uninstalled software shouldn’t hijack your browser

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Finding myself with an idle 20 minutes on the train to work this morning, I decided to give my laptop a long overdue spring clean (it’s July, after all).  I started by uninstalling a handful of applications that have served their purpose.

Once removed, no fewer than two thirds of them (yes folks, that’s two out of three, but I’m building for dramatic effect here), arbitrarily fired up my browser and sent me to their websites to fill out a survey demanding to know why I had the temerity to remove their software from my system. Bloody cheek.

Software that automatically fires up your browser and sends you without warning to a strange website is a hair’s breadth away from malware, in my book. And how long will it be before genuine malware writers find a way to adjust that URL, and send unsuspecting uninstallers off to a site that automatically executes something far nastier than a customer retention questionnaire?

The fact I’ve chosen to uninstall a piece of software means that application should no longer exert any control over my PC, let alone fire up my web browser on its way out. If software companies can’t be trusted to act responsibly with their uninstallers, then Microsoft needs to take that power away from them.