Much like Apple's "There's an App for that" iPhone campaign, it seems these days the script kiddies of the world should have one called "There's a Trojan for that".

Now Skype, that great VOIP and vid conferencing application now gets a trojan of it's own.  Symantec has recently said that it's identified Trojan.Peskyspy and have also found it's source code out on the internet.

The virus itself once on a system with Skype recrods conversations and then uploads to servers in the wild to be reviewed by whomever.  The real problem is that since the source code is out there, there is a great potential for the code to be modified to do far more.

So Laurent Gaffi says there is a bug in Windows Media Player which could allow maleware to infect a PC by use of media files.  This tends to grab everyones attention because even the lamest of all PC users has figured out how to watch movies and listen to music on their PC's right?

Well, today MS says thats a bunch of crap and that the what Gaffi discovered is a "reliability issue with no security risk to customers,"

Let me think about that, a reliability issue, meaning that there "could" be code that "could" cause the software to work in a way it wasn't intended to.  Doesn't sound very reassuring does it?  Then agian, when doesn't MS products have a million issues with it?  It's just business as usual right?

For those that didn't want to catch the link, Gaffi says this issue exists in the following versions of WMP 9, 10 and 11.  Now go scan your tunes with your AV software and stop pirating music.  At least till there is a patch out.

Simply not enough people take computer security seriously enough.  Many have direct broadband connection pumping right into their computers with nothing to protect their data.  If you are one of those poeple or even if you think you might be protected but arn't sure, here's a nice how-to on setting up a firewall that will help you stop intuders and keep your information, on your computer.

It covers 3 different firewall packages, an while I don't care for either of the three, you might.  if nothing else, you can use the knowledge and apply it to whatever firewall application you prefer.

If you arn't sick of all the fake Paypal, Ebay, Big Bank and other phishing scams, there are the hackers out there breaking into the databases of the banks and data collection companies.  Now as if that isn't bad enough, the copy machine you use could be stealing your personal information.

Thanks to This article at Wired, you are now warned.  Many new copy machines built in the last 5 years now have hard drives in them that the copy of your original document is stored on.  It's ment to help make the process of multiple copies much faster, but inadvertainly, it also means there is now a stored copy of your personal information if you just made copies of your tax-returns.  Some companies did think about this and have a program in place to overwrite the drive after "x" ammount of copies or every copy.  However, many have no data protection measurements in place at all.  So, check out the article and see if maybe the copy machine you use every day could be used as a tool of the darkside should it's components ever fall into the wrong hands.

This should also bother large companies as well as individuals.  In todays age day and age, any form of customer data loss should be questioned like the spanish inquisition.  So, if you use copy machines to copy customer data at your daily job, might be a thought to give your boss a heads up to check out the copy machine.  The drives could be swapped durring maintinance, or just think what happens if you get a new copy machine in.  Where does the old one go?  It could very well be going to your competition or worse, to some scum-bag that has no morels.  Then again, that scum-bag could the the copy repair person.  There's some food for thought.

Just for some extra credit, CNN now has a story on it as well.

Ok, so if you've been around here for a good while, you know I don't like RFID's (Wiki Link). For those new to the I hate RFID's bandwagon, you can buff up on it here and here.

So basicly what we have are some Canadian coins that have hitched a ride to the US. No big deal right? Well these coins contained RFTM's (Radio Frequency Trans Miters) and somehow ended up in the pockets of some contractors with classified security clearances. Now this occured between October 05' and Jan 06' so this news is basicly over a year old. The article can be found over on Fox News.

RFID's and RFTM's are very dangerous. They allow anything they are in or on to be tracked by whomever feels like doing the tracking. It's very "1984" and I don't like it. I have nothing to hide, but I don't feel I should have to prove it either. I don't think our friends to the north were intending these coins to make it to US soil, but who knows for sure. Could be a big problem to have a potential enemy sharing a common border.

Slashdot has a tid-bit on a ZDnetAsia article involving Yahoo's webmail and a nasty little Javascript worm.  For starters, who the hell turned Javascript availability on in web based mail?  Thats just plain asking for something like this.

Anyway, seems the worm has a path for destruction, here is what many feel it is doing.  So be warned, oddly enough, Symantec is rating the threat as a "2" on their 1-5 scale.

1) Arrives on the compromised computer as an HTML email containing Javascript. The email may have the following characteristics:

From: Varies
Subject: New Graphic Site
Message body: Note: forwarded message attached.

2) Once the email is opened the worm exploits a vulnerability in the Yahoo email service to run a script.

3) Sends a copy of itself to certain email addresses gathered from the Yahoo email folders.

4) Targets email addresses from the @yahoo.com and @yahoogroups.com domains.

5) Contacts the following URL:

[http://]www.av3.net/index.htm

6) Sends a list of email addresses gathered to the above URL.

Why does it exist? I have seen it cause problems with every mail program from Outlook Express to Thunderbird. Every error any mail program I have ever seen have, can and has been caused by AV mail scanning. This isn't any one particular AV either. I've seen it on everything from Norton to AVG. From the research I've done, mail scanning is completely redundant anyway so why does it exist? At least once every day, I have a customer telling me the problem can't be with their AV because they disabled it. Well, guess what? If you don't turn off the mail scanning feature, it still causes problems whether the AV is disabled or not. The only thing I can figure is that these AV manufacturers throw it in there to make the computer illiterate feel safer. What do you folks think?

Sorry about this little rant. I'm at work and haven't had a call in over 3 hours so I'm bored. =P

The guy's over at Virtual Hideout have a nice article up on password security. How to make it complex enough that it's not easy to figure out as well as secure ways you can use to easily remember them.

Check out the article here

The other day I was blogging about the rootkit that Sony CD's will install on your computer - if you were foolish enough to think you should be able to play music you paid for on your PC... One of the valid concerns was that the rootkit wasn't ONLY looking for a Sony CD to mess about with... oh no... any other program could use its "cloaking" feature to make itself invisible. Thus the specter of trojans and viruses using the rootkit for their own purposes....

Thus we come to this story.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A computer security firm said on Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.

Under a subject line containing the words "Photo approval," a hacker has mass-mailed the so-called Stinx-E trojan virus to British email addresses, said British anti-virus firm Sophos.

When recipients click on an attachment, they install malware, which may tear down a computer's firewall and give hackers access to a PC. The malware hides by using Sony BMG software that is also hidden -- the software would have been installed on a computer when consumers played Sony's copy-protected music CDs.

It usually doesn't take long for an exploit to be published... I just couldn't resist the urge to say "I told you so!" to Sony. "You MORONS!" also comes to mind.

I was happy to see that people aren't taking this.

The software sparked a class action lawsuit against Sony in California last week, claiming that Sony has not informed consumers that it installs software directly into the "roots" of their computer systems with rootkit software, which cloaks all associated files and is dangerous to remove.

Good for them! I hope they win and Sony has to pay the price. That's what you get for trying to be sneaky and especially for installing malicious software on a system! But even better...

Sophos said it would have a tool to disable the copy protection software available later on Thursday.

Yay Sophos! Brilliant move - treating it like malicious spyware! Good for you!

What's Sony's take? Well naturally they are pure as the driven snow and have done no wrong... they only want to protect their interests... That protecting their interests means they have to tromp all over yours - well they really didn't mean to... honest!

Sony BMG made a patch available on its Web site on Tuesday that rids a PC from the "cloaking" element that is part of the copy-protection software, while claiming that "the component is not malicious and does not compromise security."

The patch does not disable the copy protection itself.

The Sony copy-protection software does not install itself on Macintosh computers or ordinary CD and DVD players.

Doesn't matter anymore WHAT Sony "claims" - they've forfeited trust. Plus -they are still claiming the component is NOT malicious.... I wonder what they consider to be malicious? Plus we can see they have discriminated against PC users! It doesn't effect the Mac... nor (although it doesn't specifically say it) does it effect Linux.

I REALLY hope the lawsuit wins (although I am seldom in favor of them - this is just egregious). And I hope enough people stop buying their CD's that it MAKES them remove the stupid copy protection to try and get sales back.

We would never allow Sony to waltz into our houses and stick cameras all around - to be sure we aren't illegally copying their CD's - so why is it okay for them to do exactly that on our computers? Very.Bad.Move.Sony. It's going to be a long time - if ever - until you are trusted again.

Cross Posted at Technicalities

There is new software available that is supposed to help online retailers find out why you might cancel a transaction.

Tea Leaf offers a view of the customer experience and replicates customers’ transactions with a view through their browser. The information can be gleaned in real time and from digital archives. A comprehensive database, an add-on data extractor, and graphics help uncover obstacles that are preventing transaction completion.

It makes me wonder - how much information is being captured during a session? Is it just the links to the various pages? Or is it the page itself along with any data entered? It's not at all clear in the article. If data entered is also captured, I have to wonder about such things as name, address, credit card number, etc that might be archived in this system. What is the security on the archived pages? Where are they stored? Who has access to them? Little things like that.

The TeaLeaf platform isn’t limited to identifying a narrow set of problems. It can show if people are abandoning Web transactions because of pop-ups, bad links and other deterrents.

I wonder how they decide "why" a customer might abandon a transaction. Maybe they just changed their mind. Or maybe - like some of the places I've shopped - you can't find out the price until you click through and start to buy - so if I want a price... I'll click through then end the transaction. But the software wouldn't know that! Or that you suddenly remembered you charged that extra restaurant meal and you don't want to put more purchases on the card right now... I wonder if anyone in the computer security business is checking this product out. I went to the site - you have to give them all kinds of info about yourself to take the "product tour". I don't want to do that. I don't have a retail site and don't want them getting in touch with me. Anyhow - keep your eyes open for any upcoming stories about this new type of transaction tracker.