Avira, the German security firm, is certainly facing a tough time, all because of a faulty antivirus update released recently. The defective antivirus update is blocking many legitimate Windows processes and third-party software programs, leaving millions of Windows PCs across the world almost unusable.

The latest Avira software update is detecting Windows executable files, especially with .exe extension, as malware and not allowing them to launch. In addition, it is killing some of the key processes that are essential for Windows to boot.

Avira has acknowledged the problem saying, “Following the release of Service Pack 0 (SP0) for Avira Version 2012, the ProActiv feature blocked legitimate Windows applications on customers’ PCs. We deeply regret any difficulties this has caused you.”

The faulty update has affected all the paid versions of Avira software programs, including Avira Antivirus Premium, Avira Internet Security, and Avira Professional Security. However, there is no problem with Avira AntiVir Personal, which is the free edition.

Adobe has issued an emergency patch for a critical bug in its Flash Player software, which is being used in targeted malware attacks.

Updating to Flash version 11.2.202.235 for Windows, Macintosh and Linux closes an “object confusion” vulnerability that, if exploited, could cause an application crash or, worse, lead to the takeover of a system. The hackers are attempting to exploit the vulnerability via e-mail attachments. Currently, only users of Internet Explorer for Windows are being targeted.

Flash for Android-based mobile devices also have been updated. If the software is installed on Google’s Chrome browser, it automatically was updated so users do not need to take any action. Users are advised to patch as soon as possible.

Adobe has provided a link to help people determine which version of Flash they are running, and listed which versions are vulnerable:

“Adobe recommends users of Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.233 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux update to Adobe Flash Player 11.2.202.235. Flash Player installed with Google Chrome was updated automatically, so no user action is required. Users of Adobe Flash Player 11.1.115.7 and earlier versions on Android 4.x devices should update to Adobe Flash Player 11.1.115.8. Users of Adobe Flash Player 11.1.111.8 and earlier versions for Android 3.x … should update to Flash Player 11.1.111.9.”

After acquiring McAfee for its security expertise last year, Intel is working on to offer enterprises a way to secure data stored in public or hybrid cloud environments.

To describe the strategy that is being pursued to let IT managers gain better understanding about the security of their cloud workloads, Jason Waxman, general manager of Intel’s Cloud Infrastructure Group, joined with Greg Brown, vice president of network security at McAfee.

The ePolicy Orchestrator (ePO) management console from McAfee is well-positioned to audit cloud environments. By using McAfee ePO with Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT) in TXT-enabled Intel servers, it is possible to establish a baseline determination of assurance and confidence when undertaking tasks such as transferring workloads from server to server.

In addition, the McAfee Cloud Security Platform is being developed further to provide integrity assessment, asset control and protection, and broader auditing capabilities. Other McAfee security products, such as Identity Manager and Deep Defender, are also seen as contributing to the security assessment and protections under the strategy.

The end goal is to give IT managers a way to perform a wide variety of security checks on both the servers, usually virtualized, and the data they make use of in public cloud and hybrid cloud arrangements.

Computer security solution provider Symantec Corporation has released the public betas of its products Norton Internet Security, Norton Antivirus and Norton 360 beta for Windows 8. According to the company, all these three security products are designed for compatibility with Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP.

The betas now include improved cloud-enabled features such as Norton Management, Norton Identity Safe and online backup, which will enable the users to conveniently manage their security and store their personal information in a safe environment, from anywhere, and at anytime.

In addition to offering best available core security technologies and an error-free user experience, the betas include key enhancements including:
• Metro App Protection – New protection capabilities provide security for consumers using Windows 8 Metro apps.
• Next Generation Firewall Protection – Norton’s award-winning Insight technology has been incorporated into the Norton firewall to improve the ability to detect and block malicious network activity including botnet activity that attempts to steal consumers’ personal information.
• Bandwidth Monitoring – Increased intelligence and improved integration with the operating system will help consumers save costly data overage fees by controlling non-critical updates on bandwidth sensitive networks.

Click here to know more about Symantec Corporation’s preparation for the security of Windows 8.

Sophos reported that the British government is planning to pass a new legislation that will allow the Police and intelligence agencies to check users’ e-mails and monitor their Internet activities. The British authorities reported that this move is aimed to safeguard online child abuse and put a check on violence.

With this new proposed legislation, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are required to install hardware from the Government Communication Headquarter (GCHQ), which will help investigators to keep track of users’ e-mails, with whom they communicate, etc. However, the information will not be shared with other third parties, and intelligence agencies can only investigate with permission from the magistrate.

The proposal was not appreciated by everyone and Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, was one of them. He said, “This is an unprecedented attack on privacy online and it is far from clear this will actually improve public safety, while adding significant costs to internet business. No amount of scare-mongering can hide the fact that this policy is being condemned by MPs in all political parties.”

And it is this huge number of active monthly users  that makes this social network a soft target for spam attacks, malware, viruses and phishing attacks. This new thrust from Facebook is to protect their user base from the growing number of cyberattacks all over the world. The Facebook Antivirus Marketplace offers tips for users, downloads, information regarding current threats and a Facebook security guide.

This tie-up with five major antivirus vendors means that now Facebook users would be able to download six-month trial security packages from any of these. In addition to this, Symantec has also worked on a whitepaper with Facebook regarding scams and spam on it. The antivirus companies have also added their own URL blacklist to the existing URL blacklist of Facebook to help the users know which websites to avoid and be safe online.

Mobile banking is rapidly gaining popularity. More than 40 million users (which is an increase of over 100% as compared to the previous year) are now accessing this handy service from their mobile phones. This has also led to an increase in fraud threats and so is the concern over mobile security. Keeping this into consideration, Guardian Analytics has announced the release of FraudMAP Mobile, a fraud prevention solution that can identify suspicious mobile banking activities.

According to Julie McNelley, research director in the Retail Banking Practice at Aite Group, “A mobile phone in the hands of a criminal provides them with access to all of the victim’s personal information that can not only lead to mobile banking fraud, but fraud in other channels as well as identity theft. To prevent this from happening, banks can’t rely on the device for security – they need to proactively prevent fraud before it occurs.“

FraudMAP Mobile uses anomaly detection across all access points of mobile banking like SMS, mobile web, and mobile applications. The solution thus offers a secured layer that protects financial institutions and their mobile banking users. To know more about this solution, click here.

According to the latest BBC report, the websites of Iran’s oil facilities suffered a malware attack and were forced to go offline as a precautionary measure.

Extent of Damage
The control systems at the Kharg Island oil facility were invaded by a virus. This facility processes more than 90% of Iran’s exports. Websites of the Iranian oil ministry and national oil company also went offline after facing a malware infection.

Damage Assessment by Mehr
As per Mehr news agency, no impact on the oil production has been reported. However, the information about website users had been stolen. The big relief is that the sensitive data had not been accessed and is safe, all thanks to the so-called “hack-proof” network created by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Virus Attacks on Iran
Iran was the main target of Stuxnet worm back in 2010. It was also hit by Duqu virus. And Iranians are prone to such hack attempts as western companies are prohibited from providing security solutions.

Are other companies safe?
According to Brian Contos, a security director and consumer security strategist at McAfee, “Attacks on critical infrastructure are more common than many think. Because of a lack of disclosure in these industries many incidents ranging from sabotage and intellectual property theft to extortion go unreported.”

While monitoring the scam campaign, the researchers counted a total of 4,148 tweets, that contain malicious links being sent from 540 Twitter accounts that were compromised, linking to a total of 44 unique domains (most of them hosted on .tk and .tw1.su). These malicious tweets contain messages like “online virus check”, “proven anti-virus”, and “excellent anti-virus”. A relatively high degree of variety in links, messages and hacked accounts in the present scam might be a possible reason why Twitter’s automated scam filters are not able to stop them.

This scam is just an addition to the usual slew of rogue scareware that use fake scareware alerts to trick users into downloading malicious programs. In addition to this, this scam campaign also uses the Blackhole exploit toolkit to infect computers. Now, this toolkit is a traditional tool of choice for hackers to infect systems with malware with drive-by downloads. The Blackhole toolkit installs malware by exploiting the vulnerabilities in older versions of browser plug-ins like Adobe Player, Java and Flash Player to install the malware.

In fact the Anti-Bot and the Antivirus softwares area part of the new R75.40 bundle of security technologies. Threat Cloud would allow real-time pre-emptive protection from bots, malware and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT). The whole suite comes under the GAiA, which is a combination of the company’s legacy operating system and the newly acquired IPSO from Nokia. The advantage of this new combo is that it will give security admins greater logging capabilities, configuration management and performance.