Wired – No Such Thing As Cyber SPace

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/cyber-hype/

BUZZZZZZZ!! Sorry, You lose! Cyberspace does exist and is alive and well in the IT/IS Realm of professionals …not GEEKS!!

Cyberspace. A metaphor for describing the non-physical terrain created by computer systems. Online systems, for example, create a cyberspace within which people can communicate with one another. Like physical space, cyberspace contains objects  (files, mail messages, graphics, etc.) and different modes of transportation and delivery. Unlike real space, though, exploring cyberspace does not require any physical movement other than pressing keys on a keyboard or moving a mouse; cyberspace is the transportation realm of vital data once it has left physical space on the sending side and has not yet reached physical space on the receiving side of transition destination. Cyberspace relatively speaking is the equivalent of Internet processing ( aka.. Parsing)

Cheap Virus Scanner Comparison

I had to do a scan, a known virus, with a number of virus scanners.
I used Jotti’s I used Virscan and I used Virus Total
They each have a mess-load of virus scanners through their site that allows you to scan at one time to see the results of each scanner

1st virus scan results

2nd virus scan results

Here are the results of the most known free or cheap virus scanners and antivirus programs out there, scanning two pieces of malware that we got at the office I work in.
Sad to say, the two most known, most promoted most noted free virus scanners out there, failed to detect this. Sad to say, we got these from a machine that was supposedly protected by Symantec Endpoint. We received an email that told us to update our tax information, and well it was bundled with an executable. The second one is another virus/trojan that was sent in an email disguised as being from Fedex, they sent an executable file saying it would help us track our recently shipped package.. The computer that received this email, the user actually ran th program and it installed and mass emailed her address book with the same message, then it downloaded tons of stuff into the machine, eventually shuts off internet access until an expected time then it opens internet back up quickly to download more updates, then it shuts it down.
So if you have a virus scanner that is cheap or free and want to see how it did in our little test, check the two pdf files I link and see for yourself.
If you do not have adobe pdf reader, I advise you use foxit, it’s ten times faster and much more useful.

eBay and Nigerian Scam

For starts, I was selling a PlayStation Portable on eBay.

Total went all the way to $150, the total was increased to 152. The winning bidder of this auction that was specified as U.S. only and PayPal only, decided to tell me to send the item to his/her son in Nigeria. I send a request to eBay to inspect the account and stated the situation. of course eBay screwed it up by canceling my auction and sending me an email that says I owe $2.

Great.

Well I did a search for  “john_milo500@yahoo.com” and removed the 500 and put a space between and after  the @ symbol.

Found his name came up a few times.  Sooooo I went to Self Destruct Email and sent him a few messages. One from Nigerian police, one from Internet police, one from international police, and another from the Wal-Mart security association. just for kicks.

The Wal-Mart one told him of hordes of overweight grannies storming his village in golf carts .

I also sent a threat of explosives possibly being in one of seven packages intercepted by us.

I have no idea what to with this dude just yet.

The guy is steadily sending me these emails.

Subject: ** John Milo sent you an Auction Payment with PayPal (Routing
Code:C826-L003-Q-T-S111)***
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 01:01:07 +0000
>  [image: PayPal]
>       *Protect Your Account Info*   Make sure you never provide your
> password to fraudulent websites.
>
> To safely and securely access the PayPal website or your account, open
a new
> web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the
PayPal URL
> ( https://www.paypal.com/row/) to be sure you are on the real PayPal
site.
>
> PayPal will never ask you to enter your password in an email.
>
> For more information on protecting yourself from fraud, please review
our
> Security Tips at https://www.paypal.com/row/securitytips
>     Protect Your Password  You should *never* give your PayPal
password to
> anyone, including PayPal employees.
>
>  *You've got new funds!*
> *
> * [image: Payments by PayPal]Dear truxter,
>
> John Milo  just sent you money with PayPal.
> John Milo is a *Verified Buyer.*
>  ------------------------------
>    Payment Details
>   Amount: US $300.00
>
>   Transaction ID: 5TV18003RU451511S   Subject:  Pls Shipping before
> 05/07/2008   Note: You have been paid for one
> #270250209172, Psp, 1gb & 32mb, 2 gta games, 1001
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>    Shipping Information
>
>  Address:   Name:Tunde Ogunleye
> Address:# 6 Okadigbo Street
> State:Ogun
> City :Sagamu
> COUNTRY:Nigeria
> Zip Code:23403
> Tel No:+2348063864900
>
>    Address Status:  Confirmed

Is Norton better than free?

Let’s look at a free online virus scanner compared to Norton antivirus

noton.PNG

I scanned with Norton first and found nothing, then scanned again with bit defender online free virus scanner.

what do you think is the better choice?

A-Squared

Found Riskware.PSWTool.Win32.Brutus

AntiVir

Found SPR/Brutus

ArcaVir

Found Trojan.Psw.Tool.Brutus

Avast

Found Win32:PolyCrypt-ASO

AVG Antivirus

Found nothing

BitDefender

Found Application.PWCrack.Brutus.A

ClamAV

Found Virtool.Brutus

CPsecure

Found PSWTool.W32.Brutus

Dr.Web

Found Tool.BrutusPWS

F-Prot Antivirus

Found security risk or a “backdoor” program

F-Secure Anti-Virus

Found not-a-virus:PSWTool.Win32.Brutus (6, 2, 605)

Fortinet

Found HackerTool/PWCrack

Ikarus

Found HackTool.Win32.Brutus

Kaspersky Anti-Virus

Found not-a-virus:PSWTool.Win32.Brutus

NOD32

Found Win32/PSWTool.Brutus application

Norman Virus Control

Found nothing

Panda Antivirus

Found Application/Brutus.A

Rising Antivirus

Found nothing

Sophos Antivirus

Found nothing

VirusBuster

Found nothing

VBA32

Found Win32.PSWTool.Brutus