Dragan on Security

There is new poll on this blog. Question is “Which antivirus software do you use?” and possible answers are:

• Symantec
• McAfee
• Kaspersky
• F-Secure
• AVG
• Avast
• Trend Micro
• NOD32
• Other
• None

Thank you for voting.

Conficker, also known as Downup, Downandup, Conflicker, and Kido, is a computer worm that surfaced November 21st, 2008 with Conficker.A and targets the Microsoft Windows operating system. The worm exploits a known vulnerability (MS08-067) in the Windows Server service used by Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7 Beta.

To simply check if you are infected, you can use Conficker Eye Chart developed by Conficker Working Group.

If you can see all six images in both rows of the top table on Conficker Eye Chart, you are either not infected by Conficker, or you may be using a proxy server, in which case you will not be able to use this test to make an accurate determination, since Conficker will be unable to block you from viewing the AV/security sites.

I use McAfee suite on one of my computers. It has McAfee Site Advisor which should help with knowing which Web sites are safe and which are risky or dangerous. Today (April 2, 2009) I was surprised that McAfee warned me in attempt to access some of Google’s services with red mark and message:

74.125.77.132 may try to steal your information.

Why were you redirected to this page? When we visited this site, we found it may be designed to trick you into submitting your financial or personal information to online scammers. This is a serious security threat which could lead to identity theft, financial losses or other dissemination of personal information.

I checked and found that this IP address belongs to Google.

To whom to believe: Google or McAfee, interesting question isn’t it?