Alert: Conflicker and AntiVirus2009

There are currently 2 nasty infections going around for which we have just implemented an additional security measure to protect you from.

Conflicker is a worm. A worm travels from computer to computer and infection occurs without intervention from the user. This worm takes advantage of machines that are  not patched or systems with weak firewalls. Another way infection can occur is via an infected laptop that has been out of the office, then brought back in. Or an infected USB stick, USB drive that was used outside of the office and brought back in. Defending against internal threats is extremely difficult.

AntiVirus2009 is a malware application. It requires user interaction to be installed on your computer. The user must choose to install it. AntiVirus2009 uses social engineering and computer illiteracy to trick people into agreeing to the installation. The trick is always the same. When you visit an infected website a box will appear claiming that your computer is infected and ask your permission to “clean it”. In fact, what happens is that the AntiVirus2009 application is installed and your computer becomes unusable shortly thereafter from the sheer volume of junk that it puts on your computer. The best defense against this one, is to never click on a pop-up. Call us, if you have a question or close the browser.

To add an additional layer of defense from these threats reaching you from the outside, we’ve enable Phish (pronounced fish) filtering in OpenDNS. OpenDNS is the service that is currently providing name resolution for you when you want to visit a webpage. Phish filtering will prevent access to websites that are known to be infected. If you find that you have been prevented from accessing a particular website, please let us know so can evaluate this success of this program.

Be careful out there.