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Greetings from The VACM Team,
In This September 17, 2006 Issue:
---------------------------------------------------
- Online videos secretly infecting your computer.
Which ones should you avoid? Which ones infect your PC?
You are free to forward this critical information to anyone
you wish as long as it is not modified in any way.
People wishing to subscribe to the VACM Alerts may do so at:
http://apcsnh.com/vacmsign.htm
***************************************************
* The Bottom Line...
***************************************************
Trust us... you don't want to be a victim of this.
You usually won't even know you've been had.
Here’s how it works…
You’re surfing the web, and you find a video that you really
would like to watch, (no, not one of “those” videos…
necessarily). You click the link to start the video, but
your browser or media player says that you must install
a codec or a "plug-in" or some other "thing" in order
to be able to view the video.
You click the button to allow the codec or other "thing" to be
installed. What you don't realize is that
your computer has just been infected, without any
antivirus or other bells going off.
More often than not, if the video you are trying to access
requires installation of a codec or some other "software"
to access it, and if that software is NOT one of the
"standard" web media players, like Macromedia Flash,
ShockWave, QuickTime, or Windows Media Player,
then you are most likely allowing malware to be silently
installed on your computer. And you still may never
see the video you were trying to play!
These days, serious rootKits, bots, and myriad other
spywares and malwares are silently installed on
innocent web surfers' computers by the tens of
thousands every day.
As spywares and bots evolve and become more
advanced, they are frequently not detected by your
antivirus and antispyware software. And that is why
you need to keep this info in mind when surfing the net.
As they say, "you never hear the bullet". But in this case,
you often don't see any blood, either.
***************************************************
* What You Should Do
***************************************************
So how can you tell if a codec is safe, or if it’s a rootkit or
other evil malware?
1 You can’t, unless your antivirus software recognizes it before
it installs. But, with tens of thousands of these things on the
web, there is no antivirus on the planet that will catch them all.
Once it installs, it’s invisible, so even as your antivirus updates
itself, it is probably too late… because your antivirus may never
be "able" to see it.
2. Bottom line … if you have to install a codec to watch a video
on the web… you should probably just close/cancel the window
that is asking you to allow a codec or some other "thing" to be
installed (unless it's Flash, QuickTime, Windows Media, etc.)
3. Do NOT "give up" on antivirus or antispyware software, and
do NOT let your subscriptions expire. If you do, you will be
on your way to some PC rebuild/repair costs in a hurry.
If you do not have antiSpyware software yet and would like
the #1 VACM rated product, click here to get a trial copy of
today's #1AntiSpyware Software. VACM recommends
CounterSpy not only because it protects against the
largest number of spywares, but also because it works
automatically, very much like your antivirus software works.
4. When Windows says "there are updates for your computer",
always allow them to be installed as soon as you can.
5. And, of course, if you do not have AntiVirus software on
your PC, you are lucky to be able to get to this web
page at all. If you haven't already installed
a good quality AntiVirus software such as Norton, you
should not be going online until you do so.
6. Don't rely on the Windows Firewall...
Get a top rated Firewall product (STRONGLY recommended
to further protect against spywares and viruses). Our VACM
testing and research is the reason why ZoneAlarm Pro is installed
on our PCs (and our clients' PCs). You can get your copy of
the #1 ZoneAlarm firewall by clicking here.
********************************************************
* Additional Details
********************************************************
Codec stands for compressor/ decompressor. A codec is like a
filter that a video file passes through, where it is converted
into a stream of pictures that you computer knows how to display.
In the case of "bots", allowing installation of what you thought
would make your video play might just open the back door
to your computer that will now allow some perpetrator(s) to
have complete and secret control of your system. They
can then use your computer to carry out whatever illegal
or harmful activities they want, and it will look like you are
the culprit. For one common example, if your computer
is used, via a bot, to send out spam, it will look like you
were the sender of the spam. Not good for you... or the
slowdown it will cause to your computer(s).
Best Regards,
Marc Deschenes, VACM Editor
The VACM Project at
Automated PC Solutions
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*** Be sure to check out the appendix at the end of this alert
******** APPENDIX - Handy How-To Tips ********** * How To Boot into Safe Mode Shut the computer down so that the power is off.
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