PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
In light of the growing number of malicious spam attacks which often result in ID theft and financial loss, security software firm McAfee has constructed a top ten list of the most common phishing attacks that occurred during February.
The top ten phishing scams are listed as:
1. Paypal Member
2. Dear Paypal Member
3. Paypal Notification
4. Attention Paypal Member
5. Paypal Member Notification
6. Update your account
7. Fifth Third Bank – urgent notification from Protection Department!
8. Important information for Fifth Third Bank customers!
9. Important Banking Mail
10. Fifth Third Bank: please read this message
McAfee has also identified the most widespread viruses infecting PCs in Europe.
Of the 671,654 PCs scanned, 8.59 per cent were infected with VBS/Psyme, 6.48 per cent with JS/Wonka and 3.98 per cent with Winfixer.
VBS/Psyme is a Trojan which was recently detected on a major Korean website which is believed to have been subjected to unauthorised modifications. It causes unpatched Internet Explorer clients to download and execute further malware.
JS/Wonka is another Trojan which may be used as a means to load other malicious scripts, while Indications of infection can vary.
Winfixer is a program which is detected as a "potentially unwanted program." It claims to be a system repair/maintenance application, but requires paid registration before any issues found can be fixed. The primary function of the free version appears to be to alarm the user into paying for registration, at least partially based on false or erroneous detections.
