The botnet responsible for the ongoing DDoS attacks on many U.S. Government websites is getting even uglier. According to security researchers it has been programmed to turn on the computers it’s infected and encrypt and in some cases completely erase all their data. What’s particularly disturbing is that most Korean citizens have ignored the government’s more »

Welcome to Shields Up! This weekly column will cover all things related to computer and internet security as well as staying safe as you surf the net. We’ll cover spams, scams, phishing, malware, and more.

These days the internet has grown far beyond its academic roots and become more than a source of entertainment. For most people, it is a valuable tool in their daily lives and as much of a necessity as a car or a phone. Unfortunately, as it’s grown so has cybercrime. There is a vast underground economy that thrives on stolen information.

Credit card and bank account numbers are bought and sold for big bucks. Giant botnets, made up of hundreds of thousands to millions of infected computers, are rented out to criminals who use them for everything from simple spamming to DDoS attacks and more. In countries like India and Pakistan, companies have sprung up offering to crack CAPTCHAs for a fee, and they are booming. Scammers and spammers pay them a penny for every CAPTCHA they complete, or a few dollars for every couple of hundred.

AVG announced that their Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.0 is now available for download. This free edition combines an anti-virus and anti-spyware engine to protect users machines against spyware attacks aside from the usual viruses that threaten your computer on a daily basis. The software also provides real-time searching protection with AVG’s LinkScanner technology which was incorporated into the new AVG Security Toolbar.

An English version of the Anti-virus software will be released first, to be followed by other language versions over the next few months. The software can be freely downloaded and used only on single computers which are running on Windows 2000, XP or Vista.