Security News

An InfoWorld article, Underrated computing threats that you need to know about, looks at a number of threats to your computer’s security that don’t come directly from malware. Traditionally, malware is considered to be viruses, worms, or Trojan horses, all types of malicious code that either duplicates itself (viruses and worms) or inserts code, and often executables, onto your computer (Trojan horses).

But with the rise in attacking techniques, malware writers have been looking at new ways to attack your computer. Some of these methods take advantage of vulnerabilities in software such as Adobe Flash or Acrobat, two programs that have shown a number of weakness in recent times. These are especially dangerous, because you can just visit a web site and get hit.

One common manifestation [. . .] comes when the user visits a Web site with a Flash-powered banner ad. No clicking required: as soon as the ad comes up, it delivers its payload. Sometimes it also comes in the form of one of Adobe’s other products — for example, an infected .PDF document, which opens spontaneously upon visiting an ad.

While attacks of this type are not yet targeting Macs, it is highly possible that they will in the future.

Threats also come from Firefox plug-ins, QuickTime flaws, and weaknesses in other applications. There are also risks in following short URLs, the kind used on Twitter posts, because you can’t see where they lead until you get there.

Finally, DNS poisoning is a way of hijacking routers so their DNS servers take users to bogus web sites; a highly sophisticated form of phishing.

It’s worth keeping in mind that the threats to your computer are more than just malware, and especially more than simply viruses. Because of these new threats, Intego added a whole range of new defensive features in its VirusBarrier X6. From a two-way firewall to web threat protection, VirusBarrier X6 protects Macs from network threats as well as malware.