Vonteera: Adware That Can Destroy Your Antivirus

Adware really is crappy stuff, if you think too much into it. While most of the internet-using population has come to see that advertising is partly what makes your internet use cheap and affordable (even free, if you connect over public wifi), it’s more than a little annoying to attempt reading a news article or browsing online only to have box after box popup and block the already small view.

 

There was some relief from the antivirus software companies when they started blocking adware, a tactic that actually landed a few of them in court when they were sued by adware makers. Yes, the people who make those annoying popup ads actually sued software companies for keeping their pesky ads from appearing on your screen.

Now, a new form of adware is fighting back against the antivirus companies. Called Vonteera, it can disable your antivirus software by designating the certificate as unauthorized. You still think you’re running it, you might even run an update, and your computer is going to ignore it. That’s an oversimplified explanation, but it’s the bare bones of what’s happening when Vonteera strikes.

Besides disabling certificates from a host of companies like Avast, AVG, Avira, Baidu, Bitdefender, ESET, Lavasoft,  Malwarebytes, McAfee, Panda, ThreatTrack and Trend Micro and shoving them in the Untrusted Certificates folder, there are a couple of other nasty features of this particular software. According to Henry T. Casey of TomsGuide.com, “Vonteera has a few other tricks up its sleeve: It changes shortcuts on the Windows user desktop and in the Windows taskbar, and redirects the home pages of the Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari Web browsers so that the browsers open on an ad website.”

Fortunately, the team at Malwarebytes.com has come up with a fix, even though it’s not as simple as installing an update since it involves reinstating each certificate one by one. Casey has also provided these links to correct the issue with your browser, depending on which one you’re running: “If your browser has been hijacked by adware, here are instructions to reset Chrome, Firefox, IE and Safari.”

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Yahoo Mail Blocks Users Using Adblockers

Yahoo has started to prevent some of its Yahoo-Mail users accessing their email if they use ad-blocking software in their browser.

Several hundred users in the US have encountered a message that asks them to disable their ad-blocker before being allowed to  access their Yahoo Mail.

“Please disable Ad Blocker to continue using Yahoo Mail.” 

The message some Yahoo Mail users encountered, uploaded to the Adblock plus forum

Yahoo Mail users who encountered the request from Yahoo, were unable to access their email accounts until they disabled their adblockers.

Several users though, quickly managed to find a workaround to circumvent the restrictions.

So like, why?

Well according to a Yahoo spokesman speaking to Endgadget, Yahoo were ‘testing’ a ‘new product experience.’ According to Endgadget, the test may have been targeted at a small number of Yahoo Mail users to gauge public reaction before pushing out the ‘disable adblocker’ message to all Yahoo Mail users.

Needless to say, forums such as the one on Adblock Plus, quickly filled up with complaints, and also quick and simple workarounds.

Yahoo’s future.

Yahoo is the 8^th most used email service in the world, but its user base is falling.

It lags behind Gmail, Microsoft’s Outlook, as well as the native clients on both Android and iPhone.

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The move also comes as Yahoo’s revenue from advertising also continues to fall. Yahoo relies on advertising to earn money from its Yahoo Mail service which is available to use for free.

The last set of financial figures for Yahoo were also disappointing.

Adblocking

While only 16% of desktop computers are reported to use adblocking software in the US, its use has become much more prevalent in other areas of the globe, such as Europe where ad blocking use is widespread.

Technology companies have responded in different ways, and Yahoo has not acted unilaterally.

The ‘disable adblocker’ move by Yahoo is just part of a trend that other websites dependent on revenue from online advertising are utilizing.

Websites reliant on advertising revenue are increasingly starting to lock out users who choose to use ad blockers, such as the Washington Post. Other news websites, such as the Guardian, ‘ask’ their readers to turn off their adblocker, but will still let users read their content.

In September, Apple updated its mobile operating system iOS to allow third-party ad-blockers to be installed for the first time – although they do not remove Apple’s own ads which it serves up in apps.

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Google gobble: Thanksgiving trends on Search

In just a few hours, people across the U.S. will be settling in for a day of food, family and football as they celebrate Thanksgiving. As the day of gluttony and gratitude comes closer, people have been turning to Google to plan the big meal, get cooking tips and more. Here’s a look at some of the top Turkey Day searches—for more, see Google Trends.

The reason for the season
In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, people turn to Google to learn more about the origins of the holiday and its traditions, both new and old. Top questions include “Why did the pilgrims celebrate the first Thanksgiving?” and “What president made Thanksgiving a national holiday?”

The other reason for the season
Gratitude may be in the name, but food is the centerpiece of Thanksgiving. For weeks now people have been searching for recipes to wow their relatives this Thursday, from classics like cranberry relish and mashed potatoes to turkey alternatives like lasagna and beef stew. Here’s a look at the top recipes that trend every November:

Even amongst regional variations, family eccentricities or that ambitious new recipe you clipped from a food magazine, there’s one dish that takes the casserole on Thanksgiving Day. Stuffing is the top searched Thanksgiving recipe in 49 out of 50 states, with only North Carolina standing up proud for sweet potatoes. Our take: Why not have both?

How do I…?
Even for people whose usual meal prep consists of shuffling through take-out menus, Thanksgiving is a time to roll up your sleeves and get to work in the kitchen. That—and the fact that a 20-lb poultry dish is a little harder to put on the table than, say, the ol’ blue box of mac and cheese—means it’s also a time when many turn to Google to brush up on some cooking tips. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, you’re asking all kinds of questions, from simple queries like “how to cook spaghetti squash“ and “how to boil eggs” to advanced topics like “what can I make ahead for thanksgiving?” and the very crucial, very daunting “How do you make turkey gravy?”

Let’s talk turkey
The top Thanksgiving recipe question, however, is focused on the main dish: “How to cook a turkey?” Related questions include “how much turkey do you cook per person?” (Answer: there’s math involved but the most important part is making enough for sandwiches for multiple days after), followed quickly by “How long to cook a turkey?” (answer: more math).

And though roasting is still the top trending technique method for cooking the big bird, enterprising (or efficiency-oriented) chefs across the U.S. are also searching for tips on how to smoke and deep-fry their turkeys. Proof that there’s more than one way to cook a turkey.

Whether you’ll be slicing into pumpkin or pecan pie, eating your turkey smoked, turduckened or made of tofu, serving up fresh cranberry sauce or popping open a can—we hope you have a happy Thanksgiving!

Posted by Emily Wood, Managing Editor, who is now very hungry

Emily Wood

Managing Editor

Google Blogs

QUOTE GOES HERE

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[Windows 10 Tip] Add, Remove, Rename or Change Shortcuts on the Bottom-Left of Start Menu

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J Today I'm going to share a very useful and secret trick with you all which I found today while customizing Start Menu program shortcuts in Windows 10. As you know we can customize names, icons and location of almost all program shortcuts in Start Menu/Start Screen by going to any of following folders: %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\...

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Dell Security Error Opens Door For Hackers

Dell laptop owners beware: reports of a security flaw in some self-signed digital certificates mean your laptop may be wide open for a hacker.

According to a discovery of some odd digital certificates by a reddit user (who then posted the discovery), Dell laptops–believed for now to be limited to some Inspiron and XPS series machines–could contain a security flaw that would allow hackers to manipulate a website, make it read as though it belongs to Dell, and then use the customer service features to “take over” your computer and install malicious software. These digital certificates, the ones that let your computer know that “http://amazon.com” really is Amazon, for example, and can therefore be trusted, can be altered to make your computer recognize any website as belonging to someone else. Basically, a hacker can pretend to be Dell and get to work on your machine.

You might be having a flashback to Lenovo’s Superfish scandal, but this one appears to be a simple error designed to make customer service and tech support more streamlined for users. The key difference is Lenovo actually profited off of pre-installing the consumer tracking software when they gave the info to advertisers; in this case, Dell not only doesn’t benefit by accidentally redirecting you to a malicious website or hacker, it could actually create security and PR problems for the company.

Dell has stated that they’re working on a solution and will be sending the info directly to their customers; they’re also posting instructions on their website, and other news outlets have also setup step-by-step instructions for removing the faulty certificates.

According to Paul Wagenseil, SecurityNewsDaily Managing Editor for LaptopMag.com, “IT personnel are trained to uninstall digital certificates, but it’s not so difficult to do it yourself. If you have administrative rights on a Windows PC, go to the Start menu, type in ‘certmgr.msc,’ click ‘Trusted Root Certification Authorities,’ then click ‘Certificates.’ If you have a certificate named ‘eDellRoot’ or ‘DSDTestProvider,’ right-click it, delete it, and restart the computer.”

The problem is that this error happened because Dell was trying to build a smooth support process for customers who may not be very tech savvy. If you actually need this level of customer service, you probably don’t have the skills required to remove the certificates. One expert has already weighed in and said this can be fully addressed through a basic software update, if the company releases one.

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WinRAR 5.30 (32-bit)

http://ift.tt/17v6RUU WinRAR is an archiving utility that completely supports RAR and ZIP archives and is able to unpack CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZ, ACE, UUE, BZ2, JAR, ISO, 7Z, Z archives. It consistently makes smaller archives than the competition, saving disk space and transmission costs. WinRAR offers a graphic interactive interface utilizing mouse and menus as well as...

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FlashFXP 5.2.0 build 3897

http://ift.tt/15i3COP FlashFXP is a powerful FTP client for Windows. With its intuitive and customizable user interface, Flash FXP provides the fastest and easiest way to transfer or backup files between your local computer and a remote server, or directly between two servers. In addition to FTP, FlashFXP provides additional security with SFTP (Secure Shell/SSH), FTPS ...

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