Any solutions ? This totally sucks...

"Internet security has deteriorated markedly this year as a new generation of invasive computer attacks, often masterminded by criminal gangs, has reached a heightened level of sophistication, according to the latest studies of online threats.

“It’s getting worse year after year,” warned Pat Peterson, chief security researcher at Cisco Systems, who blamed the deterioration on the fact that computer “hacking” is quickly turning into big business. “Capitalism is working against us,” he said.

In particular, computer security experts warn that so-called botnets, or networks of “slave” PCs whose owners do not know their machines have been infected, have become both more prevalent and sophisticated.

By planting a piece of software on an unguarded PC, criminals are able to assemble large networks of machines to carry out tasks for them, such as launching attacks on other internet users.

PCs that are part of botnets, some of which span 1m or more machines, have become harder to identify and root out in recent months as the rogue software has burrowed deeper into the machines, said Paul Wood, a senior analyst at MessageLabs.

Botnets have also become more dangerous as their controllers have learnt how to repurpose the slave networks to carry out different tasks, Mr Peterson said. One network that was originally used to steal users’ passwords and send out spam was given an overhaul this year so that it could attack legitimate websites, according to Cisco.

A second big new threat that has become notable this year has been the commandeering of legitimate websites and e-mail accounts to spread malicious software. Rogue software is used to scrutinise public websites and “inject” code into those that are found vulnerable, so that later visitors to the sites can be infected.

The setback for internet security follows several years in which the biggest online threats were successfully held at bay or, in some cases, pushed back. The use of the internet to exploit vulnerabilities in millions of PCs first emerged as a significant threat in 2001, after an outbreak of fast-spreading computer viruses and worms.

Those threats were largely thwarted after a concerted effort by Microsoft and other software makers to plug flaws in their code, and after anti-virus software became more widely used. A subsequent wave of spyware that emerged in the middle of this decade was also pushed back.

However, the prospect of making large amounts of money by stealing sensitive information from millions of users, such as their passwords or financial data, has led to a new and more insidious outbreak of mass internet attacks."

building the perfectly safe computer systems will require a combination of soft and hardware changes... and lets face it - Mac has not yet been the target of most of this, as Mac's simply do not number and therefore offer the biggest opportunities to either miscreants or criminals.

I am willing to predict that within two years, internet security will change - and how we interface with the internet will also become "different" - this change will be because of Legal, societal and technological shifts within our society.... that is inevitable... in short - the freedom WAS abused, and now the law is coming to the old wild west frontier of the internet....  

or at least that is how I see it.

-- Modified on 12/26/2008 2:34:53 PM

Why don't Cisco secure their router operating system first.

not as imminently dangerous as leaving a loaded gun on a park bench, but it ranks right up there.

Macs no longer immune to viruses, experts say
Apple's growing market share, new chips said making it more of a target

updated 3:15 p.m. CT, Sun., April. 30, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO - Benjamin Daines was browsing the Web when he clicked on a series of links that promised pictures of an unreleased update to his computer’s operating system.

Instead, a window opened on the screen and strange commands ran as if the machine was under the control of someone — or something — else. Daines was the victim of a computer virus.

Such headaches are hardly unusual on PCs running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows operating system. Daines, however, was using a Mac — an Apple Computer Inc. machine often touted as being immune to such risks.

Make sure your PC is protected with a quality security suite such as Norton 2009 or Zone Alarm 8.0, run virus and spyware scans weekly, and use an internet browser such as Firefox 3 or Opera rather than IE.  Make sure you set your PC for automatic updates for these products, as well as Windows.  Consider converting to Mac next time you have to replace you laptop.  Make sure your ISP has at least some level of filtering for SPAM, and learn to recognize (and be entertained by) phishing and other scams.  Be extremely careful about opening e-mail attachments, or providing any info regarding PINS, account numbers, SSN, or other sensitive info for all financially related accounts you have.  Banks and other financial institutions will NEVER ask you to confirm such info via e-mail, ever.  If in doubt, call to confirm, or better yet, show up in person.  Use the phone number they provided to you previously; never the number in the probably spurious e-mail.

In short, remember the moniker from the X-Files...trust no one.  Quality providers, and your friends, excepted of course...

I've used Norton and Zone Alarm but somehow got connected to CA, Inc. It does allot of automatic updating, but then if their research isn't any good, it doesn't matter. Have you heard much about it?

I have no experience with it, but the reviews I read were not impressive.  I currently use ZA, and have only once had something get through that caused real problems.  Norton has the highest ratings, but my experience with it a few years ago left me underwhelmed.  Same with MacAfee...

Like most of CA's software, they got it through an acquisition of another company. I forget the name of the original company but I bet a little bit of google time will reveal the origin. Their anti-virus and anti-spyware are actually quite good though I get irritated at the frequent updates that seem to occur exactly when I want to do some sort of CPU intensive work.

Then again, I also have Symantec on a couple of machines and they are just as intrusive.

After CD's response I checked on Consumer Reports and indeed CA was ranked pretty low, so I changed to McAfee, mostly due to their wi-fi protection and it was half off their normal price.

-- Modified on 12/28/2008 10:01:20 AM