Siemens is warning customers of a new and highly sophisticated virus that targets the computers used to manage large-scale industrial control systems used by manufacturing and utility companies.

Siemens learned about the issue on July 14, Siemens Industry spokesman Michael Krampe said in an e-mail message Friday. “The company immediately assembled a team of experts to evaluate the situation. Siemens is taking all precautions to alert its customers to the potential risks of this virus,” he said.

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A company that provides antivirus offerings for PC users is bringing a free link checker to the Mac.

AVG Technologies plans to unveil a Mac version of AVG LinkScanner, a free download that scans Website links for potential threats. AVG says its LinkScanner application checks Web pages in real-time, posting a warning to users if the software finds a Website that could pose potential problems.

“Every single time you click on a link, any time you’re accessing information on the Internet, we scan it, looking for malware and phishing attempts,” J.R. Smith, CEO of AVG, told Macworld.

One of the few features included with AVG on my PC, that I don’t like. LinkScanner takes up too much in time and resources (on my PC anyway), so I don’t use it. Sorry, it’s the truth.

Vietnam has rejected accusations by Internet giant Google that Vietnamese computer users have been spied on and political blogs hacked into.

The US-based firm last week said infected machines had been used both to spy on their owners as well as to attack blogs containing messages of political dissent.

“These are groundless opinions,” Nguyen Phuong Nga, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told AFP.

When was the last time a hacker admitted hacking a computer? Duh.

Seattle is #1, Atlanta is 6th. Although I hardly think “malware attacks” should be part of the ranking for “cybercrime”. Most viral and malware infections occur because people aren’t watching what they are doing. So does that mean cybercrime translates, at least partially, into cyberstupidity?

Ready the Bat-Signal, Seattle: You are officially the most dangerous city in America when it comes to cybercrime. According to the folks at Symantec, anyway.

Symantec — the security company behind the Norton line of virus-protection products — has just released its list of the 50 American cities most vulnerable to cyberattacks. And it turns out being close to Bill Gates isn’t enough to keep Seattle out of the number 1 spot.

The Riskiest Online Cities
Symantec’s “Riskiest Online Cities” report ranks Seattle at the top, followed by Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Raleigh. Atlanta, Minneapolis, Denver, Austin, and Portland round out Symantec’s top 10 riskiest locations.

A Panda Security employee discovered three malware programs on a recently purchased HTC Magic phone when it was plugged it into a Windows computer.\

Upon further investigation, Panda found that the employee’s phone contained three malware programs: a client for the now-defunct Mariposa botnet, the Conficker worm as well as a password stealer for the Lineage game, said Pedro Bustamante, Panda’s senior research adviser.

There was no indication if the phone could actually make phone calls.

Some Windows PC users may hope the Energizer bunny didn’t keep going and going. It turns out the Energizer DUO USB battery charger is a vehicle for attacks on PCs, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

US-CERT researchers said Friday that the software that installs with the Energizer charger contains a Trojan horse that gives malicious hackers a back door into Windows machines.

If I told you once, I told you twice, the sighting of a pink rabbit never ends with anything nice.

A common Web programming error could give hackers a way to take over Google Buzz accounts, a security expert said Tuesday.

The flaw is a “medium-sized problem” with the Buzz for Mobile Web site, said Robert Hansen, CEO of SecTheory, who first reported the issue.

This type of Web programming error, called a cross-site scripting flaw, lets the attacker put his own scripting code into Web pages that belong to trusted Web sites such as Google.com. It is a fairly common flaw but one that can have major consequences when exploited on widely used Web sites.

Wow. Thank goodness Google is already working on a patch, right?

Tonight, I was reading about protein powders at www.proteinpowder.net because I heard they can help burn some of the fat as you are working out, but just the sheer thought of working out exhausted me so I took a break to read more news.

Remember my post two days ago, about virus makers?

In an effort to boost sales, sellers of a fake antivirus product known as Live PC Care are offering their victims live technical support.

According to researchers at Symantec, once users have installed the program, they see a screen, falsely informing them that their PC is infected with several types of malware. That’s typical of this type of program. What’s unusual, however, is the fact that the free trial version of Live PC Care includes a big yellow “online support” button.

Clicking on the button connects the victim with an agent, who will answer questions about the product via instant message.

It seems they too have found a way to make money at what they do.

I was doing some research tonight about alli weight loss and other ideas to keep myself as trim as I can be. After a couple hours I needed a break so I started looking at tech news, as usual. That’s when I was “introduced” to a nice new threat that’s out there waiting for me.

What’s worse? Taking over the world by writing viruses, or creating a company that survives because people write viruses?

Shares of McAfee Inc. jumped Friday after the maker of security software posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue.

The company’s profit, meanwhile, met Wall Street’s expectations, and McAfee’s board approved a stock buyback program of up to $500 million.

Looking ahead, the company forecast a profit of 60 cents to 64 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $500 million to $520 million for the current quarter.

Honestly, I forgot McAfee even existed. Oops.

Cyber-criminals have started preying on Verizon Wireless customers, sending out spam e-mail messages that say their accounts are over the limit and offering them a “balance checker” program to review their payments.

The e-mail messages, which look like they come from Verizon Wireless, are fakes; the balance checker is actually a malicious Trojan horse program.

Have you ever noticed the great number of attacks which strike people with email, usually from their bank? I think the banks should reward customers who don’t click on those emails with cancun vacations or something similar.

What do you think?