Once installed, the fake anti-viruses typically install other viruses and malware which is then used to steal confidential information such as bank and credit card details. Another facet of this is that the software will also try to suppress any other security software currently installed on the system, opening the floodgates for more malware to find it’s way onto the system.

The problem with this scam is that even if the user manages to safeguard their data, they have still lost out by paying for the software in the first place. This software does nothing of any use, and the money will end up with criminal gangs who make millions a year from the scheme. Fake review sites are also helping the criminals by giving a falsely positive view of the software they are trying to hawk to their unwitting victims.

Symantec is warning that up to 40 million people may have fallen foul of this scam in the last 12 months alone, a sign that things are not improving at all. The company is warning users to be ever more vigilant and to only trust known brands when buying anti-viruses and other similar applications. However, with more and more novice computer users going online all the time, and for longer periods, the chances of them being caught out are increasing too.

You’re a web user. You do your shopping and banking online, always involving your confidential financial information. Perhaps you even pay the utility bills and taxes through online services. Chances are there is an awful lot of your information circulating on the internet.

So, if someone e-mailed you, claiming to be your bank, and asked for your bank account or credit card details, would you hand them over? Picture it this way – if the same person came up to you on the street and said that they were a representative of your bank, would you give the information to them, then and there? Probably not, if you had any sense!

While people may be more savvy about this threat, they seem not to be so sharp when it comes to ‘less important’ matters such as e-mail or social networking accounts. It seems tens of thousands of people have been more than happy to provide their usernames and passwords to anyone who asks, or to put those details into questionable forms on the web. When their data gets accessed, stolen or tampered with, they all of a sudden blame the services rather than themselves. This wouldn’t be so bad if every service didn’t say something like “Never give your information to anyone, ever – we will never ask for it” when you signed up!

What you have here is a deadly combination – stupid users and high tech con artists. Users are stupid in the way that they are wary in certain areas of the internet, but not in others – while they wouldn’t give a stranger their credit card details, they will give them their e-mail account details (which more often than not contains enough confidential information to sign up for a new credit card in your name!). Meanwhile, con artists are using ever more high tech methods to get people’s information – and succeeding.

Remember this golden rule: trust no-one. If someone is asking you about your information, chances are they aren’t supposed to have access to it. So, lesson to be learned? Don’t be a stupid user – get smart.

The paint contains aluminium-iron oxide particles which absorb the signals, meaning no transmissions should find their way in, or out, of a room painted with the substance. At the moment the team is targeting a cost of around £10/kg.

However, this is just another specialisation or improvement on existing electromagnetic shielding paints which have been available for a long time. In the past, these have been designed to combat a variety of signal wavelengths, from radio transmissions to TV and even mobile phones.

Wireless LAN technology currently works in the 100GHz range, which is much higher than the ranges currently catered for with shielding paint. Possible uses in the future could include movie theatres to stop people’s phones going off during a showing, businesses who share sensitive information over wireless networks and medical facilities.

Although it is certainly expensive to redecorate, it could help bolster security in certain businesses, but it has been stressed by security experts that nothing will ever replace or remove the need for adequate encryption and other security protocols. Home users are advised to secure their home networks, especially as more and more users switch to wireless networking technology and store more sensitive information than ever on their home computers.

With the numbers of phishing attacks rising, organisers are keen to convince users that they should be suspicious of all messages from banks and other organisations, to ensure their personal data is not compromised. Of course, all banks and financial institutions already tell their customers to never divulge account information and that their staff will never ask for it, but it seems some people are still falling for some of the oldest online scams.

419 attacks, involving using someone’s identity to ask friends and acquaintances for money, are also on the rise. These attacks usually take place over social networks like Twitter and Facebook, but can also happen over instant messaging networks.

Security experts are also warning people to be ever-cautious of the information they divulge in the public domain, seeing as determined criminals can gather enough personal information over a wide spread of mediums to build up a convincing fake message with which to scam friends and relatives.

Let’s hope this initiative works out well and gives people enough information about how to avoid being scammed over the internet.

However, computer security firm Symantec are questioning the reliability of the free software. They claim that the software is missing too much functionality  and is based on outdated security methods that have already been surpassed by hackers and virus developers.

A spokesperson for Symantec said;

“From a security perspective, this Microsoft tool offers reduced defenses at a critical point in the battle against cyber crime,” going on to say; “Unique malware and social engineering tricks fly under the radar of traditional signature-based technology alone — which is what is employed by free security tools such as Microsoft’s”.

The website states that the package “provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.”

The only requirement is that users must have a genuine version of Windows, which will be etsted when you try to download the software. The application will run in the background and will automatically update itself to protect against the latest viruses and malware.

This is what led researchers to come up with a new form of protection, based on nature itself. The researchers noted that when an ant is under attack or in danger, “swarming intelligence” will kick in and pretty soon an abundance of ants will show up to overwhelm the threat. Using this same logic, the researchers have developed a form of computer security that involves sending out ‘digital ants’ that will crawl computer networks and once they spot a threat they call in for reinforcements until the danger is cleared.

The Clampi Virus can infect a computer when the user visits a website with malicious code on it, the virus will then lie in wait until the user logs on to any one of 4,500 financial websites. Once this happens the virus then grabs the login informatino, such as the password, and sends it back to the hackers.

The Clampi virus was originally discovered in 2005, but the latest strain that has been developed seems to be much more infectious for computers and is spreading at a rapid rate.

The website only asks for the ID of the account you want to gain access to, it then scrapes information like the users name and other details in an attempt to appear more legit. Then all you have to do is sed some of your own private details, along with $100 to some place in Ukraine and you’ll be able to download the username and password to access the Facebook account. Simple, yes?

Don’t fall for these scams!