Symantec has released hotfixes for PCAnywhere to protect against known vulnerabilities in the software. Symantec says that these patches will help protect against the security breach they had earlier when their source code was stolen by hackers. Symantec recommends that any users of any version of PCAnywhere apply the patches.  The patches are located here:  http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH179526 . These patches should help secure PCAnywere, but it should be noted that other unkown vulnerabilities may still be discovered by hackers using the stolen source code.

Symantec, the company that makes PC Anywhere and numerous security programs, would like you to disable its own software.  Source code for PC Anywhere, was apparently stolen, allowing hackers to quickly find vulnerabilities in the software.  These vulnerabilities could allow hackers to take over the system and gain access to the entire network.  As a safety measure, Symantec suggests that you disable PC Anywhere until patches can be released. The stolen code is said to be 6 years old and shouldn’t affect any other Symantec products.

It used to be that viruses were all about annoying popups or deleting important windows files, or redirecting all your searches to porn sites. Not anymore. Virus makers have grown up, and these days, it’s all about the money.

Take the new “SpyEye” Trojan that an Israeli based Security firm Trusteer found a few weeks ago. This sneaky little virus will wait for you to log into your bank webpage, then steals your credentials. It tricks you into giving it your debit card information, and hijacks your account. Pretty standard for a financial virus so far, right? Here’s where it gets real scary.

SpyEye uses advanced track covering techniques. First, it monitors all the transactions the criminal makes, then it changes the characters on the infected machine to erase all evidence of the transaction, giving the criminal time to push the money to his own ends, and the consumer has no idea. The virus doesn’t actually change the bank systems, just what is displayed on the infected machine’s web browser, meaning the only person who would know about the attack is the consumer if he happened to check his balance at an uninfected machine, or at an ATM.

The virus’ evidence wiping is “a very scary tactic,” said Avivah Litan, a financial fraud analyst at consulting firm Gartner. “Everybody thinks all they have to do is check their transactions and their balances. That’s not true anymore.” He goes on to say how important it is for consumers to report virus attempts and infections, as they’re still a staple in following the latest hacking trends.

“Most banks let the first transaction through, because if they stopped everything that was potentially fraud, consumers would get annoyed,” she said. In most cases this lets the criminals get their one important transaction through, and they usually only steal from an account once.

Evidence covering techniques have been used by viruses in the past. A simpler version of the virus helped criminals stay undetected with the same web interception trick, but this Trojan has a better potential for success, because it involved third party debit card used and multiple banks and multiple security systems.

Basically, if you have financial malware on your computer, it’s game over. Regular virus screenings will help combat this, as stopping the virus before it strikes is the most effective way to deal with fraud in the first place.