Apple has also released an update to iTunes that now includes support for DRM free music. This update doesn’t have any security implications.

I like the fact that the list their software revision history, which is something every software company should do. The latest update includes some install fixes and a fix to their email scanner which had an issue with Thunderbird 2.0 using IMAP among other updates.

I haven’t decided if I should be concerned that there were three updates in such a short time frame. But for now it’s still a free antivirus program I’m comfortable recommending. You can find a link to it in the left sidebar or on my links page under “Free Security Software.”

My GMail account has stopped 440 SPAM emails in the last 30 days which is a 9% increase from last week’s 30 day total. My other website has had 378 spam comments stopped by Akismet and none made it through. The Spam Chronicles is up to four stopped Spam comments

Spam/Virus News

Yahoo news had a story about US Stae Department computer being hacked via email. The email included what seemed like a legitimate Microsoft Word attachment. But when the document was opened. The document contained code that exploited a previously unknown vulnerability witch was then reported to Microsoft. It took Microsoft 8 weeks to deliver a patch.

While Spam can be used to deliver the exploits to large numbers of PCs, Techworld is reporting an increase in targeted spam attackes to deliver exploits. This sounds like what happened to the State Department incident since they received a Word document that appeared legitimate for them (text of a speach).

Computing has an article about how spammers exploited the Virginia tech tragedy to deliver spyware which is related to the Computing News report of a increase of spam combined with social engineering.

CNET News had a couple of PC security related articles this week. The first talks about the increasing complexity of rootkits. The second talks about their improved ability to hide malicious code in a website.

Wired news has a column title “How Security Companies Sucker Us With Lemons“. It’s about how bad security products, because they can be cheap, push the good security products out of the market. People see the lower prices which lowers the price they are willing to pay which in turn pushes the good (more expensive) products out of the market. In addition to price, ease of use and setup is a critical factor. By it’s nature security tends to be more intrusive so in many cases ease of use means a lack of security. It’s easier for most people (including IT professionals who don’t specialize in security) to evaluate products on ease of use than it is on true security.

Software Updates

The following  software, which is free for personal, non-commercial use was recently updated.

Avast Antivirus has ben updated to version 4.7.986 (from 4.7.942). If you run this software it should update automatically

AntiVir Personal has been updated to version 7.00.04.13 and includes Vista support.

AVG Free Edition has been updated to version 7.5.463

If you don’t have current anti-virus and spyware protection you should check out the “Free Security Software” links in the left sidebar. Windows XP SP2 also has a built-in firewall that’s on by default. You can also check out the “Trial Security Software” section on the links page to try additional software. Several of the trials are full-featured (but time limited) so you can see if you PC has spyware or viruses and clean it if it does,