As technology and programs become more sophisticated, so do the viruses and malware that affect them. Traditional malware is transmitted as a program that users have to download onto their system. A new malware program has been developed to transmit over Facebook, and instead of infecting a system, it infects a browser, making it nearly undetectable to virus scanners.

The malware software is called LillyJade, and is available for download at underground websites. When a hacker downloads the program, they can modify it to meet their needs. They then release it as a browser plug-in (software that adds functions, e.g., the ability to automatically translate a website), to your browser. It transmits itself by sending messages to an infected user’s Facebook friends with a link encouraging them to download the plug-in.

At this time, the purpose of the malware appears to be to conduct “click fraud.” It shows fake ads on sites like Facebook, Yahoo and MSN. These ads are usually pay-per-click, which means that any time an infected user clicks on one of these fake ads, the hacker gets paid.

There are two interesting things about this program. The first is that it infects browsers, not systems. This makes it nearly undetectable to virus scanners, which scan for infected files on your computer’s hard drive. The second is that the program can be modified to run on nearly any browser regardless of the operating system.

Tips to avoid being infected Here are four tips on how to minimize the chance of being infected by malware like this.

1. Keep your browser(s) up-to-date.
2. Don’t click on suspicious links.
3. If a friend messages you with a link, encouraging you to click on it, verify with them that they sent the link.
4. Don’t install browser plug-ins, unless you’re sure they’re from a vetted source.

As with any malware threat, proper preventative measures will normally be enough to ensure that your system is safe. If you’re unsure if your system is secure, or would like to implement more robust security measures, please contact us. We have a solution for you.

Firefox is one of the most popular Web browsers available. It has become especially popular with the business crowd due to powerful add-ons that make business related browsing easier. There are a large number of useful add-ons out there, and it can sometimes be tough to see what’s best. Don’t worry, we are here to help.

At first look, Firefox is a fairly simple browser. Where it really shines though, is in the wealth of add-ons available for all users. If you were to compare different users’ browsers, it is highly doubtful they would look the same. There are some useful add-ons for small business users that can help make your life easier. Here are our top five:

Make Add-ons Compatible With New Versions of Firefox Firefox is on an aggressive update schedule. It feels like only a few weeks pass in between each new rollout, and this can pose a problem if the developers of the add-ons don’t keep their add-ons up to date. To solve this, install the Add-On Compatibility Reporter. This useful add-on will disable version checking, allowing the add-ons to continue working. If you have an add-on that won’t work, you can send a report to the developer. It is recommended that this is one of the first add-ons you install.

Speed Dial Speed Dial is an add-on that allows you to quickly access your favorite, or most visited sites. You set your bookmarks up to show via Speed Dial, which will show current thumbnails of the website. From there you can click on the thumbnail to go to the website. This is particularly useful if you have pages you visit on a regular basis and wish to navigate to them quickly.

OutWit Docs This add-on is for those managers who have a ton of documents on their computer and want to quickly find one without closing or minimizing Firefox. Think of having a version of Google for your docs - you enter a query into the search bar, and up comes the results with thumbnails so you can easily pick and open the document you were looking for.

Google Global An interesting add-on that allows you to see where your website, or any website for that matter, will show up according to the local Google page rankings. This is great for quickly viewing your presence in other regions or countries. However, this add-on will only work when on a Google search results page.

Screengrab If you are preparing a presentation or need to take a screenshot it can be a bit of a chore, especially on a Mac. With Screengrab you can take a screenshot of just the visible part of the browser or the whole page. This will save time from having to take multiple screenshots and then stitching the images together to gain one image.

These five apps are just the tip of the iceberg, there are many more on the Firefox Add-ons page. If you would like to know more about Firefox or other Web browsers, please contact us.

Security is important for all businesses, and many go to great lengths to keep their business secure from threats. Sometimes there is a security issue that you can’t control. This recently happened when Google was caught bypassing the security settings of Apple’s default browser, Safari.

As many news sources are reporting, Google was discovered to have bypassed the security settings of Apple’s default browser, Safari. If you are to believe the many news articles, what Google has done is a big issue. But what did Google actually do, and how does this affect your business?

What Did Google Do? Google was caught using software to trick Safari’s security settings into allowing third-party cookies. The cookies placed by Google were used to track users’ internet behavior with the idea of providing personalized ads targeted to the users. Google stressed that no personal data was recorded.

Why would Google do this? Safari is set up to block all third-party cookies — cookies usually used by advertisers placed on a user’s hard drive that don’t have the same URL the user is looking at. Since the majority of Google’s ad services don’t operate under the Google URL, Google needs to use third-party cookies to track users. In other browsers, when a user signs into a Google Account, third-party cookies used by Google’s ad services are automatically placed. With Safari, the cookies are automatically blocked.

To get around the established security, Google took advantage of a known loophole found in 2010 by putting a form in some pages that tricked Safari into thinking the user had agreed to let Google’s Ad services track them.

What Does this Mean to Us? In all honesty, not very much. Google has said that they are removing the forms from the websites and cookies from the browsers. Apple has said they are working to stop all third party cookies, but no updates have been released as of March 1.

What Can We Do? To ensure that third party cookies are blocked in Safari, go to:

1. Safari - Preferences, or hit “Command” + “,”
2. Select Privacy
3. Select which level of cookies you would like to block

You can also set your browser to never allow cookies. The downside to this is you will find yourself having to log into a site each time you go to it in a new window. Another strategy is to clear your cookies regularly. In the same tab you set your cookie preferences, select: Remove All Website Data

If you would like to learn more about protecting your organization, or if you have questions, please contact us.

For those of you using Google Mail or Gmail, chances are you're familiar with the "stars" feature, which serves as a visual reminder to follow up on certain messages or mark their importance. You may not know, though, that you can use different types of stars. To do so, click on the Gear icon in the upper right corner of the screen, click Mail Settings, and on the General tab look for the Stars section.

You will see many different types of stars that you can cycle through. Drag the stars between the lists that you want to use and in the order you prefer. Another neat trick is to use the name of the star to filter messages. Simply hover over the star to learn its name (i.e., "red-bang"), then use the "has" prefix to filter by star name. For example, typing "has:red-bang" in your search box will show all messages with that star name.

Did you know you can have the activity feeds/social stream or live updates from your favorite social network such as Facebook or LinkedIn appear in the latest version of Windows Live Messenger? Simply sign in to your Live Messenger account, select Add/Manager Services at the bottom right area of the application, and then choose a service you wish to integrate to (i.e., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn).

The application will ask you to sign in to the chosen service and give permission to integrate. After you have given permission, you will see updates from, and be able to post to, that social network in Live Messenger.

Do you prefer Bing over Google but like Google's sparse but fast loading page better? With this tip you can get the best of both worlds.

As users of Bing know, when you visit the home page of Bing, a page with a featured photo as the background is displayed by default, which increases the load time of the page. This can be distracting or annoying—especially if you have a slow connection. Disable this photo from loading by simply bookmarking this URL (http://www.bing.com/?rb=0). The next time you visit Bing, the photo will not appear.

Ever surfed for the number of a pizza place on your iPhone and just wanted to dial the phone number straight from the webpage? If you are using the default browser on your iPhone, which is Safari, that's no problem at all.

Safari automatically converts numbers that look like phone numbers into links. If you press those links, a popup window will appear giving you the option to call the number from there or cancel. No need to write down or even copy and paste the numbers.

If you are using Internet Explorer and Windows 7, you may have noticed that when you mouse over an IE browser window, a preview of the open tabs in the browser is shown. While this is useful to give you an idea of the sites you have open, it can get annoying if you have multiple tabs open at the same time. If you would prefer to disable this feature, you can.

Just go to Tools > Internet Options (in the upper right-hand corner of the browser) and then click on the "Settings" button in the window that pops up. In the list of Tabbed Browsing Settings, uncheck "Show previews for individual tabs in the taskbar." Click on OK and you should be good to go.

Google Chrome allows you the option to search within a specific site. First type the web address of the site you want to search in the address bar, and then press the "Tab" key.

If Google Chrome has a record of the site's search engine, you’ll be offered the option to search within that site only. Try it with sites such as LinkedIn, Bing, and Yahoo.