The moment you switch on your computer and connect to the online world you’re opening a door to many threats, and while installing software from companies like Symantec can help a lot it shouldn’t be left at just that for protection. You need to educate yourself on the top web security threats you’ll find online, and then build habits like seen with people learning the best practices for weight loss, so these habits become part of your daily routine.

It’s all about the habits you build – most of our readers that have tried to stay fit or loss weight know that it’s all about building these routines, which allow you to discipline yourself enough to do the right things without thinking about it. The same goes for web security and no matter what computer you buy, you’ll need to build habits by teaching yourself simple steps to take online that help you protect against infected websites, malware, and other security threats.

In the image above you can see the top-10 web security threats, and below this article we’ve embedded an image that lists each of these web threats thanks to the AVG community. You can read more in-depth information on these and the top malware threats in a report here, although it’s very clear that nearly half of all threats come from the “Blackhole Exploit Kit“, or better known as web pages that contain script code to install a range of malware.

This is one of the first steps you can take by educating yourself on the threats out there, and in most cases it’s good to access websites you trust and this is where brand recognition comes in, but it doesn’t mean you should let your guard down for any website. We found a nice guide here that some of our readers might want to read, which lists a Q&A on habits and could give needed insight if you’re new to web security.

What habits have you built for web security, and how important do you think certain habits are? Have a look at the prevalence table for top web threats below and share your thoughts in the comments. In other news for computer and website security it seems that officials feel this type of crime will “equal or surpass” terrorism in the future.

According to an article on eWeek a malicious developer managed to clone popular games on the Android market, and re-released them as free games after altering some code. Google has since removed them according to Lookout Security.

The criminals managed to create a number of titles with code to make the handset send SMS messages to premium rate numbers. Users would have been unaware their handset was sending these messages until receiving their bills, which would have been extremely high because of the SMS fees.

There were around thirteen applications available on the Android Market for just over a day before being pulled at the weekend. Even though Google acted quickly a few thousand users seem to have downloaded the malicious apps.

These included fake Angry Birds, Need for Speed: Shift, Cut the Rope, Riptide GP, Great Little War Game, Assassins Creed: Revelations, World of Goo, Shoot The Birds, Talking Tom Cat 2, Talking Larry the Bird, and Bag It. All of the fake games were being offered as free downloads.

Users in the UK, France, Germany, Poland, and Italy are among the countries thought to be affected by the fraudulent applications. Many security experts feel the requirements to become an Android developer and publish apps are too relaxed, and malicious apps will still be a problem until rules are toughened up.

We have reported before that there are a number of free security applications available for smartphones that may stop such malware getting onto your handset. Have you ever downloaded a malicious application?

Before we get started let’s quickly state a few things, firstly if you receive messages reading “Security Warning – Malicious program has been detected. Click here to protect your computer” or “Firewall Warning – Hidden file transfers to remote host has been detected” ignore them, these are fake alerts. Secondly, if you fell for the scam and entered your credit card details you should call your credit card company immediately. Thirdly, don’t panic as we will now show you how to remove this nasty infection, however we can’t take any responsibility if this doesn’t work for you (so do it at your own risk), that said you would be very unlucky if something was to go wrong.

Below we have embedded an image which shows just what this fake software looks like, so if you have seen this on your PC we can confirm that this is infact the Privacy Protection virus.

The best way of removing this infection is to use another computer to download a few files, you can then burn them to CD or copy them to a USB drive. If you have no access to another PC don’t worry just shut down the infected PC, turn it back on whilst repeatedly pressing ‘F8′ and then choosing ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ from the boot menu. If you are struggling with this step check out our previous guide.

Once booted into ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ you must now download a few tools, or preferably download these on a separate computer and copy them to CD or a Flash drive. Click on the names of the tools to download them:

- CCleaner
- Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
- RKill

The first tool to install is CCleaner, install this on the infected PC (very simple – just click next, next and continue etc) and then open the application up. Once open click ‘Run Cleaner’ which is located in the bottom right hand corner and it will clear unnecessary file build up, this may take a while, but will speed up the rest of the removal process. Now you must run RKill, this may look like it does nothing, but it does end some processes which are running in the background and stopping the infections from being removed.

The final step is to install Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware, once installed open it up and click on the update tab, here click on ‘Check for Updates’ and the latest definitions will be installed. Now click on the scanner tab, click ‘Perform Full Scan’ and then select ‘Scan’ MBAM will now scan your entire PC for infections, this may take a while. When the scan finished click ‘OK’ to see the results and then click remove selected – this will remove the infections from your PC and force your PC to reboot.

Once your PC starts back up you should no longer see any signs of the Privacy Protection virus, you should now ensure that you have antivirus protection installed and all of the latest Windows Updates downloaded. Microsoft Security Essentials is great for Windows Vista and Windows 7 and it’s free! Download it here.

Did this guide help you?

There is still cause for concern though, as the virus managed to infiltrate ground control systems, which are used to supple backup power, workstations and also environmental controls. However, NPR said that that’s not the worst of it; the common malware also studied user keystrokes to try and gather password details.

You may wonder what the virus has to do with the game mentioned above, well it seems as though it could originate from those who play the games like Mafia Wars. One would assume that these kinds of things could never happen, but when computer systems are involved anything can happen – no matter how tight you think that your firewall is.

The common malware in question is called Key Logger, and does what it says, logs a user’s keystrokes. If this kind of information were obtained by outside sources, then the consequences would be unimaginable, as they could even take control of a drone; just remember that many of these are armed and could cause a huge amount of devastation.

We expect that Air Force officials are now drilling those who were in control of these drones, and to ask why they had been playing games like Mafia Wars on the same system.

There is no love lost between fans of either mobile OS, so you can imagine how much fun iOS users are having knowing that they have been untouched by this issue yet again. Looking at the “New Mobile Malware This Quarter” pie chart (thanks to McAfee) we can see that Android is the platform most affected by this issue, with Java ME and Symbian following in second and third – although nowhere near as bad.

AppleInsider notes that Android was in third position in the first quarter, so shows that they have seen an increase in attacks. There have been 44 cases of attacks against Google’s mobile platform with Java ME just having 14. Android users are now being warned that they should start to be more aware of their behavior on these mobile devices like they are on their home computers – although they do offer greater protection.

iPhone and iPad owners should not get too complacent though, as they will not be unaffected from malware indefinitely – you only have to look at Mac OS and the recent MacDefender issue to understand just what we mean. iOS was not the only platform to escape attack, webOS was as well. This news will not do much to please webOS users, as they now fear that HP will not longer offer them support due to the fact that they are now discontinuing all new devices running on the mobile OS.

The update is said to be with us in “the coming days” and will locate and remove Mac Defender malware, along with any other variants. 9 to 5 Mac says that the update will also come with a warning for those who download the malware. These have been worrying times for Mac users; we just hope that this will resolve the issue once and for all.

For those who have already downloaded the malware, then there is a solution. All you need do is go to your downloads folder then find the suspect file and drag it to the trash. However, if you have installed it, then make certain that you have not provided any personal details, such as credit card numbers etc.

The first step is to move or close the Scan Window, you then need to go to the Utilities folder, which is in the Applications folder. Once there you then need to launch the Activity Monitor. This is a bit of a drawn out process, so you had best visit Apple Support for the full instructions.

Have you been affected by the current Mac OS X malware issue, if so did you install MacDefender willingly?