La Piazza

Posted by Leyre Velasco

Christmas are getting near and still so many presents to get! However, many of us are still a bit reluctant to shop online as we believe we may fall victim to some scam. Here go a few tips which will help you avoid fraud and which will help you do your online Christmas shopping safely.

What to bear in mind when shopping online

1. Only visit trusted sites. Look for pages with a professional appearance, pages from a well-known brand, sites displaying a customer service telephone number… It is very important to know who you are buying from.
2. Be wary of prize-drawings and ridiculously good offers. Read the conditions of each promotion carefully to avoid nasty surprises.
3. Pay for your purchases securely.  There are different means of payment, for example, cash on delivery, Paypal , credit card, etc.  If you don´t choose cash on delivery payment, remember that you will have to provide more information, and therefore you must be sure that the transaction will be completely safe.
4. Make sure you are on a HTTPS page: Web addresses normally start with ‘HTTP’, for example: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/downloads
   However, the pages you make online payments on must be more secure and they should start with ‘HTTPS’ As you can see in the image, the Panda Security store URL begins with HTTPS and what’s more, it has a Verisign security certificate.
5. It is advisable to have a bank account with a credit card associated with it for making online purchases. This account will contain just the money you need for this purpose, making monitoring easier.
6. Keep product warranties in a safe place. Besides handling the electronic aspect of online purchases, e-businesses must offer straightforward warranties on products bought. The Web page must contain the following information:
   • Means of payment
   • Delivery terms
   • Product warranties
   • Returns
7. If you find out that the product you receive is faulty, is different from the one you purchased or the delivery terms are not fulfilled, file a complaint through the company’s Customer Service Dept.
8. If you don’t receive any answers and you suspect there could be some kind of fraud, report it as soon as possible.
9. Finally, keep a good antivirus installed. This is your barrier against phishing, spam and other Internet threats. If you are not sure about something during the installation or update processes, don’t leave it for later. Look for the appropriate solution in the Support pages and Support forums available to you for any queries you might have, even during the holidays.

Follow these simple tips and you won’t have any surprises when it comes to doing your Christmas shopping on the Internet. The end result will be the smile of those receiving your presents.

Nothing else from my side, I’d like to wish you all very happy holidays in the company of your loved ones.

Published by eKnowledge team, December 2010

Dear readers,

Thank you all for your support during this year.

Our wish for the New Year is to keep having your priceless support in order to continue developing and enhancing the Great Community we build together day by day.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and we want to share this little present with you. Click on the image below:

With our best wishes,

The eKnowledge team

Published by Ana, December 9th, 2009

Well, well, well Santa has come to town before expected!! He has 5 wonderful Panda T-Shirts for 5 of you!! We would like to thank those of you who have participated in our fun quiz on Santa.

The question was:

Where are these Santas from? Olentzero; Gaghant Baba; Gwiazdor and Ded Moroz

And the correct answers were:

Olentzero (Basque Country), Gaghant Baba (Armenia), Gwiazdor (Poland) and Ded Moroz (Russia)

So, amongst those of you who have participated, the lucky winners are: Cyberdie, Jason, Sam, Alvaro and Marcelo R.

Congratulations!!! Santa (aka Olentzero, Ded Moroz, Gwiazdor, Gaghant Baba, etc) will deliver the present shortly!

Image source: Russia-IC

Posted by Ana

December used to be the tenth month of the Roman year, and it gets its name from the word ‘decem’, which means ten. The Anglo-Saxons called it ‘Winter monath‘, or ‘Yule monath‘ because of the custom of burning the Yule log around this time. After many Anglo-Saxons became Christians they called it ‘Heligh monath‘ or jolly month, because of the birth of Jesus.

Christmas is so called because it’s the day chosen by Christianity as the ‘birth of Christ’ (hence its name). Dec 25th is  very close to the winter solstice on Dec 21st, that is, the shortest day of the year (or the longest night, as you wish), when the North Pole (Santaaaaa…) is farthest away from the sun. This solstice was a pagan celebration, probably the most popular one, and it’s common belief that Christians chose Christmas Day on Dec 25th for this reason.

In most western countries, children (and adults too!) get their presents on Christmas Eve…to be opened up and unwrapped on Christmas Day, which is normally a family day. But in Spain and countries with Spanish influence, children get their presents on Jan 6th, the Epiphany, from the Three Wise Men or Three Kings, Gaspar, Melchor and Baltasar, who brought presents to the newborn following a star that lead them to Bethlehem. And the good thing is that they get some presents also on Dec 25th from Joulupukki or Father Christmas, Sinterklas or Kris Kringle, Bellsnickle or Père Noël. Whatever the name, Santa’s spirit is loved around the world!

The Panda Security Tech Support team also wants to celebrate this so special time with you. Therefore we will raffle 5 nice T-Shirts among those of you who can tell me where are these Santas from:

• Olentzero
• Gaghant Baba
• Gwiazdor
• Dyed Moroz

So easy

But, don’t think everything is love and friendship during X-mas time… Historically it is also the time some black hat hackers choose to send ‘their presents’… If you don’t believe me just have a look at the Panda Security Virus Enciclopedia and you will see it with your own eyes. So, once again, be careful, follow our recommendations and don’t forget to have your Panda Security solution always updated.

Enjoy December!

Posted by Blanca

Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites are inceasingly being targeted by cyber-criminals drawn to the wealth of personal information supplied by users, experts warn.

Data posted on the sites – name, date of birth, address, job details, email and phone numbers – is a windfall for hackers.

A vicious virus Koobface – “koob” being “book” in reverse – has affected thousands of Facebook and Twitter users since August 2008, said Asier Martinez, our security specialist. “Its spread has been very significant and it has been detected in 4,000 different variants,” he said.

The virus hijacks the accounts of social networking site users and sends messages steering friends to hostile sites containing malware, a malicious software often designed to infiltrate a computer system for illicit purposes.

In one of its variants, Koobface sends the victim a warning that its Flash player is outdated along with an invitation to download a new version, which is in fact the virus.

Remenber that malware can be used to steal bank account data or credit card information once installed on a personal computer.

Facebook has sought to resist attacks by Koobface and similar viruses by blocking links to hostile sites and shutting down accounts from users that show signs of infection, such as sending too many messages.  You also must be very careful with people who ask to join your friends list adding that hackers often sent requests.

Another danger of social networking sites are:

• The popular quizzes.
• Horoscopes and games made available for free to users which can sometimes be used to hide links to hostile sites.
• Birthday greetings as well as messages sent at Christmas and other holidays may also appear to come from friends when in fact they are linked directly to sites that try to convince would-be victims to reveal personal information like passwords or bank numbers.

The number of viruses detected in recent years has exploded while the profile of cyber-criminals has changed. Before it was very savvy teenagers who wanted to show off their computer skills. Now you don’t really need to know much about information technology to be a hacker, all the tools have already been created.

Now, why not sharing with me some of your experiences?