Pirate Bay Get’s bought by Warner Bro’s –(April Fools???)

Torrent Freak just released this information:

In the press release, both groups gave a positive outlook to the deal. “The Pirate Bay team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Warner Bros’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Jim Kjeyzer, Chief Executive Officer of Warner Bros.”

This probably won’t go well with the Pirate Bay users because of the fact that most of them liked the idea of having a place to hide and not be monitored. What will people do now?

As for some this seems to be an April Fools Joke, I think it might be but I am unsure as how real this is. I will keep up to date on this situation and find out for sure. We should know something April 1, 2009 4:30pm EST. I will have more information to follow. Do you think this is a Joke or Do you think this Real? I will let the readers decided!!

*Update 4/1/09 at 8 pm EST

Looks like it was an very good april fools joke.  I haven’t seen any press releases and Piratebay changes the homepage back to normal.  I’m going to conclude that it didn’t happen.  I thought it might be but wasn’t sure.

Mac Users aren’t Immune, so stop broadcasting “You’re glad you have a MAC”

With the Conficker going on right now, I am seeing more and more Tweets about Mac and

Now I might not know a lot but this type of Smug confidence will be the downfall of the Mac’s in the coming years.  I have to ask do you not expect to get a virus at ALL?    You see when a company like Apple starts to get above a certain degree in the eyes of the hackers.  They will become a target, not a big target but a target.

In one of my post I talk about Mac’s and Botnet, you should really read it.  It talks about why Apple will become the next fail whale.    Some other Articles to Consider are:

• Not A MacCinema Installer — (Pub 3/31/09) (F-secure)
• New Malware Cracks Macs — (Pub 3/28/09) (TrendLab Maleware Blog)
• Yahoo Question about a Mac Virus –  (Pub 3/28/09) (Yahoo Answers)
• Mac malware authors still plugging away — (Pub 3/23/09)  (Sopho’s Blog)

And So I went into Google to see the trends for “Mac Virus” and Here is what I seen:

Just Google Conficker and you’d be surprise

Countdown to March First is on it’s way or already depending on your location and People have been sending tweets about the 60 Minutes coverage of the Conficker:

As you can tell over the last week Google trends is showing a mountain of people looking for this information.  I am so glad the media has talked about this but it has mad a hysteria or frenzy of people trying to find information on this little worm or some are calling a virus.

Now I must remind you that Conficker.a, Conflicker.B, Conficker.C, and Conficker.D are the only worms or viruses out there and that you should really protect yourself from every virus because there are more viruses or worms out there than this one.

There are several Free Anti-virus options Available:

• Clamwin — I’ve been trying this one out over the past month and it seems to work just as good as the others.
• Avast Home Edition — AVG does better than this one but people seem to like this so I have to add this for people who like this better than the others.

Conficker Discussion Part 2 – Even more stuff to talk about

We’ve heard in the coming days there will be an update for the Conficker.C Worm and Microsoft has Released even more information about it: For Instance:

Win32/Conficker.C is a worm that infects other computers across a network by exploiting a vulnerability in the Windows Server service (SVCHOST.EXE). If the vulnerability is successfully exploited, it could allow remote code execution when file sharing is enabled. It may also spread via removable drives and weak administrator passwords. It disables several important system services and security products.(was reported to Microsoft on February 20, 2009.)

Win32/Conficker.D is a variant of Win32/Conficker. Conficker.D infects the local computer, terminates services, blocks access to numerous security related Web sites and downloads arbitrary code. Conficker.D can relay command instructions to other Conficker.D infected computers via built-in peer-to-peer (P2P) communication. This variant does not spread to removable drives or shared folders across a network (as with previous variants). Conficker.D is installed by previous variants of Win32/Conficker. (was reported to Microsoft on March 4, 2009.)

As you can tell, this seems to be two different Variants starting to emerge.  Now let’s go a little bit more deeper shall we.  According to US-CERT(United States – Computer Emergency Readiness Team) , They claim that this is Widespread infection and have posted about it on there website TA09-088A.

Hotmail accounts get compromised!!

I received an email on a list and wanted to warn people:

Dear friend,
i would like to introduce a good company who trades mainly in electornic products. Now the company is under sales promotion, all the products are sold nearly at its cost. They provide the best service to customers,they provide you with original products of good quality,and what is more,the price is a surprising happiness to you! It is realy a good chance for shopping.just grasp the opportunity,Now or never!
The web address: http://www.nekcn.com

Seems this is being sent from Hotmail accounts. There are a number of ways someone could be getting a hold of your email address. According to Microsoft forums this seems to delete your email contacts and also send out this in the same time. This seems to be a new spam campaign for this one company. I would guess someone bought advertising from this company and the advertiser is doing some really unmoral things.

Setting the Record straight with Twitter and Cricket phones

I found this video online and thought I would post it:

Samsung u340 - Refurb is now only $29.99 after $30 online discount at Cricket. Buy one today with no long term contract or credit check. Free shipping on all online orders. while supplies last.
As you can tell you won’t be able to use Twitter with Cricket phones but they are working on it. I however have been use A600 Broadband Modem with Twitter without a problem. I have been using Tweetdeck as my platform of choice to use Twitter.

Although you can use the web based version Twitter, you won’t be able to SMS with Twitter just yet. I do hope they fix this really quickly, because I’d like to be able to use my phone to receive important updates.  I expect them to fix this in  the coming months when they bring out some new phones.  Recently Cricket has let out the Smart Phones, with the Email capabilities.   These phones, that have the email capabilities, can be used in conjunction with Twitter.  I talk about ways to use the newest phones to connect them with Twitter.

Windows 7 Beta Second RC to be released in May

According to Arstechnica, the Next version of Windows 7 Beta will be Released In May.

It looks like someone flipped the switch a little early. The Windows 7 Release Candidate download page on TechNet has made a premature appearance, much like the beta download page did before the beta was released to the public. The public RC will apparently be coming in May 2009, and not in April as previously rumored. The RC testing program will be available at least through June 2009, and the actual build will expire June 1, 2010. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions will be available in English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish.
[Via windows-7-rc-download-page-goes-up-early-coming-in-may.ars">Arstechnica]

It will be available soon to download. According to Ars this will be good until 2010, I am guessing around February or March but that is just speculation on my part.

Remember:

• This is a Beta and when it is over you won’t be able to use the OS anymore
• This isn’t the complete OS, Knowing Microsoft this will be limited in some way to encourage your to buy the full version down the road.  Also they want to have some features for only Commercial Release.
• There will always be security holes when it comes to Windows 7 so don’t use it exclusively, since this is a beta.  Microsoft will not keep it up to date until it goes Commercial!

I did a podcast on this OS and if you want to hear the two discussion we talk:

1. Mike Tech Show Listener Round Table Topic:  Symantec issue, Security, Web Hosting, Windows 7 Beta
2. Mike Tech Show Listener Round Table Topic:  Windows 7 Beta

What will happen on April 1? Conficker discussion!

I saw that F-secure has posted what a Question and Answer on the Conficker Worm.  I wanted to talk about this a little myself:

Q: I heard something really bad is going to happen on the Internet on April 1st! Will it?
A: No, not really.

Q: Seriously, the Conficker worm is going to do something bad on April 1st, right?
A: The Conficker aka Downadup worm is going to change it’s operation a bit, but that’s unlikely to cause anything visible on April 1st.

[Via F-secure Website]

I am like everyone else, I really don’t know what will happen it is always going t to be media exposure when it comes to Worms, Viruses, or Trojans.  Virus Writers whoever “THEY” are, will always want to update there infected systems to keep the virus(Also worms, and Trojans) on peoples systems.   This is the way of security firms will always have to predict them, keep up with them, or just follow them.  This will never  change because as virus writers want to find even more ways to infect systems that is the necessity of Anti-virus Software.

I don’t know what will happen on April 1, you most likely will be fine if not you won’t know it until you try to update your system or update your anti-virus software.  One way you can find out if your infected is by trying to serf to security vendors like F-secure, Norton, and Kasperky.  If you Can’t get to those sites then you most likely have a Virus or Worm, and it could be this worm!!

1. Make the worm harder to detect — This is a common practice they want to be able to hide the worm for as long a possible.  So they will always tweak it to make it that much hard to detect and remove.

The April fools Joke, You’ve got a computer worm!

Cluely’s blog talks about this and I thought I would talk about it a little myself!!

This is the newest version of the Conflicker/Downadup variant of the little worm.  There seems to be people who are worried that April 1, there will be a major wake up in security no holds bar problems.

Some people have got rather confused as to what the April 1st deadline really means. The truth is that Conficker is not set to activate a specific payload on April 1st. Rather, on April 1st Conficker will begin to attempt to contact the 50,000-a-day potential call-home web servers from which it may receive updates.

[Via Graham's Cluely Blog]

Now let’s talk about this a little, this worm won’t do anything else but ask for updates on April 1, and we don’t know when the virus writers will implement the update it could be a month down the line.  You could Backup your software and use the free program Autopatcher to help make sure your system is completely up to date with windows security.  You can’t forward the to that date to find out what will it call home to.    We don’t know what it will do when they update to the conficker.c program all we know it starts to try to call to certain domains on April 1, 2009.  So you should install Anti-virus and Firewalls where you think it is needed.

The Seriousness of the Twitter Vulnerability?

The main question is how much do you want to know about this?  Yes I am talking about a Vulnerability that could risk your twitter account or even yet inject malious software into the computer.

We’ve seen that there have been twitter phishing in the past, and Facebook phishing have made people wonder out much do we depend on Twitter.

Lance James and Eric Wastl have provide Proof of Concept for this vulnerability, according to Information Weekly:

James cautions that XSS vulnerabilities should be taken seriously because they can reach beyond Web pages. “A lot of people think XSS is limited to the Web,” he said. If there’s another vulnerability in the victim’s browser, the Twitter flaw could be used to launch additional malicious code, he explained.

As you can see there is more to this problem then meets the eye.  For one using the URL redirects could be one way this could be used.  No telling what other vulnerabilities lay for the client side twitter programs.   Twitter has a long way to go to be security minded, and yet Twitter hasn’t said what they will do to fix this problem.

New spam Campaign — Casino Anyone?

Looks like there is a new Campaign going on with regards to having VIP access.

So I go to the site:

I decide to have a little fun and download the file.  The Filename is “Smartdownload.exe“.  Now you shouldn’t install any software or programs from sites you don’t know about or have any idea of what changes are going to be made.  I use CWSandbox to better understand this file.  Here are a few thinks I’ve found:

• This program connects to three different IP’s [Your broadband Modem,200.122.168.237, and 212.201.100.136]
• It also Changes your Autoexec.bat file.  (Not good)
• Changes access flags on several different program (not good either)
• It also tries to be Anonymous.  If you checks the logs out your self you will find it very interesting.
• It looks like it connects to the servers every time you boot up!! (Not good either)

Onlive? Could that be the downfall of Unlimited Internet?

As most of read from Engadget, Cnet, and IGN, this is the the beginning to the end for unlimited internet access.  As you know

according to Wikipedia, there is 8.9 Million at least having XBOX 360 and according to Engadget there are 71% have DSL speeds, so that would be a possible 5.6 million I am guessing. Just on one Console, I could go through each console and see but I know it is a big number. It could out sell all these other consoles really quickly.

Now we have had console wars for some time and this might or might not work depending on the streaming of Onlive and also the FPS(Frames Per Second).  If they don’t do it right, this will never catch on and if they do it right which they might I see there will become a scenario where the ISP will want to regulate bandwidth.  Time Warner has been looking into for some time.  IF enough people buy this and use the service then all the ISP will have more reasons to regulate bandwidth.  So is this the downfall of Unlimited Internet Access?  All these kids wanting to play the most recent games, who knows how this will work out but this will be a bandwidth issue in the coming months as we see who wants to use this.  If Onlive sells these for $99 then I see it becoming the winner, I’d also like to see unlimited subscriptions like Netflix but We will have to wait and see!!

Apple get scammed out of 9,000 Ipods

This is an unusual report, Apple return policy seems to be flawed.

Apple replaces faulty iPods automatically once the serial number of the device has been given. If the customer does not return the faulty device then the company charges their credit card for the replacement cost.

[Via VNUNET]

It seems even Apple didn’t even notice the high amount of returns from a single user.  It just proves that there are more and more.  Some things Apple will like do is change the return policy and come up with more stricter return policies.  Although if this doesn’t show how scammers are trying to make money because of the recession.  Apple has a long road ahead of it to be security minded.

Are You and Your Friends Fine — Virus Spam

Logged into my Google Email and was checking my spam to see what I see and this one draws my attention:

I think I know where this is leading me but I click the link and this website with the Reuters logo pops up:

Now as you can tell this looks authentic but when I did go to this site, AVG detected some trojan.  It blocked it, but  the file that it is downloaded called “save.exe” and I have talked about flash player fake updates.  I have seen other blogs talking about dirty bomb news report leads to malware.  I don’t know about you but if I wanted to update my flash player, I go to the source and not use any links.  It is wise not to download any programs or files and run them without properly checking them out for viruses and Trojans.  You should have a firewall and anti-virus running at all times and that will help but it is your actions that help your prevent from getting viruses or Trojans.

Offline Affiliate advertising!

Affiliate advertising can be done in multitude of ways, from Google Searching to word of mouth on the Internet. If you have something you want to sell sometimes the best way to sell it is Word of Mouth, see Technibbles article about Word of Mouth.

I am very happy with the A600 Cricket Modem, and I have been taking it everywhere I go. I from time to time get asked what I have around my neck. I put the Modem on a lanyard and have been having people ask about it. This is a very good tactic to sell products online.  This is a great way for people to come to you and ask what that is?  I’ve had a lot of people in my area as I am fixing there computers or even walking around my local shopping areas to ask what is that I have on my neck.

That is where this card comes  into play:

As you can see this is very useful, but I made it one card.  From is the price and where they can buy it and the other is my review on my website.  I use Bit.ly website to track who goes there.  They can track how many people go there.  I signed up for that part.

Updater.exe can’t be found Troubleshooting

So you wroke up with this problem, of can’t find the program called updater.exe or it tries to access the internet.  Here are some things you should check out to make sure it isn’t a virus:

• Hijackthis –  This will help determine if a virus changed the program.   You would need to check to see where this so called Updater is by search for it.
• Firewall and Anti-virus Software –  You should check to see if you have the updates for that or if you don’t you should have them installed.
• Do an online scan — This might also reveal if there is a virus or not.

It is most likely a Windows function but you should be cautious when things like this happen and you should check to make sure it is what it says it is.  Some people from WOW have had this problem in the past.  So it could just be a program that didn’t update the right way or a Trojan or Virus.  You should use Autopatcher to patch your system to  be sure it is up to date.  Remember if the system isn’t patched that gives the Virus people a chance to install malware into your system and you know you don’t want that.

Extended Review : A600 Cricket modem

So I recently went around town with this the A600 and wanted to provide some insightful outcomes.  I used Speedtest.net like I did before and the results are:

Understanding the speeds.

As you can tell I was getting some really good speeds from this test.  It seems with the added length of the modem has also added a better antenna to the USB Modem.   Although you have to be cautious about where you go and the coverage area. Please mak sur you are in the Cricket Coverage area I’ve been looking for a way to get an extender for the modem, but have not found a hole for it. So that might be out of possibilities.

What are some possible uses of this modem.

It having the capability to have an Micro SD card, There is a lot of potential for multiple uses of the modem.   In one of my other posts about Backing up, I talked about some of the more common programs you could use to keep your passwords on you from time to time.  I wanted to add on some other programs that might be useful for the person on the go who might work on computers:

Free Syncronization and Backup programs

So I talked about finding some free backup utilities on the Mike Tech Show Listener Roundtable Show # 234.

I said I would publish some good free ones programs to backup your system files and I think I have done it.  Here’s are some great ones that I recommend for anyone who doesn’t want to pay for a backup program:

Allway Sync –  Works with Windows Vista/XP.  It supports : Hard Drives, Removable Hard Drives, Network Drives, Amazon S3, FTP Server, Offsitebox.com, and WEBDAV Folder.  This program is also quite portable and can be used on more than one computer with the portable version.(A600 USB Broadband Modem for Free after Instant online web only rebate + Mail in rebate. First month free and free shipping. Buy now!)

ViceVersa — Windows 98, Me, 2000, XP, Vista. Vice Verse FREE will compare files in two folders (source and target) and synchronize file differences.  There isn’t much else you can do with this but It does look to be good for small backups and older system.

Acebackups — is a powerful tool to create completely secure backups of your data. Store your data on any local storage device, on CD, DVD or on your remote FTP server!

ABC makes fun of fans with the ending of Kyle XY!

ABC Family must be loving the backlash of people complaining

about the Cliffhanger they left for Season 3 Episode 10 of Kyle XY “Bringing Down the House”. After seeing it there is to much left unsaid, what happens to Amanda and What about Josh and Andy?

It is deplorable the way they left it so many things in the air and yet gave the Secret Life more money to play with. Giving teenagers the idea that it is great to get pregnant and be like the Secret life, I love the morals of the company. If you want to see what people are saying just go to there forums. I am sure I am not the only one who is upset over the way they left this series. I am sure they ran out of money but could of at least picked it up to end it properly but they thought the fans wouldn’t know.

Well according to my screen shots they aren’t happy in the least:

Dark Side of Adsense

As many of you know, I’ve wrote a blog postabout Adsense for Begginers.  I wrote this to try to make people see that Adsense isn’t all that bad.  I wanted to expand on this and talk about the Dark Side of Adsense.

AdSense is an advertisement application run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and more recently, video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering (also owned by Google)

[Via Wikipedia]

Now we know that Google uses what we like to call a Per Click payment plan, that is to say on occasion you get paid for ratio of page views.  It can be 0.05$ or more, I don’t know how they figure it out but I do know there is more to this than what you see behind the Adsense.

I went on a journey to find out about Adsense and I stumbled across this post about Adsense Fraud.  I wanted to add to this by talking about why people are would do this even more.

Malicious Spammers target Bank of America

I’ve saw two different security firms talking about Bank of America and I wanted to share with you:

Picture from F-secure

The two sites are F-secure and Pandalabs who are talking about Bank of America and how they try to get you to install malware.  With Adobe having just sent out the new updates last month it looks like spammers are using this to get people to install Malware.

It is also been known to be floating around in Facebook this spam.  So if you get a link going to a site you don’t know about to see a video and it says you need a codec or the Adobe update you should turn right around and leave site. You should always type in the url of Your Bank and not go there through links.

From what they are saying it monitors Network traffic and Steals ICQ, POP3, and IMAP passwords.  If you find network traffic going to Hong Kong IP, then it is time to check to make sure all your Virus definitions are up to date and you’ve installed an Anti-virus and Firewall.  I would encourage  users to report it to Phishtank so that any other unsuspecting user or person going to that site will be warned.

Reviewing Cricket Samsung U340

(Samsung u340 - Refurb is now only $29.99 after $30 online discount at Cricket. Buy one today with no long term contract or credit check. Free shipping on all online orders. while supplies last. Buy it now)

Phone Features
Camera Phone	Yes (VGA)
Headset Jack	Yes (2.5mm)
Vibrate Alert	Yes
Ringtones Included	Yes
Downloadable Ringtones	Yes
Speakerphone	Yes
Downloadable Games/Applications	Yes
Internal Storage	Yes
Contact Directory	Yes
Voice-Activated dialing	Yes
Predictive Text-Input	Yes
Data Browse Feature	Yes
Preloaded Wallpaper	Yes
Productivity Tools	Yes (Calendar, Alarm, Calculator)

Physical Characteristics
Size	Clamshell
Dimensions (H x W x D)	3.6″ x 1.84″ x 0.9″
Weight (w/standard battery)	3.49 oz
Antenna Type	Internal
Colors	Blue
External Display	96×96 pixels, Grey
Internal Display	65K Color TFT, 128×160 pixels
Battery
Battery Type	Lithium Ion
Talk Time	Up to 204 minutes
Standby Time	Up to 270 hours

Is Google the ultimate news source?

As you know We had a big problem Monday Night and All day Tuesday. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would of noticed either a 503 or lag. It was due to an article that I released late Monday night about the PIFTS.EXE and the so call conspiracy.

At the time, I was wondering and quite disturbed about what Norton Symantec was doing to the forums. So I blogged about this and wouldn’t you know my site was Held Hostage by Google. I kid you not, I had so many people come to my site in under an hour it wasn’t even funny.

So I sit here, asking a really good question is Google the News? I don’t know exactly when but according to Wikipedia Google was formed in 1998. The Google Motto is Don’t Be Evil, and I guess it makes them look like a news source. When did they get past the news site? I would hazard a guess that it was in late 2004 they started when they when Google gave people the first chance to own the stock on August 19, 2004, when Google became a publicly held company.

I got hit hard by Slashdot, Reddit.com, and Google.  In truthfulness, It was more of searches and people coming from Google than anywhere else. I would say Google was the 90% and and Slashdot and Redidit was 8% and the rest was from other websites for this one article. Now don’t get me wrong the 2% of people was my normal amount of people for the day. So you can imagine how many people actually came to my site over this fiasco.

Spam email : Patients can access our chemist via the Internet 24/7

In today time Spammers are really trying to get people to open emails.  I was checking my spam folder making sure I didn’t have anything in there that shouldn’t be when I saw this email.  I was curious like everyone else who see’s this message, because why would yu need a chemist?  So for fun I open it up and find the message.

For instants:

The Link leads me to this:

Now I know some people are needed these types of pills to keep the Mojo going, but I must warn people that these sites are dangerous.  Just like this email the spammer used something so unusal and still kept the truth in the header.   I’m not sure I’d want to buy anything from Russland, Or Sosonovy Bor.

I will tell you this, from my own experience with these types of drugs, you must be careful what you prescriptions you take.  One drug can interact with another drug and make you sick or possible even kill you.   That is why it is so important to see your doctor and get the right medication for you needs.  These mojo drugs can increase blood pressure or have some side effect that you can’t handle or tolerate.  So when these spammers want you to buy Cialis or Vigra, I encourage you not to.  You will be far better off going to your doctor and getting the right presicription then buy these over the internet.  Who knows if they are this shady with emails, would you trust them with your credit card?  I wouldn’t, that is for sure.

Thinking back to PIFTS.EXE.

Thinking to this very incident looks to something out of the movie “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events“.  I won’t go into much detail but here is what I want answers to about the PIFTS.EXE.  You see after I have read a great article talking in detail about this, I have also come to the conclusion something isn’t right.

The blog owner known as Anshar in the forums on the Symantec points out some key events. He wanted to point out that the users who were posting were not violating the TOS and was posting questions that look to asking about this file. See screen capture of what I took. This one picture doesn’t prove his theory in whole, but does bring up some suspicions. This actually might be them trying to find a ’scapegoat’ so to speak. He also talks about what others are asking? What is PIFTS.EXE? People seem to still have not be answered that question.

Although, in Norton’s defense there seems to be a lot of information that they have to sort through. I’ll admit this information people are asking should be really simple to find in the Symantec Databases somewhere. I will not say they are hiding anything major but I do think something is going on that we are not aware of. Here’s some other thoughts to considers? If Norton needed to find out who was using Windows 7, couldn’t they of asked or even made a simple site redirect to find that information, after all anytime you visit a site you have that information sent to the stats. I could in theory find out how many visitors are visiting from Macs and how many are on older systems. That would be very easy to do with Google Analytics.

Let’s Clear this up — PIFTS.EXE

I just wanted to clear up some things about PIFTS.EXE.  I read a Most Interesting Article about this over at Bleeping Computers.  He talks about how tested this on his system and I’ll quote:

After reading about this file here and here, I asked around on BleepingComputer.com for one of our users to submit a sample of the file to me. Once I received the file, I ran it on a test box while running a file monitor, to see what it accesses, and Wireshark, to see what it does on the network. What I found was that the program appears to be quite innocent, and from the hostname it connects to, we could have guessed as to what it does. It appears that when you update Norton it connects to stats.norton.com and lets the server know someone has installed an update, what the update was, what program it was for, and whether it was successful. Now, I am not saying that Norton should be contacting one of their servers and reporting this type of information without a user’s permission or even knowledge, but there is no conspiracy theory between Norton, Google, Microsoft, African Nations, and little green men.

Fake Scareware Sites Popup after the Pifts.EXE Conspiracy

There Seems to Be a Fake site that are popping up today right after what happened with PIFTS.EXE. I just happen to Google it to see what people are talking about and this appears on the front page.

As you can see this leads to a server in Poland and once you go to it you see:

I will be reporting this to Phishtank. This is scareware which means  there is no real VIRUS because and you
Should never believe the screens when you see something like this. According to Wikipedia:

Some websites display pop-up advertisement windows or banners with text such as: “Your computer may be infected with harmful spyware programs. Immediate removal may be required. To scan, click ‘Yes’ below.” These websites go as far as saying that a user’s job, career, or marriage would be at risk. Products using advertisements such as these are often considered scareware. serious scareware applications qualify as Rogue software.
[Via Wikipedia]

Conspiracy theories run rampent due to PIFTS.EXE

(Looks like some of this was a 4chan gag, check my other post about it)

All of the sudden people around the World are seeing PIFTS.EXE popping up. Norton Antivirus is asking users if they want to accept it. Here what I do know:

Here’s some information I pulled from my Zone Alarm Logs. Does this make sense to anyone?

2009/03/09 18:26:44 — New Program — PIFTS.exe — Destination IP: 67.134.208.160:80 — outgoing — blocked — Destination: ping.lifecycle.norton.com

2009/03/09 18:47:52 — Program Access — PIFTS.exe — Destination IP: — outgoing — blocked — Destination:

2009/03/09 18:48:28 — Changed Program — Windows Explorer — 207.46.248.249.80 — outgoing — blocked — Destination: sa.windows.com
[Via The Symatec Forums]

This indicates that the program tried to change tactics to go out on the net.  I look a look for this and it is SwapDrive.  So this must be an update to Swapdrive but I am unsure as to why it pops up that way.  The other ip is in Africa or at least take the .80 out of the equation and it points to an Africa IP.  (It looks to my mistake in that little part, “to error is human” Check out this  post about it)  Although just recently Norton Decides to Delete that thread and people are really worried about why?  Is this a cover up of some sort because there is a exploit in the Wild that we don’t know about?  These are good questions that need to be answered.   Here is what one posted about this just after they deleted the forum thread:

Are you Email domains being blocked by Cricket?

So I got this Tweet from Mai_ling on twitter and she said:

So I did some digging around the net and found it is something that is a common practice for ISP’s to block PORT 25.   If you want to find out if Cricket is blocking your mail service you can easily follow these instructions to see if port 25 is actively being blocked.  So what are some options in fixing this little problem.

Due to spammers exploiting port 25, ISP have been blocking port 25 for other domains but theirs.   You can receive email but not send email.  Most ISP’s have a way for you to have an Alternative Port that you can use and you should check with your email domain provider to see if you can send and receive on either a SSL or another Port.

You could set up your email client to receive on port 25 but send out on the SMTP server of Gmail.  This would be useful for people who want to send mail out but not have to change there email address.  People will still see it coming from whatevername@whatever.com.   You can tell Thunderbird to send out on the port and yet use your domain as your email address.

Another possible solution that may work for some is to sign up for Google Apps.  The downside of this is It cost 50$ a year but that is 4.20$ a month to be added on to your Cricket Modem charge.  This looks promising and has a 30 day trial so, if it works then you will know before you have to pay for anything.  This should be dealt with by Cricket, they should have a way for there customers to send and receive email without having to jump through hoops to send email and receive email.

Fake Emails about Windows Support spam!

According to Trend Micro, Some malicious software is being sent to unsuspecting users about Windows SP1 andSP2 having a error that could damage software or even hardware.  See Trends blog with the photos of the fake spam.

Although from time to time Microsoft does send out security information to Technet subscribers people have also used this in the past to get people to install Viruses and Malware, like this one that installs TSPY_BANKER.MCL. TSPY_BANKER.MCL monitors the affected user’s online transactions and steals banking related information

Microsoft sends e-mail messages to subscribers of our security communications when we release information about a security software update or security incident. Unfortunately, malicious individuals can and have sent fake security communications that appear to be from Microsoft.

[Via Microsoft]

So if you get an email from Microsoft you’ll probably want to delete it.  Any Microsoft communications will be sent from the Update center.  You should never install software that is from an untrusted website.    If you are concerned you should check the web and find out what people are saying about the situation and see if it is a scam or true!!  Remember only you can prevent a virus or Malware!