ThePirateBay might be blocked in the US

By Paul | Feb 8, 2009

Comments Off

I was looking around on Google and thought I just for giggles check out the Piratebay complaints. I tried going to the site and here’s what Popups:

I tried on OpenVPN and my Local ISP, It keeps saying that. I then tried on my Cricket Modem and it tells me the connection has been interrupted, like something stops the connection in the first place. I can ping it and I can Tracert the Site but I can’t even view it. I would like to know if Anyone else is having this problem also. Although I’ve not checked Thepiratebay.org complaints for quite some time because I’ve been so busy with my website. If you want to watch your favorite shows check out these sites like Hulu, CBS, NBC, ABC, ABC FAMILY and TNT.TV for free. I am just curious as to what happened and does this have anything to do with Net Neutrality? Anyway I wanted to talk about this and see what people are saying. Anyone know what is going on? Let’s talk about this and help everyone by saying what you know. I don’t know if Thepiratebay.org is down but I do wonder if someone is preventing people from getting to the website. I’ll update when I have more information.

Superbowl 2009 Ad’s are on HULU

By Paul | Feb 2, 2009

Comments Off

Now I don’t have to watch the Superbowl to see all the ads. The Day after the Superbowl, Hulu releases the ads that were at the half time. So here they are:

So what ones do I like:

Firestone : Taters
Star Trek Trailer — I can’t wait for the movie to come out.
Monster’s VS Aliens (3D Glasses required) — Dreamworks is now only doing 3D.
Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen Trailer
Race to Witch Mountain Trailer
Alec in Huluwood — Hulu gets even more people to come to their site.
Up Trailer

These where the ones that I liked, they had some other ads for like Monster.com and Cars.com, and also Careerbuilder.com. I see they had some Budweiser advertising in there too but really don’t get me interested as for trailers and the really funny ones. Hope you get a laugh like I do.

Twitter Spam bots are hot to trot: http://gentai.com/revenge1

By Paul | Dec 29, 2008

Comments Off

Ok so I was curious why I all of the sudden got people joining my list. each one I look at just to see who these people are have only one twitter message saying this from two different accounts:

and this one also

and once you click that link it takes you to this website and see what they want you to do:

These people are trying to get you to click on there links and

get you give them email accounts. This has been socially engineered to look like it is real. I gave them a 10 min email account to see what they sent me. It was a link to there porn site. Wanting me to give them my credit card or checking account information and to join there site. I don’t think so, not this old dog. Anyways if you get this spam from a user you might just want to block these people. Some of these people have followers. Hmm I don’t know about these people. I guess they want you to send an email to other people to spam them also. How nice of them to social engineer this scheme so you can make your friends and family mad at you and probably not even talk to you. So that is why it is good not to auto-follow people when they subscribe to your twitter account. Some people have that set. Some people just don’t learn. I am sure some people will like this site for other reasons but please don’t spam people with this little site. Please don’t put people on that list.

Tools for Virus Removal : The ones I like to use!

By Paul | Dec 15, 2008

Comments Off

In this post I want to talk about virus removal tools that I like to use when I need to remove a virus. Some thing to consider when using these tools are:

Is it a Rootkit?
Is it Spyware?
Is it a Virus?
Is it a Trojan?
Is it a Worm?

Each of these have to be dealt with differently because each requires something different. Like rootkits if you have one installed and know that it is a rootkit you only options are to download some rootkit removers like:

Sopho’s Anti-rootkit remover – This is good for those more known viruses and can remove several types of rootkits. This isn’t the only one I use, but it is a part of group that does the rootkit removing for me.
Microsoft Rootkit Revealer – This is good for proving there is a rootkit. I’ve not seen it not detect a rootkit. Most of the time when I find a rootkit from the other rootkit revealers this one actually dos better with information.
Panda Anti-Rootkit Remover — This one is another one I use when the other ones can’t remove it. Each one does remove certain rootkit differently and works better than the other.

Fix Shutdown Problems in Vista!

By Paul | Dec 10, 2008

Comments Off

In the Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft quietly released the patch to fix Windows Vista machine shut problems. This patch should of came sooner.

KB957388

Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Install this update to resolve a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Server 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

This was not a critical update and it seems to resolve so many issues with compatibility. One thing it seemed to fix on my system has been the shutdown time. It is now quite fast, it would normally take me 2 to 3 mins to shutdown, now it does it in less than a Minute. So if you’ve not installed this update please install it soon. I would like to know if people are seeing the same thing I am. I’ve found a great resource on fixing it if you are still having problem, it talks about how to check your system performance. Although this is been doing it lately with these programs not loaded or even running, they still seem to cause problems so now I get the feeling it has to do with legacy programs. This should fix most of the problem with older programs.

Google let your work from home with Task Lists!!

By Paul | Dec 9, 2008

Comments Off

As the day go by we have all have tasks, and that means we have to keep a way to remember them. Google decided to add that to there Google Mail. Pcworld said it the right way:

If keeping Gmail open all the time just wasn’t enough, Google gave us one more reason to stay glued to our computer screens. The Labs Team have released yesterday a new feature for Gmail – Tasks – basically a To-Do list manager. But besides the usual task list bonanza, the new feature can also associate emails with tasks and create multiple to-do lists.

[Via Pcworld]

So how do you get that to work. Pcworld has a great resource for people to find out how to get it to work. Just think it gives you one more reason to work from home. Google actually did something quite nice when it comes to mail. It can even convert email into tasks. If you know of any good uses of this little feature leave a comment.

The Next big Wave of Layoffs is Sony. (9,000 workers)

By Paul | Dec 9, 2008

Comments Off

In a report from Engadget, there seems to be more Layoffs going on. One such one is Sony. Here is what Engadget said:

The bad news from the Japanese consumer electronics industry continues. Sony just announced plans to cut about 8,000 global jobs from its beleaguered electronics business while making unspecified reductions to its seasonal and temporary workforce. The move, as Sony explains it, comes “in response to the sudden and rapid changes in the global economic environment.” Ominously, it looks like Sony will also be raising prices in the countries where “Sony makes significant sales” (read: US and Europe) if we’re reading this statement correctly:

[Via Engadget]

In Today’s economy, you need to be prepared. So I thought I bring back some old Favorites of mine and talk about them. To see the other layoffs that I’ve talked about CLICK HERE. If you wanted to know what you can do to be prepared here are some great resources for people who are worried about there jobs:

5 ways to improve your chance of getting hired.
Are you asking to be scammed? (Don’t get scammed while finding a job)
Google : Job Resources

Facebook: Virus Variant comes back from the dead!

By Paul | Dec 8, 2008

Comments Off

In my recent post, I talked about a Virus that is circulating around on Facebook. It is know as the Koobface virus and has been changed a little by the programers. So I what is Techworld saying, just this:

In fact, Koobface is now using one of Facebook’s own features against it, Lovet said. The latest variant uses Facebook’s ability to redirect web links to drive users to malicious websites, often hosted on Geocities.com, Lovet said.

[Via Techworld]

If you have been victim to this little virus, you should check out my Virus removal page and download the programs that should fix this little virus for good on your system. You should also check out my Previous post I also have some good tips and tricks to prevent the user(YOU) from getting hit by this virus in the first place. This virus is a Good social engineered virus, so please be careful.

Facebook : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

By Paul | Dec 7, 2008

Comments Off

In today’s society, we’ve been to complacent with people with people clicking links for the social group. In one such article on Channel Web, a nice little blog, says this:

The worm was discovered by IT security provider Kaspersky Lab, which said the threat, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, is targeting Facebook users by creating spam messages and sending them to the infected user’s friends via the site.

“Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by ‘friends’ on social networking sites,” said Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. “So, the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high.”

[Via Channel Web]

This seems to be a problem people thinking that a link someone sends them is a real good link but actually is a link to a video site. According to this article the links people are sending are actually a fake video link, telling you have to download some update to flash player, by downloading this program. The user gets involved with the virus and the fun begins. So how can you prevent this from happening, two ways one is a very good group of software to make sure you have the latest and greatest video codecs. That too can be something they’ll say you need and if you’ve already installed this list of codecs then you know they’ll not telling the truth and you can quickly get away from the site laughing.

trojan.zlob removal tricks!!

By Paul | Dec 6, 2008

Comments Off

Aliases:
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qyl (Kaspersky)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qzs (Kaspersky)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qzn (Kaspersky)
Trojan.Zlob.CPP (BitDefender)
Puper (McAfee)
SystemDefender (Symantec)

Trojan:Win32/Zlob.G is a component of Win32/Zlob that downloads rogue security programs, adware, and additional Win32/Zlob components.

[Via Windows Live OneCare]

This one just popped up today on my radar it seems to be a very low threat on everyone’s radar according to my sources say “Trojan.Zlob.G is a Trojan horse that may download and execute remote files and redirect the Internet Explorer home page and search page.” So to remove this little Trojan you would want to download one an Anti-virus and firewall. Once you install the software the program should fix the problem for you. This one seems to be really easy to fix. So Please read my post on how to better protect your self if you want to prevent this in the future.

Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A is not a Firefox plugin.

By Paul | Dec 5, 2008

Comments Off

A new type of malware designed to harvest web passwords has been detected in-the-wild by BitDefender’s antivirus research labs. This latest e-threat – called Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A – is intended to be delivered onto a compromised computer system by other malware for subsequent download into Mozilla Firefox’s Plugin folder. Once installed it gets to work every time Firefox is started.

[Via Bitdefender]

So having seen this I thought I’d come up with ways around this to better protect yourself. One way to prevent this from getting your sensitive data is to get a program like Sandboxie. You could stop using Firefox that would be silly, because right now Firefox is more secure than Chrome and Internet Explorer. I’d also suggest checking out my Anti-spyware page and Anti-Virus page and get some more protection.

The key to this virus protection is just be cautious of where you go and keep all you system update to date to prevent all this from happening. It is also advisable to not have your passwords saved on Firefox, you should use something like Roboform, it is free to download and try. It will encrypt your passwords so if they don’t know the master password then they are out of luck. Roboform is also good for coming up with some strong passwords. Just some suggestions to prevent from people seeing your sensitive data, you don’t want anyone to get that data.

Are you patched, Secunia Says NO

By Paul | Dec 5, 2008

Comments Off

Think you’ve got nothing to worry about, according to Secunia 98% of computers are not fully patched and are vulnerable to some kinda of attack.

So I wanted to talk about this a little and give you a few good ways to make sure you are patched. There are several ways to get your system up to almost 100%.

Some things to do is make sure you have your Windows systems updated. This is easy to make sure, if you have an internet connection you can just check for updates. If you don’t know how to do it, it is quite simple, Just go here. If you have Windows Vista all you have to do is hit Start and type in the search box “Windows Update” and hit Enter and you will be taken to the update page.

If you have a system that is off of the Net you could use the Clone of Autopatcher Program to do it for you. You also need to update all your secondary programs such as Audacity, Open Office, and other programs that you use weekly.

Facebook Virus strikes again

By Paul | Dec 4, 2008

Comments Off

“Look you were filmed all naked!” read the subject header on one iteration of the virus-spreading message, which is being sent automatically from infected accounts to the “friend” list for that account. Clicking the link usually takes users to a page that looks like YouTube, and a pop-up message advises the user to download a Flash plug-in. The download contains the virus, which replicates by contacting everyone on the victim’s Facebook friend list and advancing the hoax.

[Via Boston Media]

This is a good social engineered attack, they seem to have you download a virus into your system. I Keep talking about how you need to be careful with emails. I also suggest that you do a complete Virus scan if you think you’ve been hit with this. There is only one way to prevent yourself from getting this little facebook virus and that is not to click it. Some other things to consider if you found out this was a virus is to contact the person who sent this to them so they to could do a virus scan on their system.

Is this Windows 7?

By Paul | Dec 4, 2008

Comments Off

As you can see that looks to be the final release of the start screen. In the past they haven’t change the start screen, it looks to be really polished and ready for use with Windows 7. If anything, I think the boot screen will be permanent and definitely not temporary. On a Side note, I found this video as well:

macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” flashvars=”c=v&v=60e5f8c6-09f3-4a09-bac0-355b8a7b7dcc&ifs=true&fr=shared&mkt=en-US”>oembed>Video: Windows 7 Demo 1

This video I almost suspect is the release they did at the Professional Developers Conference and is probably going to have the beta in hand. Although I could be wrong this looks to be almost like Vista? Why is Microsoft trying to make Vista turn into Windows 7, probably due to the fact that Vista had such a rotten launch they are hoping people will see Windows 7 as if Windows Vista didn’t even exist.

I also found one more little Video that looks to be promising, it’s called Windows 7 Super bar. This little Video looks convincingly like this will be kept in Windows 7 but you know how Microsoft is on beta’s. Any how, Here’s this one:

Windows 7 Super Bar from Paul Jenkins on Vimeo.

Adobe Lays off 600 people

By Paul | Dec 3, 2008

Comments Off

Adobe might also hire new workers within Europe, he said. The cuts will be formally announced on Dec. 15 when the company releases its fourth-quarter financial report.

[via Infoworld]

This is another technology company to lay off people, there are some talks that it would be around 600 workers on some blogs. Others are just talking about the Management shakedown, and some workers are going to be moved around. I don’t know who is going to be laid off, or if there will be a tremendous amount of people who will need to start looking for a job. I do know that Adobe is looking for ways to cut cost, and I expect they are having problems just because of the Recession. If you want to check out other jobs that have laid people off, just click this link.

Adobe also announced the implementation of a restructuring program, and has taken steps to reduce its headcount by approximately 600 full-time positions globally. The restructuring will result in anticipated pre-tax charges totaling approximately $44 million to $50 million. The Company expects approximately $28 million to $30 million of the restructuring charges to be recorded in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008.

Apple’s Immunity, Botnet sanctuary.

By Paul | Dec 3, 2008

Comments Off

But is Apple projecting a false sense of security just to save face? Many experts repeatedly warn that all operating systems are susceptible to viruses, and as the Mac becomes more popular OS X will inevitably become a bigger target for malicious attacks.

[via Pcworld]

Having said that I feel the notion that Apple is trying to keep there reputation as a virus free system. I can only hope that they stay that way. Which as much as I know, Apple will most like start to be the main source for botnets, because of the lack of security.

According to reports on this blog, people are worried Apple stance on it being the safest and having so much immunity to viruses. Apple in the past has stated they have mislead people with there firewall. Yet Apple takes down that suggestion of having an Anti-virus(Quietly).

Everything I’ve seen suggest that virus writers and Malware writers will MOST likely start targeting the Mac OS X, they know Apple sense of security is Vulnerable to attack and they will exploit it more and more. So what does that mean for Apple, it just means that soon every hacker who has a botnet will want a piece of the Apple Pie and is right now.

Is this Hardcore PC Falcon Northwest Mach V Extreme or not?

By Paul | Dec 3, 2008

Comments Off

Just saw this on PcWorld Reviews and thought I’d talk about the specs. I would love to get one of these for my self. It comes with:

Silverstone Temjin TJ03 full tower case
Intel Core i7 965 Extreme processor — Overclocked to 3.8 GHZ

12GB of DDR3-1066

7200-rpm Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive

dual 2GB ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics

22-inch Samsung 2243 LCD

All these are links are for those who would like to make this computer yourself. The links are where you could go to buy the parts. The price after you buy the parts are estimated at $7395 price and I think you could get that down to 5000$ if you look for rebates and other incentives. I wouldn’t mind having this computer for gaming myself. It sure would be nice to give for someone on the holidays. This would be good for people wh o are looking to computer game developers or people who are into 3D rendering. Just though I share this little review with you. They really did a fantastic review of this product on there site.

GTA 4 Causes fatal error mma10, how to fix it!!

By Paul | Dec 3, 2008

Comments Off

After seeing all this happened I thought I would help people out on how to fix it. This seems to be a DRM problem according to some reports. Others are thinking it is the Securerom. Anyways the problem seems to be with the Rockstar Social Club and not to log in to that. That will fix the problem, you will at least be able to play the single player game. This is a temporary fix till the developers fix in the update. This will also fix the Steam version of the game.

You asked for it, Now it’s real — Vista SP2 Dec 4,2008

By Paul | Dec 2, 2008

Comments Off

Beginning Thursday Dec. 4^th, we will be making the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Beta available to everyone through a Customer Preview Program (CPP). The CPP will launch on TechNet and be available to anyone interested in trying out this service pack. The CPP is intended for technology enthusiasts, developers, and IT Pros who would like to test Service Pack 2 in their environments and with their applications prior to final release. For most customers, our best advice would be to wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack.

[Via Technet]

Yes you heard right, you can get into the Beta of Vista SP2 and not have to wait till April. Some things to remember:

It is a Beta
It will Have Bugs
It is for people who want to test it out
It should only be installed for people who need to test it out

Windows 7 will sport Direct X 10 Compliance!

By Paul | Dec 2, 2008

View Comments

The new feature is called WARP10, for “Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform,” and it’s essentially a DX10-compliant, software-only rasterizer that was written by Microsoft; it runs directly on the CPU. In a situation where a DX10 app needs to run but can’t find DX10-compliant hardware, it will run on WARP10, albeit very, very slowly. Ultimately, you can think of WARP10 as a “software DX10 GPU” that will exist as a fallback in Windows.

[via Arstechnica]

This will make Windows 7 work more smoothly with Windows XP and Vista games. This looks to be like having more compatibility with the older games. When Vista came out they were complaining about not being able to play games on Vista. Vista has been really updated with being able to play games. People are starting to play games on a Vista machine. This is also a step for Windows 7 to be one that Microsoft, being that they are trying to get the next O/s to look like an Angel probably. What I expect is Microsoft will advertise about Windows 7 will be gamer friendly. This is a move on Microsoft to get gamers on board with this release and to try to get people to forget about Vista.

Hello Twitter, Goodbye Pounce!

By Laforge129 | Dec 1, 2008

View Comments

In a move that feels more like a cruel prank than a financial strategy, Six Apart has purchased Pownce–only to shut the company down. The blogging company acquired the micro-blogging site for an undisclosed sum before announcing that it would shut Pownce in a mere two weeks.

[via PcMag]

Although This is nothing to big because those who use Pownce was using just o play around with. People who are using Pownce will have to go back to Twitter or something other like Twit Army. If you have an account there you will need to start looking around for another social outlet. Some of the ones I like are on my About me page and should give you some ideas on where you look.

Although if Six Apart was smart they should of tried to Monitize the service but I guess they just wasted there money in buying Pounce. They wanted something else from the company that owned Pounce but not sure what.

Stop botnets in its tracks With a Firewall!

By Laforge129 | Nov 30, 2008

View Comments

According to PC World and I’ll quote:

According to FireEye chief scientist Stuart Staniford, detection rates are so poor that, on average, only around 40 percent of security software can detect binaries during the period of greatest infectivity and danger, namely the first few days after a particular variant starts being used by botnet builders.

[via PC World]

Now let’s talk about this, having been seeing recent surges of people getting infected. I’ve come to the conclusion that companies like AVG and other Anti-Virus companies are keeping up. Now true if all you have is an Anti-virus and nothing else that greatly increases your likely hood of getting a virus.

In a recent virus storm, We have people finding my site because of a Good Firewall. No if he didn’t have anything but Windows firewall then it would of gotten through and you would not of known about it. So let’s talk about how to prevent botnet attacks. This is relatively easy and if you follow some common rules. You to could be less likely to be infected. I will say this most people don’t do these common tips and they should do them.

Black Friday becomes Blacker!

By Laforge129 | Nov 28, 2008

Comments Off

There aren’t a lot of details yet, but news sources are saying that in Palm Desert, California, two people died after a shooting inside a Toys R Us. One story suggests that the shooting was the result of an altercation between two teenage girls. Apparently, a boy, listed as a juvenile, was responsible for the shooting and was detained.

[Via Gizmodo]

According to Gizmodo, two people are dead and I’ve looked at KMIR News 6 and There is no more information. I do not like this years black friday it seems like Recession is hitting people harder than people thought!! Not much else is known but this is going to be the worst Black Friday for a while. I don’t think there has been any thing like this before.

Some good CyberMonday Sites to look at for 2008!

By Laforge129 | Nov 28, 2008

Comments Off

I was just getting done with that story about the Walmart Stampede, and thought I would encourage people to check these good sites for people to check out for great deals. I have been looking through sites combing for some great sites to find the best deals and here they are:

Dealio — Dealio will not only show you sneak peaks at Cyber Monday ads, but we will also send you directly to the store so that you can purchase the often limited inventory Cyber Monday deals before they disappear. Best of all, there is no need to hop from site to site – Dealio has all your Cyber Monday shopping covered.
CyberMonday – Shop hot holiday deals from more than 500 merchants. All of Shop.org’s proceeds from CyberMonday.com support the Ray Greenly Scholarship Fund.
Cybermonday Mahalo Deals — This Mahalo page collects links to websites offering information and discounted merchandise for Cyber Monday.
Best Cyber Monday Sales –Well, I finally put together a list of the top retailers throughout the country with links directly to their Cyber Monday deals.

Black Friday gets way out of hand!!! (No JOKE)

By Laforge129 | Nov 28, 2008

Comments Off

OK, Black Friday has officially gotten out of hand. A 34-year-old WalMart employee was trying to hold back the crowds at a Long Island store this morning at 5am, when they took the doors off their hinges and stormed the store. The man fell down and was trampled by over 200 people as he gasped for air. It’s sad and despicable, and it’s equally the fault of the dehumanized shoppers and the WalMart store it happened at.
[via Gizmodo]

This is a sad day when people are more interested in deals then someone getting stampeded by other people. This happened in the Long Island Wal-mart. I much prefer CyberMonday, where you don’t have to worry about someone getting killed. I feel sorry for the people involved they now have to deal with there conscience. I hope this teaches Wal-mart to do something different next year. Next year they should have them enter one at a time in a line, every 2 seconds or so!!

Not so, Antivirus2008

By Laforge129 | Nov 28, 2008

Comments Off

On F-secure blog they talk about this rogue antispyware.

OK, so let’s say the user (by some stroke of luckless chance, or courtesy of a trojan downloader) ends up with the demo installer of Rogue:W32/VirusRemover2008.C on their hands and it runs
[via F-Secure]

According to them, they have many different version of this rogue antispyware. They have de, dk, es, fr, it, no, nl, and no, which are all attempting for you to buy this no so Virusremover2008 software. They talk about how it tells you have a 9 infected viruses and that you need to remove them, but in truth, they use a text file to create this lie. Check out all the details for further information.

Technorati Officially laysoff 6 people!!

By Laforge129 | Nov 25, 2008

Comments Off

Technorati released today they are going to Lay off 6 people and I will quote:

Unfortunately, this means sacrifices. Technorati’s management team members are taking pay cuts ranging from 15-25% and employees are taking 10% cut. This also includes the reallocation of staff. We’re laying off six employees today – including two executives — and there are two additional departures we won’t replace. These are high performers who have worked long hours to get us where we are now. They’re also friends, and we’re very sad to see them go. We simply need a leaner and reconfigured mix to get us through 2009.

[via Technorati Weblog]

They will also be taking pay cuts all through the company. So the recession is hitting them also. I am sure CEO Richard Jalichandra has the company interest in mind. According to Techchunch, they have added these recent layoffs ticker. You can also search my blog for other layoffs that have happened or will happen.

Citigroup bank might be saved through the recession.

By Paul | Nov 23, 2008

Comments Off

According to reports from ABC News, Citibank is having a hard time and might need to be assisted by the government.

The company has seen its shares lose 60 percent of their value in the past week, reflecting a crisis of confidence among skittish investors. They are worried all the risky debt on Citigroup’s balance sheet will turn into losses as the economy worsens and the markets stay turbulent — losses that could be nearly impossible to reverse.

[via ABC News]

Although this is somewhat expected, I don’t think we can afford to pay the debt of a bank. We are all having to deal with this recession. I don’t know how they can afford to pay for Citigroup and expect this to help bolster the economy. I guess only time will tell!!!

How to disable autorun the easy way!!!

By Paul | Nov 21, 2008

Comments Off

I read a report from Cnet about USB devices spreading Virus and I will quote:

The bad guys are intentionally developing new flavors of malware designed to propagate through USB devices,” said Gunter Ollmann, chief security strategist for IBM’s ISS security division. “They are today’s floppy drives.”

An infected computer can spread a virus to a clean USB thumb drive that is inserted. That USB drive will then be spreading the virus onto other computers if the operating system on those machines has an AutoRun-type feature enabled. The AutoRun function in Windows launches installers and other programs automatically when a flash drive or CD is inserted. The Mac has an equivalent function, according to Ollmann.

[Via Cnet]

In order to disable “autorun“, which in Vista is called Autoplay. In order to disable Autoplay from starting when you insert media into your computer here is how you do it:

You will need to be Logged in as Administrator before this can be done:

Next click start and type “Autoplay” without quotes. It will bring up a screen but all you have to worry about is this:

Vista has a new Vulnebility!

By Paul | Nov 20, 2008

Comments Off

According to Techworld.com, Vista has a new Vulnerability that could let a hacker infect a Vista machine with a rootkit. The talk from them is quite intriguing. I will quote it to better let you know what the Vulnerability is:

The vulnerability could allow a hacker to install a rootkit, a small piece of malicious software that is very difficult to detect and remove from a computer, Unterleitner said.

Phion notified Microsoft about the problem on 22 October. Microsoft indicated to Phion that it would issue a patch with Vista’s next service pack. Microsoft released a beta version of Vista’s second service pack to testers last month. Vista’s Service Pack 2 is due for release by June 2009.
[via Techworld.com]

The way they could do this is through the Device IO Control which in turn could corrupt the Kernel of Windows Vista. Now we all know that Microsoft will release a patch quicker than 6 months away. According to this article, people are already looking for the exploit and want to know more about it. I would be willing to bet they will have a patch out sooner than later. Probably January or Febuary, which will be a big deal because no one will expect it. I would also imagine hackers will start trying to figure out how they could install software as quick as possible before Microsoft pushes out the patch. So what can you do to protect yourself, Get a firewall, a Antivirus and learn how to protect yourself to prevent yourself from getting a computer virus.