Facebook Goes Phishing again
Comments OffIn one of my Previous articles about the Koobface Worm, I talked about the way they were infecting the systems and what you need not do.
It seems that Trend Micro has seen an even more rise in people downloading the WORM_KOOBFACE.AZ and Seems to be on the RISE. This is all done with a Social engineering and Has had some attempts before with this little worm on Facebook.
* facebook.com
* hi5.com
* friendster.com
* myyearbook.com
* myspace.com
* bebo.com
* tagged.com
* netlog.com
* fubar.com
* livejournal.com
This seems to be a social engineering Nightmare for these websites and as yet are unsure what else it does but it says the same thing it did before by saying “This is a Video of You on the Street.” Which is bogus but none the less people click and think they have to download a codec or update their Flash. Social Engineering is on the rise and will be taken seriously. You should read the full report from Trend on what it does but you also should have an anti-virus and Firewall installed to prevent this from happening in the first place. The only true way of preventing this is not to be fooled, you should NEVER Download from a site you don’t know or trust. See all the Facebook articles for more information.
Oh My I got the Presidents Attention!!
Comments OffI just got an email telling me:
Barack H Obama (PresidentBarak) is now following your updates on Twitter.
So I go to the click the link and I see this:
Wow, I didn’t know I was this influental to get the Presidents attention(NOT).
http://www.economygrantprogram.com/
After checking out the profile I see that it has a link to a site that basically asking for your personal address and your email account. After I go check the site I see in really small catch you have to pay 3.95 for Shipping and Handling. Well You know what they say, nothing ever is Free. This looks to be a way to get email addresses to spam in the long run. I wouldn’t give them any information because this is looking to be a scam and I hate scams. You best bet is to go on with your life and report this spam to twitter. This however got my attention because of the who it was, and that is probably why they chose the name. It is however quite funny. 
And the Oscar goes to . . . Not these guys!
Comments OffSans Internet Storm is reporting on Anti-virus Scareware tactic. I’ll quote from them:
ISC reader Gary wrote in to let us know that searching for “oscar presenters” and “oscar winners” with Google brings up a prominently ranked result on a web server in Poland, on a subdomain of “beepl”, which – surprise, surprise – includes a malicious JavaScript. The end result currently seems to reside on stabilitytraceweb com, and is yet another incarnation of the “Fake Anti-Virus Program” malware that we have covered repeatedly. Watch out, the EXE has a meager 6/39 on Virustotal.
[Via Sans]
I did my own research and it is true they are at least 3 sites with the .pl Domain that are used to send you to these fake sites. You should consider checking your system for possible viruses if you been to these sites and are worried. You should also report any site like this to Phishtank to fight this type of scare tactics. Please remember if you are worried about your system this is the best time to install software to prevent these types of scare tactics. Remember you don’t always have to buy software to be safe. There are free anti-virus and Firewall solutions at your fingertips, use them well. It is also a good idea to make sure you have the latest updates from Microsoft while your at it.
Being a Bad BOT!
I had the strangest thing happen today, Seemed a Bad Bot was Crawling my pages. I was getting at least 60 page views an hour from this bad Bot!! The individual IP’s of this Bad Are:
65.208.151.112
65.208.151.113
65.208.151.114
65.208.151.115
65.208.151.116
65.208.151.117
65.208.151.118
65.208.151.119
Anyways It bothers me that when you do a Google Search for this company, it comes back with no company. Some people have already did there research and have come up with very little.
I dug even more and some are saying this might be Homeland Security, and I have my own thoughts on this. I might be paranoid myself but if there is no company out there and the IP keeps coming back, I assume it is BAD mojo. Some people worry that it is a hacker probing for vulnerabilities and that worried me.
I decided with the Help from Godaddy, to ban the lot of IPs. I figure someone is trying to get information or trying something they shouldn’t, I’ll stop it myself. If you have Wordpress and are also having problems with this ip, you can ban it by adding this to your HtAccess file:
Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!
Comments OffI just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn’t believe what I saw:
As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.
I feel that I should warn people the important necessity. You shouldn’t be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.
Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their “walls” – personalized message boards.
[Via Computing.Co.UK]
PolyMorphic Win32:Vitro Most Viraulent Virus
This seems to be an virus that is getting some people hit hard. I wanted to blog about this because of the nature of Virus and Trojans. I have read reports that this might be from Online Movies, and I have to say this is one reason why you must stay away from certain online movies. I am going to take a guess that this virus requires a special CODEC, and you downloaded it and installed it. It Could also be the update the Adobe Flash player idea to but still results in getting the Virus.
As I said before you take a risk when you go to sites you don’t trust or know anything about. You also should know that if you need a “SPECIAL” codec, you should just go on to another site. These sites that claim they need this special codec means only one thing they want to install something without your Knowledge.
So what is this Virus:
The Virut family of viruses uses polymorphism to hide from all anti-virus protection, it infects executable files. File infection makes it very hard to repair a system that has been infected. W32/Vitro injects code in running processes and hooks the following functions in ntdll.dll which transfers control to the virus every time any of these function calls are made.
Understanding Adsense for the Beginner
Comments OffSo you have a website and you’d like the site to pay for itself. That can be arranged it however depends on your website performance. You see you won’t make a lot of money if you don’t have several things going for you. I thought I share with you my experience with making money through Adsense. As you saw, I made enough money to pay for the website for 5 years. It isn’t hard to make money it is however very difficult to keep getting the money. Most people don’t know the tricks to making money with Google’s Adsense.
I’m here to help you out a little with understanding it and getting even more money from your adsense. So here we are 3 months into to putting Adsense seriously on my site and let’s take a look shall we:
People coming from Sites that don’t exist
Comments OffSo I woke up today checking out my sites, and looking outside. So As I was checking my Stats for my blog. I cam across a referring site that brought Supposedly Two people to my site. I looked at the URL for the site:
- http://trojan.fiftystatesclassifiedads.com/index.php
According to How2hack, they talk about how people want privacy and that it might be someone who does not want to be found. I tend to agree with them, Privacy for Privacy sake is good but if you want to be private you would you even be checking out websites knowing people will want to find out who really is coming to your site. The How2Hack site also talks about how this might happen and I see where they are coming from.
Rumor is that Itunes will Remove DRM!
Comments Off
A report from last week brought to AppleInsider’s attention by French technology site ElectronLibre asserts that it’s now “clear” Apple will spark new interest in its music store by removing DRM from tracks published by Sony, Universal and Warner on December 9th.[Via Apple Insider]
Although, this is somewhat unlikely I’ve got my own theories on this. You see If Apple did this tomorrow that would be a BIG deal, due to the fact that Microsoft will be releasing there patches on the same day. I find it would be a momentous occasion.
trojan.zlob removal tricks!!
Comments OffAliases:
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]
Facebook Virus strikes again
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]
Is this Windows 7?
Comments OffAs 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:
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.
Apple’s Immunity, Botnet sanctuary.
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.
GTA 4 Causes fatal error mma10, how to fix it!!
Comments Off
You asked for it, Now it’s real — Vista SP2 Dec 4,2008
Comments Off
Beginning Thursday Dec. 4th, 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]
- 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
Vista To release Service Pack 2 in April 2009
Microsoft issues Vista patches out of Monthly Patch Cycle!
Microsoft issues Out of cycle patch for Vista. These patches are as Followed:
An update rollup is available for the Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) in Windows Vista or in Windows Server 2008. This update rollup resolves the problems that are documented in the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
954708 An update to add support for the serialization of complex Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) data types in the Windows Imaging Component945060 There may be inconsistencies in the Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP) and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) values for an image file in Windows Vista and in Windows XP
The Windows Portable Device (WPD) API collects and transfers Software Quality Metrics (SQM) data to Microsoft servers. The SQM data is collected only on an opt-in basis through the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. An update is available that disables the collection and transfer of SQL data to Microsoft servers.
This update affects Windows Vista-based computers, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)-based computers, and Windows Server 2008-based computers that are in the Microsoft Windows Media Player Customer Experience Improvement Program.
Microsoft kills a fake antivirus tool from 994,061 computers!
Comments Off
According to Arstechnica and I’ll quote:Win32/FakeSecSen has gone by various names, including Micro Antivirus 2009, MS Antivirus, Spyware Preventer, Vista Antivirus 2008, Advanced Antivirus, System Antivirus 2008, Ultimate Antivirus 2008, Windows Antivirus, XPert Antivirus, Power Antivirus, and Ultra Antivirus 2009. Furthermore, it is skinnable, so each of these variants has a different GUI, although the basic functionality is the same: bother users with warnings of malware until they pay up.The Microsoft Malware Protection Center recently released some data on how the removal tool performed this month: FakeSecSen was removed from 994,061 machines. That number isn’t the highest Microsoft has recorded before, and the number of removals depends on which malware Microsoft adds each month and how widespread it is.
[via Arstechnica]
This seemed to of happened this month with the usual Windows update. If you haven’t updated your system just yet you should. This troublesome fake virus seems to have been killed from several systems. This could effectively make it harder for these guys who ever designed this program to make money. I hope microsoft does even more virus removals in next month. If you still want to try to get rid of these viruses don’t forget to check out my tips on Virus removal.
How to disable autorun the easy way!!!
Comments OffI 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:
Memorex releases a cheaper Blue Ray player than a PlayStation 3.
Comments Off
According to there website It can do this:
* Progressive scan Blu-ray Disc player 1080p capability for higher definition video content
* Full HD 1080p, DVD up-conversion up to 1080p (480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p), 24p, 60p video frame rate
* Multi-channel audio content (supports more advanced Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD)
* BD-ROM, DVD-ROM, DVD, DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, CD-ROM, CD, CD-R/-RW
* 16:9 / 4:3 picture select
* On-screen graphical user interface
* Slow motion function (2x – 4x – 8x)
* RW/FF play function (2x – 4x – 8x – 16x)
* VFD display
Looks like a scam to me : Personal Shopping Assistant!
Good afternoon!
We found your resume at _________________ and we would like to propose you a
position of Personal Shopping Assistant.Imagine having an exciting job with incredible salary (up to $100,000/year) that
lets you use your creativity while being paid to shop. Welcome to the world of
personal shopping!As we know shopping is the world’s favorite leisure activity, but in our busy
society an increasing number of people need to hire someone to do their
shopping. Thus personal shoppers are more in demand than ever before.There are absolutely NO START-UP FEES and NO FEES for being employed at this
position. As long as you live in the USA, and you have a credit card or any
other line of credit, have 1 or 2 free hours during the day – you are eligible
for this job!
This is what you will have to do in short:
• Purchase the requested goods using your credit card.
• Send us receipts.
• Wait for us to issue a credit to your credit card in the amount of purchase
plus shipping fee plus your commission which comprises 10%.
• Ship out the goods.
• You are finished, come back for a new list of goods.
You have an undelivered UPS/FEDEX Package. (Virus)
Comments OffFrom what I’ve seen so far. There seems to be a new rash of email going around with the heading that makes it look and feel like either UPS or Fedex. Saying that you have an undelivered package from them and to either print the order confirmation or to click a link. I will say this once, if you get this delete it. Fedex and UPS will never hide the link and tell you have an package waiting in the email. They will leave a note your door. You must ask yourself how Fedex/UPS found out your email address to tell you have a package waiting? They don’t and they won’t, just a fact.
TROJ_DLOADR.GG and TSPY_ZBOT.NM Trojan, which will Monitor and try to steal your data. The other one is a ZBot and will try to steal you data also. If you need help removing this virus, I’d suggest checking out my other virus article Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc?. There are a lot of ways to remove this virus but the first step is never click on any links in your emails. I also wrote about Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! This will help prevent and fix the common virus problems you might have.
A good free VPN Client — OpenVPN & more
Comments OffI’ve been doing some research on what might be good to use in case, I was away from my home network. I was thinking how safe am I at Starbucks or other places that I might doing my web. So I did a little looking around to see which one I liked and I came to the conclusions that only one I need right now is:
The nice thing about this was the simple installation of the software and how easy it was to set it up. This service is in beta but seems to be really well done with regards to the end users. When you install this software and want to connect it uses the OpenVPN software with there configurations. OpenVPN, is a open sourced SSL VPN solution and is free to use. The way this this free is of Ad Supported banners. Now it is cheaper than paying monthly for a VPN service. The ones I’ve found so far are these few:
- OpenVPN (FREE)(*advertisement)(Linux, and Windows)
- Always VPN (Prepay) (5 GB to 80 GB limit) (Linux, Mac and Windows)*Out of Beta
- Hotspot Shield (FREE) (*advertisement) (Windows) (3 gig Cap)
Antivirus Professional 2008 uses Scare tactics
Comments OffWe came across a rogue today called Antivirus Professional 2008 that uses GeoIP Lookup as part of its scare tactics. This site uses Flash and script to create the effect of an online scan, that then attempts to push an installer at the visitor. The NoScript extension for Mozilla Firefox is an excellent way to mitigate against this kind of garbage.
[Via F-secure]
It seems that there is a site out there, that seems to be trying to scare you into downloading there software. If you have any questions about this site please feel free to check out what I’ve found out:
Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: 1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com
Domain Name: ANTIVIRUS-ONLINE-SCANNER.COM
Registrant:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ruMinskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Creation Date: 07-Jun-2008
Expiration Date: 07-Jun-2009
Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.antivirus-online-scanner.com
ns1.antivirus-online-scanner.com
Administrative Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ruMinskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Technical Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ruMinskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Billing Contact:
N/A
Serento faloimitator@list.ruMinskay str. 27-14
Kiev
Kiev 237293
UA
Tel. 044.2901732
Mattel introduces the new Welfare Barbie.
Comments OffMattel Inc., the world’s largest toymaker, said it would cut about 1,000 jobs, or 3 percent of its global workforce, as it faces higher manufacturing costs amid the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
[via Bloomberg]
If you’re like me and you want to cringe every time you hear another place is laying off people. I say we are still in a downward spiral. Everyone is saying that even Jason Calacanis, in his recent email he sent to all his fellow readers, he talked about the Rich not buying anything they didn’t need. He said that is good, I however wonder how far the hole goes before we hit rock bottom.
We have received a letter purportedly sent by THQ CEO Brian Farrell to explain to his employees the reasoning behind the company closing five studios and laying off staff from two others. The closed studios are Helixe, Sandblast Games, Locomotive, Mass Media and Paradigm.
Peek Email tops Time Gadget of the Year!
Comments Off
Go Vote and lets make our voice heard!!
Windows 7 Milestone 1 Leaked!
Comments Off
Many people have been wanting a copy of this so called elusive copy from PDC to test out and see where Microsoft is going. Most developers are wanting to start to get into the stage of figuring out how they can get a step ahead of everyone else. That being said, people have started to leak the Windows 7 on the Torrent sites.
We must assume Microsoft expected this and kinda wanted this to happen because when they gave this out they didn’t make it have any major copy protection. Although we must not forget that there will be fakes out there and people are downloading this at a tramendous rate. Most people will download it in under a day if you let it go!! I have not downloaded it because I am trying to get into the beta team for Windows 7 and don’t want to be to critical on the system.
Microsoft Fixes some Performance issues with Vista a Month early!
Comments Off
Update for Windows Vista (KB957200)This is a reliability update. This update resolves some performance and reliability issues in Windows Vista. By applying this update, you can achieve better performance and responsiveness in various scenarios. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Vista License Terms.
Now if I know Microsoft, this update actually helps with some versions of programs that is currently out. I am just curious as to why they sent this updates out early. Has Microsoft changed there tactics with updates? Have they decided to send them out as soon as they are done?
Hulu Launches upcoming Movie Trailers Brought to you SPRINT!
Comments OffHulu launched movie trailers of the upcoming movies in the US. Now to say the least I like the idea to be able to go to Hulu on a Sprint Instinct or other mobile devices to see before I go to the movies. So the ones I like right now are Star Wars : Clone Wars.
Some others that I like are Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:
This will be nice to be check the trailers before I got to the movies.
It’s Offical, Calicanis says Your on your own.
Comments OffIn the Newsletter, Calicanis says this:
As a startup, you are now, officially, on your own. You can’t count on
your VCs saving you or some magical offer from Yahoo or Google showing
up to bail you out. Chances are Yahoo and Google are going to be
shutting down and/or selling off companies they’ve already
bought–like EBAY and AOL have started doing. Parents don’t adopt
while they’re putting their kids up for adoption.
Now I don’t know about you but I am really worried about what people are going to do next. Some other things Jason said is that the storm is upon us. That’s right, in the next thirty days you will have to figure out how to survive. It won’t be easy. Is this the beginning or the ending of this so called storm? I say only time will tell. I hope this becomes a rebound soon. We are definitely in for the long haul.
