Twitter Spam attempt: “See the NSFW pics twitter deleted from my profile here”

Looks like this might have been a improper adult content or maybe a Malware attack:

If people are wonder what NSFW means:

Not suitable/safe for work (NSFW), not work-suitable/safe (NWS), or not school-suitable (NSS) is Internet slang or shorthand. Typically, the NSFW tag is used in E-mail, movies (such as on Youtube) and on interactive discussion areas (such as internet forums, blogs and community websites) to mark URLs or hyperlinks which may be sexually explicit or include audio containing profanity, helping the reader avoid potentially objectionable content.
[via Wikipedia]

It looks like this was done with using Tinyurl and has been flagged for either Spam, Fraud, Malware, or Any other use that is illegal. I am glad Tinyurl did catch this and stop it. If you see something that say NSFW in your twitter account your best bet is to delete it and go on with your life. I am sure it is something your should not go to probably because it was a malicious way to get your to go to the link. If you want to preview the urls that are used by Tinyurl, just visit the preview feature. If anyone else hears of some kind of Twitter attempt let me know and I’ll blog about it. This would be the best time to install Free Anti-virus and Free Firewalls to help prevent from getting Viruses or Malware.

How do you like your Cricket USB Modem?

Lately I talked about the A600 USB 3G modem and Now I want to hear from the Readers?  You see I can’t do my best reviewing these with comments from the readers, that being you.

Click the picture to send me email, just remember to replace “AT” with “@”.

So I want to hear what you think about either the USB UM100 Modem or the A600 USB 3g Modem?  Here a re a few things to answer when you write your email.

Something will go to the people who email me?  I want to publish some of these comments on my blog for all to read.  I want to hear if what I am publishing helps you?  I will even give your credit as  to who wrote it.  If you have a site or something you want to promote by all means add that to your testimonial.  Here’s the basic questions that should be talked about:

• Which one did you buy? (Cricket USB A600 or Cricket USB UM100)
• Did you Upgrade from the Cricket USB UM100 to the Cricket USB A600?
• Are you using it for travel or Primary internet?
• Is it for business or Pleasure?

Cracking and Warez sites are Host of Trouble!!

It is nothing to laugh at and should be understood that gamers have no freedom right now.   That said this new Variant to Virux Trojan is in regards to Win32/Vitro Trojan.  It seems tobe infecting .exe and .Scr files just like this.

According to Trend Micro:

The downloaded malware include variants under the FAKEAV, TDSS, and VUNDO families. Infection chains, however, are notable for the presence of VIRUT and VIRUX malware. VIRUX and VIRUT attacks were initially about the volume of infected PCs. The numbers are massive enough to worry Web users and security researchers: around 20,000 PCs are infected per day
Read more: “Crack Sites Distribute VIRUX and FakeAV“

Now it seems to be more and more sites with getting computer infected. It also seems the Malware writers are using these servers for helping infect essentially gamers computers. So for the time being, if you have a favorite game and you want to:

• No-CD Crack (This is good for those who want to play the game without the CD)
• Key Gen Cracks (This is used for pirated version of a game)
• Update Cracks (This is used to prevent CD checking or Also prevent Version Checking)

Facebook Goes Phishing again

In 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.

After your Infected with this new Variant, it searches for cookies and Sends out a message to people from:
* 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.

And the Oscar goes to . . . Not these guys!

Sans 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 stabilitytracewebcom, 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.

Offline Update 5.0, Clone of Autopatcher to Some!!

Offline updater 5.0 has been released a couple months ago and I just realized it now.  This is an excellent tool for IT professionals who want to keep all your Systems up-to-date with the last patches from Microsoft.  The systems it supports are Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 x64, And Windows Vista / Server 2008.(32 bit and 64 Bit updates).

I find this a very useful program for people who have a multitude of problems, from not being able to get on the net to computer virus infections.  This is really good for big businesses that want to update a lot of systems in easy way without having to wait for downloads of updates to install.   You can take a DVD and update on the fly within Mins.   DVD being Cheap or buying them in bulk helps saves time and money for the company.   Less time spent downloading the updates and more time actually getting work done.  As with the Conflicker, Downadup, and to some the Conflickr Trojan, if you got infected with that little worm.  This would help install the updates that it prevented you from doing in the first place.  I also found that once you download do the update the files are kept on the hard drive so you no longer have to redownload them again.  You just update the updates every second Tuesday of the month and it downloads the newest patches and creates a whole new ISO for you to burn.

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

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 : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

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.

Are you patched, Secunia Says NO

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.

Viacom and ATT layoff some people. (12,850 People)

Today, we are announcing a company-wide restructuring plan that includes staffing reductions in all divisions. This will result in a reduction of our worldwide workforce of approximately 7 percent, or about 850 positions. We are also suspending salary increases for the Company’s senior level management in 2009. In addition, after a comprehensive review of our operations, we will write down certain programming and other assets. These three actions will bring us significant cost savings and other efficiencies.

[via Gawker]

This is a Sad day for the telecommunications industry both AT&T and Viacom are laying off people. According to reports Viacom will lay off around 850 people. ATT will layoff 12,000 Jobs. Here’s the quote from Associated Press:

AT&T Inc. joined the recession’s parade of layoffs Thursday by announcing plans to cut 12,000 jobs, about 4 percent of its work force.

[Via Associated Press]

So in all today total that is 12,850 people who are going to be laid off. This is another set of layoffs but isn’t the last to see the whole list of of Layoffs in the Tech industry that I’ve talked about please click this link. You may find some usefull tidbits if you search my blog enough, I’ve got some great tips on getting hired and what you should do to be prepared.

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

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!!

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.

Hello Twitter, Goodbye Pounce!

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!

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.

Spying on Spyware.ISpynow!!

This is another Virus that is going around and thought I’d tell you about it:

Spyware.ISpyNow monitors files, network traffic, and keystrokes. This Spyware gives the person who installed it a Web-based interface with summaries of logged information on the host computer.

[Via Symantec]

Now this one isn’t to hard to figure out what happened.  You have to manually install it on your system to get infected.  Symantec has a great way on uninstalling this annoyance.  I also suggest checking out my other program list just in case you don’t want to buy Symantec Anti-Virus programs.  Some other things to check out is:

• Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc? – This has a great article on how to use HiJackthis program and how to make sure you no longer have the virus.
  
• Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! — This article gives you some other programs to use other than Symantec.   You have a wide variety of choices on Anti-virus programs and Firewall Choices.  You also have some choices on Spyware removal programs.

Podcasters are in up in arms over Ustream.tv

REVISED:

Podcasters and LifeCasters alike are not so happy with Ustream.tv right now. They have started to introduce there own ads overlay to where the lifecaster or podcast involved doesn’t get any revenue. One such Podcast right now is Mike Smith, Host of the Miketechshow Podcast, and Also Todd Cochrane, Host of Geeknewscentral.  In a Recent post from Todd, he stated he is going to leave Ustream.tv.

Mike Smith in his last Podcast talked about this subject and why he is really unhappy with Ustream.tv.  He says that the ads could possible violate his TOS with Techpodcast Network.  He also would like to share the revenue because he was one of the founding podcasters that started to use Ustream.tv.   He’s worried that there will be adult theme ads showing on his video stream and that He wants this to be family friendly.  He’s said before the show if he has to he’ll go to other networks.   Some of the networks that might help him out:

• Mogulus
• Stickam
• Ustream.tv
• Blogtv

Technorati Officially laysoff 6 people!!

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