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.
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]
So if you are worried you have a virus or think you have a virus I would advise you to download one of the free Many anti-virus software and firewall. This is nothing new with the companies who are doing this but don’t buy anything because people are trying to scare you into thinking you have a virus. That rarely is a valid software and you should use the ones that you trust. If you find a site like that please report them to Phishtank and other sites that way we can protect everyone who goes there.
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.
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!
As you know Snopes is used to find out about urban Legend and Rumors:
I received a Virus alert from my RSS feed about Email virus warning. It even adds a Snope URL. The Author just copies and pasted the virus warning into the blog without even going to Snopes.
According to Snopes and I’ll quote:
Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn’t a “BIG VIRUS COMING” (it’s already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not “burn the whole hard disc” of your computer, CNN didn’t classify it as the “worst virus” ever, and it doesn’t arrive in messages bearing a subject line of ‘Invitation.’
Now as you can tell the link described in the blog post was “http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp”. If you went there, you’d have seen this as a not really true and some parts of this might be but that part about burning your Hard drive or even consider the Worst virus isn’t true.
Some things you need to consider before forwarding anything is:
Is it completely True?
Is it Legitimate? (True blown warning about something like a product recall or something important like that)
Does it Say to Forward? (if so it is probably not wise)
is it from a Friend (If so you might want to remind the friend nicely that it isn’t nice to send spam)
If you follow some of these suggestions you’ll be making the Internet a far better place for everyone. Remember if you don’t know, it’s time to learn. if you do know, it is time to teach. These are the fundamental aspects of using the internet the right way. Also if it is a fake virus warning you should tell them to get a Free Anti-virus and Firewall to better protect them. Also remind them that if they keep their system updated then they shouldn’t be too worried. Remember only you can prevent a Computer Virus and it’s up to you keep your system up to date.
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)
Game Cheats (This is usually a small program like a bot or some other way for the gamer to cheat)
And should not be Downloaded or USED!! I don’t say that lightly, because Gamers feel they should be able to play any game they want. Although this post will probably make the Gamer developers happy, I do this to tell people that these virus writers are using the gamers to distribute the Virus. I encourage all the gamers out there, that don’t want to loose their games to not download any more of these types of cracks. It seems the virus writers are wanting to infect systems and slow you down. You don’t want to slowed down do you? Please consider getting a Firewall and a Free Anti-virus software to better protect your system.
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.
Panda Labs has been talking about Adware/VideoPlay and they are seeing a lot of variants on this. They even play a game, find the difference in the installation screen:
Now as you can see this look to be the same agreement in all those difference installation. Some things to consider Never install any software from a website that you don’t know Nothing about about.
Panda Labs also talks about these new variants in regards to what they do:
This file spreads by making copies of itself in the removable drives and it also creates an autorun.inf in order to be run when they are accessed. This file collects the data stored in the browsers, such as cookies, passwords, profiles, email accounts, etc, and connects to a remote address to send the information.
[Via Panda Labs Blog]
As you can see this makes you have very little security with your system. I talk about Identity theft, and why you should always worry about your identity. This however will make your passwords less secure and maybe even compromise you system to the point of having a data breach. You need to be careful when you come by this, some fake codecs have been know to be scareware. In which, the fake codecs installs a Trojan to tell you have a virus and try to make you buy a fake program to get rid of the Virus. In one of my recent posts about Codecs and Facebook, I talked about the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and how that will prevent you from installing these sociable links from friends and family. The nice thing about this pack is it install all the really good codecs that you might come across on the web. If you have this installed and there’s a website that says you need a special codec, you’d know that it is either a fake codec or the author who made the video doesn’t standardize. In which case you will be more willing to leave that site without installing that codec.
If you follow these steps and also consider installing an Anti-virus and Firewall, you will be in a much better shape then when you first started out. Remember only you can prevent from getting a virus. You should also consider doing the registry edit that will prevent Autorun. As you can tell these new variants also are spread through USB and other removable media. This is the other way these programs are using to infect other systems.
McAfee Says “W32/Sality.ao is a parasitic virus that infects Win32 PE executable files. It infects files (*.exe and *.scr files) on the local, network and removable drives by overwriting code in the entry point of the original file and saving the overwritten code in its virus body. It then appends the virus body to the host file.”
These links should help people understand it it. You can visit my Malware Resources to help remove this virus. Something to consider before removing this is to disable your restore points.
Remember there’s no easy to make money, the only real way is to work hard. According to my research the Anti-virus companies have ways to remove this virus and as long as you update your database.
Windows 7 — Lighter, Faster, and Reliability. Windows 7 Should boot quicker and faster, and enables cool new interface touch.
Windows 7 — Beta will be available Worldwide on January 9, 2009 and will be available for download on MSDN and Technet. Also it will be available at : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7 For those who want to download it from Microsoft directly.
Windows Live Essentials — Windows live Messenger, Mail, and Photo Gallery works with Windows XP, VISTA, and Windows 7. It is available for download worldwide. Dell will also be putting this on their consumer and small business computers.
Windows Mobile — 11 Different Mobile phones.
Verizon Mobile – Windows Live Search will be available through Verizon and it’s a partnership with Microsoft.
Demo of Windows 7, Live, and Mobile:
Windows 7 will have Windows touch and be able to use net books with Windows 7.
Windows 7 has been designed with the Touch DNA in mind.
Windows Mobile demo with an Panoramic display.
Windows Live Demo – Various things they discuss here including Photo’s and Silver light.
Windows XBOX:
Halo Wars — Strategy game and will Available February 28, 2009. The Bungie Will have a demo version February 5, 2009 and will be available for download.
Halo 3 ODST — Will be available in the Fall of 2009. New Characters, new events and will be like Halo 3.
Various stuff about Xbox Live 360
These were just the main things that I thought was important to let people know what was mainly the important highlights of this keynote. I will recommend everyone to go and watch it for yourself, I am sure I’ve missed something that someone would consider very important and understand that. This however is a personal and will be different in everyone. I watched this and am excited and can’t wait for windows 7 to be released so I can get my hands on this and see how it fairs with a Vista CPU and GPU. So only time will tell. I hope you enjoyed this little run down. Please feel free to leave a comment and talk about this or anything else in the Disqus community.
The Pantech PX-500 wireless mobile broadband card for Sprint gives you data communication access for your PC laptop anywhere you roam on the Sprint network at faster speeds than ever before. EV-DO rev A compatibility gives you download speeds of up to 3.1 Mbps and beefy upload speeds of up to 1.8 Mbps. Simple to use, the Pantech PX-500 wireless mobile broadband card lets you surf the Internet, send and receive email and text messages, and connect to corporate networks from just about anywhere.
Technical Specs:
Dimensions – 4.57 in x 2.13 in x 0.51 in
Weight – 1.8 oz
Data Download Speed – EV-DO rev A (Up to 3.1 Mbps Down/1.8 Mbps Up), EV-DO rev 0 (2.4 Mbps Down/153 Kbps Up), 1xRTT
Download Protocol – CDMA 850, 1900
Compatible Carrier – Sprint PCS
Network Compatibility – CDMA 850, 1900
3G Data Speeds – Yes
Compatibility Features
Device Supports Data Plans – Yes
Available For Purchase Without Service Plan – Yes
Saw this card and did a little digging. I looks like the newest updated software and drivers for this card can also make it Vista and Linux compatible. Although with any card you will use up more battery life but it is a small price to pay to check email and surf the web. Also if you have an newer laptop or am about to upgrade I’d suggest Getting a Sierra Wireless Compass 597 USB Modem from Sprint! This is good for anyone who wants to surf the web and not have to buy the hardware to do it with. Both are free to buy and ship with a two year contract. If in doubt please get the USB card that way you know you know you will be able to use it.
Just saw this and couldn’t resist talking about it. This would be great on the road. If you use this on a laptop, then you would have some really good channels as you travel on the road. No more having to watch movies on your laptop. You can now see the current events as you travel around the US. With the Digital change over Coming Feburary 17, 2009. You’ll want to have a way to watch TV, this would be one way. Right now Amazon is offering it for 112.22 but that could change so check the link out to find out how much it is.
This one hit me hard in the chest. I must say this was a big surprise to me and others but it looks like Bank of America is going to cut 30,000 to 35, 000 Jobs in the next 3 Years. I’ll will quote Huffinton Post:
NEW YORK — Bank of America Corp. said Thursday it expects to cut 30,000 to 35,000 jobs over the next three years, as it faces a deteriorating economic environment and tries to absorb Merrill Lynch & Co.
Now this one will affect the Whole US and some other International in the coming years. It is based on the Economic Stresses we are getting hit with right now. I am saddened and disturbed by how many people have loss there jobs. I have lost count as to how many people have losed their jobs over this economic downward spiral as Jason Calicanis once said. I can only hope that we can get up after this and fix what went wrong in the first place. I also know that it is quite hard to get hired in this day and age. So what is to become of the hard working men and women? Will the Government have to pay for housing for even more people? These are all questions we must answer soon in order to prevent a disastrous depression.
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:
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:
If you have any others you would like to suggest please leave a comment and let everyone know. These are hard economic times and we all could use the help.
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.
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.
I can only guess why and the guess is just a guess. If Itune’s did remove there DRM the same time as Microsoft Patch Tuesday, I’d have to guess they will co-inside because of the difficulty of using the DRM, Digital Rights Management, on other products. For example, Windows Media Player . If Apple decided to approach Microsoft and come up with a way to make sure all DRM is stripped this would be the ideal situation. Although this is highly unlikely, I’d have to think Apple wouldn’t wait till tomorrow to strip the DRM. They know Microsoft schedule. We will have to find out in the coming days.
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.”
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.
What’s this program name, it is call the K-lite Mega Codec pack. In this Pack you will be able to play almost everything without having to go download another program. This is done by people who want you to have all the latest codecs installed so you don’t have to go by a program you’ll only going to use once a month.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll no longer have to worry for the most part about codecs. There will be times when you might have to visit that site and update them but that will be far less.
The other thing you must remember is if it says you must update your player. That should be a sign that there is something. I’ll always go to the site and check for example Adobe. If it says I need to update my flash I’ll manually type it into my browser. This way you will know you have the latest updates, if you need to update the flash player by all means go to here and update.
If you got the virus I’d check out my Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware page and that should show you will you need to get rid of the Virus. This virus is very easy to get rid of, just download any one of the anti-virus software and install it. Don’t forget to update the virus database while your at it. That should fix the problem pretty fast. Remember the only way to prevent from getting the virus is YOU.
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.
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.
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.
If you don’t know what you need to update sometimes just having a program check for you can make a really good difference. The one that I like to use is Appsnap and it actually searches you computer to see what might need to be updated. I also suggest for the final suggestion is check out my Anti-Virus and Anit-Spyware Resources and make sure you have a firewall and anti-virus software. This will greatly reduce your chances of getting a virus but that isn’t all you have to be careful on what you click on read this article on Some Important programs to prevent yourself from having viruses and Malware!! Read that carefully to better understand how you can protect yourself in the future.
Trojan-PSW:W32/Sinowal.CP drops and loads a password stealing component on the infected system and tries to steal account information from it. It also tries to steal information that is required to access certain online banks’ and online payment systems’ websites.
This are the beginning steps to get rid of a Virus but it will be a really hard virus because it wants to stay in your system. You should also Restart in Safe mode and Try to remove that virus that one. You will also want to disable your system restore due to the fact that it will be in there and might come back if you restore your system. Just some simple tips to help keep you safe on the net.
“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.
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.
It is always going to be something to be hard, because these people are using social engineering. It seems they are trying to prove a point, even Macintoshes can be vulneble to this attack. If you get anything through you email from people saying they seen you naked or got pictures of your butt, I’d suggest, not clicking those links.
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.
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.
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.
In my vista-sp2-dec-42008.html/”>Previous article I talked about how you could be in the Beta, and I just checked this morning. It looks like they took that article down. I don’t know if they are changing it around or what but it will be. I hope they fix this soon. I would like to start testing this on my Virtual Machine first before I install it on my real machine!! I will update this when they do get it up and running.
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.
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.
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.
Having said that here’s some things that will be most likely be Advertised with Windows 7 when it comes out. Microsoft will want it to be game friendly, User Account Control to be less obtrusive, and program compatibility. These the main points to get people to start buying Microsoft’s products. Microsoft should be worried because of Apples comments about how you should use an Anti-virus for Macintosh’s. This is definitely worrying Microsoft. It means Microsoft has an competitor that Hackers are trying to exploit. I would be willing to guess that Microsoft is worried people are switching to Apple products. These are just guesses but I am quite certain Microsoft is really worried. What do you think, do you think it will happen?
Some sources are reporting that Vista SP2 will be out in April. According to Engadget they claim TechARP is a bunch of Malaysian Kids that like to boast about how they broke the Vista SP1 and XP SP3 release schedules to the world. They claim though that Vista Release candidate is to be out around February.Microsoft has indicated that this SP3 will include Windows Search 4, Bluetooth 2.1 wireless support, faster resume from sleep when a wireless connection has been broken and support for Blu-ray. I personally think it will include some of Windows 7 features to better get people accustomed to Windows 7 when they come out.
Although this is speculation and no hard evidence I think it has some merit due to the fact that Microsoft has admitted in the past that Vista was a big Letdown. I don’t think they can any more to damage than they have already done. If anything Windows 7 will be a easy Success if they pull it off in the right way!!! Although with WIndows 7 be leaked online there is no telling what will happen. I am sure what ever happens will be interesting to say the least!!!
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.
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.
Make sure you update Windows regularly. Having seen this time and time again, if you don’t keep windows updated then you lose the battle. If you have a system that needs updating, I suggest downloading the Clone to Autopatcher. This little program will download the files needed to update your system without having to be online. Although, you can have windows update automatically every month but that might not update the recommended updates only the ones that are hot. It doesn’t matter which way you prefer to update, as long as you do to update regularly, Like every 2nd Tuesday of the Month.
One last tip you should also keep your Firewall and Anti-virus updated. There is a little program that will do that, it’s call AppSnap. If you follow all these recommendations you will greatly reduce your chances of getting a virus on your system.
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.
Shopzilla – The company’s mission is to enable shoppers to quickly and easily find compare and buy anything, sold by virtually anyone, anywhere. Each month, Shopzilla connects millions of consumers with thousands of stores.
These are just a few that I could find and wanted to let people decide where they would like to go!!
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.
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 Component
945060 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.
On a Windows Vista-based computer or on a Windows Server 2008-based computer, you install a third-party Web browser. You set the third-party Web browser as the default Web browser. Then, you run the Connect to the Internet Wizard. However, if you select the Browse the Internet nowoption, Windows Internet Explorer starts instead of the third-party Web browser that you set as the default Web browser.
This seems to be not so important. All of these are not really security related but it does surprise me that Microsoft wanted to release these out of Cycle. If your planning on using your Vista laptop during the holidays you might want to update your vista machine before you go. I don’t think there is going to be any major issues with this but if there is, you can always remove these updates later.
Installation – The installation of the USB was not to difficult. I did have to do some more steps than this: Install the Software, then hooked up the USB device to the USB port.
Manual Activated the Broadband – For some reason in my area they had several people have problems with the broadband activation. So I had to activate it manually!!
After that all went well, I was on the internet just a cruising along. I did however wonder why I was getting such a slow response speed. When I went traveling I thought I would share some of my local results with you to better show you my speed. All these test were done at
The Percentages over the results are showing you just what my signal strength was when I was doing the test. Two of the 4 were traveling on the highway and the other two were stationary. I also know that my speed will vary along with signal strength, I know I have to be a mile or less from a tower to get 100%.
*Update*12/21/08
In my other post I talk about why I didn’t get the speed I expected, but after I did the activation I went to normal Mobile Broadband speeds. I also now have been using the USB Modem for my main internet without any or much problems. I know I can’t play any major online games but I can at least have the internet with me were ever I go. As long as you stay in the coverage area, you should be in good shape. . Like I Said I’ve used it in my area for over a 1 month and with the small little problem, the speed has been really dependable and I haven’t had any major issue with connectivity. I’ve been using this modem as my main internet and have not seen any major internet and have not seen any of the cap come my way. I think they won’t mind to much as long as you don’t ABUSE the internet, for example don’t use it for bittorrent downloads and you should be fine!!
Update 12/24/2008
I also did travel with my laptop to another city, and I got to say it was really good and how it did when I went from one city to another. Check out the report here. According to some post and forum talks around the the internet they are talking about the soft cap of 5 Gigabytes but that seems to not be so important right now. After all, they have to make money some how. I will update as necessary when I find anything else out.
update 1/01/09
I also did a video and uploaded it to youtube using the broadband connection. I had no problem uploading this video to Youtube. I’ve embedded it in this web page. See it on the bottom:
I also bought the A600 Cricket modem and I absolutely love this modem because of the things you can do with it.
Just got done looking at some of my security sites and according to SecuriTeam there are are several programs that have vulnerabilities. here are the Ones that I’ve found:
Google chrome is vulnerable to URI Obfuscation vulnerability.
An attacker can easily perform malicious redirection by manipulating the browser functionality. The link can not be traversed properly in status address bar.This could facilitate the impersonation of legitimate web sites in order to steal sensitive information from unsuspecting users. The URI specified with @ character with or without NULL character causes the vulnerability.
iPhone Configuration Web Utility for Windows Directory Traversal
iPhone Configuration Web Utility lets “you easily create, sign and distribute configuration profiles using a web browser”. A vulnerability in iPhone Configuration Web Utility allows remote attackers to access files that reside outside the bounding root directory of the program’s files folder.
Streamripper Multiple Buffer Overflows
Streamripper “records Shoutcast and Live365 MP3 streams to a hard disk, creating separate files for each track. Runs under Unix and Windows.” Secunia Research has discovered some vulnerabilities in Streamripper, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user’s system.
Amaya URL Bar Stack Overflow Vulnerability
A vulnerability in Amaya browser allows remote attackers to cause it to overflow an internal buffer which in turn can be leveraged to execute arbitrary code.
These are the ones that I found and wanted to let you know about these so you can make your system even more secure. if I find any others I’ll let you know!!!
Picture from F-secure
Categories: 2009, Adobe, Facebook, Fake, Virus, virus removal | 
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