Category: Internet

I hate Snopes Spam

Paul

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.
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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.’

[Via Snopes]

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.

Cracking and Warez sites are Host of Trouble!!

Paul2 Replies

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:
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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.

Facebook Goes Phishing again

Paul

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.

[ad#ad2-right]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.

Viacom might be going to HULU

Paul

According to some of the news post people are worried about Viacom leaving Time Warner. Now Here’s where Viacom might be going digital. What do I mean Digital, I am talking about going to HULU. If Viacom doesn’t sign a deal with Time Warner, that would leave a space ope for someone else like Hulu.

So Viacom isn’t happy with Time Warner, or They want to go IPTV. Some of the Headlines I’m seeing are:

These are just a few that I am seeing pop up around the internet.  So what does that mean to the internet user?  Well On one of there show’s like Dora the Explorer on Nickelodeon will begin to stream some of the shows previews on Dec 29, 2009 for it’s next show.  When you go to Nickelodeon Site you get this:

nickplea

[ad#ad2-right]Although this just means they want as much money as possible this does give Hulu the chance to start streaming this type of content easier and probably be able to sign a contract with them without much of a fuss. After all Viacom wants to make money some how. So what can you do to get them to go to Hulu. Email Hulu and tell them and tell them you want Viacom to come to Hulu. If this happens so many things will happen with regards to online media.

Using Skype with Cellular BroadBand Modems

Paul

If your like me you will want to make sure you have the best possible speed and connection with your broad band modem. Here are a few articles to better help with you get the best possible speed with a broad band modem like a Cricket modem:

Some other things to consider are:

These will start to make it better for you to use a modem and get the best possible speeds from the modem.  You have to realize what your coverage area is.  There are many factors in regards to your modem speed but that is something that you will have to figure out how to get better speeds.

How do you use Skype with your Cellular broad band modem?

Somethings to remembers with your broadband modem is you won’t have a good connection no matter how hard you try.   Most cellular carriers don’t want you to us it with VOIP(Voice of Internet Protocol).   So you will have to pay close attention to how you use the bandwidth and what you are doing while making a VOIP call.

The good thing about Skype is, it comes with some very useful tools to better watch your bandwidth and to help get the best possible connection.  You will want to make sure not to have it be a super-node, to do this you go to:

Tools then;Options

My settings for Skype with Cricket<

As you can see I checked off use port 80 and 443 as alternative incoming connections, I also like to see all the technical information and bandwidth usage per call.  I made sure to use Socks5 to prevent skype from becoming a super-node. I also have it set to not automatically start up when I load windows.  To do that all you have to do is go to the General tab and un-check start Skype when Windows start.   You can use any port you want as long as you use the same on the SOCKs5 setting also.   I just made the port up it can be 0 to 4 numbers long.   If you want to understand what ports are this little document will greatly help you figure out which ports are good to use.  Some other things to remember when you use Skype for long periods of time is if you need to call someone you should try not to use the internet to much for that takes bandwidth also.  It is better to have Skype use all the possible bandwidth you have available.