Category: place

Facebook : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

Paul

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:

[ad#ad2-right]

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.

[ad#ad2-left]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.

Technorati Officially laysoff 6 people!!

Paul

Technorati released today they are going to Lay off 6 people and I will quote:
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Unfortunately, this means sacrifices. Technorati’s management team members are taking pay cuts ranging from 15-25% and employees are taking 10% cut. This also includes the reallocation of staff. We’re laying off six employees today – including two executives — and there are two additional departures we won’t replace. These are high performers who have worked long hours to get us where we are now. They’re also friends, and we’re very sad to see them go. We simply need a leaner and reconfigured mix to get us through 2009.

[via Technorati Weblog]

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

A good free VPN Client — OpenVPN & more

Paul

I’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:

openvpn

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)

  • WiTopia (40$/ Year) (Mac, Linux, and Windows)

[ad]There is of course others out that but these are just a few that I saw that looks like the cheapest there is.  Others I’ve seen cost 40 to 50 dollars a month.   If you have any other ones that are free or cheap let me know.  I don’t think we need to pay a lot just to have security on an open network. I’m certain that they’re more out there but will keep looking for more later on. I did my initial research and will come back and find more.

*Update Feb 8, 2009*

As of recent a friend emailed me saying telling me to check the site out again and I did.  Not sure when they went out of Beta because I’ve not been using Always VPN lately due to my Broadband Cricket Prepay Internet.  I just checked and yes they are charging here’s the break down:

  • 5GB – USD 8.50

  • 10GB – USD 15.00

  • 20GB – USD 26.00

  • 40GB – USD 33.00

  • 80GB – USD 47.00

So I must ask why they didn’t just keep the 5 GB limit with the Advertising, I do not know but  I did want to let people know that it is no longer free and no longer in Beta.  I went from Always to OpenVPN which still works despite the fact they are using Always VPN back client.   It’s open source so it will probably change to something else sooner or later.   If you see it changes let me know, I will update more when I find out more!!

Avg detected Trojan Horse Generic 12.htc?

Paul2 Replies

Just got a warning from AVG about, trojan horse generic 12.HTC, haven’t heard of it, anyone out there hear if this one? apparently it infects explore.exe, and after months of explore.exe crashing I’d say it’s a legit virus.

[Via Answer Bag]

Some tricks and tips to remove this little virus is quite simple. It is embedded in your system so how do you remove this threat? Easy follow these steps and you will have a better chance of getting rid of the virus:

  1. Find out all you can on the virus — Finding out the extent of where the virus lays is really a good idea.  Just because you found one place doesn’t mean it isn’t also hiding some other place.  Some good ways to figure out where it might be is to download Hijackthis and Then onces you download it and install.  Run it, and when you get the LOG file you will want to go to HijackThis Log Analysis Site 1 and HijackThis Log Analysis Site 2, and see what it says.

  2. See if you can remove the Hidden Virus — After you find out what the extent of virus may lay.  You will need to download these programs.  Run whichever ones you like to see if you can locate and delete the virus.  You may also consider using one of the several onine services to see what they might suggest or see if they can find this virus.

  3. Check your services and reboot sequence — After you think you’ve gotten rid of the virus, reboot and do a rescan.  Usually the Virus will respawn after you reboot, some of them have a command in the reboot sequence.   You may want to check your reboot sequence, by check with MSCONFIG.  Sometimes it is hidden but if you check through the MSCONFIG for any files that might not need to load.  Also check the services tab and see if there is any services that may not be needed.  The best bet is to google search each service or program that is in there and see if that might fix the problem.

  4. Might be time to re-install Windows — Although this is the hard for people, this can sometimes fix the most challenging virus.  You need not have to loose your important data.  The only thing to remember when you back up is when restore you data after you re-install windows.  Just remember one thing, if it is  an .EXE, .COM, .BAT, and .MSI extensions than that might risk you getting the virus all over again.  Although remember that you will need the other tools I talked about on #2 to keep from getting the virus again.

These are some tricks I use to get rid of a virus and now I’ve shared them with you and now it is up to you do the work.  If you have any tips or tricks to get rid of a virus leave a comment.

Mattel introduces the new Welfare Barbie.

Paul

[ad#ad2-left]Mattel will be introducing the new welfare barbie doll,or laying off 1,000 jobs. According to Bloomberg and I’ll quote:

Mattel 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.

[ad#ad2-right]According to some analysts, they are talking about this lasting another year or more. On another note, according to Kotaku and I’ll quote on this one to:

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.


[via Kataku]

Now I’ve talked enough about Layoffs in the past and I won’t talk to much but I do hope this changes in the new future. If you want to find the other ones that I talked about just search my site, they are all there with out any problems.

[Thanks to Kyle Rees for the suggestion on the heading]