Category: Windows Vista tips

Service Pack 2 For Vista is out — Working good on the Cricket Broadband A600

Paul

Microsoft has sent out Service pack 2 for Vista, and so I installed it on my machine to see what happens with the [intlink id=”3479″ type=”post”]Cricket Modem[/intlink].  The Files Microsoft are letting people download are:

All of these are KB948465 and will be released on June 30, 2009 via Automatic updates.   I also tested it out and I have a 32 bit system.   I am unsure as to the other systems if the Cricket Broadband works or not on the [intlink id=”1936″ type=”post”]UM100 Modem.[/intlink]  I have the [intlink id=”3059″ type=”post”]A600 Cricket Broadband modem[/intlink] and it installed without a hitch.

According to Ars technica this Service Pack has over 800 hot fixes and have fixed several things that Microsoft did wrong with Service Pack 1.  If you have the Beta version you will have to unistall it before you install this service pack.  I would love to hear of any problems with Cricket Broadband from others in the forums.   If you have problems let me know and I’ll  do my best to help you out.

If you want to find out some of the fixes Microsoft sent out in this service pack you can see some of the updates on the Ars Technica article about what they fixed or changed.   That list isn’t a complete list but it highlights some of them.  If you haven’t installed [intlink id=”843″ type=”post”]Service Pack 1[/intlink], you will need to install that before you can install Service pack 2.

Spyware : Michelle Obama’s Ta’s Ta’s Video

Paul1 Reply

I love this one, I was reading the Sans Report about Michelle Obama Ta’s Ta’s on Video.  I wanted to investigate this a little further so I went searching around.  I found some comment spam links to a site I will not talk about the links directly.  The site however had a fake video on it :

michelleobamatoplessfake

It looks like if you hit Cancel or Details it keeps trying to tell you need to install an ActiveX Object.   It also makes the user think that there is only one option to use right now.   As you can tell  it makes you think you can’t cancel or get details but I did.  I tried to cancel and it kept on popping up trying to get you to install this active X installer.   AVG detects it as:

michelleobamatoplessfake1

[ad]This proves the fact that any Anti-virus software is better than nothing at all.   I also  have talked in the past about [intlink id=”2991″ type=”post”]fake codecs and how they are used maliciously[/intlink] to spread malware to people who aren’t up to the job.   I didn’t take long to find Phrases such as “Michelle Obama Topless” or “Michelle Obama Topless Video” to find spam comments linking to sites that are hosting these types of malware.  It seemed that in order to get out of the cycle with the Malware site, I had to do a CLT-ALT-DELETE and End the process of Internet Explorer process from Task manager.  It was an infinite loop and could not be closed any other way.  upon trying to go the link again it seems to be a random redirection every time you visit that site the next time I went there, I had a scare message pop up telling me:

michelleobamatoplessfake2

As you can tell this [intlink id=”3397″ type=”post”]pops up with scareware[/intlink] instead of the video and tries to tell you have a virus and you should run a free scan from the site of their choice.   This is an old tactic and still being used but funny if you look at that message one you know it is from a “Webpage” and two there are at least one grammar error?  Can you see it?

You’re best bet is not to go clicking on links that people have left in comments.   I am so glad I have moderation turned on and I have to approve each and every post someone comments on.   This is the only way I know how to prevent from being used in the spam campaign.  Remember it is time to update your [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]Anti-virus and Firewall [/intlink]if you don’t already have it.  Don’t forget to visit the Forums and help discuss this problem in detail.

Free Anonymous Browsing with Opera-Tor

Paul

2588641284_603490d6d1_m Photo by Philip Chapman-Bell

Anonymous browsing is something of huge interest to the Internet users, who are very particular about their online privacy and security. There may be many reasons and situations, when you might be interested in using internet anonymously; for instance, you may be working on a public place and do not want to leave the traces or you may not like your family members or office colleagues to know what you have been doing online. Whatever be the reason, but still, it is an area, where a lot research is to be done.

 

How Anonymous Browsers Operate?

At present there are two dominant techniques used by various anonymous browsing tools. One is the use of JAP Networks, which was used hugely used earlier but later it ran into controversies after a backdoor had to be put into the product to allow interception of child pornographers on insistence of German Police.

 

The second technique is the use of Tor (The Onion Ring), which only allows anonymous browsing but also facilitates other applications like anonymous P2P, email, IM, and IRC chat. This technique is dominantly used in present day anonymous browsing tools.

 

Operator – A useful anonymous browser

 

OperaTor is small and relatively fast anonymous web browser, which combines the browsing platform of Opera, with privacy provided by Tor engines and the speed of browsing provided by Polipo.

 

You can download this 7MB application in your USB drive and carry it whenever you need to use a public computer for anonymous surfing.

 

In my testing, I was pleasantly surprised with the speed of browsing, which I was getting with this little tool. I had earlier used XBBrowser for anonymous browsing, but it was too slow, as compared to Operator. In fact, there was hardly any noticeable difference in the browsing speed as compared to my normal Opera browser. This is because of Polipo, the small caching web proxy, that comes bundled with Opera-Tor.

 

Since Operator allows only http and https protocols in anonymous mode, you should avoid Javascripts and Opera’s IRC functions running through it.

 

Some people complain that it has not yet released the source code of itself. But my view is that unless you are hard-core programmer and really need to tweak the source code, why should you worry about that. After all, trusted networks like CNet says OperaTor has been tested spyware free and Softpedia gave OperaTor its 100% Clean award. Major antivirus vendors, like GData, Kaspersky, McAfee and Microsoft, confirm that OperaTor contains no malicious software.

 

Overall, one of the best applications for anonymous browsing available today.

[This is a guest post by Silki Garg. She advises on how to eliminate spyware, online threats and malware detection, on her Internet Security Blog. A visit to her Blog is highly recommended. You’re sure to find something of interest.]

 

 

JSRedir-R/Gumblar The underlying problem!!

Paul

Some people have made comments about there website being hosted to Malware injection into there site.  I’ve been seing a Lot of talk about JSRedir-R/Gumblar found to be the biggest malware threat on the Web.  They estimate that it is 42% of infected websites to be carrying this malware threat, last week.  I have heard some think it is weak login creditals.

[ad]See the Graph from Sophos about the percentage.  I also wanted to tell people how to identify if you have the infection or not.  This is very important to check because people are letting this Malware spread and all.  

I on the other hand think the way this is spreading is a Cross Site Scripting vulnerability for these websites but there are a few websites that do keep your login cache on your system.   I would recommend if your a web site owner to have your cache deleted everytime you exit your web browser.   This should in theory help prevent Cross Site scripting and Website owners should also either buy [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]Anti-virus and Firewall software or install the Free version[/intlink] to better protect your website.

Just like the[intlink id=”3308″ type=”post”]Twitter Cross Site Scripting tom foolery [/intlink]this is my theory on how websites are being injected with this malware.   It is however just a theory.  I was never logged into my account on twitter through my web browser when this happened and that is what kept me from spreading it to my Twitter users.   You should also consider always logging off your web site when your done doing what you do!   Just my thoughts on the matter,  Remember only you can prevent from getting a Virus.

Why Norton users do it wrong with Passwords

Paul

I just read this blog post Phishing attacks on Facebook users point to efforts to mine login data for profit. After reading one of the suggestions on how to create a good password and I’ll quote:
< [ad]blockquote>1. Use complex passwords and unique ones for each site. My method? Pick one string of letters and numbers and then add the first letter from the website’s name. For example: if my password “string” were “abc123$” then my Facebook password would be “Fabc123$”.
Now I can see where this can be used to figure the password?  If people use this method they would still be able to figure it out over time.   Let’s say you use the same sequence of numbers and letters after each site you go to.  This would make it much easier for a hacker to figure out the other passwords.

I will keep saying this time and time again, remembering passwords for me is the past.  I’ve been using [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] for the past few months and haven’t had any problems.  I’ve also have them backed up to Mozy to help protect my passwords.  As long as you back them up with Mozy and Keep save a copy of it off your hard drive you will be much safer than trying to remember a good password.

If you would like to find ways to help backup your passwords or your valuable information please [intlink id=”3171″ type=”post”]check this out[/intlink].

Remember your Roboform passwords are stored at :

C:\Users\(your username)\Documents\My RoboForm Data\Default Profile (Windows Vista and Windows 7).

C:\documents and settings\(your username)\My Documents\My RoboForm Data\Default Profile (Windows XP).

Although Norton’s suggestions does help keep your a little more safer this can be easily used to brute force attacks because they probably have tried letters from the website just because they do think about these things. You should always have a really good password and [intlink id=”2646″ type=”post”]Roboform[/intlink] can do that for you and keep it safe.