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.

[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.

PDF Zero Day Vulnerability in the Wild

From sources all over the internet, Adobe made a sent out a Security bulletin yesterday:

APSA09-01 (Buffer overflow issue in versions 9.0 and earlier of Adobe Reader and Acrobat)

[ad#ad2-right]A critical vulnerability has been identified in Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions. This vulnerability would cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system. There are reports that this issue is being exploited.

Adobe Plans on patching this March 11, 2009

and According to some other reports are saying:

Symantec Security Response has received several PDF files that actively exploit a vulnerability in Adobe Reader. We are continuing to remain in contact with Adobe on this vulnerability in order to ensure the security of our mutual customers.

[via Symantec]

With PDF files being used all over the business world, this will create undo problems with the IT Field.  This also could be used to make Botnets and make the network involved become sluggish.   It must be warned that there are a whole wide variety of possibilities that could be done with this exploit.  Shadowserver Foundation recommends disabling the Javascript in your Adobe Reader.  Until the patch comes out you will need to be careful on what you open up and possibly check each and every PDF with an Anti-virus.  This should help minimize the likely hood of getting a virus or Trojan, but is not going to be a 100%.  The only way you can prevent a 100% right now is not to use PDFS until they have Fixed this problem.

Office Depot Closed 126 Stores

This just came from USA Today, According to them and I’ll quote:

Office Depot plans to close 112 underperforming retail stores in North America over the next three months. In addition, 14 stores will be closed in 2009 as their leases expire or other lease arrangements are completed, it said.

The retailer will also close six of its 33 distribution centers in North America, and says it plans to open about 20 stores in 2009, down from an earlier estimate of 40.


[Via USAToday]

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Although this isn’t talking about layoffs but this will greatly impact people who will be jobless due to the closings.   SO I wanted to talk about how many per store,  I estimate it will be like 20 people per store on average.   So that will be around 2,500 people will be jobless in the stores and I don’t know how many people will be jobless from the distribution center.   If you want to check out my other posts just click here.  If you search my site you will find even more tips and tricks to better help you be ready for the job market.

Fix Shutdown Problems in Vista!

[ad]
In the Patch Tuesday update, Microsoft quietly released the patch to fix Windows Vista machine shut problems. This patch should of came sooner.

KB957388

Update for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista

Install this update to resolve a set of known application compatibility issues with Windows Server 2008. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

This was not a critical update and it seems to resolve so many issues with compatibility.  One thing it seemed to fix on my system has been the shutdown time.  It is now quite fast, it would normally take me 2 to 3 mins to shutdown, now it does it in less than a Minute.   So if you’ve not installed this update please install it soon.   I would like to know if people are seeing the same thing I am.   I’ve found a great resource on fixing it if you are still having problem, it talks about how to check your system performance. Although this is been doing it lately with these programs not loaded or even running, they still seem to cause problems so now I get the feeling it has to do with legacy programs.  This should fix most of the problem with older programs.

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:

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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]

[ad#ad2-left]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.