Archive for January, 2006

Standardized Spyware Testing

A new initiative from McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro and others is seeking to create a common standard and definition of spyware, create new and more effective evaluation criteria and help develop spyware metrics to help find and neutralize a problem that has surpassed viruses and one of the biggest nuisances on the internet.

Several security companies and organizations will collaborate on creating standard spyware testing methods in an attempt to bring some order to a mixed-up security jumble, the firms announced Monday.

McAfee, Symantec, Trend Micro, ICSA Labs, and Thompson Cyber Security Labs will join forces to standardized evaluation criteria, develop spyware metrics, and create a common standard for spyware samples.

The initiative, dubbed Spywaretesting.org, will also make it easier for customers to compare anti-spyware vendors’ products, said the companies.

“The successful industry practices previously established for sharing virus information demonstrate the effectiveness of cooperation,” said Vincent Weafer, senior director of development for Symantec’s security response group, in a statement. “By standardizing methods for sharing spyware samples and testing anti-spyware solutions, customers win.” The ad-hoc group’s future plans will include cooperating on spyware naming conventions, intelligence-sharing, and emergency information distribution guidelines. Source: Informationweek.

Will it help? Yes, it should help some I hope, as more and more spyware and malware are released, more eyeballs are needed to look for this stuff and those eyeballs need to know what to look for. They have opened a site at Spywaretesting.org and have already posted a pdf on anti-spyware testing procedures.

AMD’s Forums Hacked and a WMF Exploit Added to thier pages

Apparently, someone hacked AMD’s forums and and added a link to a windows meta file image hosted at toolbarsdollars.biz, a well known distributor of adware and spyware, so whatever you do, don’t visit that site, that’s why I did not hyperlink it.

As typical with many webpages, AMD’s forum pages have external php scripts that are loaded with the iframe tag in the webpage. One of those scripts, in turn, calls up a 16 kilobyte image called xpladv586.wmf that was being hosted at toolbarsdollars.biz, which is a well-known adware site. Several users reported that their anti-virus and anti-adware programs detected the WMF as containing a Trojan horse and promptly sent the file into quarantine. They have also posted several pages worth of messages to other forum members detailing what they did to clean up their computers and stop future threats. Source: TGDaily.

This has since been fixed, according to AMD here, but they did not say how it happened to start with. To protect yourself, if you have not already updated your software, the patch can be grabbed from here or by using Windows Update from Microsoft.

BPI wins File-Sharing Case

Two men have been found guilty of illegally swapping music online, after they refused to settle out of court. This is one case out of 139 that were filed by British Phonographic Institute, of which the majority have already settled out of court, some paying up to 6,500 pounds to avoid the court case. The are another 51 cases still pending in which they have until January 31 2006 to settle the cases out of court. BPI has claimed that illegal file sharing has cost the UK recording industry over 650 million pounds over the course of the last two years. According to Vnunet.com:

The British Phonographic Institute (BPI) has won a landmark court case after two individuals were found liable for illegally swapping music online. They now face bills running into thousands of pounds.

In the first cases of their kind to be heard in the British courts, a man from King’s Lynn and a father of two from Brighton have both been ordered to stop sharing files illegally and to pay costs and damages.

The music trade association, which declined to name the individuals, began proceedings against the man from King’s Lynn in August 2005.

The High Court rejected his defence that the BPI had no evidence of infringement, and he has been ordered to make an immediate payment of ?5,000. Total costs are estimated at ?13,500 and damages are expected to take the bill even higher. Source: Vnunet

This just goes to show you should always settle out of court, hehe.

Secure Computer Sued over Deceptive Advertising

I posted an article on RealTechNews about Washington State Sues Fake Spyware Cleaner, well apparently Microsoft was invloved in that case as well, according to vnunet.com, they helped research the case and provided technical assistance. Microsoft is accusing Secure Computer of violating it’s trademarks to mislead people into thinking Microsoft either sponsored or approved the spyware cleaner.

Microsoft and Rob McKenna, the Attorney General for the State of Washington, have filed lawsuits against Secure Computer from New York State and several unnamed individuals.

Secure Computer is accused of using deceptive advertising to sell its $49.95 Spyware Cleaner software.

Users are presented with pop-up ads, search engine ads or spam emails offering a free online spyware scan of their hard drives.

The software then labels innocuous system files as ‘high risk spyware’ and advises consumers to buy the software to remove the pest.

The case is first in Washington State to be filed under a local anti-spyware law. If found guilty, Secure Computer could be fined up to $100,000 per violation. Source: Vnunet.

As Nelson from the Simpsons would say, ha ha!

Video Conferencing, Online Meetings and Web Conferencing

Are you looking into Video over IP and finding the expense just too large and the setup too complicated, even for your router guys? Then, Sign up for a FREE TRIAL of GoToMeeting and discover how you can:

1) Hold as many online meetings and web conferences as you want and for as long as you want ? all for one very low rate, 1 video conterence or 100,000, it doesn’t matter one bit. Never see another overage charge or “extra fee” again, it will be the same price no matter how much or how little you use it.

2) Dramatically reduce your companies travel costs, save time and increase productivity because there’s no need to go anywhere, you save on travel and you are home more, because you can even do it from home to.

3) Take advantage of the easiest-to-use and most affordable Web conferencing video solution on the market, go ahead and check out the other solutions, but you should try this Free Trial first, you won’t need to see anymore . I’ve never seen a web conferencing solution that is so easy to use and cost effective and you won’t either!

No longer do you need special equipment, special meeting rooms or advance notice to get things going, this is secure, interactive and just needs you to get it started.

Just use the GoToMeeting icon in your system tray, an email or an instant message. There are no complicated logins or setups. It takes just 2 minutes to set up and a few seconds to start a meeting. That’s it!

Few things are as simple as GoToMeeting. With just a few clicks, you can easily organize on-the-fly or scheduled meetings, perform live demonstrations and collaborate on documents in real time. It’s like you’re in the office with your clients and colleagues. Find out for yourself how GoToMeeting can change the way you do business. But don’t just take my word for it, try it for free right now!

Need multiple organizer accounts and additional management features? Then you should Try GoToMeeting Corporate.

Now you can get a Free Trial + $10 Off when you order!

Blackcomb to be called Vienna

Microsoft has announced that the succesor to Windows Vista, formerly codenamed Blackcomb, will be called Vienna, after the capital of Austria.

“This does not reflect a big change for us; we have used city codenames in the past, which are derived from cities/locations in the world known for great ‘vistas’–the kinds of places we all want to see, experience and that capture the imagination,” said Microsoft, reminding people that there was another Windows to come before we get our hands on Vienna. Source: Yahoo.

They have done this with every version, Blackcomb was named after a ski resort in Canada, Windows 98 was called Memphis, etc, etc.

Nyxem.E Infections Growing Quickly

Infections of the Nyxem.E Worm are growing quickly, as reported by F Secure. They have spotted a counter that is supposed to be counting the number of infected computers and it is already over 500,000. Of course that could be a made up number, they could’ve started at 300,000, etc, but could be growing rapidly.

The worm’s destructive payload activates on every third day of the month by replacing the content of user’s files with a text string “DATA Error [47 0F 94 93 F4 K5]“. Among these files are: DOC, XLS, MDB, MDE, PPT, PPS, ZIP, RAR, PDF, PSD and DMP.

The worm also has an interesting feature: it increases a counter on a website every time a new machine gets infected. When we first saw the counter (earlier today) it was below 300,000 . Now it’s already over 417,000 and growing. The counter didn’t necessarily start from zero.

I recommend you get Panda Internet Security right now to make sure you are secure. Or try their Free Online Scan.

Oakley Thump2 MP3 Sunglasses

Recently I was sent a pair of the Oakley Thump2 sunglasses from a rep at Oakley, thanks Julie, because of an article I posted on RealTechNews.com. I mentioned that I would have to try any sunglasses on before I would purchase them, especially some as expensive as some of the Oakley sunglasses. Well, she was kind enough to send me a pair of the 1 gig Thump2 sunglasses to try out, and I must say, I am impressed. I couldn’t believe they fit my big head!

They are very easy to set up and use, all you have to do is attach it to your computer with the included USB cable, it will show up as a new removable disk and then you can copy your music to it like any other USB device. I did have some trouble because I was being too careful with it, I was not shoving the USB cable in all the way, and so it would charge but would not show up in My Computer. So make sure you get the little click when you connect the cable, or you will waste some time after it charges up. When you first plug it in, the indicator light on the right ear stem will start blinking red, which means low battery and as it charges the light will change to green and solid green means it is fully charged. It will take about 3 hours to fully charge it, but you can do a quick charge to about 80% in an hour. The charge lasted about five and a half hours for me, plenty of time to do whatever it is you are doing outside. I look forward to wearing them while mowing the little league baseball fields this summer, so I will be wearing them a LOT.

The greatest thing about the Thump 2 sunglasses is you don’t need the line that ties you to your MP3 player, because the ear bud’s are attached to the sunglasses, leaving you with nothing to carry or and no worries of catching the line on anything, definitely a plus in my book. The ear buds are on small arms that move in many directions thanks to the various joints in the arms, making it very easy to customize the fit to almost any head. If you are worried that you won’t be able to hear vehicles or other dangerous, say when you are jogging or riding a bike, you can leave them “out” from your ear a little bit as a safety precaution. I myself did not try them while jogging, but the ear buds stayed in place when not in the ear under normal use. I will have to find a motorcycle helmet that I can use them with though.

The volume controls are on the left stem and the track control buttons, the front button advances one track and the back button goes back one track. If you press both of those buttons at the same time, it will go into shuffle mode and play the songs randomly. The middle button will pause it, and, when you hold it for three seconds it will turn off. You can also go into the equalizer presets by pressing both of the volume buttons at the same time.

The sound quality is great, and the feel is great, but I do have a couple small complaints. There is no repeat setting and the lenses don’t flip up, so you will have to take them off inside. I also wish the ear buds weren’t so obvious when not in use, maybe in a future version, they could be hidden in the stems. They come in three sizes 256MB for $329, 512MB for $386 and the 1GB version for $501, so, they definitely cost more than your average MP3 player. I can see these being used by skateboarders, skiers, bikers, mountain climbers, etc, laying out in the sun, mowing the yard, the list goes on and on. Click here to get your pair.

Microsoft Releases Software Development Technologies

Today Microsoft released a couple key development technologies for the upcoming Windows Vista, these are part of WinFX, the programming model that is being introduced with Vista.

The release is “a significant checkpoint” on the road toward delivery of the company’s new programming model, since it allows developers to build and deploy applications on their core production systems, said Ari Bixhorn, director of Web services strategy at Microsoft.

WinFX combines Microsoft’s existing .Net programming model with new tools for more easily linking software over the Internet, displaying data and creating business systems, Microsoft said. It will be shipped with Vista and also made available in versions for Microsoft’s current client and server operating systems, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, Bixhorn said.

The programming model includes the application programming interfaces used by millions of developers to build software that runs on Windows. Microsoft’s goal in certifying parts of WinFX for production use–ahead of Vista’s launch–is to entice developers to create new programs tied to the new development model, thus driving demand for Vista. Source: News.com.

There are giving everyone the go ahead to start using this in production because they have been testing it the past year with some early adopters. Because it is backwards compatible, software developers can start developing their software now, and not have to wait until Vista is released.

Tool to Help Migrate from Notes to Office

Today, Microsoft announced they will be releasing a free set of tools to help Lotus Notes and Domino users move to Microsoft Office platforms, according to this article from WindowsITPro.

“Today we are responding to the strong demand we’re seeing from customers using Lotus Notes/Domino who are planning a transition to … the Office system of programs, servers and services,” says Microsoft corporate vice president Kurt DelBene. “This announcement is a big step in our overall strategy toward helping these customers make the move so they can begin to take advantage of our platform’s benefits.”

The new and updated tools include:

- Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino, which will analyze Notes/Domino environments and recommend how to migrate those applications to Microsoft’s platforms. It will ship in the first quarter of 2006, according to Microsoft.

- Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino, a new tool that will help organizations migrate data stored in Domino to Windows SharePoint Services (WSS). It will ship in the second quarter of 2005.

- Three new Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates, which will join the 30 application templates Microsoft first released in August 2005. The new templates include Discussion Database, Team Work Site and Document Library; they are available today.

Click here to visit Microsoft to find out more.