HumanReady » Security

Epidemic

Nick R. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:37:56 +0000

Oh well, we’re in the middle of one of the worst epidemics, no question about it! I haven’t seen something like this for a very long time: everybody’s calling in with infected computers. Apparently, there’s a whole bunch of new nasty malware out there, invisible to most antiviruses as of yet. Be extra careful with what you click on and where you go on the Internet. Visually examine every link before clicking (point your mouse at it, watch the full address in the status bar below). Examples of syntax: payments.paypal.com = legit, while payments.paypal.paymentsforlife2010.com = bogus. In the 1st example “payments is a subdomain of paypal.com vs. both “paypal” and “payments” as a subdomain of “paymentsforlife2010.com” in the 2nd example. Here you’re really surfing paymentsforlife2010.com. A couple of days ago a client of mine received an email supposedly from “DHL” to say that they’d tried to deliver a package but couldn’t reach him with a “click here to reschedule delivery” link. It only took him one click.

A few extra steps to take to avoid getting infected:

1. Even if you’re not using it, upgrade the the latest Internet Explorer to here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/Internet-explorer/default.aspx

2. Install all the latest updates and patches from Microsoft, including those to Internet Explorer.

3. Upgrade your antivirus to the latest version. I use AVG Free Edition and you can get the full installation package here: http://filehippo.com/download_avg_antivirus If you’ve been using AVG, install on top of your existing version, it will upgrade and reboot computer. Otherwise, either upgrade what you have or remove and install something else. For faster computers I also like Kaspersky Internet Security that can be downloaded from http://www.kaspersky.com/ . Heavy guns and armor. Needless to say, I assume no responsibility for any damage directly or indirectly resulting from any advise I give here. Follow my suggestions at your own risk!

Immediately following the upgrade, reboot your computer and upon restart, update your antivirus till it there are no more updates.

4. Upgrade FireFox to the latest here: http://getfirefox.com

At least for a while, try and not browse the Internet on computers that you work on. Don’t go anywhere you don’t have to.

If you get hit with one of these, turn your computer off and don’t use it until you get help. There’s absolutely no self-disinfection this time.

Hang in there, people. Most antiviruses should be brought up to speed shortly. There’s already a few patches from Microsoft along with the new version of MS Malicious Software Removal Tool. Install it, too.

Acer Aspire One owners – beware!

Nick R. — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:37:26 +0000

Those itty-bitty AA1s are real cute. Most of us have them by now, as they are fairly cheap. And “cheap” usually stands for “trouble”. So, when you want to set the BIOS password, there’s a bug that can give you a heart attack: you have to supply your password with CAPS LOCK on, even though it was off, when you set it up. Though, if it was on at the time, then your little netbook may not boot at all. Here’s how I got around it. First, I figured it would be a lot more efficient and secure at the same time, if I disabled my Windows password and enabled the BIOS security lock. And so I do that, saved changes and restarted my computer. Then I type in the password that I just set up, and it’s not accepting it. A few minutes of googling around told me of the CAPS LOCK bug on this model. Nuisance, of course, but works for some. I intended to come up with a workaround and reset the password to all caps. And on the next boot the computer was dead. The only other option was to flash the latest BIOS in an “emergency mode”. That is, you get a USB flash drive, (using another computer with Internet access) format the drive into FAT16, download and extract contents of this archive to the root directory of the newly formatted drive, rename the file zg5_3310.fd to ZG5IA32.FD. Then attach the flash drive to a USB port of your netbook, turn it off, press the “function” and “escape” keys simultaneously and hold them down. Press the power button while still holding those two keys down to turn the computer back on. Be sure that you have both the battery and the power cord connected, by the way. Now the power light should be flashing and you can release your grip. Firmly press the power button once again and the computer should start the BIOS upgrade. The power button will continue to flash, as well as the activity LED on your USB flash drive, if it has one. When it’s done, your computer will reboot and that should resurrect it. You will still have to enter your password with CAPS LOCK on, though, so keep that in mind.

Good time of day from the Bayarea – wherever you are!

Nick R. — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:24:20 +0000

And so we begin. As of a few weeks ago an unusual spike in viral activity was witnessed and felt by many computer users. Beware: due to a couple of new modifications of the rouge anti-spyware, a lot of people are getting infected every day. Simply put, a virus on your computer that tends to behave just like an antivirus faking the appearance of firewalls , security centers and common anti-spyware modules. It would show you how many “infections” you computer is subject to and your every click – be it in or out of the program window – will take you to their website prompting for payments in order to make disinfection possible. Ironically enough, what it’s telling you is true… to a certain degree… And that is to say that the annoying pest itself is what’s infecting your computer. I’ve had people who’d paid hundreds of dollars this way before they realized something was wrong. The above can be a result of not having proper security in place, such as anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall shields, security updates for operating systems, not having the PC maintained for an extended period of time. All of this combined will surely get you in trouble, while when only some of the above is true, it will likely create a security vulnerability.

Tips of the day.
To avoid falling prey to scammers make sure you always remember the following:

1. The very first question that you should ask yourself when in doubt is whether you’re dealing with something that you recognize and have installed yourself or not. And act accordingly, of course.

2. Watch out for security certificates reports on every page that involves sensitive data transaction (this includes credit card numbers, logins, passwords and any other personal information). Every such transaction must only begin and continue on web pages with the address starting with “https”. And every such page must be properly digitally signed.