Tag: malware
November 14, 2009 by
Jason
Microsoft has reacted rapidly to public reports of a zero-day denial-of-service vulnerability in its latest iterations of the Windows client and server operating systems, and is providing customers with guidance on how to block potential attempts to take advantage of the security flaw. In this regard, the Redmond company has underlined that no exploits or attacks have been detected for the denial-of-service (DoS) hole in the Microsoft Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol impacting both SMBv1 and SMBv2 in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. However, Proof of Concept (PoC) code was irresponsibly published in the wild, making it extremely easy for attackers to build exploits putting at risk users of Windows 7.
âMicrosoft is aware of public, detailed exploit code that would cause a system to stop functioning or become unreliable. If exploited, this DoS vulnerability would not allow an attacker to take control of, or install malware on, the customerâs system but could cause the affected system to stop responding until manually restarted. It is important to note that the default firewall settings on Windows 7 will help block attempts to exploit this issue,â Dave Forstrom, group manager, public relations, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing, revealed. âThe company is not aware of attacks to exploit the reported vulnerability at this time.â Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
October 08, 2009 by
Jason
For most PC users, the migration to Microsoft’s new version of Windows will go smoothly with a little preparation.
Spending a few minutes getting your system ready before you insert that Windows 7 installation disc may save you hours of troubleshooting and repair afterward.
- “If any of your products have a limit on the number of times they can be installed with the same serial number, you might be denied permission to install them as part of a fresh install of Windows 7. Most of the time, there’s nothing you can do about this. You just have to try the installation and hope that you’re under the limit.
“However, some software companies allow you to deactivate the serial number from your old computer and reactivate it when you reinstall. This keeps you under the limit. Adobe in particular does this. For example, in Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional, you can go to Help, Activation and click Deactivate. By doing this, you’ll stay under the limit and you’ll be able to reinstall the product.”
A reader who goes by the name Alrock discovered a couple of quirks when he used Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor: Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
September 24, 2009 by
Jason
The revised Vesik method involves typing nonsense characters into a password input box when using a public PC and then rearranging some of the letters to form your actual password with the mouse. If the PC contains a hardware keylogger or is infected with a software keylogger, rearranging a password in this way will usually suffice to obscure your credentials. Most hackers will concentrate on the 99% of users who type in their passwords at Internet cafés in the usual way.
One proposal sent in by many, many, many readers was a variation on a single theme. Namely, keep your sign-in information on a USB flash drive or memory stick, then copy and paste the info into the appropriate fields when you’re required to use a public PC or other unsecured computer.
Unfortunately, many keyloggers capture any information you place into the Windows Clipboard. I tested the copy-and-paste technique using the All In One Keylogger from RelyTec. (For more info, see the vendor’s site.) The program easily captured the sign-in IDs and passwords entered, whether I used the standard menu options (Edit, Copy and Edit, Paste) or the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V.
Read More»
Posted in Computer, Software | 2 Comments »
Microsoft has updated the tools and development solution for the latest release of Forefront Threat Management Gateway. June 2009 brought with it the third beta of TMG. Now Microsoft is offering the associated diagnostics and feature-related solutions as well as the software development kit tailored specifically to Forefront TMG Beta 3. The Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Beta 3 Tools & Software Development Kit is currently available for download via the Microsoft Download Center. The latest development milestone brings to the table both administration and developer tools, and developers will be able to take advantage of new capabilities.
The Network Inspection System is new to this release. âWeâve added new structures, enumerations and log fields. For example, the FPCIPSSignature object represents a single intrusion prevention system signature. With it you can get the signature information, whether it is enabled or not. Malware inspection APIs â TMGâs malware inspection APIs allow you to manage the behavior of the feature. For example, using the FPCMalwareInspectionProperties object you can define the malware inspection settings for a policy rule,â revealed Noam Ilovich and Vivian Levin from the Forefront TMG Program Management team. Read More»
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Come June 23rd, 2009, Microsoft will open up codename Morro, its upcoming free security solution designed to replace Windows Live OneCare 2.0, to the public. The Redmond company offered official confirmation that codename Morro had been rebranded as Microsoft Security Essentials, and that the first Beta for version 1.0 was ready to debut next week. Access to Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 Beta will be granted to testers in the United States, Brazil and Israel, the software giant informed. The information provided by Microsoft comes after screenshots of Morro made it into the wild, followed by the actual bits, leaked a couple of days ago.
âThe Microsoft Security Essentials Beta will be made publicly available in Brazil, Israel and the U.S. starting June 23 at about 9am PDT from www.microsoft.com/security_essentials, and general availability is scheduled for later this calendar year,â a Microsoft spokesman told pctipsbox. Read More»
Posted in Software | 1 Comment »
1. Delete items from address bar history
While it’s very handy to have your recently visited pages autocompleted as you type, it’s not always desirable. Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited. You can highlight and delete these at will, for maximum privacy.
2. Protect your PC from malware
You don’t have to visit the seedy side of the web to pick up a virus – even the best social networking sites regularly host all kinds of malware. But you can reduce the chance of infection by installing NoScript. This handy add-on blocks Javascript, Java, Flash and other executable content from running unless you explicitly allow it, and is a great way to keep yourself safe online.
3. Speedily search for images
Browse Google images and your results are split into blocks of 21. But use CoolIris and you’ll get all your results displayed on a 3D photo wall, a much faster and easier way to find the images you need. It only works with some sites, unfortunately, but as these include Google, Flickr, Picasa, Yahoo, Photobucket, Facebook and MySpace then you’ll still have plenty to browse. Especially as it searches and displays YouTube videos, too. Give it a try. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
Contrary to some of the stories circulating in the more excitable sections of the media millions of PCs didnât suddenly blow up following the much-anticipated reactivation of the Conflicker C virus on April 1st. In fact, at the time of writing nothing much seemed to have happened and the world moved on to more important matters. Nevertheless, this virus, and its ilk do present an ongoing threat, especially for PC owners who do not keep their security software and Windows Updates current. By the way, if you have any concerns about Conflicker C and malware in general and you think your PC may be infected I wouldnât ask Google. I typed in âConflicker C Removalâ a couple of days ago and the first three hits all led to websites carrying the virus!
If you have been lax with your security updates then your best bet is to download the free Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool, which scans your PC for Conflicker and a raft of other nasties, but in the end the best way to avoid becoming infected is to install a decent anti-virus program and regularly sweep your PC with cleaners like AdAware, A-Squared and Spybot.

Posted in Software | 1 Comment »
The release of proof-of-concept exploit code for an unresolved critical bug that allows for remote arbitrary code execution on the latest stable version of Mozilla Firefox has put developers on alert. A fix will be included in the 3.0.8 version of the browser, which is scheduled for release in a few days.
The vulnerability is described on SecurityFocus as a “Boundary Condition Error” and allows an attacker to execute potentially malicious code by calling a malformed XML file from a Web page. Parsing a specially crafted “root” XML tag in an XSL file results in a memory-corruption error.
These drive-by types of attacks have become the weapon of choice for many of today’s malware distributors. Cross-site scripting (XSS) weaknesses are used to inject rogue exploit-serving IFrames into legitimate pages. These exploits target vulnerabilities in popular software such as Adobe Reader, Flash Player, or the browsers themselves. Read More»
Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
February 14, 2009 by
Jason
Recently we had written about a free download for rapidshare free users, which lets you download more than one file simultaneously with out any time lag in between. Today we will tell you about another free rapidshare downloader which lets you download any fie from rapid share with ease.
Rapid Download is fast, portable and lightweight download accelerator for rapidshare, the use of this rapidshare downloader is quite simple as you just need to copy all the links of the rapidshare files to be downloaded in a file called download.txt and double click the executable of the application rapiddownload.exe
Rapidshare downloader is very small in size with only 14 KB in size, moreover it also checks whether the file as per the download link is still there on the rapidshare servers before downloading.
Features of Rapidshare Downloader (Rapid Download): Read More»
Posted in Internet, Software | 7 Comments »
February 14, 2009 by
Jason
One of the most important feature which almost every windows user wants in windows is to protect the private files with password. Many people keep some of the very sensitive files on their hard drive and other portable drives which they donât want other to see.
Androsa (Password Protect Files Via Ghacks.net) is a free password file protector to protect your confidential documents or any other file with a secret password. It lets you lock any file in windows with a secret password.
When ever you password protect any files with this program it will convert the file into an encrypted file which can be opened only with software and de-protected by entering the correct password. You can select among different encryptions method at the time of password protecting your files with this program.
Letâs see how simple you can password protect any program with this software. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »