Nellie2

Forget avoiding your girlfriend in case she has decided that today is the day for the big proposal.

Today is also the last day that you will be able to sign the Downing Street petition calling for the UK Government to create a central E-Crime Unit.

The National High Tech Crime Unit was closed down almost two years ago.. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) have been doing the best they can with the resources they have… but it’s not enough.

So get clicking on that petition.. show Gordon Brown that you are a concerned citizen.  Make sure you submit a valid email address as you will need to click on a link that will be emailed to you to validate your signature.

—–> Click Here For the Downing St E-Petition <——

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Here we go folks, yet another rogue program for you all … with another really zippy name.

SpywareRemover is a rogue anti-spyware program that is advertised through the use of malware. When this malware, labeled Hoax.Win32.SpyWare.d by Kaspersky antivirus, is installed on your computer you will start to see popups for a variety of services. One of these is advertisements is a misleading popup stating you are infected and that you should install SpywareRemover to remove it. The title of this popup is Spyware detected! and the content of the popup is:

Windows has detected a spyware infection!
Please install Spywareremover to remove the infection.

Once SpywareRemover is installed, it will automatically scan your computer for infections and then display a variety of false positives as well as an interesting find; the malware that installed it in the first place. In order to remove these infections, though, you must first purchase a license for the software. (Surprise surprise) Screen shots of the SpywareRemover program can be seen below.

Above blurb and screenshot have been shamelessly pinched from Bleeping Computer. Needless to say… you won’t be doing yourself any favours if you do purchase this program because all you will be doing is putting money into the malware vendors pockets and your PC will still be infected.

For comprehensive self help removal instructions please visit Bleeping Computer.  If you are still having problems after following those instructions then please ask for help at one of the anti malware forums.

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There has been quite a bit of information on various security sites about the botnet bust in Canada last week… so I know I’m raking over old news.

But who cares… the point is, something is being done. The bad guys are getting tracked down and are being taken to task. Yes it’s a slow process and no.. they aren’t locking them up and throwing away the key yet… but every botnet that is taken down is one less that we need to worry about.

Over the course of the two years that this network was under investigation, the network took control of up to a million computers. When you figure the number of computers hijacked, the amount of the damages, and the number of people they were able to connect with this crime, this is a very impressive win for the Quebec police.

See the full story here at McAfee

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I found this Browser Security Test site. I ran my browser through it and came up with these results…. phew!

There is some comprehensive and easy to understand information about each vulnerability that is tested.. depending on your browser.

Remember though.. each browser has different vulnerabilities.. and more are discovered or exploited every day.  Just because you may pass this test today… doesn’t mean that you can let your guard down tomorrow!  And regardless of what anyone may tell you.. all browsers are vulnerable to something, there is no such thing as a totally impervious browser.

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Just a word of warning… Microsoft does NOT send out updates by email.  Windows will tell you if there is an update pending.  If you aren’t sure how to configure your settings to your preferences then here are some links for you.

Manage Your Security Settings In One Place (Windows XP)

Windows Vista Security Centre

Check out the Sunbelt Blog for information (and screenshot) on the latest fake MS Update spam that was first seen yesterday.   As you will see…you won’t get updates to help keep your computer safe but an IRC.Backdoor Trojan!

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I had a comment to one of my posts.. it wasn’t relevant to the post at all and my spam catcher had marked it as spam. I was a little perturbed as to what to do.. because the question is one I would love to answer… but I’m not giving spam space to anyone on my blog!!

If it wasn’t spam then I do apologise.. here is your question and my answer.

What Are The Advantages of Winpatrol 2007 Version.

Winpatrol 2007 is a program that sits in your system tray and unobtrusively monitors what is happening on your PC.

WinPatrol uses a heuristic behavioural approach to detecting attacks and violations of your computing environment. Traditional security programs scan your hard drive searching for previously identified threats. WinPatrol takes snapshot of your critical system resources and alerts you to any changes that may occur without your knowledge. You’ll be removing dangerous new programs while others prepare to update their definition/signature data files

But it is so much more, you can check out what programs are loading at startup, Winpatrol will even give you information to help you make the decision as to whether you really need that progam to load on startup.

With the 2007 version came a new feature called Delayed Start, you can boost your start up time by putting programs here that you do use… but that don’t have to be loaded on startup.

It will tell you about your IE Helpers or Addons, it will tell you what Scheduled tasks and Services you have running along with Active Tasks. You can manage your cookies and get info about your file types and hidden files. If you check out the options tab then it will give you some useful logs too.

Best of all… Winpatrol 2007 is provided fully functional for free!!! There is a Plus version which I would heartily recommend, you can see the difference between Winpatrol Free and Winpatrol Plus here

There is a download and installation guide here, and you can check out the press release here.

Finally… Bill Pytlovany is one of the nicest people I know and he is passionate about what he does.  I for one wouldn’t be without Scotty sitting in my task bar… and I hope you wouldn’t either.

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Valentines day is approaching fast, and so romantic thoughts of secret admirers are beginning to cloud our already fuzzy brains. After all, who can resist the thought that someone, somewhere cares.

The guys at Sophos are warning today of a new initiative from the criminals behind the Storm Worm. This new variant is being spammed out using the Love theme with various subject lines.

Falling In Love with You
Special Romance
You’re In My Thoughts
Sent with Love
Our Love Will Last
Our Love is Strong
Your Love Has Opened
You’re the One
A Toast My Love
Heavenly Love

The body of the email will direct you to a website that will attempt to download your ‘love message’ for you.

I’m a big romantic softy myself… but all unsolicited emails from sources I do not know will get deleted, unread. I suggest you do the same dear reader!

Update….. I got one!! The subject line says ‘I Dream Of You‘ then the body of the email is just the simple message .. I Love Thee with an IP address link.

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The Java Runtime Environment has been updated and we are now on version 6.4. There were a lot of bug fixes in the latest update…

Having the up to date version of JRE on your computer is essential as running with old versions can leave you vulnerable. But it isn’t enough to just have the latest version installed… you