Malicious Spammers target Bank of America

I've saw two different security firms talking about Bank of America and I wanted to share with you:

Picture from F-secure

[ad#cricket-right-ez]The two sites are F-secure and Pandalabs who are talking about Bank of America and how they try to get you to install malware.  With Adobe having just sent out the new updates last month it looks like spammers are using this to get people to install Malware.

It is also been known to be floating around in Facebook this spam.  So if you get a link going to a site you don't know about to see a video and it says you need a codec or the Adobe update you should turn right around and leave site. You should always type in the url of Your Bank and not go there through links.

From what they are saying it monitors Network traffic and Steals ICQ, POP3, and IMAP passwords.  If you find network traffic going to Hong Kong IP, then it is time to check to make sure all your Virus definitions are up to date and you've installed an Anti-virus and Firewall.  I would encourage  users to report it to Phishtank so that any other unsuspecting user or person going to that site will be warned.

Is Google the ultimate news source?

As you know We had a big problem Monday Night and All day Tuesday. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would of noticed either a 503 or lag. It was due to an article that I released late Monday night about the PIFTS.EXE and the so call conspiracy.

At the time, I was wondering and quite disturbed about what Norton Symantec was doing to the forums. So I blogged about this and wouldn't you know my site was Held Hostage by Google. I kid you not, I had so many people come to my site in under an hour it wasn't even funny.

[ad#cricket-right-ez]So I sit here, asking a really good question is Google the News? I don't know exactly when but according to Wikipedia Google was formed in 1998. The Google Motto is Don't Be Evil, and I guess it makes them look like a news source. When did they get past the news site? I would hazard a guess that it was in late 2004 they started when they when Google gave people the first chance to own the stock on August 19, 2004, when Google became a publicly held company.

I got hit hard by Slashdot, Reddit.com, and Google.  In truthfulness, It was more of searches and people coming from Google than anywhere else. I would say Google was the 90% and and Slashdot and Redidit was 8% and the rest was from other websites for this one article. Now don't get me wrong the 2% of people was my normal amount of people for the day. So you can imagine how many people actually came to my site over this fiasco.

I call this a fiasco because basically it was one that really made me worry about the server going down. People seemed to try to find out about this program and some of them didn't even do any more research than to come to my site? Although I do know a little, I have always considered myself to be a BLUE COLLAR Tech Blogger. So you can just call me "The Blue Collar Tech Blogger" when it comes to things like this. I will never proclaim I know everything and I am still learning every day I blog I learn something new.

So this leaves me with a question on how did Blogs become the news also?  Did we step into the roll of news?  I know there are many blogs out there that are telling the news and are almost as if they are the news.  Is that where this has become Web 2.0?  I throw these questions out to see what type of comment.  I just thought this was a good topic for today to talk about.

Thinking back to PIFTS.EXE.

Thinking to this very incident looks to something out of the movie "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events".  I won't go into much detail but here is what I want answers to about the PIFTS.EXE.  You see after I have read a great article talking in detail about this, I have also come to the conclusion something isn't right.

[ad#cricket-right-ez]The blog owner known as Anshar in the forums on the Symantec points out some key events. He wanted to point out that the users who were posting were not violating the TOS and was posting questions that look to asking about this file. See screen capture of what I took. This one picture doesn't prove his theory in whole, but does bring up some suspicions. This actually might be them trying to find a 'scapegoat' so to speak. He also talks about what others are asking? What is PIFTS.EXE? People seem to still have not be answered that question.

Although, in Norton's defense there seems to be a lot of information that they have to sort through. I'll admit this information people are asking should be really simple to find in the Symantec Databases somewhere. I will not say they are hiding anything major but I do think something is going on that we are not aware of. Here's some other thoughts to considers? If Norton needed to find out who was using Windows 7, couldn't they of asked or even made a simple site redirect to find that information, after all anytime you visit a site you have that information sent to the stats. I could in theory find out how many visitors are visiting from Macs and how many are on older systems. That would be very easy to do with Google Analytics.

Now with that said let's talk about Why it took almost a whole day for them to release a public statement about what happened.  I might be wrong but if I was a stockholder, I'd of demanded them to send that out ASAP instead of waiting 20 to 24 hours.  Although I'm not trying to make any more conspiracy theories, I do think the Streisand effect came into effect and people are feeling like Norton did something they shouldn't have.  In which case, Norton probably made "A fail whale" attempt of making it better when they started to delete the post.

I've been watching the Norton forums trying to make sense of all this, and I do know that Norton have lost people's faith in them and people are removing their product off there systems if Norton doesn't start answering questions that need to be answered.

Norton has released the information of PIFTS.EXE and what it does. Although I am sure people are going to argue about what it does or doesn't. I wanted to post this for people to check out and consider for yourself.

Conspiracy theories run rampent due to PIFTS.EXE

(Looks like some of this was a 4chan gag, check my other post about it)

All of the sudden people around the World are seeing PIFTS.EXE popping up. Norton Antivirus is asking users if they want to accept it. Here what I do know:

Here's some information I pulled from my Zone Alarm Logs. Does this make sense to anyone?
[ad#cricket-right-ez]2009/03/09 18:26:44 -- New Program -- PIFTS.exe -- Destination IP: 67.134.208.160:80 -- outgoing -- blocked -- Destination: ping.lifecycle.norton.com

2009/03/09 18:47:52 -- Program Access -- PIFTS.exe -- Destination IP: -- outgoing -- blocked -- Destination:

2009/03/09 18:48:28 -- Changed Program -- Windows Explorer -- 207.46.248.249.80 -- outgoing -- blocked -- Destination: sa.windows.com
[Via The Symatec Forums]

This indicates that the program tried to change tactics to go out on the net.  I look a look for this and it is SwapDrive.  So this must be an update to Swapdrive but I am unsure as to why it pops up that way.  The other ip is in Africa or at least take the .80 out of the equation and it points to an Africa IP.  (It looks to my mistake in that little part, "to error is human" Check out this  post about it)  Although just recently Norton Decides to Delete that thread and people are really worried about why?  Is this a cover up of some sort because there is a exploit in the Wild that we don't know about?  These are good questions that need to be answered.   Here is what one posted about this just after they deleted the forum thread:

As you can see people are taking this deletion on the community forum thread very seriously, they know something is not right in Denmark.  I also want to point out this one:

I don't know what Norton is up to but this is making me uneasy.  If they are worried about something that they can't explain or don't want to explain then they have made a mistake.  Some users are really worried now because Norton isn't saying anything at all.  I love this post:



As you can see people see this and are worried, I didn't want these to be taken offline like the first post so I make physical copies to put on my blog.  I want to prove to people that these actually existed.  I would advise people to run Hijackthis to see if you can figure out where this is coming from.  I don't know why they would hide the truth, it will bite them in the end.  Anyone want to comment on this, I am quiet curious??

*UPDATE 12:01 am 03/10/09*

Seems Norton Deleted all post about PIFTS.EXe so I don't know what happened but This will have to come out in the open sooner or later.  I just hope it isn't going to be to late.

Update 12:15am 03/10/09*

Seems people have decided to go to the Zonealarm forums to discuss this:



You can visit there forums here.  I am getting more curious about this little situation and now tempted to stay up all night watching this!!

[ad#digg-right]I also found this forum thread from BuckeyePlanet.  I am seeing more and more people blogging about this.  So this must be something REALLY big.  Keep sending me comments if you find anything else.  Don't forget to add me on Twitter.

This looks interesting:
[ad#cricket-1]

Even more interestingly now, after posting a single post asking about PIFTS.exe, which was deleted, and a subsequent post to another forum asking about the deleted posts, which got deleted, I've now been blocked from creating new posts or replies on the Norton forums. They really don't want to talk about whatever this was.

And doubly interesting -- or perhaps not, who knows -- not sure if this is standard practice at Symantic or what, but opening the PIFTS.exe in a hex editor shows a large section of the end of the file consists only of "PADDINGXX" repeated over and over. I've got some background in programming and can't think of a good reason why you would need padding like that on a legitimate executable. However, if an executable in an update has been compromised it may require padding such as that to match the original executable's file size or something. But that's just pointless conspiracy theorizing that likely has no basis. It would be nice though to hear from Norton about what the **bleep** this thing is.
[Via Zonealarm Forum]

I don't know but I suspecting an update went wrong at least from all the indications I'm seeing.

I will say you have several options available to you:

• You could get a Free Anti-virus Software


• You could run without An Anti-virus (Not a great option, wouldn't suggest it)


• You could do nothing and wait. (My recommendation until I find out the the full story!!)

Please let's not start a pandemic over this, I am however worried because Norton has yet to release any public information about this?  I will update as needed but please people let's not go to OVERBOARD on this!!

Google Get's rid of the Trend "PIFTS.EXE, no long there.  It was there last night.  Hmm even more questions and answers? (Click image to view it!!)

On a side note, I do not have access to this file. I've had a friend who told me about this and I started to investigate it and as soon as I did that Norton started to kill the messages. That when I knew it was something big. That is why I blogged about it. I do not have the program. I just know that it is being searched really hard because I've had more people coming to my site than usual. So please don't ask about samples, you can comment on this or ask questions. I provide this for the community to let them know!!

(Looks like some of this was a 4chan gag, check my other post about it)

Are you Email domains being blocked by Cricket?

So I got this Tweet from Mai_ling on twitter and she said:

So I did some digging around the net and found it is something that is a common practice for ISP's to block PORT 25.   If you want to find out if Cricket is blocking your mail service you can easily follow these instructions to see if port 25 is actively being blocked.  So what are some options in fixing this little problem.

[ad#cricket-right-ez]Due to spammers exploiting port 25, ISP have been blocking port 25 for other domains but theirs.   You can receive email but not send email.  Most ISP's have a way for you to have an Alternative Port that you can use and you should check with your email domain provider to see if you can send and receive on either a SSL or another Port.

You could set up your email client to receive on port 25 but send out on the SMTP server of Gmail.  This would be useful for people who want to send mail out but not have to change there email address.  People will still see it coming from whatevername@whatever.com.   You can tell Thunderbird to send out on the port and yet use your domain as your email address.

Another possible solution that may work for some is to sign up for Google Apps.  The downside of this is It cost 50$ a year but that is 4.20$ a month to be added on to your Cricket Modem charge.  This looks promising and has a 30 day trial so, if it works then you will know before you have to pay for anything.  This should be dealt with by Cricket, they should have a way for there customers to send and receive email without having to jump through hoops to send email and receive email.

Fake Emails about Windows Support spam!

According to Trend Micro, Some malicious software is being sent to unsuspecting users about Windows SP1 andSP2 having a error that could damage software or even hardware.  See Trends blog with the photos of the fake spam.

[ad#ad2-right]Although from time to time Microsoft does send out security information to Technet subscribers people have also used this in the past to get people to install Viruses and Malware, like this one that installs TSPY_BANKER.MCL. TSPY_BANKER.MCL monitors the affected user’s online transactions and steals banking related information

Microsoft sends e-mail messages to subscribers of our security communications when we release information about a security software update or security incident. Unfortunately, malicious individuals can and have sent fake security communications that appear to be from Microsoft.

[Via Microsoft]

So if you get an email from Microsoft you'll probably want to delete it.  Any Microsoft communications will be sent from the Update center.  You should never install software that is from an untrusted website.    If you are concerned you should check the web and find out what people are saying about the situation and see if it is a scam or true!!  Remember only you can prevent a virus or Malware!

How do you like your Cricket USB Modem?

Lately I talked about the A600 USB 3G modem and Now I want to hear from the Readers?  You see I can't do my best reviewing these with comments from the readers, that being you.

Click the picture to send me email, just remember to replace "AT" with "@".

So I want to hear what you think about either the USB UM100 Modem or the A600 USB 3g Modem?  Here a re a few things to answer when you write your email.

Something will go to the people who email me?  I want to publish some of these comments on my blog for all to read.  I want to hear if what I am publishing helps you?  I will even give your credit as  to who wrote it.  If you have a site or something you want to promote by all means add that to your testimonial.  Here's the basic questions that should be talked about:

• Which one did you buy? (Cricket USB A600 or Cricket USB UM100)


• Did you Upgrade from the Cricket USB UM100 to the Cricket USB A600?


• Are you using it for travel or Primary internet?


• Is it for business or Pleasure?


• Are you happy with your choice?


• Do you recommend the Modem to friends and family?


• Any Situation you can think of where this has been helpful?

I am going to be asking for comments from Cricket about this also and I will be publishing this later on this month but before I do that you will have your chance to tell the company what you think of their Broadband solution.  Please keep these comments family friendly, if you cuss and I publish it, be advised I will edit the cussing to be family friendly.

When do you "Never Fold"

So I got this email and wanted to show you just how try to get you to link to their site:


I got this email and wanted to talk about how people link to sites they shouldn't.  Although this a real site, I had my doubts from the get go.   You see it talks about sending 21 visitors to my site.  I got to the site Neverfold.net which after I looked and there I am but I wonder why? Because Poker and Calicanis have nothing in common with Poker or at least news and all that.


[ad#ad2-right]As you can see when you go to that site via the link he gives me, which by the way if you weren't paying attention is a hidden link with Neverfold.net/?pg=YKchR. As you can see this is a way for him to know when you click it to put your name on the forum page. You can tell because Ref: YKchR is at the bottom of the email. This is most likely a generated email by a bot, I did even more research to find out more information. I found out that the so call 5k to 7k page views were bogus. I checked with Alexa, and I find out this:



In the last few days the of this site they have dropped from 2k per day to under 1k because of links dieing out. You see Google takes the page rank out when you don't have any new people linking to you in 3 months. So I am guessing this has been going on for quite some time. So I had to make sure before I said anything, I did a Google search for my name in there forums and I came up with nothing. I am guessing there is a Nofollow links going on. So I thought I would also make sure to add the Nofollow link. I also know about Google Juice and how it works and know about the No follow. I have read how others are not quite sure what is going. Found this Gambling Forum where they were talking about this type of email and they weren't to sure about this site. I love how people think you'll link to them without doing some kind of investigation. I encourage all webmasters if you get an email like this you should do your own investigation and not expect the email to be truthful. Since this email isn't being truthful to me, I feel no obligation to give it any more than it is due.

I hate Snopes Spam

As you know Snopes is used to find out about urban Legend and Rumors:

I received a Virus alert from my RSS feed about Email virus warning.  It even adds a Snope URL.  The Author just copies and pasted the virus warning into the blog without even going to Snopes.
[ad#ad2-right]

According to Snopes and I'll quote:
Although the Postcard virus is real, it isn't a "BIG VIRUS COMING" (it's already been around in multiple forms for a long time now), it will not "burn the whole hard disc" of your computer, CNN didn't classify it as the "worst virus" ever, and it doesn't arrive in messages bearing a subject line of 'Invitation.'

[Via Snopes]

Now as you can tell the link described in the blog post was "http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/postcard.asp". If you went there, you'd have seen this as a not really true and some parts of this might be but that part about burning your Hard drive or even consider the Worst virus isn't true.

Some things you need to consider before forwarding anything is:

• Is it completely True?


• Is it Legitimate?  (True blown warning about something like a product recall  or something important like that)


• Does it Say to Forward? (if so it is probably not wise)


• is it from a Friend (If so you might want to remind the friend nicely that it isn't nice to send spam)

If you follow some of these suggestions you'll be making the Internet a far better place for everyone.  Remember if you don't know, it's time to learn.  if you do know, it is time to teach.  These are the fundamental aspects of using the internet the right way.  Also if it is a fake virus warning you should tell them to get a Free Anti-virus and Firewall to better protect them.  Also  remind them that if they keep their system updated then they shouldn't be too worried.  Remember only you can prevent a Computer Virus and it's up to you keep your system up to date.

Microsoft Releases the Patch Information for March

Microsoft Has Released the Patch information For march and This is what is expected to be patch on March 11, 2009:

• Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Kb949029) -- This security update resolves several privately reported and publicly reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Excel that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file. An attacker who successfully exploited these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.  (affected System : Microsoft Office)

[ad#ad2-right]
• Vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Kb949031) -- This security update resolves a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Office Outlook. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if Outlook is passed a specially crafted mailto URI. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. This vulnerability is not exploitable by simply viewing an e-mail through the Outlook preview pane. (affected System : Microsoft Office)


• Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Kb949030) -- This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a malformed Office file. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. (affected System : Microsoft Office)


• Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Web Components Could Allow Remote Code Execution (Kb933103) -- This critical update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office Web Components. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted Web page. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.  (affected System : Microsoft Office)

These Four are all Critical and should be applied the week of March 11, 2009.  Their are Seven Patches coming out, but these are the main focus.   According to Microsoft they have released MS08-014, MS08-015, MS08-016 and MS08-017 to better help you find out which ones are affected.

Now is the time to get AutoPatcher ready and make sure it is up to date on any patches that might of came out this month that you didn't know about.  Also consider downloading the new version of Anti-virus and Firewall software while you are it.  In case you come accross a rogue virus and need to disinfect it!!  Some of these patches for this month is due to the EXCEL vulnerability that is out right now and is in the wild, so that should be your top priority once Tuesday come around.  Remember hackers will start exploiting these patches on Wensday and you will be racing against the clock.   One last bit of information for the Mac Users you should also apply these patches they are vulnerable to according to Microsoft.  I'll update as more information becomes available!!

Cracking and Warez sites are Host of Trouble!!

It is nothing to laugh at and should be understood that gamers have no freedom right now.   That said this new Variant to Virux Trojan is in regards to Win32/Vitro Trojan.  It seems tobe infecting .exe and .Scr files just like this.

According to Trend Micro:
[ad#ad2-right]

The downloaded malware include variants under the FAKEAV, TDSS, and VUNDO families. Infection chains, however, are notable for the presence of VIRUT and VIRUX malware. VIRUX and VIRUT attacks were initially about the volume of infected PCs. The numbers are massive enough to worry Web users and security researchers: around 20,000 PCs are infected per day
Read more: "Crack Sites Distribute VIRUX and FakeAV"

Now it seems to be more and more sites with getting computer infected. It also seems the Malware writers are using these servers for helping infect essentially gamers computers. So for the time being, if you have a favorite game and you want to:

• No-CD Crack (This is good for those who want to play the game without the CD)


• Key Gen Cracks (This is used for pirated version of a game)


• Update Cracks (This is used to prevent CD checking or Also prevent Version Checking)


• Game Cheats (This is usually a small program like a bot or some other way for the gamer to cheat)

And should not be Downloaded or USED!! I don't say that lightly, because Gamers feel they should be able to play any game they want. Although this post will probably make the Gamer developers happy, I do this to tell people that these virus writers are using the gamers to distribute the Virus.   I encourage all the gamers out there, that don't want to loose their games to not download any more of these types of cracks.  It seems the virus writers are wanting to infect systems and slow you down.  You don't want to slowed down do you?  Please consider getting a Firewall and a Free Anti-virus software to better protect your system.

A Sneak Peak at the A600 3G Broadband Cricket Card

So I was doing a little research and found this nugget from my Affiliates Network:

Features:

Removable Memory Format:  microSD
Storage Capacity External memory up to 4GB
Text Messaging Yes
Contact Directory Yes
Language English/Spanish

Wireless Capabilities:

Technology CDMA
Mode Tri-Band
Data Transfer Speed 3G (EVDO Rev 0, Rev A) and 1x
USB Broadband Modem (A600) Looks interesting, and I am thinking this will be the next thing the company will start Advertising for. Right now though, it cost 119$ with a 50$ Mail in Rebate and you spend 69$. With a CDMA only USB Card like the UM100, you know the speed of that. Now According to Wikipedia for 3G and I'll quote:

Thus users sold 3G service may not be able to point to a standard and say that the speeds it specifies are not being met. While stating in commentary that "it is expected that IMT-2000 will provide higher transmission rates: a minimum speed of 2Mbit/s and maximum of 14.4Mbit/s for stationary users, and 348 kbit/s in a moving vehicle,"

Now this is a much improved speed and I will be testing this in the future but for right now it is untested. I'll have another article in the coming months about this. I also like the look of this but haven't seen it first hand. The other thing I like is the the 4 Gigabytes of MicroSD memory. [intlink id="3171" type="post"]I can see a whole range of useful programs you can install on the USB and make it Portable to a point[/intlink]. I'll improve on that later on once I play around with what you can have on the card and what you have to have to use the USB modem. The Modem supports Windows 2000 through Windows Vista 64 Bit, also Supports Macintosh.

More to Come!!  (Check out the UM100 Review)

[ad#text-broadband1]

You won't make money from W32:Sality.ao

People should be cautious of the making money because there is a variant out there trying to leverage the users into thinking they can make money.

McAfee Says "W32/Sality.ao is a parasitic virus that infects Win32 PE executable files. It infects files (*.exe and *.scr files) on the local, network and removable drives by overwriting code in the entry point of the original file and saving the overwritten code in its virus body. It then appends the virus body to the host file."

Aliases for this Virus is:

• PE_SALITY.JER (Trend Micro)

• Virus.Win32.Sality.aa (Kaspersky)

• Virus.Win32.Sality.y (Ikarus)

• Virus:Win32/Sality.AM (Microsoft)

• W32.Sality.AE (Symantec)

• W32/Sality-AM (Sophos)

• W32/Sality.AE (Norman)

• W32/Sality.AH (Panda)

• W32/Sality.AK (F-Prot)

• Win32.KUKU.a (Rising)

• Win32.Sality.OG (BitDefender)

• Win32/Sality.AA (VET)

These links should help people understand it it.   You can visit my Malware Resources to help remove this virus.  Something to consider before removing this is to disable your restore points.

Remember there's no easy to make money, the only real way is to work hard.  According to my research the Anti-virus companies have ways to remove this virus and as long as you update your database.

Being a Bad BOT!

I had the strangest thing happen today, Seemed a Bad Bot was Crawling my pages. I was getting at least 60 page views an hour from this bad Bot!! The individual IP's of this Bad Are:

65.208.151.112
65.208.151.113
65.208.151.114
65.208.151.115
65.208.151.116
65.208.151.117
65.208.151.118
65.208.151.119

[ad#ad2-right]After the first initial hour of this going on, I started wondering what this bot was doing.   I did some more research into this little bot.   I did find out it is owned by Kintiskton LLC.  (Twitter Search)

Anyways It bothers me that when you do a Google Search for this company, it comes back with no company.  Some people have already did there research and have come up with very little.

I dug even more and some are saying this might be Homeland Security, and I have my own thoughts on this.   I might be paranoid myself but if there is no company out there and the IP keeps coming back, I assume it is BAD mojo.  Some people worry that it is a hacker probing for vulnerabilities and that worried me.

I decided with the Help from Godaddy, to ban the lot of IPs.  I figure someone is trying to get information or trying something they shouldn't, I'll stop it myself.   If you have Wordpress and are also having problems with this ip, you can ban it by adding this to your HtAccess file:

order allow,deny
deny from 65.208.151.112
deny from 65.208.151.113
deny from 65.208.151.114
deny from 65.208.151.115
deny from 65.208.151.116
deny from 65.208.151.117
deny from 65.208.151.118
deny from 65.208.151.119
allow from all

This is how you block those ip in the HtAccess file. Thanks to Wordpress for showing me how.

ThePirateBay might be blocked in the US

I was looking around on Google and thought I just for giggles check out the Piratebay complaints. I tried going to the site and here's what Popups:



[ad#ad2-right]I tried on OpenVPN and my Local ISP, It keeps saying that. I then tried on my Cricket Modem and it tells me the connection has been interrupted, like something stops the connection in the first place. I can ping it and I can Tracert the Site but I can't even view it. I would like to know if Anyone else is having this problem also. Although I've not checked Thepiratebay.org complaints for quite some time because I've been so busy with my website. If you want to watch your favorite shows check out these sites like Hulu, CBS, NBC, ABC, ABC FAMILY and TNT.TV for free. I am just curious as to what happened and does this have anything to do with Net Neutrality?   Anyway I wanted to talk about this and see what people are saying.  Anyone know what is going on?  Let's talk about this and help everyone by saying what you know.   I don't know if Thepiratebay.org is down but I do wonder if someone is preventing people from getting to the website.   I'll update when I have more information.

Tools for Virus Removal : The ones I like to use!

In this post I want to talk about virus removal tools that I like to use when I need to remove a virus.   Some thing to consider when using these tools are:

• Is it a Rootkit?


• Is it Spyware?


• Is it a Virus?


• Is it a Trojan?


• Is it a Worm?

Each of these have to be dealt with differently because each requires something different.  Like rootkits if you have one installed and know that it is a rootkit you only options are to download some rootkit removers like:

• Sopho's Anti-rootkit remover --  This is good for those more known viruses and can remove several types of rootkits.   This isn't the only one I use, but it is a part of group that does the rootkit removing for me.


• Microsoft Rootkit Revealer --  This is good for proving there is a rootkit.  I've not seen it not detect a rootkit.  Most of the time when I find a rootkit from the other rootkit revealers this one actually dos better with information.


• Panda Anti-Rootkit Remover -- This one is another one I use when the other ones can't remove it.  Each one does remove certain rootkit differently and works better than the other.


• Aries Rootkit Remover from Lavasoft -- This is good for those really tough rootkits but have some great benefits for removing some of the really tough rootkits.

These are the ones that work well with me when it comes to removing the rootkits.  I've not had one of these to remove a rootkit but that depends on how you deal with the virus in the first place.  Now for Anti-spyware and Anti-Virus software here are some of the tools that I suggest:

• Hijackthis -- Run it, and when you get the LOG file you will want to go to HijackThis Log Analysis Site 1 and HijackThis Log Analysis Site 2, and see what it says.  This is the best software because it will scan all of the registry and tells you like a wiki what might it be.


• MSCONFIG -- Sometimes it is hidden but if you check through the MSCONFIG for any files that might not need to load. Also check the services tab and see if there is any services that may not be needed.


• Pctools Antivirus Free Software -- This is a free software so what can I say.


• AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5.503 -- This is another free one that can remove viruses really easily. Download this and you don't have to worry to much.


• Avast Home Edition -- AVG does better than this one but people seem to like this so I have to add this for people who like this better than the others.


• Clamwin Free Anti-virus -- This is a good one because this is open sourced and easily can help detect so many viruses. This is good for those people who like open sourced.

These are just  the ones that I like to recommend that does pretty good on removing the viruses but there are others that I recommend on my Malware Resources that people have recommend to me but I haven't tried them out yet.    Some of the Spyware and Adware removal and here are some of my favorites:

• SuperAntispyware -- Easily remove pests such as WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon, and thousands more! Repair broken Internet Connections, Desktops, Registry Editing and more with our unique Repair System.


• Malwarebytes — can provide the needed assistance to remove the infection and restore the machine back to optimum performance.


• Ad-Aware — This is a very good tool to get rid of some of the most annoying little viruses that try to fool you that you have a virus.


• Windows Security Trojan Scanner — a Free online scanner to let you see if you might have a Trojan.


• SmitFraudFix — A great little program to get rid of those Desktop hijacks, those programs that take over your browser or other file system.

If your current antimalware software let an infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes License to protect your computer in the future. SUPERAntiSpyware Professional or Malwarebytes License features highly advanced Real-Time Protection to ensure protection from installation or re-installation of potential threats as you surf the Internet (Both are trusted Vendors by CCSS Forums).

These are just a few that I like to use when it comes to fighting those virus programs and the people behind the virus programs.   If you consider how hard it is sometimes to recognize a virus, you can see the problem with some of the programs they can sometimes  say a file is a virus and delete it and the next thing you know it won't boot into Windows.  This is what needs to be considered whenever you see a warning on your system so you must be careful when you remove files.  You should always have backups that is what I always recommend because the likely hood of something terrible happening to your data.  You should come up with a way to back up your system every week like a sunday back or even a Monday while your at work backup.

Uncovering a Virus/Trojan

Getting done with the first part really got my juices flowing. I was shopping looking and thinking about this next article. I came up to only one option turning this into a 3-5 length post due to all the content that I will have.  So where did we leave off?  Oh that is right figuring out if you have a virus/Trojan.  The instant I made a post about this 12 hours later someone make a comment and here is what he said:
[ad#ad2-right]

Rene Van Belzen

I can't wait to read part two of this article. I always wondered how you'd know you're infected if a virus don't want to be detected and no virus definitions are yet available, because the virus is so new.

Now the truth is anytime a Virus does something it usually leaves a footprint somewhere and somehow.   Even the hardest working hacker can't plan for all possibilities and that is where we begin.   I have been helping people for a while with viruses and know that no matter how hard the virus tries to hide you can usually find it relatively quickly and easily do to virus check here are the ways I've done to figure out if they may or may not have a virus/Trojan.

Now if this is a client's computer and you don't want to be rude to the client, there are a few indications of user error and installing a virus.   This is relatively simple, all you do is do a quick inventory of all the start menu programs.  You'd want to look for any P2P file sharing program, If they have Firefox Installed, and if they are using Window Mail and not Thunderbird.   You see 80% to 90% of virus downloaded are installed by the End USER.  They either downloading a game and installing a virus with [ad#ad2-left]a game, or not protecting themselves by using Internet Explorer or Using Windows Mail.  That is usually my first step due to the fact, I've got to be diplomatic about finding out about security ways.  Also make sure they are up to date on there Window updates, unless they are using a really old system then you will have to work even harder.  Also you can suspect a virus if the client is talking about having problem with a program recently although this isn't always true it sometimes is the case due to the fact hackers don't have a big chance to test these viruses/Trojans out before they set them into the wild.  So there are always going to be unplanned problems associated with them.

After the first initial search of desktop, you should really know the likely hood of a possible virus getting on the system and later we will talk about counter measures to prevent virus attacks in the future.   There are a few places a hacker likes to put commands.   Hackers love to put in the Registry to run a program every time Windows starts.  It usually in:

• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run


• HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices\

Usually 50% to 70% of virus like to make sure the program to runs.  This is a flaw in Windows because hackers can edit this without much effort but there isn't many places a hacker can go to make sure a program is set to run when you boot.   So this is also a benifit to finding those little programs.

Now just like the Regisitry, Hackers also like to put programs in a few areas on the hard drive.   This is also kinda hard to hide because most of the time these are consider important to the system but if you know what to look for you can pretty much figure out if it is truelly a system file.  These areas of the hard drive are:

• C:\WINDOWS\System32[ad#ad2-right]


• C:\WINDOWS


• %programfiles%\common files\microsoft shared


• %windir%\temp\

These are just a few but if you look hard enough it can be found most of the time.   Most of the time I use the registry to tell me where these programs are so I can do a further check of the program.  Some of this is not needed with some of the programs that I recommend but this is for those who want to be a through job and make sure the virus is gone.

On my next post we will talk about some good tools for the trade to help get rid of a virus/Trojan.  This little step here is used to  better help identify a virus and also give you chance to google each name on the list of registry and the hard drive  to see if you can identify the virus.

What is a Virus and Why do I have one

After seeing more and more the updates coming from the net.  I wanted to talk about what a Computer Virus or Trojan is and how you get it.   So how did  you could of gotten a Virus in the first place.   So here are some information to consider:

The vulnerability of operating systems to viruses

So what does that mean to you?  Most of the times when you get a virus you have a vulnerability in some place in your Operating system and it is either something that has not be known by Microsoft, Apple, and Linux or is know as a Zero-day Exploit. [ad#ad2-right]

A zero-day (or zero-hour) attack or threat is a computer threat that tries to exploit unknown, undisclosed or patchfree computer application vulnerabilities. The term Zero Day is also used to describe unknown or Zero day viruses.

[Via Wikipedia]

This is one of the most used because if it is an unknown exploit by the Operating System creators then they have a longer to us the exploit.  Most of the time hackers like to use this because that means there is a possibility of finding even more vectors to infect other systems.  You see if they can get on one system they can then find ways to get on other systems.

In the Old days, you'd ask

How Did I Get This Virus, Anyway?

You get a virus when you copy infected files to your computer, then activate the code inside by running the infected application or opening an infected document. How you copy the infected files is irrelevant: Viruses don't care if you get them as an e-mail attachment, a download, or via a shared floppy disk, though e-mail attachments are the most prevalent (and easiest) mode of transport.

[via PcWorld] (Dated Oct 13, 2000 11:00 pm)

That was before hackers wanted to infect for more personal gains.   There is a list of things that hackers want to get when they Infect a system and it is usually very few things.   In the Old days they wanted the fame but now they want money and to take control over the internet.  They usually want to infect for Money or to have computers become botnets.  Now We aren't talking about the Movie, I Robot.   Once a system becomes a bot it doesn't think for itself but follows a line of command from the Command and Control center.  So lets say we have  several hundred bots on one net, and the hacker blacked mailed a server saying if they didn't pay up they'd get DoS attacked.  With enough bots going to one site at one time can slow or even bring down a site, that is how A hacker sometimes uses a virus or trojan to get into a system.

Viruses & Trojans try to Avoid detection

So you have a virus, it wouldn't do a virus any good to be detected right after getting onto a system.   More and more, viruses are trying to avoid being seen and heard.  Most hackers who program are wanting to infect more than one system so they have to make really sure that you don't find out your infected.    So with that said there are several ways  and I won't try to explain them because I think the link talks about it better than I could.   It however will give people something to think about.


In the next few days there will be another post on How you will be able to figure out if you have a virus.  I had to talk about this first so people could understand how to figure out if you have in the next post.  So stay tuned for more

Google let your work from home with Task Lists!!

As the day go by we have all have tasks, and that means we have to keep a way to remember them.  Google decided to add that to there Google Mail.  Pcworld said it the right way:

[ad#ad2-left]If keeping Gmail open all the time just wasn't enough, Google gave us one more reason to stay glued to our computer screens. The Labs Team have released yesterday a new feature for Gmail - Tasks - basically a To-Do list manager. But besides the usual task list bonanza, the new feature can also associate emails with tasks and create multiple to-do lists.

[Via Pcworld]

[ad#ad2-right]So how do you get that to work.  Pcworld has a great resource for people to find out how to get it to work.   Just think it gives you one more reason to work from home.   Google actually did something quite nice when it comes to mail.   It can even convert email into tasks.  If you know of any good uses of this little feature leave a comment.

Facebook : Beware Spam for breakfast. (Virus)

In today's society, we've been to complacent with people with people clicking links for the social group. In one such article on Channel Web, a nice little blog, says this:

[ad#ad2-right]


The worm was discovered by IT security provider Kaspersky Lab, which said the threat, Net-Worm.Win32.Koobface.b, is targeting Facebook users by creating spam messages and sending them to the infected user's friends via the site.

"Unfortunately, users are very trusting of messages left by 'friends' on social networking sites," said Alexander Gostev, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab, in a statement. "So, the likelihood of a user clicking on a link like this is very high."

[Via Channel Web]

This seems to be a problem people thinking that a link someone sends them is a real good link but actually is a link to a video site. According to this article the links people are sending are actually a fake video link, telling you have to download some update to flash player, by downloading this program. The user gets involved with the virus and the fun begins. So how can you prevent this from happening, two ways one is a very good group of software to make sure you have the latest and greatest video codecs. That too can be something they'll say you need and if you've already installed this list of codecs then you know they'll not telling the truth and you can quickly get away from the site laughing.

[ad#ad2-left]What's this program name, it is call the K-lite Mega Codec pack. In this Pack you will be able to play almost everything without having to go download another program. This is done by people who want you to have all the latest codecs installed so you don't have to go by a program you'll only going to use once a month.

Once you've done that, you'll no longer have to worry for the most part about codecs. There will be times when you might have to visit that site and update them but that will be far less.

The other thing you must remember is if it says you must update your player. That should be a sign that there is something. I'll always go to the site and check for example Adobe. If it says I need to update my flash I'll manually type it into my browser. This way you will know you have the latest updates, if you need to update the flash player by all means go to here and update.

If you got the virus I'd check out my Anti-virus and Anti-Spyware page and that should show you will you need to get rid of the Virus. This virus is very easy to get rid of, just download any one of the anti-virus software and install it. Don't forget to update the virus database while your at it. That should fix the problem pretty fast. Remember the only way to prevent from getting the virus is YOU.