Online Computer Tips Monthly Newsletter - June 2010
Latest Virus/Security Alerts:
Worst Phishing Pest May be Revving Up
The single most active group for stealing identities and pilfering electronic bank accounts over the Internet has nearly ground to a halt, but the lull could be the precursor to an even worse crime spree, according to a new study.
Attacks by the group known as Avalanche plummeted from 26,411 last October to just 59 last month, said the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG). With Avalanche seemingly winding down, a worse successor could be poised to take over. "As of this writing, Avalanche has dwindled to a shadow of its former self. Will Avalanche fade for good or will it too be reborn as something new?" the APWG report says. Before it wound down, Avalanche dominated all phishing activity for more than a year. In the second half of last year it soared to account for two-thirds of all phishing worldwide, APWG says.
Avalanche uses fast-flux hosting to hide its attack machines by registering and unregistering their IP addresses with different directory names to avoid detection. These machines are commandeered by botnets and proxy the phishing traffic to further conceal the source of the activity.
The Avalanche infrastructure also distributed the Zeus Trojan that sets up infected machines to be taken over by attackers who then steal data including passwords and personal information.
May's Poll Results:
Would you buy an iPad if they were cheaper?
Yes
- 15% No
Tip of the Month:
Windows 7 Peek Feature
Windows 7 has a new feature that adds to the functionality of the Show Desktop button. Now you can see your desktop without actually minimizing all of your programs. If you hold your mouse pointer over the Show Desktop button on the very right of the taskbar, all of your open windows will become transparent and you will be able to see what's on your desktop.
Hot Product of the Month: LG Electronics 8X External Blu-ray ReWrite Drive
Details:
Burn your own Blu Ray disks at home and store huge amounts of data on a single disk. Blu Ray disks will hold up to 25 GB of data comared to 4.7 GB with DVDs and 700 MB with CDs.
Advertisement:
Important Windows and Office patches:
Patch Tuesday Updates Fix Critical Flaws in IE and DirectShow
Microsoft released a total of 10 new security bulletins for June 2010, addressing 34 separate vulnerabilities, including critical flaws in DirectShow and Internet Explorer. This is the largest Microsoft patch release of 2010 and includes 14 vulnerabilities in Excel.
Seven of the security bulletins are rated as Important and three are rated Critical. The Critical security bulletins include MS10-033 for DirectShow, and MS10-035 which addresses 6 different vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.
These vulnerabilities could be exploited on Web sites, Office and Windows Media files to gain control over vulnerable computers by tricking victims into opening a malicious files or clicking a malicious links.
Microsoft recommends customers prioritize deployment of MS10-033, MS10-034, and MS10-035 as well as install any other critical updates.
Learn how to make all kinds of unusual and useful items yourself from things you may have around your house at Instructables.com
Readers Question of the Month:
Moving the location of My Documents to a new location
Keith writes in with a Windows question Question: My laptop has 2 hard drives, C and D. C drive is very full (17GB) and I need to free up some space on it. Its full of "Program Files" files and "Windows" files that cant be deleted, plus all my stuff (My Docs, My photos, My music, etc). D Drive (17GB) is nearly empty. Can I move files from one drive to another. Will I need to reset the default setting so that all new files save to D drive instead of C drive, or can I move "Program files" from C to D drive? Pls help.
Answer: You can move your documents and pictures etc to your D drive without any problems. In fact you can move your whole My Documents folder to your D drive and change the properties so that every time you save to My Documents it will save to the new location on the D drive. All you need to do is make a folder on your D drive called My Documents then right click your current My Documents folder on your desktop and choose Properties. Then click the Move button and browse to your new My Documents you made on your D drive and click Ok. It will ask you if you want to move your files to the new location and you can say yes to that. Then every time you save to My Documents it will actually be saving to your D drive. If you want to change it back to the way it was originally you can do the same thing but click on Restore Default.
Is 'Facebook And Privacy Page' Just Another Band Aid?
Facebook's new privacy settings and "Facebook and Privacy Page" might do enough to convince observers that Facebook is finally serious about privacy. But Facebook's responses, which have long since become disproportionate to the privacy and security criticism levied at Facebook since last fall, continue to feel like spot fixes or Band Aids when Facebook could finally silence its critics if it just went all the way.
"The Facebook and Privacy Page serves as a living resource and a venue to facilitate an interactive discussion about privacy with all of you" wrote Simon Axten, an associate on Facebook's public policy team. Will it be enough? There's no question that Facebook has been keeping privacy issues in the spotlight as of late, at least as much as its harshest critics. Facebook rolled out its official privacy changes in late May, and also at the D8 conference.
Neither the privacy changes nor Zuckerberg's comments, however, have done anything to deintensify criticism of Facebook. Privacy watchdogs dismiss the advances as small steps, and Facebook's most vocal critics continue to suggest that Facebook users will only be safer if they can "opt in" rather than "opt out" -- rather, choose what personal information gets shared instead of limit the information that would be otherwise shared.
