Online Computer Tips Monthly Newsletter - October 2008
Latest Virus/Security Alerts:
Buy Airplane Ticket Online Email Virus
There is a virus circulating in the form of an email stating that you have purchased an airline ticket and your credit card has been charged for the ticket amount. There will also be a zip file attachment named eTicket_K2.zip or it may have a different name. Within this zip file may be another file called iPIX-install.exe which contains the ZBot.HS virus that is capable of stealing online banking login information and other sensitive data from the infected computer.
Here is an example of what the text of the email may look like:
Dear Gentlemen,
Thank you for using our new service "Buy airplane ticket Online" on our website.
Your account has been created:
Your login: your email address
Your password: passU5WR
Your credit card has been charged for $618.10.
We would like to remind you that whenever you order tickets on our website you get a discount of 10%!
Attached to this message is the purchase Invoice and the airplane ticket.
To use your ticket, simply print it on a color printed, and you are set to take off for the journey!
Kind regards,
Midwest Airlines
Never open this email if you receive it and definitely do not download, save or open the attached zip file. Make sure your antivirus software is up to date as well.
August's Poll Results:
What instant messaging program do you use?
- 33%
Microsoft
AOL/AIM
Other
Tip of the Month:
How to uninstall 2007 Office if you cannot uninstall it by using Add or Remove Programs
Many new computers come with a trial version of Microsoft Office 2007. There may also be some of you who installed the trial version of Office 2007 after downloading it from the Microsoft website. Sometimes there is an issue when trying to uninstall it. You may encounter an error while trying to uninstall it using Add/Remove Programs or it may not even be listed there at all. If you are encountering this problem then go to this link and scroll to the MORE INFORMATION SECTION for instructions on how to remove Office 2007 from your computer.
If you are an online gamer and play using a wireless connection then this is the router for you. Get an edge on the competition with the D-Link DGL-4500 Xtreme Gaming Router. With Xtreme N Duo technology this router has the power of dualband (2.4 or 5GHz) wireless signals to get your game on in the wireless band of your choice. Experience the power of Gigabit LAN and WAN ports to get your game on faster than ever before.
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-052 – Critical Vulnerabilities in GDI+ Could Allow Remote Code Execution
This security update resolves several privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows GDI+. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user viewed a specially crafted image file using affected software or browsed a Web site that contains specially crafted content.
The security update addresses the vulnerabilities by modifying the way that GDI+ handles viewing malformed images. This security update is rated Critical for all supported editions of Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 when installed on Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Service Pack 2, all supported editions of SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Report Viewer 2005 Service Pack 1 Redistributable Package, and Microsoft Report Viewer 2008 Redistributable Package.
If you keep your computer updated using Windows Update you should be covered. For more information and to download the appropriate patch for your computer click here.
For you Vista users who like to use gadgets on the Windows Sidebar check out the Microsoft Windows Vista Sidebar website to download additional gadgets for your computer.
Readers Question of the Month:
AswCmnOS.dll not found error
Gail writes in with an troubleshooting question
Q. I'm getting an error code of: failed to start because aswCmnOS.dll was not found. Reinstalling application may help. I don't know what this application is. Also at the top of the error box is "Ashdisp.exe" what is this and how do i fix it?
A. aswcmnos.dll and ashdisp.exe belong to Avast Antivirus. It sounds as though you may have some corruption in the program or it was removed without being uninstalled properly. If you have the Avast installation CD you can reinstall the program and it should take care of it. If you just want to get rid of the error then use the Windows System Configuration Utility (msconfig) to see if you can find where its listed under the Startup tab and uncheck the box so Windows doesn't try and load it anymore.
In a study released by Secure Computing, the amount of spam citing Sarah Palin topped her opponent Joe Biden by a ratio of 5 to 4 during the month of September. But in comparison, spam using the name of Barack Obama easily topped the use of John McCain, by 6 to 1.
What does this say? That spammers are continuing to use the most provocative names and subjects as possible, to lure users into opening the source email. A "surge" of Obama spam was apparently timed for around Sept. 3, about the time of the Republican National Convention.
By comparison, news stories citing Obama or McCain favored McCain, 10 to 9. Web sites mentioning Obama outrank those that cite McCain, 3 to 2. But the spam associated with Sarah Palin is closer to the news stories or Web sites mentioning Palin, both of which outstrip Biden citations by 7 to 2.
Secure Computing also warned that October could see an uptick in spam and other phishing attempts mentioning either the banks which either were taken over or went under, such as Wachovia and Washington Mutual. In addition, there has been a rise in "gibberish spam," nonsensical messages that are either a glitch in the spammers' software or an attempt to weed out nonfunctioning email addresses.
