|
Ransomware is a new term for spyware that actually extorts money from you, and it’s sweeping the world like wildfire. In a nutshell, imagine you wake up one day to find that all of your files have been encrypted on your computer. That’s right, you’re now unable to access anything at all, because a piece of spyware has rendered them completely inaccessable by you, the computer owner. |
|
Yesterday, it was reported that… “Oregon Department of Revenue officials thought they were tightly secured against data theft. ” Then they went on to say that  ”an employee from using an office computer to surf porn sites and download a Trojan horse, a hidden spyware program not yet known to intrusion-detection software. The Trojan installed itself Jan. 5 and for the next four months secretly captured and relayed data to the hackers who created it.” |
|
Viruses used to be just like graffiti, designed to satisfy only an egotistical itch, but now they can make the creators money. Someone’s created a virus that takes peoples over computers, then goes out one the web, and clicks on ads that make website owners money. It’s pretty diabolical, like something from a Saurday morning cartoon. |
|
In your Internet Explorer web browser, do some websites appear to be “broken”? Do Flash menus and some other web page items frequently have a dotted line around them? When you put your mouse over them, do you see a small yellow box proclaiming that you should “click to activate and use this control”?
|
|
I’ve really never seen a mass forwarded email rumor be true anymore, but I got this one about free 411 calling from your home phone - Hi all, This REALLY works - yay! I programmed it into my cell phone for free 411 calls - I used to pay $1.40 every time! Bette Subject: Good information. |
|
*update - as of 1/1/2007 AVG is no longer free…sorry! Antivirus companies charge a lot for their product, and with good reason. However, there’s a company that has decent software that they give away free to home users, with the hopes of earning your office business. I really like AVG Free antivirus for home users, and I have it on my kids computer. |
|
Don’t you hate those online ads that look like security warnings or questions? Have you ever fallen for them? I just actually fell for one, while I was buying a site security certificate for a new website we’re doing. I was filling out an online form, and had just entered my credit card number. I hit “next” and a second window popped up that looked identical to the form I was filling out. |
|
Yes, another threat is here that won’t patch itself on the Microsoft Windows updates. This security hole is in ”Flash”, which is software that allows you to view Macromedia Flash sound and motion files over the internet. You likely have this software on your computer already, and it has a newly discovered vulnerability. |
|
One of our Portland web hosting customers got this on her home Qwest bill this past month. The following transaction is billed on behalf of: GLOBAL YP GlobalYP GldBizPlnMoFee - $34.99 The Billing Resource Misc Charge and Credits Since PDXTC is her web host, she called to see if I knew anything about them, which I did not - However, here’s what she found out by calling Qwest - |
|
Some of these websites are up and some are down, but all these four will do the trick - http://www.grc.com/miscfiles/wmffix_hexblog14.exe |
|
*this post is outdated for solutions - return to blog home page and see most recent post By now you may know the story of the week old Windows flaw that has so far mutated and distorted into over 60 different variations of trouble for you. This is not “a virus” or “some spyware” and you are NOT protected against it no matter what Antivirus or Firewall software you have, or the status of your Windows Updates. |
|
update 1:45 pm Jan 3, 2005 - Use the solution from New Years Eve if it’s not up when you try it… Since my previous post, Ilfak Guilfanov has a better option for fixing this dangerous flaw. |
