Great News For Your Thursday.. Maybe.

Police in the U.K. have arrested 19 individuals believed to be part of an organized cybercrime network that used the Zeus trojan to steal six million pounds ($9.5 million) from U.K. bank accounts (in just three months).

“Security experts consider Zeus, also known as Zbot, the most prevalent financial malware on the Internet today. Often foisted via social engineering ruses, the Trojan typically is designed to steal bank account information from its victims.”

ZeuS?

“First identified in 2007, Zeus remains active and, just this week, has been leveraged in mobile device attacks to steal codes used to authenticate banking transactions and in email campaigns masquerading as LinkedIn invites.”

“Mobile device” = your smartphone. (Does your cellular have an antivirus?)

To read more about these arrests, click here.

“Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the cybercrime iceberg,”

Yes folks. That’s true. Those arrested were probably just members of one ‘cell’ of those behind ZueS/Zbot. And the UK is not the only place it’s employed.

And ZueS/Zbot is just one of thousands of Trojans you chance when you surf the Web.

Concerned? There are several things a PC owner should do to have a healthy, smooth-running computer, and be safer from cyber-criminals when they browse the Internet. If you surf the “web”, please read A Checklist For Computer Ownership.

Folks, our devices, and the Internet itself, were not built (originally) with security in mind. Nor can an antivirus or “security suite” stop people from clicking on dangerous things nor opening spam. It is up to us, Dear Reader, to exercise what I call “paranoid common sense” – and learn about these dangers and take preventative actions. You don’t have to be a victim.

“We believe we have disrupted a highly organized criminal network, which has used sophisticated methods to siphon large amounts of cash from many innocent peoples’ accounts, causing immense personal anxiety and significant financial harm — which of course banks have had to repay at considerable cost to the economy,”

Yes.. the economy.. being bled millions a month.. billions a year.. Maybe something should be done? (It starts with you.)

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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The cigar box

The other day I came across a dusty, ratty, old cigar box, in a pile of junk, and fixtures, and fittings, outside a home that is being gutted for renovation and sale. It rattled when I picked it up.

A long time ago (I have been told) people used to use cigar boxes as catch-all storage.. handy places to keep paperclips, and such.

The sounds told me it obviously was still full of nick-knacks, trinkets, and things. So I opened it. What kind of *stuff* would I find inside?

What kind of person had owned this cigar box?

I found some thick-framed and thick-lensed, black, dork-glasses. Minus one arm. Some keys that opened who knows what. Some rubberbands and paperclips and safety pins. Some beads and buttons and baubles. In a word – crud. But. I also found…

A funny sort of thing I believe is a pen… that you write with?…

I think so, because also in there was this…

The ink is still good, it appears, so I am going to test out my theory…

I knew what this was…

.. but I can’t remember seeing anyone using one recently, nor do I recall catching a whiff of that delightful aroma. Not in twenty five years or so. Seeing this reminded me of a wonderful man I once knew.. who took the time to explain things to a curious, question-filled boy…  A long time ago.

I was – then – not surprised to find this…

nor this…

Now all I need is a flint! But I doubt you can still find those.. these days..

Thanks to another gentleman, a long long time ago, (who also who took the time to explain things to a curious, question-filled boy) I found this and…

and! I felt 12 again. Wonder if I remember how to tie a swivel on..?

Naturally, I saved the best for last, folks. Also inside that shoebox was something I was quite happy to see… My “prize”.
(It needed a little cleaning, but..)

Sharp as blazes.

I looked at the house, being stripped and gutted, and tried to picture the owner in my mind. The man who had kept this shoebox, and used to live inside. I looked at the yard’s azalea’s and rose bushes, and well-kept fence…

I cannot tell you why, but I think I would have enjoyed talking with him.

Even if he once did wear black thick-frame dork glasses…

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Twitter. Hacked. Again. (yawn).

“To get something done a committee should consist of no more than three people, two of whom are absent.” ~ Robert Copeland

Well, I think this headline says it all: Twitter recovers after second worm attack in a week

“Twitter is cleaning up from another fast-spreading worm that took advantage of a popular class of vulnerabilities and the inherent trust many users have for the microblogging site.”

I found this attack interesting because the people who fell for it had clicked on a “tweet” that simply said, “WTF”. For those who would like to read all the juicy details, click here.

Tip of the day: (I cannot believe I have to say this in the year 2010)
Do NOT open e-mail from strangers. Do NOT click the links those emails contain. This applies to everything online – tweets, Facebook “wall” postings, Instant Messages… and be dubious of those that appear to come from people you do know. Because that can be faked, or they can be hacked.
Let’s use some paranoid common sense out there people (because they are out to get you).

They want me to click.. Why?

Today’s free link: Have you come across a website that you know is malicious? Maybe it infected you? Or perhaps you have received an email that said,

Hello,
Look – http://sites.google.com/site/udcztyetjp/qsn
it’s very good ;-)
tjzz

and you would like to report it to someone? So maybe others can avoid it? Well the search engine we know as Google has a form you can use, here: http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/report_badware/
There are no “Internet cops” protecting us, so we need to be looking out for each other.

Today’s free download: Avast Free Antivirus 5.0

Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on January 18, 2010
“Avast Free 5, an A-list freeware antivirus app, provides the same steadfast protection of well-known, pricier antivirus programs. Avast is remarkable for both its effectiveness and arguably providing the most complete free antivirus on the market.”

Today’s question to you: (please answer using the “Comment” feature, below.) This is directed at parents:
Is there a website/forum/online resource for parents that you have found to be particularly helpful?

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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How To Remove Internet Explorer 9

“…for some reason should want to uninstall it, you need to know a little trick..“

If you read this series, the odds are good you read other tech-type websites as well, and so you probably know that Microsoft is getting a lot of good press over their latest release of their web browser, Internet Explorer 9 (aka “IE9”).. which is still a “beta”. It’s fast!, seems to be a common laud.

As a matter of fact, I mentioned it last week as a Today’s Free Download pick.. which I will repost here, as it includes a mini-review:

Today’s free download: Internet Explorer 9 (beta)
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on September 16, 2010

“First Take: After several months of teasing Internet Explorer’s upgrade with a series of feature-free developer’s previews, Microsoft has unleashed on the world an Internet Explorer 9 beta (32-bit Windows 7; 64-bit Windows 7; 32-bit Windows Vista; 64-bit Windows Vista) with some impressive new features. Like any properly named beta, though, there are also some bugs to be ironed out.

This is the biggest overhaul to the browser since Internet Explorer 7 landed. The changes to the interface are enormous, the browser’s overall usability has greatly improved, it’s more secure, and it’s significantly faster and more standards compliant.”

(Click any of those 4 links to read Seth’s full review.)

Even though Microsoft has been releasing remarkably stable and usable “betas” of late, I have not yet tried IE 9. But if you have, or do, and for some reason should want to un-install it, you need to know a little trick..
[update: I am currently evaluating the IE 9 beta. I will “review” it soon.]

To wit: Microsoft considers IE 7, 8, and 9 to be Updates, and not stand-alone programs.

So, when you open Programs and features in your Control Panel, you will not see Internet Explorer 9 listed in your Installed programs list.

Until you click on the “View installed updates” link in the sidebar (on the left), that is.

Once you do, all the installed Hotfixes, and Updates will be added to the list.

Scroll until you locate IE 9, and then right-click on it, and then click on Uninstall.

Uninstalling IE 9 will revert your machine to the last version of IE you had.

So there you go. Internet Explorer is an Update, not a program.

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?

In case you’re wondering:
… I was quite eager to try out IE 9 – in spite of my reluctance to fool with betas (or, even 1st releases) until I read about the combined address and tab bar. I typically have at least 5 tabs open, and often as many as 10, so I want a separate tabs bar, to avoid “tab crowding”.
(There. Someone at Microsoft will read that, and make the change.)(Because I put it in bold font.)(And my opinion is that powerful.)(Not. But one could hope. Ha!)

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Sunday Beauty XI

This image was submitted by a reader.

"Smoky Sunset" by Kloplop321

The thin smoke from a far-off brush fire produced this spectacular sunset, outside of Provo. (Click on image for Hi-Res.)

In other news: it’s rough being a niners fan…

What is Mobsync and how do you disable it?

One of the most popular topics here has been how to make Vista boot up faster. And one of the ways you do that is by controlling what programs automatically load at startup. (See, Manage Startup programs in Vista.)

Readers of that article have been sending me questions about a program they have found running (by using Task Manager [Ctrl+Alt+Del]) which they cannot find any startup entries for.. and thus no way to ‘turn it off’. That program is called “mobsync.exe.”

Mobsync is a small program – called a “Service” – which Windows uses for managing removable mass-storage devices, like thumb drives. Mobsync.exe enables applications such as Windows Media Player and Image Import Wizard to transfer and synchronize content with your removable storage devices. It is found in your Control Panel, and most people use it for “syncing” their address books and calendars on their mobile phones/PDA’s.

Tip of the day: Follow the simple steps below to stop mobsync from running at startup, and set this service to run manually. Then it will only be used when you actually sync devices on your PC or Laptop.

1. Open Run (Start > Run; or, Start > Programs > Accessories > Run) and type in “services.msc” (no quotes), and hit Enter.

2. The Services window will open. Now scroll down the page until you locate a service called Portable Device Enumerator Service, then double click on it.

3. Click on the Stop button, then click on OK.

4. In the “General” tab: use the drop-down arrow to change the “Startup Type” to Manual. Then click on OK.

5. If prompted by UAC, select Continue.

In conclusion: mobsync is not a real “resource hog”, and leaving it be won’t hurt anything. Switching it from “always on” to “as needed”, by itself, will not drastically reduce how long it takes to start up your computer, or make your e-mail Inbox ‘load’ faster.

On the other hand, there’s no real reason for this to be running all the time except for the fact someone at Microsoft thought it should. Much like you don’t need Adobe Reader running except for when you need to open a PDF file, but the Adobe folks think you’ll like the “instant response” having it running will give you. To really get at the items slowing down your boot up time, I refer you to the article listed above. (This tip is more of a “control thing”.. a minor “tweak”.)

A word of caution: Some of you may get the urge – while in the Services window – to start turning off other Services. Don’t. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you can really mess things up, and either “kill” Windows altogether, or get some really strange (and unsatisfactory) results. This article may help you understand, and I recommend reading it before clicking on any other drop-down arrows.. Holiday Edition: What programs should be in Task Manager?

Today’s free download: CCleaner
CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary (“temp”) files from your system – allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. It also has a safe Registry cleaner/repair tool, and is the one I use after I have done a manual malware removal process.
(Please read, Top Tech Tip #2: Leave Registry Cleaners Alone.)

Today’s reco’d reading: Use GooReader to Read Google Books

“GooReader provides a sweet interface for reading publicly available books and magazines on Google Books. Instead of awkward page scrolling in your browser you can get pleasure of reading on your desktop in the same way as you read hardcover books or paperback magazines.“

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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Facebook Friday | Software Winners Announced

Hey folks, let me introduce a new T4E feature –  Facebook Friday!

Item 1 – A movie about Facebook: (ABC) “The Social Network” will hit theaters on Oct. 1, but already the movie has sparked thousands of conversations, not to mention wall posts.

“Since the movie trailer hit the Web this summer, millions of Facebook Friends have been waiting to see a film dramatizing Facebook’s meteoric rise from Harvard’s campus to global Internet phenomenon.”

Uh. Yeah. Not gonna see it. Not even when it comes out on cable.

Item 2 – Facebook outage was its biggest ever

(CNN) — Facebook’s outage that shut down the site for many users Thursday was its worst since it became a worldwide social-networking powerhouse, according to an engineer for the site.

It seems EVERYONE was affected by not being able to access Facebook yesterday, and today the media is a-buzz. (I don’t watch or read the mainstream media anymore, largely for reasons such as this. Facebook outage.. well, have to fill the airtime I guess.)

I like this headline from Oregon Public Broadcasting:

OPB BREAKING NEWS: Facebook is down. Worker productivity rises. U.S. climbs out of recession.

I do hope the Facebook outage did not cause any Farmville animals to suffer from neglect…

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This week’s software license winners are…

The folks at SPAMFighter (last week’s giveaway) generously donated 10 one-year licenses for SLOW-PCFighter to me, to award to my readers. I sincerely thank them for that.

SLOW-PCFighter is a Registry repair program which “uses the most advanced technologies available” to analyze PC errors and – as the name suggests – speed up a PC which has become slow.

From the author:

“SLOW-PCfighter seeks out and removes all unused entries in your Registry from failed software, driver installations and faulty un-installations and optimizes Windows startup.”

To read more about SLOW-PCFighter, and my review, click here.

And the lucky winners are:

Winners, congratulations! Check your e-mail (you may need to check your Junk folder) for your license key – Subject line: SLOW-PCFighter License winner. Again, I thank the folks at SPAMFighter for making this giveaway possible.

[NOTE: luisc, your mail delivery failed. Please provide me with a valid email address within 24 hours. I will give the license to another random entrant after that time.] The lucky consolation winner is:

Have a great weekend folks!

Copyright 2007-2010 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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