Saturday Grab Bag #5

Let’s start off today with a few headlines..

• FBI Shuts Down Massive Internet Fraud Ring
Six Estonians and one Russian have been indicted in an Internet fraud ring that hijacked 4 million computers worldwide and use them to drive illicit traffic to web sites and online advertising.

• Apple Fixes Bugs, Security Holes In iOS 5
Apple has released fixes for a bunch of flaws in iOS 5, including one that leads to poor battery life and two others that can expose users’ personal data when visiting malicious web sites.

• Microsoft Releases Critical Patch For Vista, Windows 7
Microsoft has released four patches, one critical, but has yet to provide a permanent fix for the vulnerability exploited by the infamous Duqu Trojan.

Next up..

• My wish list to Santa only has one item — MW3. For those of you who have Geeks to shop for, Amazon’s Electronics Countdown To Black Friday Deals Week is something you may want to peruse for some ideas.. and some deals, maybe. (And since Kindle eReaders are now $79…?)(See, also, Download and read Kindle books – no Kindle required.)

• A real book, book: I recently was handed a copy of Mark Bowden’s Worm – the First Digital World War.

“Worm” is about the potentially diabolical piece of computer malware known as Conficker and the efforts of cybersecurity experts to hunt it down…”

I took me a few hours to read, and though most of it was simple review for me, I think for the average person, it would give them a real (and valuable) education ..  How those magic “computer thingies” and that mystic “Internet” voodoo stuff actually works.
Maybe your library has a copy?
(Yes.. there’s some scary stuff in there.. but better that you know it, right? [Though, I understand the “ostrich method” has benefits too..].)
I thought his description of how the Internet came to be (and also, hackers) was particularly well done.

• As a technician, I have a keen appreciation for a good “fix it” job..

"I’ll Take This To Mean Nebraska Can Get Warm"

.. never been to ThereIFixedIt.com? Click on the picture..

• Today’s quote: “Think what a better world it would be if we all – the whole world – had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.” ~ Robert Fulghum

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend, and please, let’s be safe out there – exercise some good, healthy, paranoid common sense when online. The Internet is not Disneyland.

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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