Technicalities

Wow! End Spam in 2 Years!!!

This little headline caught my eye earlier today

Web Spammers Can Be Beaten in Two Years-Regulators

And I think... Jumpin' Jiminy! Yahoo! Who is the genius behind this idea? And what IS the idea?

The global battle against spammers who use the Internet to disseminate pornography, distribute unsolicited sales pitches and engage in the new menace of "phishing" can be won in two years, officials running a three-day U.N. meeting told a news conference.

Ah, looks like the UN is trying once again to get into the technology business. They have made claims before that THEY should be the ones running the internet. I wonder HOW they plan on accomplishing this great feat of technology that has so far stymied the experts...

"If we achieve full international cooperation among governments and software companies, this plague which affects so many of us in our everyday life will be defeated in short order," said Robert Horton, Australia's top regulator.

Anyone beginning to feel warm and squooshy? Do you have the urge to sit around the campfire and sing Kum-bi-ya? What I would really love for Mr. Horton to do is to tell me his method for achieving "full international cooperation"! There is no doubt that if all the governments around the world fully cooperated and passed laws and cracked down, yeah, Spam could be mostly eliminated. But we can't even get the entire friggin' world to agree that dictators who murder millions should be taken out of the game altogether.

So tell me, is SPAM so much worse than genocide that it will bring all the countries of the world together to solve this horrific problem??? And who are we going to put in charge of this project? If we follow the lead of the UN Human Rights Committee, we should go directly to all known spammers and offer them a seat on this worthy project to save humanity.

Remove the Java From Your Life

At least for the moment.

There is a new trojan floating about out there called Berbew. It's a lovely little thing that comes direct to you from web browsing. In the extended entry I'm going to reprint the information from the Internet Storm Center.

First of all - Update your Antivirus sigs! They are now looking for this particular exploit. Although I would think that with a little tweeking it wouldn't be hard for the bad guys to get around this little roadblock.

Second - a firewall such as ZoneAlarm would alert you to your computer trying to get in touch with and download the actual executable trojan. You would therefore be able to deny it permission, thus you wouldn't get the trojan.

Third - turn off Java on your browser! It's gonna screw up some browsing fun, but until they find the holes and patch them, it's the safest thing to do.

The really fun part - which is included in the extended section... they still don't know how the affected servers were compromised! Yeah, if they don't know how the bad guys got in, how are they going to keep them out???

If you're geeky enough or just want more info, click on the extended section for more...

News Alerts

Okay, so I get Fox News Alerts in my email. A BREAKING NEWS ALERT hits my box this morning, so I open it. It reads as follows...

IRANIAN TV REPORTS THREE BRITISH NAVAL VESSELS, CREWS SEIZED BY IRAN

I think - Wow! Big news. Right?

Uh... sure. It's been about 45 minutes since this big breaking news alert hit my inbox - there is STILL no mention of the story on the front page of FoxNews.com. Mind you, the lead story has changed from being about the Korean hostage, to the take off of the first commercial manned space flight. Yes, both big news.

But I would think SOMEWHERE on the first page, there would be a link of some sort to the story above! But, no, there's nothing (or there wasn't - it might pop in at any time I suppose). And I begin to wonder - is it a real alert or not. Basically I'm taking time I don't have right now to blog this, because I'm annoyed. Now as I see it, the reason to get an alert is so you can go check out the story on the website of the morons news service sending it to you. If they send alerts and don't have the story, what's the point??? I am not browsing out to every friggin' news site in existence to see IF they have the story.

Okay, I have to go back to work now - I'm done venting for a while. Maybe...

Now Here's a Clever Email Worm

I don't know how many people have informed me over the years... "I don't open any attachments unless they're from someone I know". If this is you - LISTEN UP! There's a really clever email worm making the rounds called Lovegate. Here's one of the lovely features:

The Lovegate worm spreads by replying to unread E-mail in a user's in-box, as well as by mass-mailing itself to addresses it highjacks on infected machines.

So, you've sent off an email to a friend or business associate. A while later, you get a reply to that email with an attachment. Are you going to open it? Chances are pretty good that the answer is yes. After all it's a reply to something you sent!

Now everyone update your virus sigs and promise me faithfully that you will open no attachments without double checking. Send an email reply back to the person - make sure they actually sent the attachment - THEN you can open it! Thank you for you cooperation!

Virii Coming to a Phone Near You

So, I lied, but I saw this and just had to add one more post tonight. It looks like there's a new virus on the loose infecting cell phones.

The new virus called Cabir (where the hell do they come up with these names?) has supposedly been developed by a group that wants us all to know they can crack any technology out there. Gee thanks guys and I was convinced all my technology was completely safe and hack free before y'all came along...

Cabir infects the Symbian operating system that is used in several makes of mobiles, notably the Nokia brand, and propagates through the new bluetooth wireless technology that is in several new mobile phones.

Ah Bluetooth - the convenience of wireless, just open up the doors and windows and invite everyone in - good guys, burglars... you name it. That's pretty much what Bluetooth does for you. Think of bluetooth this way - it would be so very easy to move furniture into and out of your house if there were no doors in the way. You know, causing space restrictions, not staying open when you have something heavy you're hauling into or out of the house. OTOH - once you have the furniture and valuables in place - if you have no doors, what's to keep the bad guys out?

Sadly ease of use and convenience come at a great price in the world of technology.

But Microsoft Isn't the Only One Having Problems

Back in 2001 Larry Ellison declared that Oracle was Unbreakable.

The database giant recently launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Unbreakable", which is meant to suggest that Oracle's software doesn't break down and can't be broken into.

Well, Um - no... a couple of days ago CERT issued an advisory saying that Oracle's E-Business Suite has an SQL Injection Vulnerablity. Which basically means that using the right scripting code - an attacker can break into an Oracle Database and compromise EVERYTHING! None of the authentication mechanisms will stop it... Oh yeah, and when they say everything they mean everything - the application, the data itself and even the underlying operating system.

I wonder who gets the prize?

More and Better Pop Ups Coming to Your Browser

Just when you thought you might get the upper hand in the war on adware, comes this encouraging message...

Pop-up toolbar spreads via IE flaws

But wait! It gets even better!

Microsoft learned of the issue when a security researcher posted an analysis of the problem to the Full Disclosure security mailing list Monday. The software giant has already contacted the FBI and is in the "early stages" of building the case, Toulouse said. The company is considering creating a patch quickly and releasing it as soon as possible, rather than waiting for its usual monthly update.

Yes, that's right, there is no patch for this flaw yet. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. But you notice they are "considering" releasing a patch quickly. (how nice of them to think about it) OR you can set your Internet security settings to "high" - then, of course, no site you visit will work until you add it to the "trusted zone"...

I forsee a large number of emails headed my way by friends who want me to fix their computers because they don't know how to get rid of all those annoying pop ups saying - I thought Spybot was supposed to take care of that!

UPDATE: Just found this on Slashdot - Microsoft's Magical 'Myth-Busting' Tour.

"Microsoft has launched its 'Get the Facts' road show -- the tech equivalent of a political battle bus -- to tour the country and convince the wavering that Redmond is as at least cheap and as secure as its open-source rival and to spread the word that Windows is better than Linux.

Is this the kind of thing where if they keep saying it long enough, it becomes true by default?

Thinking Heretical Thoughts

I ran across this headline today...

Fraud, waste mar plan to wire schools to Net

And I must say, my first thought was... can we please teach kids to read, write, do arithmetic, speak proper English, know the history of their country and the world... THEN let them play with computers. Computers are of negative value in most classroom situations - they take up time and money that could be put to much better use elsewhere. If you have a decent grounding in education basics - learning how to use a computer is child's play. So, let the kids have the computers during playtime, not during school time.

The Thing About Computer Equipment...

When it is all working - DON'T LET ANYONE TOUCH IT!!!

That is all. More Later.

Upgrade...

It seems that typepad will be upgrading it's servers tonight between midnight and 2am... So, if all the blogs on typepad have disappeared tomorrow, you know what happened. (best laid plans and all that)

However, if it finally fixes the annoying slowdowns that have been such a plague lately - then I'll be happy. I'm on typepad at least until January, so I give it until September - if they are still having these server problems, I'll be looking to move then. Not that I want to mind you. The reason I started with typepad instead of blogsplat, was so I wouldn't have to move.

I don't mind paying for something that works and that I'm happy with - but I hate paying for something that is continually having problems. Typepad has had numerous slowdowns in the last few months (heh - and they are apologizing for slowdowns over the last 2-3 days, makes me wonder what is going on with them - do any of them actually USE typepad?!?) and it's really beginning to annoy me. I'm willing to give them a chance to fix things up, but I'll be watching.

(Like I don't have enough to do - now I have to consider a blog move... GRRRR!!!)