Practical Technology

for practical people.

September 15, 2009
by sjvn01
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Fake virus infection Web pages are everywhere

Everyone has seen a fake virus infection Web page from time to time. They pop up on your screen looking like a perfectly normal Windows page except they tell you that your PC is infected by a virus and you need to click here to either fix the problem or download a program that will clean out the bug for you. The only problem is it’s a lie. It’s actually an attack designed to get you to download malware.

Usually these fake Windows pages-they’re actually Web pages-pop up when you’re visiting a dodgy Web site. But, even the New York Times isn’t immune to attacks like this. Over this last weekend, September 12-13, I was startled to see an apparent Windows page show up that read, “Warning!!! Your system requires immediate anti-viruses scan. Personal Antivirus can perform fast and free virus malicious software scan of your computer.”

Now, I wouldn’t fall for this, but I can see how many people would. At a glance, it looks real and the last thing most people expect to see coming from the New York Times is malware. But, that’s exactly what it was.

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September 14, 2009
by sjvn01
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Linux 2.6.31’s best five features

Lately, most of the improvements in the Linux kernel have been for server users. In the latest release though, Linux 2.6.31, most of the best goodies are for Linux desktop users. Here’s my list of the top five improvements.

1) USB 3 Support. This is the big one. We’ve been connecting our devices to our PCs with USB ports instead of serial or parallel ports for some time now, and that’s been good. USB 2.0 has a maximum throughput of 480Mbps (Megabits per second). That’s fast, but these days, when you might want to move a gigabyte plus of movie from one device to another, it’s not fast enough. So, the USB vendors have been working on USB 3.0, which is almost 10-times faster than USB 2.

How fast? USB 3 can run at an effective throughput rate of 350MBps (Megabytes per second). USB 2.0 maxes out at about 32MBps. That’s faster than the SATA hard drive you are almost certainly currently using in your PC. USB 3 devices, which will go by the trade name of SuperSpeed USB, will start appearing by the year’s end.

What’s especially interesting about Linux supporting these new devices is that Linux is actually ahead of Windows and Mac OS X in supporting these super-speed hard drives, USB-flash drives and the like. Neither Windows 7 nor Snow Leopard currently supports USB 3.

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September 12, 2009
by sjvn01
4 Comments

The first Linux botnet?

Has Linux security been breeched? Are Linux systems in danger of being transformed into botnet zombies the way millions of Windows PCs have been? In a word: “Nah.”

According to a report in The Register, A Russian security researcher, Denis Sinegubko, has discovered a cluster of infected Linux servers that have been corralled into a botnet, which is then used to distribute malware to Windows users. Is t

Ah, Windows fans everywhere, I hate to break this to you but compromised Linux servers have been used for ages to run Windows botnets. After all, if you had a couple of hundred of thousand Windows PCs at your beck and call would you use Windows to control them? Of course not!

Yes, Linux servers have been broken into manually. There is not, I repeat, is not, any malware that automatically convert Linux desktops or servers into virus-spreading boxes. All that has happened is that someone, as many others have in the past, has busted into improperly secured Linux servers.

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September 11, 2009
by sjvn01
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If Microsoft really wants to be friends with Linux…

Microsoft has founded a new foundation, the CodePlex Foundation which claims to be about bringing open-source and proprietary software companies together to participate side by side in open-source projects. Yeah. Right.

There’s a folk tale that goes something like this, a dog and a rattlesnake meet at the river. The snake says to the dog, “Why don’t you carry me on your back to the other side?” The dog says “Sure, I’d be happy to do that except you’ll bite me.” And the snake says “No I won’t, I really need to get across to the other side and I won’t bite you.” The dog, a foolish sort believes the snake’s promise so he lets the snake on his back and he starts to swim across the river. At the mid-way point, the snake bites him. “What did you do that for?” exclaimed the dog, as they both begin to die. “What did you expect,” replied the snake, “I’m a rattlesnake.”

And, Microsoft is Microsoft. The Codex Foundation claims that it “will complement existing open source foundations and organizations, providing a forum in which best practices and shared understanding can be established by a broad group of participants, both software companies and open source communities.” I don’t believe it for a minute.

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September 10, 2009
by sjvn01
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Is Microsoft abandoning XP security updates?

Windows is insecure. That’s a given. But, Microsoft does issue monthly security patches-the first Tuesday of every month on Patch Tuesday-for many of Windows’ security problems. Now, however, there’s a new security problem in Windows XP’s TCP/IP networking that Microsoft has deliberately decided to leave unfixed.

According to Microsoft’s Security Bulletin MS09-048, Microsoft has released a patch for “several privately reported vulnerabilities in Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) processing. The vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sent specially crafted TCP/IP packets over the network to a computer with a listening service.”

That’s the fancy way of saying a hacker can take your computer over with this vulnerability. Listening services are just what you might think. They’re software programs, like a Web server, that wait for a network connection before they do whatever their job is. Now, Microsoft has fixed this… for Vista and Windows Server 2003 and 2008. But, if you use XP, or Windows 2000, you’re out of luck.

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September 10, 2009
by sjvn01
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Much ado about nothing or Apple TV

Yesterday’s Apple announcements had analysts and fans alike drooling at the possibilities of a tablet-sized Apple iPod Touch, others saw a Web browser and iPhone/iPod applets for the Apple TV, and there was the eternal rumor of a Blu-Ray DVD being added to the Apple TV. In the event, there was, drum roll please, no Apple TV news at all.

Thud.

There are new iPods and a new version of Apple iTunes, but if you wanted any improvements to the Apple TV, you had come to the wrong place. I find this more than a little disappointing. I’m a big Apple TV fan, but Apple management seems to disagree.

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