WinPatrol Minor Update

BillP has yet made available another WinPatrol update. With the recent change in v12 to the 'newer' Scotty icon and subsequent complaining that many users like the older icon, Bill now has included an option to use either or. Really, now how cool is Bill? Read More Here

STORM WORM ALERTS!!!

With all the hoopla that seems to be heaped upon each and every new Storm\Nuwar\Peacomm\Peed\Zhelatin worm I thought I'd make a quick little template for these alerts so security people could make posting said alerts a little bit easier.

Mind you, I may not give too much attention to this because it's the easiest thing to avoid. Just don't open any unknown\odd\unusual\ emails! Plain as that. If you do, then you deserve what you get. Yea, it's harsh....get over it.

See my post here

Spybot Search and Destroy 1.5 Final Release

Safer-Networking finally releases the new, latest and greatest Spybot Search & Destroy. Accept no substitutes, as many use the 'Spybot' name to rip off the good people who made the application the big success it is today.

They made a ton of improvements and its already Vista capable right out of the box, unlike some other anti-spyware company that took another month or so.

To read about all the highlights and check out the home page right here,

Bot Infections Multiply Like Bunnies: SDFix to The Rescue

Within the world of malware there are a couple of infections which seem to develop new variants very quickly. The type which seem to be the fastest, with new variants uncovered daily are of the 'bot' variety. These include but are not limited to backdoors, proxies, password stealers, downloaders\droppers and spambots.

Their names can strike fear in the hearts and minds of IT professionals all across the world not to mention make a home user nearly passout. Hacker Defender, InfoStealer, Rustock are but to name a few.

These can in many cases be cleaned up, tho to be honest, wiping the drive and reformatting to reinstall Windows is probably the best advice. If you have one of these then you'll be needing to use a specialized tool called SDFix, by Andy Manchesta.

Do not attempt to clean any bots on your own. These can require some specific registry fixes even before you begin cleaning, not to mention many bots are coded to prevent running of removal tools. Instead first install and run HijackThis! and post the resultant log into my Countermeasures: Extraction Hlep forum and I'll assist in removal.

'Next Blog' Button Infects Users

Just the other week, I posted about WinAntiVirus links which were found to be on some blogs. All of which were taken down by Google. Now these were specific blogs created to drive traffic to either infect or dupe users.

Then Sunbelt Blog posted about Storm worm links embedded into Blogger\Blogspot blogs. Again, specifically created to infect.

This weekend I decided to go looking for malware and boy did I find it! First link I hit, POW!! Malware got installed immediately. And some not very well detected malware either. I went out twice and got infected within 1 minute the first time and within 3 minutes the second time and I found a bunch of blogs all pushing the same malware. Read more about it, see the scan results right here

Not Just Pr0n Sites Infect

So there you are thinking you're all safe and sound cause you don't surf those nasty pr0n sites and can't get slammed with nasties right? WRONG!

A honeypot study shows that the percentage of other types if sites that contain malware are right behind those adult content sites, and not that far behind either.

I guess we only hear more about the adult content sites because there are more people perusing those sites than others. Ever get infected by a site which looked' safe? Talk about it right here

Malware Authhors 'Spamdexing'

Looks like the malware scumbags have come up with a new tactic to try and rope in victims. They seed forums with bogus posts, luring users with pix of their fav celeb and then once at the site, users get prompted for a codec install.

It's called Spamdexing. Wanna voice your outrage? Read more and join the discussion

Zango: Another Hit In The Bulkhead...YEAA

Well Zango has once again been beaten by the legal system. Their suit against a well known anti-virus company has been thrown out. That's twice in one week..............in two days even! Could this be the beginning of the end? We can only hope. Karma, it's a bitch. Read More And Share Your Opinion

Storm Embedded Links In Blogs!

Sunbelt researchers find Storm related links, supposedly pointing to YouTube embedded in blogs. Read More Here

Ad-Aware 2007: Vista Ready

Lavasoft has finally come out with a Vista capable version of Ad-Aware.
Read More Here

MS WGA Servers Fixed

Well it appears that the WGA servers have been fixed. According to MS, only about 12,000 machines were affected. And I think more than half of them posted somewhere about it. Read More Here

Zango Hijacking Search Results?!

OK, like this should surprise....................who? Certainly not anyone familiar with any of their other tactics at trying to gain installs via any sneaky way they can thing of.

Lowlife scumbags and the FTC let them slip right thru their fingers. Read More Here

New Storm Worm Tactic

It looks like the scumbags behind the Storm worm have changed things up again. Now they have begun to circulate spam with links 'supposedly' to YouTube, but in fact are bots controlled and designed to deliver malware. As usual, users need to be vigilant and never open any emails from someone you don't know, and even if you do know them, verify the contents of any links. Read More Here

MS WGA Servers Down, Chaos Ensues......Not Really

UPDATE: MS Claims to have fixed the problem, see forum thread.

Ok, it would seem there is a glitch with MS Windows Genuine Advantage servers. Users are being told thier copies of Windows are invalid. It affects Vista users more than most others. Just what MS didn't need. Read More Here

Rogue\Suspect Software Ads In Blogger Blogs

Recently while perusing Digg, I came across a blog on Google Blogger domains pushing rogue software, WinFixer to be specific. I buried it and with the help of another blogger, had it shut down.

Now we're on a mission, looking for more rogues. They seem to run in groups, and almost all are identical in design and content, with a big 'ad' right at the top.

We're hopeful that Google will step up and do something about what could be a very serious problem for unsuspecting users. It's not so much the software that's bad, but they want you to buy the stuff to remove threats and we all know that's a scam. Read More Here

Open Any eCards Lately? HijackThis Analysis Required

Well, if you have, shame on you. If you opened on and then clicked on the link contained therein, you ought to be smacked! People like you make spammers rich just on curiosity alone. WAKE UP!

NEVER open emails unless the sender is known to you. NEVER click a link in a suspicious email. If you have done so, you'll need to get HijackThis! from here
and install as instructed. Then post a log into my Countermeasures:
Extraction Help Forum.

Of course you'll need to register to gain access and post the log.

I'll be all over it, like white on rice....no 3, 5 or 10 day waiting at this forum, no sir.

Update Your YaHoo IM

The folks at YaHoo have issued a security patch for their IM users. Read More Here

Tech Support Alert Mentions Us!

qtkbkOnce again my site has been featured in a newsletter which as it turns out has brought over two dozen new users to the site. After being mentioned in TechSupport Alert Newsletter the doors were busted down by people looking to join! An amazing display of how popular it is and how much they regard Gizmo's
opinion.

They featured us as a site to get quick HijackThis! analysis.

I've been mentioned in several other newsletters, Clif Notes, InfoPackets, BootLIST, LanagList and Daves Computer Tips.

But none of those have ever generated this level of new user memberships. Not to take away from any of those publications mind you.

So thanks to everyone who joined, thanks to Gizmo(I emailed him personally to do so) and I hope the new users find the site\forum contains info they find helpful.

Got Pop Ups? Spyware? Unknown Rogue Apps?

Then you may have something on your system which you didn't ask for. Likely you're not sure where you even go it.

But help is just a few clicks away. Find out if your system is dragging due to malware installed, using up your CPU and making regular normal day to day operations a real painfully slow process.

With a HijackThis! log file I can help you find and remove these bits of annoying software\files\folders registry entries.

And it won't take 3 days. Or 5 days. Or 10 for that matter. I can get you going right away.

Join the forum and drop your log into the Countermeasures: Extraction Help section.

I'm waiting.

Weekly Round Up- Aug. 17 2007

Well the week started out with the concern over domain name parking and how users can be re-directed to malware sites via ads. Seems to be a growing trend, malware\rogue affiliates use legit means to sneak in thru the back door on viable sites.

Tuesday brought us a new blog by PayPal. Why this wasn't started sooner I have no idea. You'd think it would be a no brainer, so they could address the latest security concerns as it relates to phishing emails.

Wednesday was a busy day. We were warned about the threats about cyber squatting. This is when the bad guys buy up domains looking to make a fast buck. 248% increase in one year!

Wednesday was also the day we found that nearly 60% of are clueless as it regards to online threats. This day also brought us new ransomeware. Then there was the 0 day YaHoo! IM exploit

Thursday brought news of rogue DNS servers which could re-direct users to malware sites when errors were made looking for legit sites.

Friday looks sort of quiet so far. Just an article about ad servers perhaps clogging the Tubes. And a related one about some websites actually blocking FireFox users because they don't spend any money on said sites.

There was also an update to the Malwarebytes Rogues list.

New Release: WinPatrol 2007 v12

I had a brief exclusive on this a few days ago, but now it's official, WinPatrol 2007 v12 now release to the masses.

What's new? A new Scotty icon which looks marvelous and there are two new report buttons, one provides a HijackPatrol log(similar to HijackThis!) and a SpreadSheet log button as well. It's now easier to access PLUS features as well
as update future options.

Read More Details Here

Zango Busted By Ben Edelman

Once again, the venerable Ben Edelman has caught the scumbags at Zango doing the things they were told and agreed not to do. The FTC leveled a fine for these
types of practices. Yet it seems the 3 million was not quite enough of a deterrent.

I'd make a 3 million dollar bet the FTC don't do much of anything different. Launch big investigation, make a bunch of press releases, give the illusion that they're gonna do something. And in the end, it all turns out to be smoke and mirrors. Zango pays some minute fine, FTC feels better, Zango laughs all the way to the bank.

Rinse wash and repeat. Read More and Discuss

Vista & Spam\Phish Forums Busy This Week

Lots of tips and news on Vista and Vista SP1. Read More In Vista Forum

FBI says more spam prosecutions coming, Symantec monthly spam report and instant phishing scams for sale. Read More In Phishing & Spam Forum

MS July Windows Updates

Windows Updates released for July. Read Details Here

F-Secure Video

The gang at F-Secure create a nifty video on YouTube. Read & Discuss Here

Microsoft Malware Portal

The new portal is now out of beta. Lots of stats there. Read & Discuss Here

AOL Sites Infect Users

If you misspell a search on them you get a fun Zlob infection. Read & Discuss Here

AOHell Forcing AIM Updates

AOHell is forcing users of its AIM IM software to upgrade or be unable to use the product. Read & Discuss Here

And don't forget to Digg It!

iPhone Phish & 30K New Malware Sites Daily

iPhone phish spotted in the wild already, but the spammers weren't as fast as the malware guys. Read & Discuss Here

And up from 5,000 sites per month, new malware sites take a huge jump in just a few months. YIKES! Read & Discuss Here

New Rogues Aplenty

We have several new entries into the Rogue anti-spyware listings. We now have three great resources for this, Eric Howes' list (no recent updates), as well as the developers of RogueRemover at Malwarebytes and finally Security Cadets.

With these guys on the job, rogues don't stand a chance in hell of getting too many victims to bite on their sleazy products. Read & Discuss Here

Got one of these rogues on your system? Post a HijackThis! log into our Countermeasures: Extraction Help Forum

Weekly Round Up

As I was away for most of the week, I'll give a little round up of what's been posted since my return.

Another Fake MS Email Update Alert

As usual, don't click these emails, you're likely to need a visit to our Extraction Forums

Why We Click On Spam

A bit of research into the hows and whys of the social engineering tricks spammer use.

Another Storm On The Net

Latest variants of the Storm worm have resurfaced and are filing inboxes over the Net.

iPhone Hype = Malware Ripoffs

It didn't take long for first iPhone scam site\malware to surface.

Cybergangs Duke It Out On Net

Rival gangs expend time on eachother, which could be good for us.

Matrix Needs An Adjustment Perhaps?

Net traffic has spiked in some parts of the world with no exact cause pinned down as yet.

Brief Vacation

I'll be taking a few days off to hit Disneyland with the family, so this blog won't be updated until I return

WinPatrol A Virus!??

Some false\positives from some Kaspersky and a couple of others, claiming WinPatrol is a nasty. Corrected for the most part. Read & Discuss Here

New threads In The Forums

Apologies for not bringing these to you sooner, here are some new threads in the forums:

New Method Of Virus Detection

Better Method To Certify Sites As Legit

Two Windows Live Messenger Threads

Malware Costs Down, Profits Up

As malware scumbags fine tune their targeting, the over all costs to end users go down, while their profits go up. Read & Discuss Here

What is 'meocentrism'?

This is a new term for online advertising. It was made up by some guy. Maybe not specifically for the adware business, but it certainly sounds much better than the one word that strikes fear into the hearts of users globally.....adware!

And who is behind this push for the new terminology? It appears to be WhenU, but I'm unsure at this time. It would seem fit a theme WhenU CEO Bill Day touted last year when he said "Adware as a term will die in twelve months". Sounds like they have begun down that path with this association. Read More & Discuss

Zone Alarm For Vista

CheckPoint Software Technologies, parent company behind Zone Alarm products announces availability for Vista compatible products. Official launch June 14. Read More Here

MS Updates, Julie Amero, YouTube Worm, HijackThis!

This months Windows updates are out, be sure to check them out. Four critical ones, one important and one moderate.

Malware researchers have banded together to help prevent a fiasco such as the Julie Amero case from ever happening again. It has some very prestigious malware researchers involved, its called the Julie Group

And a new worm uses a video from YouTube to infect users. While they watch the vid, malware downloads a trojan to steal your info. I'm surprised there has not been more of this, read on.

Finally I have HijackThis! analysis available and it's fast too. No days of waiting to get assistance to remove malware. So if you have any unwanted software on your machine, join the forum and drop a log into Countermeasures: Extraction Help forum.

New Rogues: ContraVirus & SpyCrush

Two new rogues have hit the scene, ContraVirus and SpyCrush. Each is targeted by special removal tools already. Read More Here

As usual, if you're infected with either of these or any other SmithFraud\Zlob variants, be sure to have us look at a log in our Countermeasures: Extraction Forum.

Ad-Aware 2007 Released...But Troubled

Lavasoft released their new version of Ad-Aware yesterday, Ad-AWare 2007, after much beta testing. Well, I guess it wasn't quite enough. Several users have complained about glitches, system crashes and Vista incompatibility too.

Read & Discuss In Our Forum

Malware Launch Points

F-Secure security firm researches the most popular launch points for malware. Nicely done with detailed analysis and screen shots. Read & Discuss Here

Cexx Forums Back Online

Cexx forums was returned to service shortly after me posting my previous entry about it. Sorry for my delay in reporting that here.

Cexx Forums Offline

Well it looks as tho the recent story about Dreamhosts being hacked has affected Cexx forums in that when you go there as of this writing, you get a blank page. The admin is well aware and is working to restore status as quickly as possible. Keep an eye on this blog for its return to service.

Zango vs. Spyware Doctor...Who Won?

Zango recently filed a lawsuit against Spyware Doctor. Just earlier today, Zango was denied a TRO. They then claimed that because Spyware Doctor changed its detection of Zango that they were victorious by forcing their hand.
Read & Discuss Here

Site Advisor: State Of Search Engine Saftey

McAfee SiteAdvisor team posts up a state search engine safety write up. This follows previous write ups and of course it's never very good news. Another reason for users to use things like SiteAdvisor or other related browser
protection devices. Read & Discuss Here

Good Reading In Our Forums

The spam and phishing forum has been very busy this week. Friday brings no end. A bit on the major spammer arrested and why it won't impact your inbox.

And then a look into what the future of spamming techniques holds

Then we have a bit of a technical read about the effectiveness of anti virus software

Lastly there is a new MSN IM worm spreading

Enjoy and don't forget to let us know what you think.

IM Threats Increase Dramitically

IM threats increase over 70% since last year, averaging a new threat every day. Read & Discuss Here

Two Good Reads: Google Security Efforts & Firewall Testing

Google has recently rolled out a security blog and released a technical paper and now the just bought out an anti-malware company as well. And one of their employees wrote a cool app for webmasters to check and see if their sites have
malicious code. Read & Discuss Here

And I stumbled upon a neat write up showing a bunch of firewall testing tools to see how secure you really are. Read & Discuss Here

Digg links for both on respective page.

URL Phishing Flood & New Image Spams

Read about the latest image spam technique and about how phishers try to flood phishing filters with a huge jump in URLs since last month in the forum. Read & Discuss Here

InfoStealer Trojan Injects Code To Fool Users

Users who routinely adhere to good security behavior and type in urls to their banks as opposed to following links can be duped into giving their info anyway. It seems as tho the creators of this malware have injected to to add fields for additional info. They never cease to amaze me in their abilities to circumvent almost any sort of barrier put up. The good folks at Symantec provide anlysis. Read & Discuss Here

Interesting Entries In The Forum

Read about the man who owns the Internet, its pretty interesting.

Then there is the big deal about Dell & Google, they are making money installing some 'extra' software.

Speaking of Dell, you will soon be able to buy them at Walmart.

And a lemon law for computers?

Finally for some laughs watch some funny techy videos.

Don't forget to take the time to comment on what you see, I'm always interested in seeing what people like and don't like.

WinPatrol 100 Best Products Of '07

Another great achievement for my good friend BillP, developer of WinPatrol.
Scotty has been awarded as one of Top 100 Best Products Of 2007 by PCWorld

Check it out.

Zango & Value Click In The News Today

As it's turning out, ValueClick has given me reason to make an entire thread dedicated to their recent activities with rogues. It will be updated as news warrants. Just today there are two items posted by MS MVP Mike Burgess on his Hosts News. You can read about those here

And in Zango news, they recently filed a lawsuit against PCTools. But upon further investigation by Sunbelt researchers, it appears that all is not as clear and concise as Zango would have you believe. What a shocker, huh? More on that here

Dell Online Store Email Installs Trojan

Fake Dell online store email installs trojan. Read & Discuss Here

DeskMate Casino Vendor Threatens Spybot

Casino software vendor threatens Spybot group because they detect their software. It appears to be installed via malware. But they don't seem to care. I bet you can't guess what Spybot gang told 'em? Read & Discuss Here

MS May Security Bulletin

Published May 8 2007

Summary
This bulletin summary includes security updates for newly discovered vulnerabilities.

Critical:7 Read More Here

Poll, Vid & Comments On Crapware

I've set up a new poll in the forums. It has to do with 'crapware'. You know, the extra junk software new PCs come with from OEMs such as Dell, Gateway and HP. There is a video from CNET too. Watch the vid, take the poll and add your own comments

Rogue\Suspect Anti-Spyware List Updated

Eric Howes has updated the Rogue\Suspect Anti-Spyware List. Just click the link to the right to view the latest additions.

Trojan Poses As Activation Screen

Well the malware authors have really outdone themselves here. This trojan presents a MS looking blue boot up screen and asks for your CC info. Decline it, and the PC reboots. Read More Here

Update To Engima Software Post

Well it seems the gang at Enigma have decided to make an attempt to reign in the affiliates which were 'spamvertising' forums and social networking sites.

After a long discussion at Spyware Warriors, they finally got it. But only time will tell if new policies, if any, are effective or if the existing ones are enforced.

One thing is for sure......if they are not enforced the community will know. Very quickly.

Enigma Software Try To Silence The Critics

Well the gang behind the most current crop of forum spam has taken exception to the publicity. And you would think they would actually like it. But of course it's not exactly of the flattering kind of publicity. One could paint it as not flattering. Especially if it's really just an unethical method of advertising your product. And it's not even done in a manner which is obvious. The push generically named removal tools for the latest malware and install the samething in each instance, Spy Hunter.

They posted a press release asking for discussion on the matter with the security community. They threaten a possibility of legal action even. Maybe they ought to spend their money on good, honest affiliates instead of lawyers. Now that would be good publicity. Read More Here

New Malware Center From MS

Microsoft has developed a malware portal of sorts. Has all kinds of info on it. It is still in beta tho. It lists the most active viruses, malware, email spam and much more. Read More Here

SmithFraud Fix, SDFix Tools

I've just updated a couple of threads in our Latest Malware Threats Forum. I updated the SmitFraud post to show links to changelogs and tools and added one for SDFix, a bot detection and removal tool.

Russinovich On Vista Malware

Noted Microsoft evangelist Mark Russinovich weighs in on Vista and malware.

Essentially, he says regardless of UAC, malware writers will conquer Vista as they always have with other OSes.

I've already seen malware on Vista systems so it's no big shock. Read More Here

New WinPatrol Build 3

BillP, developer of the famous WinPatrol has come out with a fresh build and made a few additions and cleaned a few bugs. Read More Here

AVG\Grisoft Now Support Windows Vista

AVG\Grisoft announces that their product, Internet Security 7.5 now supports Windows Vista. Read More Here

Hand In Hand?

Could the fact that botnets are getting stronger and smarter coincide with phishing attacks decrease overall, but targets increase?

Check out the links and decide for yourself.

So, Do YOU Pay Attention?

Over in the forums, I posted about how many users simply fail to recognize a broken security measure and they log in anyway.

Until the regular Joe Q. Net users wakes up, phishing will always be a lucrative means of income for malware writers. Join the conversation:

Website Authentication Measures Ignored by 92%

More On Spyware Help Matter Group

For some other information about the previously blogged about 'Spyware Help: Intent Matters Alot:Part 2 ' group, read this blog by Security Cadets.

Spyware Help: Intent Matters Alot:Part 2

It's been a little over a year since I last blogged about it, and it seems it's time for another go.

The last week or so, I have noticed a pattern of links showing up on Digg which purport to take care of all your woes dealing with the latest SmithFraud\Zlob variant, Spylock(ed). They were posted usually a couple of days apart and rarely had more than one digg.

Now it's not so bad that websites offer to fix you up with the latest rage-in-the-cage type malware infection. I'm all for sites which do this, it's what I do too.

The big difference here is of course, you won't find me, nor anyone associated with me, plastering forums with a tag team duo to direct users to my site. Like here, here, here and here. These people, much like the first group I blogged about have only one thing in mind: to make money of site traffic\clicks. That's it. They don't care about your machine whatsoever.

This group appears to be related to SpyHunter\Enigma Software Group. They have been pretty quiet for some time. But it appears
that with each of the downloads from 411 sites, they are installing SpyHunter.

So once again, a once dormant rogue rears its ugly head out from the shadows, to spam forums and newsgroups and the occasional social networking site. You really can't change this tigers stripes.

Greed is as greed does to take a cue from Forrest.

3 Part Story On Cyber Criminal Activity

MSNBC has a three part series exploring the cyber criminal world and activity within. 150 millions infected PCs. Botnets sending out spam by the millions. Gang fights with eachother. All for their piece of your stolen identity. Read More Here

Monthly Microsoft Security Bulletins: April

MS monthly updates available, several critical rated. Read More Here

Zango Edits Correct Info From Wikipedia

Once again, Paperghost has compiled several edits from the Zango Wikipedia page to point to where information seems to be 'disappearing'. Coincidently those edits are coming from the same IP as the Zango home office and actually point directly to edits made by their fearless, yet obviously not-too-bright ring leader, Daniel Todd. For the entire scoop, which is now up to part four read here and laugh at their stupidity.

Sorry For Not Blogging

Well its been a couple of weeks since I installed Vista and last blogged...............about anything. But beginning this week, I'm going to try and post every other day at least.

The last two weeks, Jr. had his spring break and with Vista installed, there was lots of learning new things. So this blog suffered.

Apologies for any who came here looking for anything new. The forums of course are where all the action is.

TeMerc Installs Vista Ultimate

I've finally gotten around to installing Vista Ultimate, and it's pretty neat so far. Not so great that I'd be telling people to buy it, mind you, but it is neat. I have a couple of threads in our Vista Forum. Check 'em out.

WinPatrol 2007 v11.2

BillP has just released a new version of WinPatrol with some nice tweaks to make using Scotty in Windows even better...if that's even possible. Read More Here

We're In PCMag!

TeMerc gets a mention in PCMag article! W()()T!!

Check It Out!!

hpHosts Restructuring

One of the mods at my forum, good friend and developer, Steven Burn who has had a great freeware site, Ur I.T. Mate Group has also been keeping up the hosts file entries for hpHosts for the last several months.

There have been some changes and all users have had to re-register. So if you had not been a member previously now is the time to go and register

SiteAdvisor Maps Malware Domains

McAfee's SiteAdvisor blog maps the malware world of domains. Providing stats on where the worse countries are who host the malware sites on the web. The most volatile countries? Russia and Romania. Worse overall domain? .info, with .com right behind it.
Read More Here

Merijn Sells HijackThis!... Oh Noes!!

Merijn, creator\developer of many specialized tools, notably HijackThis!, has sold said tool to Trend Micro. Read More Here

Purchase Software From TIC

I'm happy to announce users can now buy security software via TeMerc Internet Countermeasures. You can read all about it here

New Version Release: WinPatrol 2007 11.1.2007

BillP Studios released the official version of WinPatrol 2007. [Read More Here]

Git Yer Vista Info Here!

I'll be keeping a fairly close eye on Vista related stuffage now that it is released to the mainstream public. [Read In Our Vista Forum]

MySpace Pushing Malware WinAntiVirus\Drive Cleaner

Users of MySpace face a malicious software via ads in the form of WinAntiVirus\DriveCleaner\ErrorSafe. These are all rogue anti-spyware applications. It's the latest of dangers for the multitude of users. [Read\Discuss]

MS Extends XP\MCE Support to 2014

Microsoft has announce extended support for Windows XP and Windows Media Center Edition. This is good news for most of those users. As it is, the over all consensus has been that most will wait a while before upgrading to Vista. I don't see this as a good sales bolstering move. [Read\Discuss]

MSN Live Messenger Trojan Out

This one is a password stealer so users need to verify before clicking links and always pay attention to re-directs to log in pages. Always click your original saved bookmark to get back to the correct page. Never trust re-direct links which require you to 're-log in'.
[Read\Discuss]

Storm Worm Spreading, Adapting

This latest email nasty has many variants with multiple titles and has changed its over all theme from news to romance. Be sure you don't answer any emails from unknown sources and have your av up to date. [Read\Discuss]

WinPatrol 2007

BillP, creator of WinPatrol has just announced WinPatrol 2007 Beta. And it has a kewl new feature: 'Delayed Start'.
[Read Discuss Here]

TeMerc vs PC ButtWipe: Round 2

Well it seems a mystery has begun. The cached post of Mr.ButtWipe where he called me a troll has reappeared in his blog archive. Interesting isn't? I'm sure he'll attribute that to some sort of blog glitch or something.

Another thing occurred too. Two of the names he mentioned as 'good guy' MS MVPs cannot be found on the public awardees site. There is tho one of them who is actually an MVP. It will be interesting when he is contacted about Mr.ButtWipe dropping his name and declaring him a 'good guy MS MVP'. I'm sure that he will be sure to add that amazing acknowledgement of being considered as a good guy MS MVP. I know I'd run and add it to my profile.

Speaking of my profile, you can see it off over there, to the right. Is there any such link on Mr.ButtWipes blog? Or any of his sites? I don't think so.

Well Brian, I suppose I also ought to give your name a search for in the MVP profiles, and see if it pops up, eh? Does Diane know you're up to no good? I can't imagine she would approve. Unless of course she is your female alter ego. Much along the lines of all the users who post in your defense.
[Read Discuss Here]

PCButts: Coward Behind The Curtain

Well PCButts is making a saddened attempt to discredit me. He says I'm a troll because I am trying to get him to come out from behind the relatively appropriate handle of PCButts1. Of course we all know him more to be PCButtWipe1.

Why? Because in my opinion he is a lying, lowlife scumbag Internet softwaret thief. He even wrote a post about me back in December, but saw better to remove it, but I have a Google cache of the post. [Read Discuss]

Zango Does Teen Porn...AGAIN!!

Well it looks like the scumbags over at Zango are at it again. Teen porn is their new frontier. This is one heck of a way to start off the New Year. [Read Discuss Here]

Beware SpywareBot & antispyware.com!!

Thanks to some info from the Sunbelt blog, this website, which was recently sold for $500,000 has an app associated with it that is less than dependable to say the least, SpywareBot.

Need to purchase to remove 3 mild registry entries, and over look dozens of malware files stored in a regular folder. Can you say 'scam'? Sure ya can, say it with me now.......[Read | Discuss Here]

Scam Sites Storm!!

Scam sites have been on the upswing as of late, so I decided to make a sticky thread just to deal with them. They include sites that try to trick users into downloading some sort of POS anti-spyware (rogues)along with sites that try to goad users into downloading a codec file to view a particular video clip. Nine times out of ten, the user gets infected with Zlob\SmithFraud infections or goodness knows what else is lurking. [Read Discuss Here]

New Rogues & Fake Codec Sites

Three new anti-spyware rogues and two more fake codec sites appear for the week, guess the malware scumbags were busy getting ready for a holiday push. [Read|Discuss Here]

PC Butts: Liar Extraordinaire

PCButts, Internet thief, liar and overall scumbag has now laid claim that he is an MS MVP. On the SiteAdvisor review page he claims he is and has been for 4 years. I think not. [ReadDiscuss Here]

Spam & Phish On The Menu Today

Well today has brought a few very interesting reads about spam\phish. One on how it's not going away, one about a new start up that wants to charge for access to your email account and another about a phishing group which may be responsible for nearly one third of all phish messages sent. Read and Discuss Here

MS Updates Available Now!

MS has readied a few critical updates for the month of December, go and get yours!! See Here

Phishers Ratchet Up Spoof Sites

Phishers use machine gun method to hit-and-run victims with record number of spoofed domains. Read and Discuss Here

MessPlus!: Adware As Usual

Prompted by a comment on her blog by a Patchou troll, Sandi Hardmeier, noted MS MVP gives Mess Plus! another scathing review.
Read and Discuss Here

Zango, PG, MySpace & My First Article

Well it was yet another Paperghost\Zango bust fest. PG finds a profile on MySpace using an exploit which leads to a Zango site pushing Zango content vids. And of course you need to view the vids with the ever present Zango crapware. This stuff is almost as bad as the
codecs I wrote about last week. Read and Discuss Here

This week was my first article to appear in the Dave's Computing Tips newsletter. Check The Forum

And we broke the record for the most ever users online too. Read and Discuss