No Recovery For You!

When consumers purchase personal computers, they should be given the means to restore/repair their operating system via an included LIVE CD/DVD, in NOT doing so by the OEM is just plain stupid. Bear in mind that as a Microsoft Windows licensee, meaning YOU, the thing with a Windows license is that you DO NOT OWN the software, you DO NOT OWN the product, that you are paying for and by receiving a license to use that software under the terms given, you must abide by them, whether you like it or not. That doesn’t sound to user friendly does it?

What you typically have included with you computer, is a recovery CD (best case), perhaps a recovery partition that just re-images your partition setting everything back to the way it was originally or nothing at all (worst case), none of these truly do fix anything. Normally the best way to accomplish this feat is to boot from a Linux LiveCD to recover your files. (more…)

Windows Patch Tuesday – January 2012

For the swiss cheese of operating systems, Microsoft plans to start 2012 with a surprisingly large Patch Tuesday that covers seven security bulletins which collectively address eight separate vulnerabilities. Previous January releases have normally featured only one or two bulletins. The solitary critical bulletin in the batch fixes a remote code execution issue in Media Player. The remaining six “important” bulletins due next Tuesday handle the BEAST SSL issue, which is short for Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS. The stealthy piece of JavaScript works with a network sniffer to decrypt encrypted cookies a targeted website uses to grant access to restricted user accounts.

In the patch are other various information disclosure bugs, escalation of privilege issues and an update to Microsoft’s SEHOP (Structured Exception Handler Overwrite Protection) technology to enhance the defence-in-depth capability that it can offers to legacy applications. The first six bulletins affect various versions of the Windows Operating System, from XP SP3 up to the newest versions Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2. The seventh bulletin covers Microsoft Developer Tools.

The “important” rather than critical status for the Beast SSL issue is at least debatable. The BEAST attack affects web servers that support SSLv3/TLSv1 encryption. Microsoft has already published a workaround, which involves using the non-affected RC4 cipher in SSL installations. A patch was originally promised in December but delayed until this month due to problems uncovered during testing. “Despite all of the hype over ‘The Beast’, attacks have simply never materialised and the issue has retained its ‘important’ classification from Microsoft,” notes Paul Henry, a security and forensic analyst at Lumension. Adobe and Oracle have both timetabled quarterly updates, on 10 January and 17 January, respectively in what promises to be a busy month for patching

Windows Patch Tuesday – December 2011

Patch up warmly this winter if you’re running Java, as Oracle’s software platform is the single biggest target for hackers. Java proved the single most popular target in the 12-month period to the end of June, according to Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report has found here. Running Java as a Web-browser Plugin is much more dangerous than Flash, and you should disable the Java Applet Plugin.

Microsoft today issued software updates to patch at least 19 security holes in Windows XP, Vista, 2003 and 7 (no surprise there), including three flaws that earned the company’s most serious “critical” rating. Separately, Oracle released a security update that fixes several issues in its Java software. (more…)

Automatic Computer Malware

According to a Security Intelligence Report from Microsoft, AutoRun—the feature in Windows that automatically executes files when you plug in a USB or connect to a network—accounts for almost half of all malware infections.  These are infections that don’t require any user-input from you, so it’s kind of not your fault that your computer gets infected. By turning off AutoRun, you’ll add an extra step to certain tasks, but it’s worth it to cut down on malware 50%.

This report states that Windows XP SP3 systems get infected about ten times as much as Windows 7 SP1 64-bit systems, and six times as much vs. 32-bit Windows 7 systems. That alone is one reason why you might want to upgrade your parents’ machines to Linux. bear in mind that Windows XP should have been mostly fixed back in February of 2011. See Microsoft Security Advisory 967940. The update does not disable auto-play for CD nor DVD media, but only USB drives, external hard drives and network shares. (more…)

Windows 8 Antivirus

In a move that is likely to anger the antivirus industry, Microsoft is adding security features from its Security Essentials program to Windows 8. This is good news for consumers, but bad news for the antivirus industry. Microsoft should have been doing this since the release of Windows 95. While many of us do simultaneous facepalms and giggle at a decade-late decision, others question the legality of doing so. A multi-billion dollar industry has grown, based on the absolute porous operating system that is Microsoft Windows.

That’s right. Microsoft this week began offering U.S. customers its free antivirus program via Windows’ built-in update service, a move one major security firm said may be anti-competitive. Microsoft is adding features from its Security Essentials program, which is currently available as a separate download for Windows users, to the Windows Defender package already built into Windows. This means that Windows 8 users will get out-of-the-box protection against malware, along with firewall and parental controls from within Windows without requiring users hunt down a separate download or buy new software. (more…)

Windows Patch Tuesday – November 2011

It is that time again! Adobe, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla all released updates on Tuesday to fix critical security flaws in their products. Adobe issued a patch that corrects four vulnerabilities in Shockwave Player, while Redmond pushed updates to address four Windows flaws. Apple slipped out an update that mends at least 17 security holes in its version of Java, and Mozilla issued yet another major Firefox release, Firefox 8. If there have been 17 security holes in Java just since the last release If that doesn’t convince a person to uninstall Java, I’m not sure what will.

The only “critical” patch from Microsoft this month is a dangerous Windows flaw that could be triggered remotely to install malicious software just by sending the target system specially crafted packets of data. Microsoft says this vulnerability may be difficult to reliably exploit, but it should be patched immediately. Information on the other three flaws fixed this week is here. The fixes are available via Windows Updates for most supported versions of the operating system, including XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Adobe’s Shockwave update also fixes critical flaws, but users should check to see if they have this program installed before trying to update it. To test whether you have Shockwave installed, visit this page; if you see an animation, it’s time to update. If you see a prompt to install Shockwave, there is no need to install it. Mozilla Firefox users without Shockwave Player installed may still see “Shockwave Flash” listed in the “Plugins” directory of the browser; this merely indicates that the user has Adobe’s Flash Player installed.

The vulnerabilities fixed by this update exist in versions ofShockwave 11.6.1.629 and earlier. The latest version, v. 11.6.3.633, is available here.  I’m sure it has its uses, but to me Shockwave is just another Adobe program that requires constant care and feeding. What’s more, like Adobe’s Flash Player, Shockwave demands two separate installation procedures for IE and non-IE browsers.

Hat tip to the SANS Internet Storm Center for the heads up on the Java fix from Apple. This update, available via Software Update or Apple Downloads, essentially brings Snow Leopard and Lion up to date with the Oracle patches released last month in Java 6 Update 29 (Apple maintains its own version of Java).

If you use Mozilla Firefox or Thunderbird, you may have noticed that Mozilla is pushing out another major upgrade that includes critical fixes to these programs; both have now been updated to version 8. If you’re still running Firefox version 3.6.x, Mozilla has updated that to3.6.24. Perhaps I’m becoming a curmudgeon, but I’m growing weary of the incessant update prompts from Firefox. It seems that almost every time I start it up it’s asking to restart the browser or to remove plugins that no longer work with the latest version. I’ve been gradually transitioning more of my work over to Google Chrome, which seems faster and updates the browser and any installed plugins silently (and frequently patches oft-targeted plugins like Flash Player even before Adobe officially releases the update).

I switched to Google Chrome when it first came out ago. I love it. It’s faster and makes updating easy and effortless. I still have Firefox, but Chrome is my default browser now on all my computers.

Windows PC Malware

The latest semi-annual Security Information Report (SIR) from Microsoft has been released, and its 232 pages carry reminders of some important facts about computer viruses, other malware and overall PC security.

Here is the link to their blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/security/archive/2011/10/10/latest-microsoft-security-intelligence-report-now-available.aspx

When it comes to Windows, there are ten things that one should keep in mind:

Infections happen

According to the report, of all the computers that visited the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool(MSRT) in the first half of 2009, 8.7 out of 1,000 (that is, not quite one percent) had some kind of malware infection identifiable by the tool.

The hot spots were Serbia and Montenegro, where the rate was 97.2 per thousand, Turkey with 32.3, Brazil with 25.4, Spain with 21.6, South Korea with 21.3, Saudi Arabia with 20.8, and Taiwan with 20.4.

The cleanest were computers in Finland with a rate of 1.9. The U.S. rate of 8.6 was nearly the same as the global average. (Other sources–typically malware protection vendors who see no reason to be coy–quote much higher infection rates.) Not mentioned by the Microsoft report is that Apple Macintosh infections remain rare.

Malware amounts to an ecosystem

There’s viruses that replicate themselves and spread to other computers, sometimes just for its own sake.

They’re called worms if they do it through e-mail or instant messaging. Trojans follow the metaphor of Homer’s Trojan Horse, whose occupants emerged in the night to open the Troy’s gates to a devastating attack. Spyware watches your actions for marketing purposes. Adware produces annoying popup ads. Malware, incidentally, is any software you didn’t ask for, especially software that has malicious intent. A bug, meanwhile, is any software that doesn’t work right–and may be preferable to malware.

Malware has many sources

You can get an infection by visiting a malicious Web site, or by clicking a file attached to spam e-mail, through a p2p file-sharing network, by downloading what you thought was free software, or by using an infected removable device like a USB memory stick. Intrusion attacks can come in over the Internet.

Malware can bite

Many trojans will download other malware that take root in our computer and start doing nasty things. These include password stealers and keyloggers that will try to swipe your account information so that someone else can swipe your money. Or they may turn your computer in to botnet node, under the remote control of a bot herder, who will typically use it to spew spam.

Trojans rule (in the U.S.)

If you’re going to get an infection, at least in the U.S. it’s likely to be some kind of Trojan. According to the SIR, 42 percent of the infections that the MSRT discovered were Trojans. Adware was also big at 16.3 percent. Nasty password stealers amounted to 4.1 percent. Elsewhere, infections are a toss-up. In Brazil, for instance, password stealers aimed at on-line banking predominate. Spain and South Korea have little in common, but both are afflicted by worms that target on-line gamers.

Vulnerabilities vary

Not all operating systems are equally vulnerable. Microsoft’s figures show that unpatched Windows XP has an infection rate of about 32.5 per thousand–about four times the global average. The rate falls to a sub-average 8 for thousand for Windows XP with Service Pack 3 (i.e., fully updated.) The rate for updated Vista machines was 3.1 per thousand for the 32-bit version, and 2 per thousand for the 64-bit version.

Patching works

Hackers have a reputation of being ahead of the software vendors, but in reality they often use vulnerabilities for which patches has already been issued. Even when the bad guys get the upper hand, it may not be for long. Microsoft likes to use the example of the “Reno” Trojan that was attacking Vista, causing Windows Explorer to generate trackable error reports. After Microsoft issued a patch, the reports fell from 1.2 million error reports daily to less than 100,000–in three days. Within a month it was off the chart.

Updating works

The rate of infection of 64-bit versions of software was usually a third lower than the rate of infection of the 32-bit version.

Malware is not the only danger

The big news is the rise in phishing–e-mail that tries to trick you into revealing information that could be used for ID theft or other fraud. The phishers have been going after denizens of social networking sites and even large corporations.

Upshot: Update your gray matter

Software can’t protect you against the phishing plague–only common sense can do that. If some random e-mail asks for your personal information because somehow otherwise your bank account, or our game subscription, or your corporate computer privileges will be suspended, delete it.

Yes, this is why I show people Linux all the time, where you do not put up with all this mess. Who has the time to keep up with all of this garbage? It’s a wonder anyone gets any work done using Windows. There are two lines that I carry with me and I use them often these days:

“In a world without walls and fences, who needs Windows and Gates?”

“I get paid to support Windows, I use Linux to get work done.”

Internet Safety: 7 tips

Don’t use a single, easy-to-remember password for everything you sign up for. It’s tempting because you’re always being asked to create another user name and password at one site or another.

“When criminals are able to get your password from one site that they’ve hacked into, they then take it and try to use it on other common services to see if they can get more access to your personal information,” said Chester Wisniewski, a security expert at security firm Sophos Ltd. “So they’ll go to Facebook and use the same password you used on [the site they hacked into] and they’ll go to your Gmail account.”

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. “We see all these survey scams on the Internet all the time where you’re asked to fill in all this personal and private information and enter to win an iPad,” Wisniewski said.

The problem is most of them are frauds and scams. “No one is getting an iPad,” Wisniewski said.

Instead of entering a sweepstakes, what you’re really doing is handing your information over to criminals who might sell it off to someone else or use it to commit identity theft.

Be cautious about sharing information, even if it seems harmless. Don’t give out information such as your birth date on social media or other sites that ask for it.

“Unfortunately, the way we work in the real world, these things may be used to identify you,” Wisniewski said.

Instead of giving away your identity, make another one up.

Keep your anti-virus software up to date. Anti-virus software comes pre-installed on most computers. But after the initial free trial period is over, either shell out for a subscription or install free anti-virus software. You’ll need it.

“It’s not a bulletproof answer because things still get by anti-virus software,” Wisniewski said. “But keeping it up to date improves your safety dramatically. And there are great free solutions out there — namely Linux.

Keep all regular software up to date to ensure it’s secure. If you do, you’ll lessen the chances of experiencing a security breach.

Trojan horses, viruses and other forms of malware evolve every day. When a bug or hole that could harm your computer or let in the bad guys is found in a piece of software, the software company will usually release an update. It’s very important that you run these updates to minimize the opportunities for criminals to steal or misuse your information.

“For example, if you get that little balloon in the tray in Windows, that says ‘Hey, there’s an Adobe update available,’ click ‘yes,’” Wisniewski said.

Keep your browser up to date. If you’re using an outdated browser, you’re also running the risk of being scammed or having your identity stolen. Up-to-date browsers have much better protection against cyberattacks than older versions.

Enable a firewall and configure it properly. A firewall is a system designed to prevent unauthorized access to your computer. Most current operating systems, such as updated versions of Windows XP, Vista and 7, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 and later, have one built in. Otherwise, you can get a inexpensive software firewall from your local computer store, software vendors or your Internet service provider.

“Turning the firewall on makes a big difference,” Wisniewski said, “because if something were to escape your anti-virus [software] and try to communicate with the Internet to send all your banking information, your firewall will stop that if it’s enabled and configured properly.”

Windows XP – 10 years

Ten years ago this, Microsoft released Windows XP, which became one of its most popular flavors of the Windows operating system — largely because what came after it, Windows Vista, was so terrible and a complete failure. Windows 7, and all its glory was so great it took two years to surpass XP.

This month marks the first time that Microsoft Windows XP has dipped below 50 percent market share among personal desktops and laptops worldwide, after having peaked at about 75 percent in 2007, according to NetApplications.com and Statcounter.com

The 10-year-old operating system is notorious for its security holes. It’s got much less protection against viruses, Trojans and other malware than do its successors Windows Vista and Windows 7, and even the National Security Agency itself advised against XP’s continued use in a document released earlier this year. Yet it maintains a strong presence worldwide, especially in China and Russia, and that huge installation base makes it easier for malware writers to spread their wares.

Savvy users might blame XP’s enduring popularity on the naivete of less knowledgeable consumers, but the real culprit might be Microsoft’s own naivete when it comes to how consumers make their decisions.

“Users in general are averse to taking time out of their schedules to come up to speed on the newest features which, at the end of the day, they don’t view as significantly improving their productivity,” said Tom Halleran, a service delivery executive at a global IT services provider.

Microsoft is slowly but surely abandoning XP. Mainstream support was officially retired in 2009, and the software giant will discontinue all support — likely including security patches — for XP by 2014. The company’s motivation is clear: Compared to streamlined modern operating systems such as Linux, XP has become an embarrassment. I have a XP counter at the bottom right sidebar of my website, don’t wait to act and to make a decision on what operating system to migrate too.

Aside from perpetuating security holes that were never fully addressed, XP makes other operating systems more attractive to consumers looking to trade up. Comparison shopping between Windows 7 and Apple’s Mac OS X is a more or less level playing field; comparison shopping between XP and OS X is no contest.

So why are XP users reluctant to upgrade? There are four main reasons.

Price is an obvious factor, and not just because Windows 7 starts at $200. Mainstream consumers tend not to upgrade their operating systems until they buy new machines. Microsoft expects its customers to respond to upgrade deals, yet ignores the fact that the cost of the hardware itself — a new desktop or notebook — is the real stumbling block from a financial perspective.

Then there’s another concern: compatibility. Corporations may have to buy new machines for entire departments to keep up with operating-system requirements. Home users often prefer to have all their machines running the same operating system — the unpredictable network mismatches that can arise are often too difficult or time-consuming to troubleshoot — and at $200 per Windows 7 license, it may be easier to stick with XP across the board.

Home and corporate users also don’t like the learning curve of adapting to a new system. XP users are used to their work flows; they know where to find what they need, and they like it that way.

Microsoft is mistaken in thinking that every new version of its flagship OS must be a substantial change from the last. Windows users have set tasks to accomplish when they boot up, and taking time out to re-learn how to accomplish those tasks is not what they signed up for. The waste of hours (and, potentially, corporate resources) is a strong deterrent to upgrading.

Some advanced users might consider the above three reasons for resistance to be limited to the less computer literate, but many coders and developers find a fourth reason to avoid updating: preference.

“Tech-savvy users who understand the security benefits of upgrading are often unhappy with what they see as an increasing lack of control over their system,” Halleran said.

With both Vista and Windows 7, Microsoft has been pushing toward a sleeker, more user-friendly, but less user-controlled model. It’s no coincidence that these developments have been compared to Apple’s standard look and functionality. A quick Google search for the phrase “more and more like Mac” turns up nearly half a million results, and even a cursory glance at the text excerpts suggests that this isn’t what a lot of Windows users want.

If it’s attempting to win over Mac users, Microsoft has failed on two counts: Mac users exhibit tremendous brand loyalty, and PC power users tend to stick with Windows precisely because it isn’t Mac. If anything, this race toward a shiny OS singularity only encourages power users to adopt alternative operating systems such as Linux; and indeed, as XP’s market share has dwindled, Linux has gained ground.

In mimicking the Mac model, Microsoft is alienating its hardcore demographic. Despite quirky ad spots to the contrary, the choice of “Mac or PC” these days is usually based on mere preference, not technical factors.

At the same time, Microsoft’s unrealistic assessment of consumers’ willingness to upgrade to unfamiliar systems at high prices means that the world will likely be saddled with XP for years after support is completely abandoned.

Facing the glaring security problems of an XP-infested future, Microsoft might need to rethink both its OS development and its business strategy. The company can sweep XP under the rug, but it won’t be easy to smooth out the big lump that remains.

While many of us may be looking to migrate from Windows 7 to Windows 8 when it becomes available (I’m not, I have no need for either) — no date is set, but it could be late next summer — there are still plenty of folks using XP for many of reasons. However, with the economy as it is and getting tighter, now is the time to look at a decent operating system, such as Linux Mint. The benefits are enormous and you are missing out! There is no reason to go out and buy a new computer, just because Windows XP is expiring or even upgrade. Windows 7 has no feature benefits worth spending the money on; the only difference maybe you get Internet Explorer 9, but who needs that when you have Firefox and Chrome, which are are supported with extensions.

The advantages of Linux are five fold:

• Cost – The most obvious advantage of using Linux is the fact that it is free to obtain, while Microsoft products are available for a hefty and sometimes recurring fee. Microsoft licenses typically are only allowed to be installed on a single computer, whereas a Linux distribution can be installed on any number of computers, without paying a single dime.
• Security – In line with the costs, the security aspect of Linux is much stronger than that of Windows. Why should you have to spend extra money for virus protection software? The Linux operating system has been around since the early nineties and has managed to stay secure in the realm of widespread viruses, spyware and adware for all these years. Sure, the argument of the Linux desktop not being as widely used is a factor as to why there are no viruses. My rebuttle is that the Linux operating system is open source and if there were a widespread Linux virus released today, there would be hundreds of patches released tomorrow, either by ordinary people that use the operating system or by the distribution maintainers. We wouldn’t need to wait for a patch from a single company like we do with Windows.
• Choice (Freedom) – The power of choice is a great Linux advantage. With Linux, you have the power to control just about every aspect of the operating system. Two major features you have control of are your desktops look and feel by way of numerous Window Managers, and the kernel. In Windows, your either stuck using the boring default desktop theme, or risking corruption or failure by installing a third-party shell.
• Software - There are so many software choices when it comes to doing any specific task. Sometimes its a simple modification or feature enhancement of a already existing piece of software, sometimes its a brand new application. In addition, software on Linux tends to be packed with more features and greater usability than software on Windows. Best of all, the vast majority of Linux software is free and open source. Not only are you getting the software for no charge, but you have the option to modify the source code and add more features if you understand the programming language. What more could you ask for?
• Hardware - Linux is perfect for those old computers with barely any processing power or memory you have sitting in your garage or basement collecting dust. Install Linux and use it as a firewall, a file server, or a backup server. There are endless possibilities. Old 386 or 486computers with barely any RAM run Linux without any issue. Good luck running Windows on these machines and actually finding a use for them.

Either way you look at it, you will be forced to relearn Windows 7 when you leave XP, then yet again when you leave for Windows 8. Look at the advantages Linux can offer you and make the decision to try something new for once. You will have to eventually as Windows is totally change the user interface and killing off the start menu. http://jet-computing.com/microsoft-kills-start-menu/

Microsoft Word Virus

A new virus has cropped up in various countries across the world and its target appears to be corporate networks. The Duqu virus, first noted last month by a laboratory at Budapest University, has now been spotted in several other countries and appears to be sent via Microsoft Word documents attached as emails. Microsoft has announced that it is working on a fix.

The point of the new virus seems to be to gather corporate information and then send it to some as yet unknown site. Thus, it’s a form of corporate espionage. Chillingly, researchers at Symantec, the giant antivirus company, say it looks like some of the code in the virus is the same as was found in the Stuxnet virus that wreaked havoc on Iran’s nuclear program, indicating that the perpetuators were either able to obtain the code from that virus, or, are the same people.

The virus is activated when a person to whom an infected Word document was sent, opens it. The virus infects that computer then seeks out other computers through the corporate network. As it goes, it collects data and then apparently, seeks a path out to the Internet where it can send the data it’s collected to a predefined destination. Thus far it has relied on a so-named zero day exploit to take advantage of a previously unknown weakness in the Windows kernel, which means getting in and doing its dirty work before victims have a chance to come up with a means of defense against it.

Thus far, it appears that the virus has been targeted at specific types of companies, as the data- collecting part of the virus seems to seek out information pertaining to industrial control-systems. So it’s likely that whoever unleashed the virus, did so in hopes of gaining information on how companies are designing and manufacturing their products; not something the average person would need to worry about, but still enough to cause concern about the growing sophistication of computer viruses.

So far, instances of the virus have been seen in Iran, India, France, Ukraine, the UK and at least eight other countries that have not been specifically identified.

In the mean time, Microsoft has released an advisory and a stopgap fix for the zero-day vulnerability exploited by the “Duqu” Trojan, a highly targeted malware strain that some security experts say could be the most important cyber espionage threat since Stuxnet.

According to the advisory, the critical vulnerability resides in most supported versions of Windows, including Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. The problem stems from the way Windows parses certain font types. Microsoft says it is aware of targeted attacks exploiting this flaw, but that it believes few users have been affected.

Nevertheless, the flaw is a dangerous one. Microsoft said that an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code, install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. The most likely vehicle for the exploit is a poisoned email attachment. This means that a hacker deploying the Duqu Trojan against a Windows machine that hasn’t yet downloaded the temporary fix could gain nearly total access to a person’s computer.

Microsoft is working on developing an official security update to fix the flaw. For now, it has released a point-and-click Fixit tool that allows Windows users to disable the vulnerable component. Enabling this tweak may cause fonts in some applications to display improperly. If you experience problems after applying the Fixit solution, you can always undo it by clicking “disable” image in the Microsoft advisory and following the prompts. So in reality, some of you may not be to may not be able to fix this until the next ‘Patch Tuesday’ in December.