Friday, April 23, 2010

More Phishing

This is pure phishing expedition!

 Don't ever fall for something like this.


From: "TD BANK"
To: 
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:17:50 -0600
Subject: Please note!


TD Bank
Home
Privacy
Terms of Use
©2010 TD Bank, N.A.
All Rights Reserved.
Dear customer,

Please note that your TD Bank online banking
account is about to expire.
It is strongly recommended to update it immediately.
Update form is located here:

http://access.tdbank.com/core/appid=17309/login.aspx?RedirectUrl=AccountUpdate


Sincerely, TD Bank Administration.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Buggy McAfee update whacks Windows XP PCs

Those of you who follow this blog know how I feel about McAfee and Norton and most other fee anti-virus programs. I don't like them because they are HUGE and SLOW and DIFFICULT to work with, and try to uninstall one of them sometime! It's no wonder that these companies provide (at no charge) special programs that will uninstall their mess.

I am still very happy with Microsoft's Security Essentials (MSE). It's free, it has low overhead, and after several months it is still doing what it is meant to do - keep my systems virus-free. I have now installed it on many of my customers' machines, and will continue to do so. For those of you who have not been following my blog but who might see this, I dropped AVG Free maybe 6 months ago in favor of MSE.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

OMG! A third of U.S. teens send 100 texts a day

Perhaps not surprising, but nonetheless amazing! Below from Computerworld.com:

"Computerworld - Wonder what your teenager is up to?

Well, she's probably texting, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The results of the study, released today, show that half of all American teenagers send 50 or more text messages a day. That's about 1,500 texts a month
.
The study found that the number of texting teens continues to grow, as does the number of texts sent each day.

According to the Pew report, in an 18-month span, ending last September, the percentage of all U.S. teenagers texting daily grew from 38% to 54%. Texting has become the main way that teens connect with each other - surpassing e-mail, instant messaging and even face-to-face contact, Pew said.

The survey found that one in three teenagers send more than 100 text messages a day, or 3,000 a month.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Web hit by hi-tech crime wave

From the BBC online today: Web hit by hi-tech crime wave.

Please make sure your systems are up-to-date and fully protected.

"Hi-tech criminals are racking up more than 100 attacks a second on the world's computers, a survey suggests. 
 
While most of these attacks cause no trouble, the Symantec report suggests that one attack every 4.5 seconds does affect a PC.

The wave of attacks was driven by a steep rise in malicious software in circulation, said the annual report.

The number of malware (malicious software) samples that Symantec saw in 2009 was 71% higher than in 2008.


This meant, said Symantec, that 51% of all the viruses, trojans and other malicious programs it has ever seen were logged during 2009. In total, Symantec identified almost 2.9 million items of malicious code during that 12 month period.


The steep rise in malware was driven largely by the growing popularity of easy to use toolkits that novice cyber criminals are using to turn out their own malware, said Tony Osborne, a technology manager for the public sector at Symantec.

Some of the kits were available for free, said Mr Osborne but others cost a lot of money. One, called Zeus, was available for around $700 (£458) and many had become so successful that their creators now offer telephone support for those who cannot get them to work.

STAYING SAFE ONLINE

  • Use security software that can tackle viruses and spyware

  • Use a firewall

  • Apply operating system updates as soon as they become available

  • Be suspicious of unsolicited e-mails bearing attachments

  • Keep your browser up to date"


  • You an read the rest of the article at  Web hit by hi-tech crime wave

    As always, please be careful out there!

    Monday, April 19, 2010

    AVG Rescue CD

    From this site: http://www.avg.com/ww-en/avg-rescue-cd

    This looks like a must-have for those of you who are more technically-inclined do-it-yourselfers. I would recommend downloading both versions (CD & Flash Drive). Be sure to follow through after the downloads and create the CD and Flash Drive and test them both out.

    A WORD OF CAUTION: THIS SHOULD ONLY BE USED BY MORE TECHNICALLY-ADVANCED USERS!

    AVG provides a very nice video on how to do this at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzpReU-tlC0

    "A powerful toolset for rescue & repair of infected machines.

    The AVG Rescue CD is a powerful must-have toolkit for the rescue and repair of infected machines. It provides essential utilities for system administrators and other IT professionals and includes the following features:
    • Comprehensive administration toolkit
    • System recovery from virus and spyware infections
    • Suitable for recovering MS Windows and Linux operating systems (FAT32 and NTFS file systems)
    • Ability to perform a clean boot from CD or USB stick
    • Free support and service for paid license holders of any AVG product
    • FAQ and Free Forum self-help support for AVG Free users"