Microsoft to stop security updates for Windows XP Service Pack 2

If you are a Windows XP user and not yet on Windows XP SP3, this might be a good time to plan to install it. I have it on my machines and recommended here some time ago that it was a safe upgrade. Jot me a line if you have any questions.

Microsoft to stop security updates for Windows XP Service Pack 2

For those of you who are planning to stay with Windows XP until 2014, as we have discussed, this is just the next logical step for you. Get to SP3 and keep it updated.

New findings update WS Security Baseline

I am very happy to see this report in Windows Secrets. This further strengthens my opinion that the security suite I am recommending by Microsoft, and it is FREE at that, is up there among the best. It is a near-silent partner, it has lower overhead than the others IMHO (In My Humble Opinion). Believe me when I say that it works. Also, consider that it comes from the author of your Windows operating system, so who should know most about the inner workings and interactions with the bad guys trying to get in than Microsoft? Again, IMHO, no one else. If your corporation uses one of the fee-based systems, that's their business. If you use one of the fee-based systems, I'd have to ask you WHY?

Below I have included an abstract, but you can review the whole article here:

New findings update WS Security Baseline

"For PC users seeking a security suite that delivers good protection with minimal fuss, the three commercial suites listed below are best. These packages are for average PC users who do not feel comfortable delving into a suite's sometimes-complex controls. Everything you need to know is displayed in a simple window, including whether or not you've received the latest product update. If that simplicity does not appeal to you, skip down to the intermediate or advanced lists below.

Our top three — Norton, Kaspersky, and Microsoft — each showed the most innovation in their 2010 offerings, with the first two sandboxing Web applications. All three scan only those files that have changed since the previous scan (as opposed to scanning the entire hard drive every time).

Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2010: Symantec's suite, probably more so than any other AV software, has taken hard knocks for slowing down PCs. This time around, however, CNET, PCWorld, and PCMag.com all noted that the suite's impact on PC performance is much improved. That and the software's ability to block new threats earned it top scores from all three publications.

Using test data from AV-test.org, PCWorld's review noted Norton's superior virus behavior analysis, which helps stop new malware not yet catalogued by the AV vendors.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010: PCMag and PCWorld both thought Kaspersky's strength was its easy-to-use interface. A new "Safe Run" feature also lets you test new software by installing and running it in an isolated sandbox environment prior to installing it for real. However, both PCWorld and PCMag reported middling overall performance results.

Microsoft Security Essentials: Given Microsoft's tepid efforts at anti-malware software in the past, its free MSE security suite has received surprisingly good reviews. Windows Secrets Patch Watch columnist Susan Bradley recommends MSE for average PC users, and senior editor Fred Langa wrote a lengthy and generally positive review in his May 6 Top Story.

There is little in the way of recent independent lab testing of MSE. One of the most recent is AV-Comparatives.org's February 2010 PDF-based report, in which MSE was given high marks for malware detection and scan times. In particular, MSE scored very few false positives compared with Trend Micro, Panda, and McAfee.

What about the other household-name AV products? This year McAfee got tepid reviews and took a huge hit when it inadvertently sent out a bad virus update. CA, Panda, and Trend Micro also received mediocre scores."

There is much more information contained in this article. Use the link above to see it all.

Sudoku

Are you a Sudoku fan? Have you ever tried it? I have a hardcopy paperback book full of easy Sudoku puzzles, and have a hard time with that, but I find it much easier to do these puzzles online. I have made great progress from one who was about to give up in doing these puzzles to one who is really enjoying them. I am enjoying them because I am successful at doing them - online. No pencil and eraser is needed. Give it a try if you have not had much success with the hard copy puzzles. And the price is right - FREE!

Web Sudoku

New feature of Google Maps

It's called "Distance Measurement Tool" , and enabled me to map out the walk I took this morning. Notice, in addition to the route, the calculated distance of the walk. Pretty impressive and something I will use to map out my walks wherever I happen to be. You can click on the small image below to view a larger one.

Reminders

It's Friday, and perhaps a good time to remind you of a couple of things: SECURITY & BACKUPS. The weekend is ahead, maybe there'll be some rain that'll curtail some planned outdoor activities. Take some time to protect that treasure trove of data on your computer. I'm talking about your photos, videos, music, and documents that you have stored on your PC. I won't bore you with reposting prior posts on these two important subjects, but will instead provide you with some links that will serve as reminders. For starters, you might review yesterday's post about MSE.


Then, on SECURITY, review this link:

Please take heed and secure your system now

On BACKUPS of your data, try these links as some food for thought:

Online Backup Services

What part of backup don't you understand? 

Backup Devices

There are other blog posts on both SECURITY & BACKUPS on this blog. If you search for either (or anything else for that matter) in the little search bar labeled SEARCH THIS BLOG (upper right hand corner of this page) you an check them out.

This extensive article by Fred Langa, a highly-respected computer pro, lends credence to what I have come to believe. What is it exactly that I believe?

I believe you can toss out your expensive Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro, Webroot, Kaspersky, or any other fee-based security suite you currently use on your personal computer. And I believe that even if you get one of these suites for free, you are paying too great a price in overhead on your system by using them.
 

I have been using MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) for many months now (as this blog documents), and have not had a single problem. My previous suite included Windows Firewall, Windows Defender, and AVG Free Anti-Virus. AVG, also as documened in this blog, was/is a good product, but the company's marketing ploys to get its free users to upgrade to their fee versions was enough to drive me away, and sadly, was enough to get some of you to buy their fee product.


If you are using a fee-based security suite, you should consider MSE as its replacement when it comes time to pay the hefty annual fee. OR, if you use Norton or McAfee or other suite because your Internet Service Provider offers it to you for no fee, consider the gargantuan size and poor performance of these bundles vs. what I and others have to say about MSE.

The 120-day Microsoft security suite test drive

New MVPS HOSTS File Available

For those of you who have followed my lead and use the MVPS HOSTS file, there is a new one available now. You should get in the habit of looking for a new version every month or two. You will find out about availability and can download the latest at this site:

MVPS HOSTS file information and download

From Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal: 

A Brief Rundown of What You Need in a Laptop

GasBuddy

Not my typical blog post, but a good one nonetheless. If you drive a lot and want to find the best gas prices in any particular location, gasbuddy.com is for you. If you do a whole lot of driving I'd suggest you become a member and provide input to the system based on your observances of gas prices you see in your travels.Who knows, you might even win a $250 gas card! Best of all, membership is free.

The more members the more observations and the easier it will be to find lower-priced gas.

GasBuddy

This is a quite positive review from boston.com of Microsoft's Office 2010. As always, I do not advocate upgrading from your current Office product unless you have good reason, but for those of you who are avid Office users, this article will be of interest.

Office update worthy of the networked world

McAfee Offers Solution For Home or Home Office Consumers Affected By Faulty Update to Security Software

If you or anyone you know who uses McAfee have been affected by the McAfee bug reported on this blog on April 22, be advised that McAfee is offering a fix for the problem, as described below:

"If you are currently running Windows XP we recommend checking to ensure you have the latest security update.

If you are one of a small percentage of McAfee’s consumer customers who has an inoperable or severely impaired PC as a result of the faulty file released earlier this week, we want to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Our immediate priority is to get you back up and running.

Here are the steps you can take.

Step 1 – Locate a local toll free support number for your country. A qualified technician is standing by to diagnose your computer’s current status and determine the fastest way to get you up and running again.

Step 2 – If the technician can’t get your system up and running over the phone, we’ll get you the software to get your system up and running again. We can get you the software in one of two methods. You can either download the software fix from a working PC, or we will express deliver a CD to you.

For impacted home or home office customers who have incurred costs to repair PCs as a result of the security update issue, McAfee will reimburse reasonable expenses, such as a visit to a local tech support specialist. Details of this program, including steps to submit a reimbursement request, will be posted on the McAfee Web site within a few days, so please check back. Additionally, because we value our loyal customers, home or home office users whose PCs were rendered inoperable or severely impaired as a result of the security update will receive a free two-year extension of their current McAfee subscription product at no charge. This extension will appear in the “My Account” section of the McAfee Web site within the next 30 days.

We’re committed to getting this issue resolved for all our customers worldwide as quickly as possible. "

52 Incredibly Useful Sites: The Full List

I really don't like articles like this, but couldn't let it pass by without at least a quick look. The one that caught my eye, and I spent some time at, was gasbuddy.com. I do a lot of traveling around New England, and will find this to be very useful. Because I found so few listings in the areas I travel, I will probably join and become a reporter of observed prices as I travel around the region.


So here you go. I hope you find something useful or interesting to you as well.

52 Incredibly Useful Sites: The Full List

There was an old woman...............

A tribute to Virginia, not the iPad so much (I have yet to see my first one)....................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndkIP7ec3O8

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.

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.

Buggy McAfee update whacks Windows XP PCs

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.

More here..............

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!

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"

Download Rescue CD (for CD creation)

Download Rescue CD (for USB stick)

More on security

Two things:

1) On those two machines I worked on over the weekend, the ones infected by the rogue programs, one machine had an up-to-date, fully-functioning copy of Norton 360 installed and the other had McAfee. These are two of the best security programs money can buy. I saw absolutely no problems with the Norton installation. This tells me, plain and simple, that Norton did not do the job it was being paid for, and allowed the rogue program to take over the machine and thereafter run wild. Not nice. On the McAfee machine, although the system tray icon was a red M, McAfee's indication that all was well (hey, since when does RED mean all's well McAfee?), in fact the McAfee security suite was NOT even running. It wasn't clear to me if this was as a result of the rogue program or if it was a bad installation, but the user had downloaded McAfee fom AOL and assumed that it was running. Hmmm.... It obviously wasn't!

2) As posted before, Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) is downloaded to your system each month (an updated version) via Automatic Updates. It turns out that MSRT has an option for Quick Scan and one for Full Scan. I do not yet know which option Micosoft uses to run this tool in the background, or for that matter, if it runs it at all. I take it on faith that they do at least run the quick scan. However, being the Doubting Thomas that I am, I download MSRT manually every month and personally run a Full Scan. This is a one-time run once a month. The program takes a very long time to run, so I start it when going to bed and let it run. When finished it does not tell you how long it took, but on occasion when I have run it during the day I have seen it still active after more than 3 hours. It could take 6 hours for all I know, but it is a rather painless process for me to download it and install it and let it run once a month. I view this as an ounce of prevention. If you would like to do the same, you can download MSRT at one of the two following sites:

32-bit version (for most of you): MSRT

64-bit version (for you others): MSRT

If you are not sure if you are running the 32 bit or 64 bit version of your operating system, download the 32 bit version of MSRT. If it runs, you have the correct version! If it doesn't, it will indicate that you need the 64 bit version.

SeniorNet of Vermont

I can't say enough good things about the non-profit SeniorNet organization. Locally, on Dorset Street in South Burlington, VT, you will find very inexpensive computer courses for seniors over 50 taught by a dedicated staff of senior volunteers.

The schedule of courses for May-June is now posted on their web site, and I encourage you Vermonters to take advantage of this opportunity by enrolling in one or more classses.

SeniorNet of Vermont