VIRUS AND OTHER STINKY STUFF:
IF YOU SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE A VIRUS OR IF YOU HAVE NOT SUCCESSFULLY SCANNED YOUR DRIVES FOR VIRUSES LATELY... THEN THE NEXT SUGGESTION IS FOR YOU. Free Virus scan. Trend Micro, more commonly referred to as Housecall, offers free virus scans and in most cases can fix damage down by a virus or worm that your computer may have contacted. The program works well. The first time one uses the free program it is necessary to download a small program. Trend Micro walks you through the process. Then the virus scans are quite simple for each return. You should disable any anti virus program that you have running. If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use this program first and then download one of the free programs listed above of install any anti virus program you have purchased. Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/ then choose the link "Scan without registering". Follow the directions.
Free Virus programs to download Quite a few KCnet members use these programs and like them. Be careful if you download a virus program and you already have one installed on your computer. You need to at least disable the program already installed. http://www.grisoft.com/html/us_index.cfm Another good free program to take a look at is: http://www.free-av.com/
Worms boost cyberattack stats for 2003 By Robert Lemos Staff Writer, CNET News.com April 3, 2003 The number of security events detected by companies in the first quarter of 2003 jumped nearly 84 percent over the preceding three months, according to a report that network-protection firm Internet Security Systems plans to release Monday. The increase in events, which can include minor probes for holes in network security as well as major attacks, stems mainly from an increase in worms and automated attack software, the company said in a summary of the report, which was seen by CNET News.com. "The large increase in mass mailing, highly persistent worms and (in) security events indicates that this year will be challenging for security officers and administrators around the world," Chris Rouland, director of ISS's research and development team, said in the summary. click here The study tallies the network events detected by ISS sensors deployed by some 400 clients around the world and outlines potential malicious online activity from Jan. 1 to March 31. That period includes the attack of what many consider to be the first flash worm, an automated attack program that spreads so quickly that the responders can't react fast enough. The worm, SQL Slammer, infected 200,000 computers running Microsoft's SQL Server software that hadn't had a 6-month-old patch applied. The worm is thought to have spread to 90 percent of all vulnerable servers in the first 10 minutes after it had been released on the Internet. The report found that weekends accounted for only 26 percent of all events and that Friday was the most active day, with some 2.3 million events, on average, categorized as "anomalous activity." Such events are not attacks, but mainly--in nearly three-quarters of the cases--suspicious activity. An additional 11 percent were classified by ISS as unauthorized access attempts. Slammer started spreading late on a Friday night PST. ISS also found that online vandals are putting more effort into exploiting existing flaws than finding new ones. According to ISS data, 606 vulnerabilities were made public in the first three months of the year, while 752 new threats were identified. The company considers threats to be programs or code that make exploiting vulnerable systems easier. Hackers are also using unknown flaws to attack systems. In March, the military detected that a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system was being exploited by online intruders. Microsoft released a patch for the security hole five days later, but the incident acted as a reminder that there are a whole host of security flaws of which companies are not aware.
Email and P2P Worm - WORM_BIBROG.E WORM_BIBROG.E is a memory-resident worm that propagates via email and via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, such as Kazaa and Morpheus. It affects computers running Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, and XP. This worm displays a shooting game with the window title "La Cacademia." Upon execution, this worm drops a copy of itself in the Windows directory as "MANZANA.EXE." It also drops a copy of itself in the Windows system folder as "ACADEMIA.EXE." It drops the following copies in the Windows StartUp folder: ITCH.EXE ITCJ.EXE These files are executed at every Windows startup. This worm drops copies of itself as "Kylie_Minogue_screensaver.exe" and "Shakira_screensaver.exe" in the following shared folders of P2P file-sharing applications: KaZaa\My shared Folder ICQ\Shared Grokster\My Grokster Morpheus\My Shared Folder When either ITCH.EXE or ITCJ.EXE is executed, it sends the following email (using its own SMTP engine) with itself as an attachment to all addresses in the Windows Address Book: Subject: Fwd: La Academia Azteca Message body: La cacademia azteca (muy bueno) ¡no es virus! Attachment: academia.exe
Lighter sentences for virus writers? From a Virus Bulletin. The USA's largest group of defense lawyers has backed a report claiming that sentences for computer-related crimes are too harsh. In a set of comments submitted to the US Sentencing Commission and signed by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Sentencing Project (a group that focuses on perceived injustices in penalties), sentences that have been awarded for computer-related crimes were criticized for being tougher than those for comparable, non-computer-related crimes. According to the report the 'typical' computer crime involves the misuse of a company's computers by a disgruntled current or former employee and the severity of sentencing often exceeds that of the crime. The author of the report believes that the serious nature of computer-related offences is often overplayed, with the calculation of loss being both unreliable and open to exaggeration. The report argues that the loss estimation for identical offenses can vary widely depending on factors such as the actions taken by the victim (e.g. one victim may simply restore the hard drive from backup, while another spends large amounts of money hiring consultants to assess the damage) and the nature of the victim (i.e. the losses resulting from a compromised system within a small business with a low turnover will be lower than those resulting from a similar attack on a thriving business). Furthermore, the report argues that 'greater penalties are dangerous' and they 'may chill legitimate computer research, business development and reporting on security vulnerabilities.' The author imagines that, were greater penalties to be instituted, security researchers who uncover and disseminate information on vulnerabilities might refrain from doing so for fear of being charged for their actions. Last year, the sentencing by US courts of Melissa author David Smith provoked considerable discussion within the anti-virus community. Some considered Smith's 20-month prison sentence a fitting penalty for what they, like the authors of the paper, felt amounted to little more than a 'white collar crime', while others were disappointed by the lenience of the sentence. There was little talk, however, of the sentence being too harsh. In his comment on David Smith's sentencing (see VB, June 2002, p.2) AV researcher James Wolfe said, 'it is nice to see that [US] courts have set a precedent for convicting virus writers.' Let's hope the United States Sentencing Commission doesn't undermine that good work when it reviews and amends the sentencing guidelines for computer-related crimes. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that new laws approved by European Union justice ministers will mean that, in Europe, virus writers could be imprisoned for up to five years. According to Reuters: 'Hacking and spreading viruses, when committed by organized criminals, will be punished with jail terms of no less than two years - and up to five years - under the new law.'
Symantec press release backfires It makes a change to be reporting on the under-hyping of a virus threat, rather than the usual story of anti-virus companies prostrating themselves to journalists, desperate to be given a couple of column inches in the main-stream media. According to Wired magazine, 'Security firm Symantec withheld information about at least one big cyberthreat for hours after spotting it, possibly harming millions of Internet users' - a claim backed up by a press release on the Symantec website. The Wired article quotes some enraged security experts, with terms such as 'gross negligence' and 'accessory to [a] crime' being bandied about. The Register takes a slightly steadier view, however, and claims that it was unlikely Symantec really did know in advance - instead they blame 'inflated marketing claims' for the press release. If you're in the mood for even more unhinged commentary, it's worth looking at the Slashdot thread about this - virii, conspiracy theories, and general dislike of Symantec - in fairness, is it any surprise the pseudo-geeks have such a poor understanding of the anti-virus industry, considering the number of appalling press releases?
10 Most Prevalent Viruses Surveyed by Trend Micro US (week of: March 17 to March 23, 2003) 1. WORM_KLEZ.H 2. VBS_REDLOF.A 3. JS_NOCLOSE.E 4. JS_EXCEPTION.GEN 5. WORM_KWBOT.C 6. WORM_YAHA.G 7. JOKE_RUSS.A 8. WORM_SOBIG.A 9. TROJ_SMALL.M 10. BKDR_711.A
Tried and Untrue Viruses Believe it or not, the amount of harm done by sending false computer virus alarms to your thousand closest friends can be just as damaging as the alleged virus (if it even exists!); if you remember the story of the boy who cried wolf, you understand why. If you think you've got the scoop on the latest new devastating virus, check it out at the Web sites below before taking it on yourself to alert the world. If the virus is as terrible as you think it is, odds are the virus fighters already know about it and -- good news here! -- your antivirus software provider probably knows about it too and already has an update for it. Here are a few sites of many that can help you determine if an email is a hoax or real. http://www.snopes.com/ http://www.urbanlegends.com/ulz/ http://www.snopes.com/ http://vil.nai.com/VIL/hoaxes.asp http://kumite.com/myths/ http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html http://www.scambusters.org/VirusHoaxes.html
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: Learn all about Skins from Worldstart. I hear about programs having "skins"—what does that mean? Before all of our animal loving readers start typing angry email to us, animals are not harmed in the making of "skins" for programs (although you can get animal patterned ones). These "skins" are graphic files used to change the appearance of the user interface to a program. They are sometimes called "themes" and are like wallpaper for your browser, media player, or other programs. You can often download them for free from the software developer, a user group, or even a band's fan site. Popular media players like WinAmp, MusicMatch, RealOne, and Windows Media Player all offer skins. They are available for most browsers like Netscape, Opera, and Internet Explorer. Every program has a different way to acquire and apply skins. Usually you need to look under Options or Preferences, then choose "Change skin" or "Choose theme"—something like that. For example, in Netscape (6 and higher) you go to the View menu, "Apply Theme" and "Get New Themes". This will take you to the Netscape "Theme Park" where you can choose a new skin for your browser. Once downloaded you can change the theme whenever you want to. One word of warning though: some sites that offer skins try to install Hotbar or other spyware/adware on your system. Hotbar is one company that offers oodles of neat browser skins for Internet Explorer, however, their privacy statement clearly explains that they collect and store information about the web pages you view and the data you enter into search engines. They are also nice enough to send you "targeted" pop-up ads. Another one to be aware of is a browser called NeoPlanet that offers hundreds of skins, but upon reading their privacy statement you will find that they collect information (like email address and browsing habits) that they pass on to their "partners" so they can send you email advertisements (read: spam!). Just remember that "free" isn't always FREE—the money to design these skins has to come from somewhere. As always, carefully read the privacy statement before you download anything. If you don't mind giving up a little privacy, there's all kinds of neat stuff out there. Being cool does have a price sometimes. But, if done wisely, you can make that boring browser or media player your own with a cool new skin!
Extensions, the key to identify what follows the dot in any file name. Thanks to Wayne Smith. This is the best site I've seen to help identify any extension referenced in a file. It will not only identify the extension but will recommend programs to use to activate the file. (MLF) http://filext.com/
Spruce Up Your Email (Outlook Express) Worldstart shows how to add graphics, colors, cool fonts, and other formatting to recent versions of Outlook Express.. Ever notice those emails that come with graphics, colors, cool fonts, and other formatting? Okay, most of the time those emails are from spammers, and you just delete it and silently (or otherwise!) curse the two-edged blessing of cheap email. But with not too much trouble at all, you too can send emails that stand out from the crowd! There’s a little feature in Microsoft Outlook called “stationery,” and it lets you import pre-defined templates for your email that will help format your text sizes and colors, and give your email a nice background. Selecting Your Stationery The first step is really easy: from the “format” menu, select “Apply Stationery” and pick one of the options that come up. When you installed Outlook, a set of nice templates was installed with it. If you have downloaded other templates (we’ll get to that in a bit), select “More Stationery” and browse to where you saved it. Creating Your Email You’ll see that the template you selected has placed a background graphic in the space where you write your email. Go ahead and type your message as you would normally. Once you’ve got some headlines and other text in, we get to do the other cool part of this whole deal. Select your greeting, or some other part of the email that you’d like to highlight. Then from the “Format” menu, select “Style” and assign it a type – Heading 1, for a large headline, or bulleted list for a bulleted list. (Yeah, that was kind of obvious, okay.) Notice how each style has a certain font, color, and size associated with it. Here's what should happen... Installing New Templates A lot of people have found this to be a pretty nifty way to add some excitement to their emails – enough so that if you run a Google search on “outlook stationery” you’ll turn up a whole bunch of sites with new templates you can download. Most of these seem to be stored as .EXE files, so when you download them they’ll just run and install right into your “stationery” directory. (Always be careful when downloading and running exe files, though! You should really have a virus protection program, and don’t ever download an exe from a site you don’t trust.) Pretty Fun Stuff! That’s all there is to it. If your friends are using a really old email system, or if they have set their systems to process text mail only, then your letter will show up with some HTML tags. Most people, however, have no problem reading HTML email and the new look could gain you newfound respect in the eyes of your friends and family. And isn’t that why we’re all learning about computers anyway? :o)
Spruce Up Your Email (Netscape Mail) Worldstart shows how to add graphics, colors, cool fonts, and other formatting to Netscape 6x and 7x email. To get started, just click on "Compose Message" then click inside the text box. Setting Up Your Page The first step is really easy: from the “format” menu, select “Page colors and Background” then select the "Use custom colors" radio button. Now you can choose different colors for your text and background. Down a little lower you will notice the "Background Image" selector. Click "Choose File", then browse to find your background picture. Try looking in your "My Documents/My Pictures" folder. Keep in mind that the image you use will be "wallpapered" (repeated) across the body of the email, so a small image will appear as many times as it takes to fill the screen. When you are satisfied with the preview, click OK. Creating Your Email You’ll see that the background graphic you selected is in the space where you write your email. Go ahead and type your message as you would normally—notice the text color you selected is being used. Once you’ve got some headlines and other text in, we get to do the other cool part of this process. Select your greeting, or some other part of the email that you’d like to highlight. Notice the "Body Text" tab just above the message window—click this for a drop down menu. Just highlight a section of text and choose a size from the menu. Another tab is labeled "Variable Width" which is where you go to select a font for highlighted text. Next to that is a little square with your font color—click there to change the color of a highlighted area. Notice the other formatting tabs just above the message box: font size, bold, italic, indent, etc. Use HTML tags! If you understand how to work with HTML source code, you can edit or insert HTML tags, style attributes, and JavaScript in your mail message. Place the insertion point where you want to insert the HTML code, then open the Insert menu and choose HTML. In the Insert HTML dialog box, enter HTML tags and text, then click Insert to put your changes in. I did not find a way to save the format like you can in Outlook Express, so every time you want to make a fancy email, you need to start from scratch. But then, that makes each one special ;-)
Keeping Nutrients In Foods By Nick Sundberg The cooking method you choose for many items can have a great deal of effect on the amount of nutrients your food retains. Steaming certain foods (especially vegetables) is a great way to keep vitamins in the finished product. Grilling also helps prevent loss of nutrients. Try roasting foods in foil or parchment paper to preserve flavor as well nutrition. If you boil vegetables, save the water to add to soup recipes. And don't peel those potatoes! Most of the beneficial fiber is lost to the garbage can.
INTERESTING SITES : International Children's Digital Library By Sue Whitehouse Peter Barnes, Tech Live Washington, D.C. bureau chief, submitted the following web page suggestion. "With so many battles being fought over copyright, and with so many corporations fighting to keep their intellectual property off the Net and out of the public domain, it's nice to know there's a place where a kid can read online. Even better, it's free." http://www.icdlbooks.org/
Zoo Web Thanks to Amanda at Worldstart This is your world wide link to zoos and aquariums. What’s so special about it? Well, I think the Atlanta Panda Cam is a big bonus right now. (Of Course, I’ve spent an hour watching the panda bear now!) But the Satellite Tracking Wildlife is also really neat. Or would you like to be a zoo keeper or animal handler, at Zoo Web you can find out how. Check out their list of live web cams from different zoos around the country and the world. A hometown mention for those of you who live in Ohio, (since we’re based in Toledo) go to the Toledo Zoo Hippo cam and see our new neighbor, a baby hippo. And for those of you in Columbus take a look at your Manatee cam. There are also games, links to zoos and aquariums around the world, an online poll, zoo groups, and the Zooper Site of the Month. Enjoy! http://www.zooweb.com/
Cheeseexpress.Com By Nick Sundberg There is more to cheese than the "Cheeseheads" of the Green Bay Packers. (MLF) The Cheese Store at the Cheese Express web site is a great source for hard to find varieties. Choose from hundreds of imported cheeses from countries such as France, Italy, Holland and the British Isles. There are over 174 types of domestic varieties ranging from cheddar to cream cheese. Gift boxes and accessories can also be purchased at this site. There are even three different "Cheese of the Month" clubs to choose from for gift giving. The other plus here is a good description with pictures for the many, many varieties of cheeses. There are also suggestions for complimentary foods and wines to enjoy with the cheeses. http://www.cheeseexpress.com/
Some War History here. World War I—Trenches on the Web “These pages contain information on the people, places, and events that comprised one of the worst calamities of modern history. Entire kingdoms were to vanish in the clash. The map makers of the world would be busy indeed!” What is this site owner talking about, why World War I, of course. This site is fabulous, I particularly enjoyed the Willy-Nicky telegrams. You can view the entire set of telegrams between the Kaiser and the Tsar. I read through them all and found myself awed by the two rulers pleas to each other. You’ll also enjoy the World War 1 Document archive where you can read more about the war from other viewpoints and gather your own perspective. This is one to bookmark, I think. http://www.worldwar1.com/
The "Mother" of all IRAQ Map Links! (Must See!) This one recommended by Tom Livingston. It is a slow loader but worth the wait. UT Library Online 3-23-2003 | Editorial Staff - Compiled by VANNROX FreeRepublic.com "A Conservative News Forum" Posted on 03/23/2003 6:40 PM PST by vannrox Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection Iraq Maps http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/873496/posts
Falcon Cam This unique site from Skip and Linda Frye GreenWorks.tv is proud to host the Falcon Cam. This exclusive live audio-video feed lets you enter the life of two Peregrine Falcons who have made their home on the 15th floor ledge of the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Help Protect Peregrine Falcons! An exciting new development is under way in the world of Peregrine Falcon protection — and your donation can help bring this important tool into use! To learn more about how you can help two young birds featured on this very site become a part of the Falcon Telemetry Project http://www.greenworks.tv/falcon/index.asp