Basically, pharming is the act of redirecting users to fake Web sites, without them ever knowing it happened. When you want to visit a Web site, you type its domain name into your Web browser and that is then translated into an IP address by the means of a DNS server. After all of that goes through, the information is then stored in your computer's DNS cache. Hackers then use that to redirect you to a false site, one determined by the hacker.

Pharming can also occur as an e-mail virus that can destroy a user's DNS cache. Other pharmers can ruin whole DNS servers as well. Luckily, most DNS servers have good security features, but it still doesn't make them immune. So, if you're on a Web site that looks strange, you may be caught in a pharming incident. If that happens, restart your computer to reset your DNS settings, run your antivirus scan and then try going to the same site again. If it still looks odd, contact your ISP and tell them what's been going on. No, pharming is not as commonly known as phishing scams, but it can still be very dangerous. So, always be on the lookout and keep yourself safe!

Apple has shipped a Mac OS X update with patches for a total of 17 potentially serious security vulnerabilities.Mac OS X Security

The latest mega update is the fifth from Apple this year and brings the patch total for 2007 up to 109.

With Security Update 2007-005, Apple is fixing a host of denial-of-service and arbitrary code execution issues affecting several built-in Mac OS X components.

One of the more serious vulnerabilities, in CoreGraphics, could allow an attacker to use a rigged PDF file to launch code execution attacks. This is caused by an integer overflow vulnerability in the way PDF files are handled.

“By enticing a user to open a maliciously crafted PDF file, an attacker could trigger the overflow which may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution,” Apple warned in an advisory.

iChatAnother potentially serious buffer overflow was also identified in UPnP IGD (Internet Gateway Device Standardized Device Control Protocol) code used to create Port Mappings on home NAT gateways in iChat.

“By sending a maliciously crafted packet, an attacker on the local network can trigger the overflow which may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution,” Apple said.

Four different denial-of-service issues in BIND are also addressed along with holes in Alias Manager, fetchmail, file (code execution possible), mDNSResponder, PPP, ruby, screen, texinfo and VPN.

Dell is adding a new dimension to its sales strategy, but it's unclear if this move can get the company back on track.

Since its beginning, Dell has prided itself on its direct-to-consumers sales model, but the company announced Thursday it will begin selling two of its Dimension desktop models in more than 3,000 Wal-Mart stores beginning June 10.

Though it's a significant change of strategy, it does not mean Dell is abandoning its direct sales model. "The direct model, we believe in it as much as we ever have," said company spokesman Bob Pearson.

It's not a completely unexpected move. Last month, founder and Chief Executive Michael Dell sent an e-mail memo to employees discussing the company's direction that said "the direct model has been a revolution, but is not a religion," according to The Wall Street Journal. And just last week, Dell made more waves in the retail community when he told Computer Reseller News in an interview that the company could be expanding into stores.

"I think that it is the equivalent of turning the Titanic around to avoid the iceberg."
--Stephen Baker, vice president, The NPD Group

Dell says it chose Wal-Mart because of how well it knows its customers. "Ninety percent of Americans shop in a Wal-Mart," said Pearson. "We're comfortable they know their customer experience."

The world's second-largest PC maker insists the Wal-Mart retail relationship is "not a pilot" program, calling it "part of a global retail strategy that you're going to hear a lot more about." Still, deciding to sell PCs retail is not a simple undertaking.

"I do think it's a very difficult cultural shift moving from selling direct to selling both direct and indirect," said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group. "I think that it is the equivalent of turning the Titanic around to avoid the iceberg. I'm not sure, it remains to be seen if that's the right way for them to revitalize their business, in my opinion."

Dell is under pressure to turn itself around. In the past year it lost its mantle as the world's No. 1 PC maker to Hewlett-Packard, and has seen a shake-up of management. Most notably, CEO Kevin Rollins was replaced by the company's founder in January.

Dell's worldwide PC shipments dipped by 6.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, which caused its market share to shrink from 18.2 percent to 15.2 percent, according to data collected by IDC.

Meanwhile, its main rival, HP, saw its PC shipments grow by 28.2 percent in the first quarter, compared with the same period a year ago. That lifted its market share from 16.5 percent worldwide to 19.1 percent, according to IDC.

The Wal-Mart factor
Selling through Wal-Mart is a good move for almost any company because of the exposure its products will get. It gives Dell a chance to reach a new customer base. Thus far, Dell has chosen to sell just two of its lower-end desktops, which isn't particularly risky. And Wal-Mart is a retailer that doesn't usually require an extended commitment.

"I think this is the proverbial putting your toe in the water without getting really, really wet," said Baker. "It's a way for them to test how they can really work with retail--how their organization is going to absorb selling through retail, how they can manage having products sold by outside third parties they can't control."

The dollar value of its new Wal-Mart sales won't be nearly as important or valuable as the experience it will give Dell as a retail newcomer. Altering its traditional business of selling desktops and notebooks directly to customers will require many changes, such as altering its supply chain and even how it advertises its products. A practice run will be likely be more valuable than the receipts it rings up, analysts agree.

"For Dell, it's not necessarily about the sales or sales volume. Even if they're shipping 10 of each SKU (stock-keeping unit) into all those Wal-Marts, you're only talking 50,000 units, which isn't a huge amount considering they sell a few million every quarter," said Baker.

The Wal-Mart relationship will also be a way to develop a retail track record. Once the first shipments sell through, Dell will be able to take the data--such as the rate at which units were sold--and go to retailers with which it does not have relationships and demonstrate Dell's ability to move products in the retail channel, which is what retailers care about, according to Richard Shim, an analyst with IDC.

Dell has flirted with retail before. In 2005, Dell laptops quietly showed up on the shelves of Costco. It also struck a similar deal with CompUSA in 1991. The Wal-Mart and Costco strategies are similar, since both retailers have wide distribution and like to move product very quickly, said Shim.

But Dell insists that the Wal-Mart relationship is different because the volume of product involved is significantly higher than it was with Costco, and the Costco deal wasn't part of a larger global strategy.

The challenge will be how quickly Dell can move. "They're getting a lot of pressure for this sort of thing to happen because their competitors are eating their lunch in the consumer retail space," said Shim. "It's definitely something they have to react to. The longer it takes them, the riskier it becomes." 

Enjoy a Better Web Experience
Firefox 2 delivers helpful new features to make your online experience more productive.

Stay Secure on the Web
Firefox continues to lead the way in online security, and now includes active protection from online scams to keep you safer.

Personalize Your Browser
Choose from over a thousand useful add-ons that enhance Firefox. It’s easy to personalize Firefox to make it your own.

Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software.

The acquisition gives the search engine a key piece of technology to block Web-based exploits that prey on flaws in the two most widely used browsers — Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

GreenBorder’s software creates an “impenetrable protective barrier” that keeps all interactions with a Web site and its associated content and programs away from the internal parts of a Windows machine.

It essentially creates a DMZ (demilitarized zone) between the Windows desktop and programs downloaded from Web pages or opened from e-mail messages in Microsoft Outlook.

The company sold two versions of the sandbox software — consumers and enterprise — before the Google acquisition. New sales/downloads have been discontinued but existing customers will continue to get support.

It’s clear that Google is pushing aggressively into the anti-malware market to clean up its own search results and provide protection to end users and this deal signals the company’s intent to use the browser as the entry point to get on desktops.

It’s likely that Google will rebrand and release GreenBorder’s software as a free download or as an addition to the Google Toolbar.

Last week, when I blogged about Google’s anti-malware team launching a blog and dropping hints about future plans, I suggested that a big acquisition might be on the cards. This wasn’t it.

It certainly looks like Google has set its sights on the desktop anti-virus space and, as others are speculating, Symantec and McAfee could soon be nervously looking over their shoulders.

Well, this is a very good question and I've gotten several of the same in the past week. Ever since we ran the article on burning CDs with the Windows Media Player program, I've been hearing about a lot of problems with the process. Here's the scenario: you get the whole thing set up and you press "Start Burn" (or whatever your burning software has you do) and nothing happens. How frustrating is that?! Well, below are some of the most common reasons why a CD burn fails. Hopefully, you will be able to do some troubleshooting with your software and find out what's causing your trouble. Then you'll be able to burn up a storm!

1.) The blank CD you are trying to burn with may have a scratch on it. Even a little dust can cause the burn to fail. Make sure you handle the CD with extreme care when transferring it from its case to your CD ROM drive.

2.) When burning with some programs, the auto insert notification and DMA (direct memory access) come into play. If the software you use has an option for either of these, make sure it is unchecked before you start the burn. You can usually go under the Preferences menu and uncheck the boxes. (You may have to restart your computer after doing so as well). If you don't do this, you may have trouble with lock ups, buffer under run errors, among others.

3.) Depending on the type of media (CDs) you're using, you may have too low of quality to get a successful burn. Non-branded media or no name media is usually referred to as a "B grade," so you'll want to make sure you don't buy that type of writeable CD. If you do have this kind, you will more than likely run into some writing errors.

4.) Make sure all other programs are closed out before you start the burning process. You can do this by simply hitting Ctrl + Alt + Del. You will then see a list of all the running programs and you can close them down one by one. This includes your screensaver, virus checkers, uninstallers, etc. All of those will take CPU time away from the writer, causing lock ups and buffer under run errors. The only programs that should be running are your burning software, Explorer and the system tray, if you must.

5.) If you have a power management program set up on your computer to shut down your hard drive every so often, this could be causing the burn to fail. If the power is shut down during the burning process, you will receive the usual errors and you will go nowhere.

6.) If you have a compressed hard drive, you may also run into some problems. Compressed hard drives cause the access time to diminish and this can cause errors. If this is your situation, make sure you turn that option around before starting to burn a CD.

7.) If you're having continuous burning trouble, you may have some sort of virus on your system. Make sure you run your virus scan before you start burning. Ensure that you have a clean system to start the process with. Update all your virus definitions, etc. before starting as well.

8.) You may have more than one burning software installed on your computer. If so, this may be causing your problem. Sometimes various programs conflict with each other and when they are not compatible during the burn, they can cause system lock ups. This isn't always the case, but if you're having trouble, you may want to check this one out.

9.) Last, but not least, there are a couple simple things you can do to try and solve your burning problems if nothing else has worked so far. It is recommended to defrag your system before you start burning. If there is any fragmentation on your hard drive, it can cause slower access time and other errors. You can also try restarting your computer. If yours has been on for a long period of time, sometimes all it needs is a good reboot.

Check out any one of these possibilities to try and fix your CD burning blues. Once you figure out which one is causing the trouble, you'll be on your way to CD burning heaven!

Welcome to Answers.com, a Web site where you can find a ton of information on just about any topic. They call themselves “the world’s greatest encyclo-diction-alamanac-apieda.” I recommend watching the two minute tour first. It does require you to have a Flash player, but you can also download it as a movie. You can then watch it with your favorite movie player or use the default one that comes with your computer (mine is Windows Media Player). The tour walks you through how to use the site, as well as, some of the free add ons and downloads you can get.

Now that you know how to search the site, let’s talk about all the other nifty things going on here. Next, beneath the two minute tour link, you will see an image that reads New, with the WikiAnswer section link. WikiAnswer is a place where you can ask a question, answer them or just browse through the different Q&As others have posted. If you want to ask or answer questions, you do need to register and sign in. It’s all free, so go ahead and do it whenever you're ready!

If you want to ask a question, you will see an example of good and bad questions. Good meaning that you’ve included enough information that someone can answer the specifics of what you want to know. Bad being far too general of a question and one that would be hard to answer without asking more questions. Bad also means having personal information included.
If you want to answer a question, you can browse by unanswered questions or by most recently added. Or you can just choose the Browse option as well. Browsing will let you look at a list of categories that you can choose from. Some of them have subtopics to let you narrow down what you want to answer too. For example, Pets and Animals breaks down into topics on specific animals.
On the main page, you will also see Today’s Highlights, In the News, Today in History, Today’s Birthdays, Say What? and Spelling Bee. You can also sign up to get Today’s Highlights sent directly to your e-mail Inbox.

Today’s Highlights is a spotlight section where you will find one topic covered and then a quote about it.
In the News – Here you will find video clips of things happening around the world.

Today in History – This covers something that happened in the past on today’s date.

Today’s Birthday – This one shows you which famous person is having their birthday today, as well as, what they were in (films) or what they've done to become famous.

Say What? – Here you will find an uncommon word that someone has recently looked up and what it means, how it is used, etc.

Spelling Bee – Test your knowledge of words and how they are spelled everyday with the Spelling Bee section. Just choose the correct spelling and click Find Out to see if you chose correctly.

I don’t think you’ll turn to another dictionary, encyclopedia or almanac after using this site. I know I won’t. I bookmarked it and have been using it non-stop ever since. Check it out!
http://www.answers.com/

Robert Alan Soloway is accused of using networks of compromised “zombie” computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails.

“He’s one of the top 10 spammers in the world,” said Tim Cranton, a Microsoft Corp. lawyer who is senior director of the company’s Worldwide Internet Safety Programs. “He’s a huge problem for our customers. This is a very good day.”

A federal grand jury last week returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Soloway pleaded not guilty Wednesday afternoon to all charges after a judge determined that — even with four bank accounts seized by the government — he was sufficiently well off to pay for his own lawyer.

He has been living in a ritzy apartment and drives an expensive Mercedes convertible, said prosecutor Kathryn Warma. Prosecutors are seeking to have him forfeit $773,000 they say he made from his business, Newport Internet Marketing Corp.

A public defender who represented him for Wednesday’s hearing declined to comment.

Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called “zombies” because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected.

He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else’s Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.

The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization.

'Way beyond a nuisance'
The Santa Barbara County, Calif., Department of Social Services said it was spending $1,000 a week to fight the spam it was receiving, and other businesses and individuals complained of having their reputations damaged when it appeared spam was originating from their computers.

“This is not just a nuisance. This is way beyond a nuisance,” Warma said.

Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.

People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.

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.  Go to http://housecall.antivirus.com/  then choose the link   "Scan without registering".  Follow the directions.

You should disable any anti virus program that you have running.  If you do not have a virus program I recommend that you use one of the programs offered above first and then download and install one of the free programs listed below or install any anti virus program you have purchased.
**************************************************************************************************
Free Anti Virus programs for 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.

AVG Free
AVG Free Edition is the well-known anti-virus protection tool. AVG Free is available free-of-charge to home users for the life of the product! Rapid virus database updates are available for the lifetime of the product, thereby providing the high-level of detection capability that millions of users around the world trust to protect their computers. AVG Free is easy-to-use and will not slow your system down (low system resource requirements).
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5

Avast
Avast has been "anti virusing" for quite awhile.  The following info comes from their download page:   Avast! Home is now free of charge for HOME users for NON-COMMERCIAL use. You can find more info here.
http://www.avast.com/eng/down_home.html
Note: This product is free for home non-commercial use after registration!
HINTS:   Click on the English Version Link and download the installation file.  Then click on the installation file and follow the directions.  You will need to return to the download page and click on the link to get the registration key.   It will be sent to you in an email after you provide some registration information.  This will give you 14 months of coverage including any updates which can be set to auto download.  You can reregister for additional free coverage at the end of the 14 months.
You will want to browse around and choose from the many options available for operation.  This process will take some time and digging.

Another good free program is:
http://www.free-av.com/
This one installs a bit easier than Avast.

**************************************************************************************************
Free Spybot and Adware programs for download.

AVG Anti-Spyware Free is a free anti-spyware protection tool developed by GRISOFT for home use. We invite you to join the millions of satisfied customers worldwide who have downloaded the software and now enjoy the benefits of ewido anti-spyware Free.
What you get with anti-spyware Free
Easy to use
Daily database updates
Heuristics to detect unknown threats
Automatic Cleaning Engine
And most of all ... great customer satisfaction!
http://free.grisoft.com/freeweb.php/doc/20/lng/us/tpl/v5

Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it's detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx

Spybot - Search & Destroy 1.4 - product description
Application to scan for spyware, adware, hijackers and other malicious software.
Choose one of the sites to download from.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html

Ad-Aware Personal provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components. This software is downloadable free of charge.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/

Weekly Top 5 Virus Incidents
The table below lists the top 5 virus and malware files submitted to ComputerAssociates during the week from May 14, 2007, to May 20, 2007.

   1. Win32/Stration.AAG
   2. Win32/Netsky.P
   3. HTML/Phishbank.BMF
   4. Win32/Luder.L
   5. Win32/Mydoom.N

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://vil.nai.com/VIL/hoaxes.asp
http://kumite.com/myths/
http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
http://www.scambusters.org/VirusHoaxes.html
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/
http://www.truthorfiction.com/
http://www.quatloos.com/

Memorial Day heralds the beginning of summer for a lot of families, as it is the first major holiday in the summer. It is a three day weekend and unfortunately, we often forget what we’re celebrating. Why do we celebrate Memorial Day? What is the holiday all about? Well, dating back as far as the Civil War, it has been a day that we, as a country, use to honor the memory of those who have died fighting for our freedom.

The History of Memorial Day – Here you can learn all about the history of Memorial Day. Find out how it was first celebrated and by who. You’ll also find out what town is the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

A Timeline of America’s Wars – This section breaks down into three categories. The categories are: 18th Century, 19th Century and the 20th and 21st Century. In this section, the name of the war will be linked to more information for it, so you can really learn a lot about the wars for each period of time.

Did You Know? – This section has a lot of facts that you may not have known about until today!

Memorial Day Videos – This section is also divided into three categories. They are: Veterans’ Experience, World War II and Civil War.

In the Veterans’ Experience videos, you will find ten videos that are about Memorial Day, veterans or the wars. Some are clips as short as twenty seconds, while others are several minutes long. I learned a lot from watching them.

In the World War II videos section, you will find five videos relating to that war.   From D-Day to the Battle of Midway, they're all there.

In the Civil War section, you will find almost 20 videos about the Civil War. From specific battles to what the soldiers ate while out in the field, you are sure to learn a lot here.

Battle Maps – Here you will find 13 maps from different battles. You can see them in full detail, zoom in and out and more. The Civil War maps were very interesting, because you can see the movement of each side, their victories and losses and even the division of states between Confederate and Union.

Veterans Forums – I adore this part of the site. Here you can read real veterans’ experiences, search for a veteran and so much more. It really provides a connection between veterans and the average person.

Well, I hope you learn as much about Memorial Day as I did. Now, I’m off to talk to the veteran I hold closest to my heart: my dad. Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Other Memorial Day sites:
http://www.usmemorialday.org/
http://www.usmemorialday.org/backgrnd.html
http://www1.va.gov/opa/speceven/memday/
http://remember.gov/

It was a reminder for all parents, guardians, teachers and other role models to make child safety a priority.
 
 

A program of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children®, the goal of Take 25 is to heighten awareness about children's safety issues. With a focus on prevention, the campaign encourages parents, guardians, and other trusted-adult role models to spend time talking to kids and teaching them ways to be safer. Take 25 was started to commemorate National Missing Children's Day on May 25th. First proclaimed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, the day serves as an annual reminder to the nation to renew efforts to reunite missing children with their families, remember those who are still missing, and make child protection a national priority. It's a time of reflection and renewed hope for millions of families in communities across the country.

Welcome to Answers.com, a Web site where you can find a ton of information on just about any topic. They call themselves “the world’s greatest encyclo-diction-alamanac-apieda.” I recommend watching the two minute tour first. It does require you to have a Flash player, but you can also download it as a movie. You can then watch it with your favorite movie player or use the default one that comes with your computer (mine is Windows Media Player). The tour walks you through how to use the site, as well as, some of the free add ons and downloads you can get.

Now that you know how to search the site, let’s talk about all the other nifty things going on here. Next, beneath the two minute tour link, you will see an image that reads New, with the WikiAnswer section link. WikiAnswer is a place where you can ask a question, answer them or just browse through the different Q&As others have posted. If you want to ask or answer questions, you do need to register and sign in. It’s all free, so go ahead and do it whenever you're ready!

If you want to ask a question, you will see an example of good and bad questions. Good meaning that you’ve included enough information that someone can answer the specifics of what you want to know. Bad being far too general of a question and one that would be hard to answer without asking more questions. Bad also means having personal information included.

If you want to answer a question, you can browse by unanswered questions or by most recently added. Or you can just choose the Browse option as well. Browsing will let you look at a list of categories that you can choose from. Some of them have subtopics to let you narrow down what you want to answer too. For example, Pets and Animals breaks down into topics on specific animals.

On the main page, you will also see Today’s Highlights, In the News, Today in History, Today’s Birthdays, Say What? and Spelling Bee. You can also sign up to get Today’s Highlights sent directly to your e-mail Inbox.

Today’s Highlights is a spotlight section where you will find one topic covered and then a quote about it.
In the News – Here you will find video clips of things happening around the world.
Today in History – This covers something that happened in the past on today’s date.
Today’s Birthday – This one shows you which famous person is having their birthday today, as well as, what they were in (films) or what they've done to become famous.
Say What? – Here you will find an uncommon word that someone has recently looked up and what it means, how it is used, etc.
Spelling Bee – Test your knowledge of words and how they are spelled everyday with the Spelling Bee section. Just choose the correct spelling and click Find Out to see if you chose correctly.

Anyone who has had to navigate the maze of a company IVR system with it’s “Press 1 for blah, 2 for blah blah and 3 for blah blah” instructions will share our yearning for the past when phones were answered by humans — real humans rather than one of these IVR services or software for call centers.

IVR hacks is a database of shortcuts that you can use to exit their IVR system as soon as possible and reach a human being. It may end up be a worker in an outsourced call center but, hey, it's a human being! 
http://www.ivrhacks.com/

HMMMM!!! 
Why are we giving assistance to so many of the countries on this list?  It looks to me like we need the assistance.