WyzGuys Tech Talk

The number is not a typo.  30 million computers were hijacked and controlled by 143 servers.  This cybercrime feat was engineered by Georg Avanesov, a Russian citizen of Armenia descent.  He was earning about $125,000 a month renting out time on his botnet to spammers, malware distributors, and fake antivirus scams.  They were even involved in several denial-of-service attacks.  At one time it was responsible for sending out 3 billion infected spam email messages a day.  Some of his hijacked ...

Today I got to deliver the bad news to another client.  Brand new laptop with an unbootable drive, and I have been trying unsuccessfully all weekend to recover useful data from the failed hard drive.  No luck.  I called the client, who burst into tears when I asked if she had a backup of her files.  No she did not have a backup.

Personally, I hate these calls.  Considering how much of our work, life, and money is tied to these ...

Watch out if you get a call from Visa Fraud and Security, it might be a scam.  This was sent to me by my friend and BNI buddy, Michael Chinn of Heartland Payment Systems.

Here is a heads up for everyone regarding the latest in VISA scams. This is happening in the Midwest right now and moving fast. This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want.. The callers do not ...

There has been a lot of activity by malware (malicious software) writers lately centered around the Mac platform.  I have been saying for years that Macs were no more secure than PCs, it was just that there was little interest in the malware community in writing for a platform that represented a three percent share of the market.  Bigger target over on the Windows side.  With the huge success of the iPhone and iPad product lines, that lack of interest ...

This does not mean  you get to drive your car in reverse.  That WOULD be an April Fool’s joke.  Evidently someone in the IT world decided that April Fool’s Day was a great time to remind people about the New Year’s Resolution that they haven’t completed yet – that is to be backing up their irreplaceable photos, and other important data files.

If you are still waiting, or thinking about it, or decided to do it and haven’t, then please contact ...

Remember the “Mr. Fusion” from the terrific “Back To The Future” movies?  Well Tiger Direct sent out an offer yesterday (April 1) for the KUBE X15 – World’s First Home Mini-Nuclear Generator.  Just click this link to see it.

It is a dark day in the world of hackitivism, as it has been reported the the FBI had arrested Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka Sabu.  Evidently he was nabbed several months ago and has been working with the FBI and revealing the identities of other Anonymous and LulzSec hackers.

These two group waged on-line war against government, political, and corporate targets that were involved in activities the group opposed, or against the enemies of groups they supported.  They waged a campaign ...

And another tidbit from the front lines from Tech Support Guy.

“My full-of-holes, why bother, what’s the worst that can happen attitude about the WEP key and password hassle prompted a letter from the cable provider. We were informed that someone from our host computer’s IP address had been downloading movies. I unplugged the wireless access point, called the cable co. and informed them about the unsecured wireless and that it was being corrected immediately, that they were welcomed ...

Another story from a computer user, courtesy of Tech Support Guy.

“One of our teens had, unknown to us, not just one but four of those under her login on her dad’s computer. She knew it was illegal but, like her friends, did it anyway. One downloaded file carried a Trojan that turned off the antivirus file definition update feature. Ended up having a professional wipe off the hard drive to get rid of it.”

Nothing prevents the clever cyber-criminal ...