WyzGuys Tech Talk

For those of you who wonder what cookies are and are they a good thing or a bad thing, here is a great video for you.  http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/cookiecontest/

I ordered a new Dell laptop with Windows Vista Home Premium about a month ago.  I needed a Vista machine to prepare for a class I was teaching (Intro to Windows Vista), so I took the plunge.  Of course, the first thing I did was reformat the hard drive, and create three partitions.  The first one (C:) I used to install Windows XP, as a form of security blanket.  Then I upgraded to Windows Vista, but installed it ...

There is an email circulating that says any email titled Merry Christmas will contain a had drive eating virus.  This is a hoax.  Here is the link – http://www.hoax-slayer.com/merry-christmas-virus-hoax.shtml

The email I received this morning that had been forwarded a few times. It said:

"VIRUS ALERT!!   

http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/zafi.asp

You should be alert during the next days:
Do not open any message with an attached file called ‘Merry Christmas’
regardless of who sent it, It is a virus ...

This post is another in my continuing series of warnings about the changing nature of security threats on the Internet.  There has been an almost total disappearance of the kind of disruptive mail mailing viruses, like the ILoveYou or Anna Kournicova viruses.  the reason for this is that the nature of on-line threats has shifted from a group of hackers doing it for fun and notoriety, to a group of professionals doing it for profit.  Skilled criminal groups ...

Subject: Estate Planning

When Dan found out he was going to inherit a fortune when his sickly father died, he  decided he needed a woman to enjoy it with.  So, one evening he went to a singles bar where he spotted the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.  Her natural beauty took his breath away.  "I may look like just an ordinary man," he said as he walked up to her, "but in just a few years, my ...

I just got an e-mail that included the story below.  I did confirm the story on the FBI web site with the included link.  You can NOT be too careful or paranoid about sharing this information with anyone.  remember – just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean they are not out to get you!!!

Jury Duty Scam

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email ...

Here are some especially interesting web sites that I have visited lately, and i thought they were special enough to share.

Norman Bel Geddes was an industrial designer who worked between the two world wars.  This site includes his vision for a long distance flying boat that makes the new Airbus look small by comparison.  you have to see this one

Interested in improving your mental acuity?  Then check out SharpBrains.  Brain fitness is emerging as ...

There was a post recently to the StopBadware group by Jart regarding this threat to computer and Internet security.  In my Bulletproof Computer Security class, I discuss how the nature of the security threat has moved from loosely knit groups of kiddie scripters and teenage computer crackers to a highly organized and professionally trained cadre of criminal software writers.  This post, repeated below, also contains links to articles on BlogSpot and Wikipedia.

Jarts post follows:

http://groups.google.com/group/stopbadware/browse_frm/thread/f6d908519cc04432?hl=en

I hope ...

Sony has done plenty of damage to its already tarnished reputation for going with proprietary formats that ultimately fail (Betamax, BluRay?), and for hardware issues (flaming laptop batteries), and security issues (CD rootkit scandal).  Now they are at it again, putting a rootkit on a USB key drive.  See the following article.

Nutshell, Finnish security company F-Secure has reported to have found software with rootkit-like behaviour supplied with Sony USB sticks with a built-in fingerprint reader.

"The Sony MicroVault USM-F fingerprint ...

(From PC Magazine)  Kaspersky is one of the leading anti-virus companies, and in June they released their ranking for the top 10 best (or worst) malicious software designs of the year.

Lets just say that if you get one of these, you have got a problem!

1. Greediest Trojan targeting banks: Trojan-Spy.Win32.Banker.aqu, a modification that targets 87 banks simultaneously.

2. Greediest Trojan targeting e-payment systems: Trojan-PSW.Win32.VB.kq, which targets four e-payment systems.

3. Stealthiest malicious ...