IT Masala

As i have to buy a Laptop very soon , i was going through some tips on how to use it efficiently,mainly on battery back up .. etc and fumbled upon this article by Jeremy Toeman .

Some of his tips are : 

• Brightness: how low can you go?
• Don’t use any external devices.
• Single-task, not multi-task.
• Keep it cool.
• Shut down unused services.
• Do Hibernate, Do Not Suspend
• Tweak advanced settings.
• Choose Wisely.
• Watch That Hard Drive.
• Like a Boy Scout, Be Prepared.

via [ 10 Tips on Maximizing Laptop Battery Performance ]   

I use Sygate personal Firewall. Its really the best one i have ever used. But still getting your pc checked by an external device or tool is very much necessary. Use Shields Up to check whether your ports are open or closed. Many hackers run automated port scanning tool which scans your pc for open ports and if found any , then you are gone.

On the first page it identifies your connection.Once you're at that page, click Proceed to get started. On the next screen, you'll have the open to choose which type of scan you want like to perform: File Sharing ports, Common ports, All ports, Messenger spam, and browser headers.

Go ahead and click on File Sharing to run the test and you should get something similiar to this:

After the test runs, you should get a report with a big FAILED or PASSED.

Many a times some of your ports are open like FTP,Telnet , HTTP , if you running some webservers etc ..  So it might show failed.

They have a very nice Messenger Spam Test. Do you get any random authentic Windows popup messages telling you signup for something, etc? Well that's because the spammers are using the Windows Messenger service on your computer to send you messages directly from Windows itself!

Use this Messenger Spam test to see if your UDP port 135 is open through which this message comes.

If some problem occurs while running these port checks , check your Personal Firewall on your PC. 

Happy Securing !

via [ Shields Up ] 

A new Skype worm that displays an image of a scantily clad woman wearing stilettos (shown left) has been identified by security companies F-Secure and Sophos.

The worm has been named “IM-Worm:W32/Pykse.A” by F-Secure and Mal/Pykse-A by Sophos.

How Does it Affect ? 

Pykse-A is most likely to be installed by clicking on a link contained in a received Skype message. It sets the Skype user’s status to DND (do not disturb) before sending a message with a malware link to all online friends in the Skype contact list.

If the recipient clicks on the link, a Trojan dropper (detected as Troj/Dropper-OI) is downloaded. When Troj/Dropper-OI is executed, an enticing image(scantily clad model wearing stiletto heeled shoes) is displayed, and Pykse-A is dropped and silently executed.

The image of the woman is displayed in a bid by the malware creator to cover up the true purpose of the download.

Where does the link in the message lead to ? 

The link (contains ”The Living Africa” content , which has been ripped from a legitimate site: library.thinkquest.org.) also directs users to at least eight Web sites with information about Africa. It's not clear what type of scam or harm those pages intend, but some of the sites have advertising on them, indicating that it might be a click-fraud scam, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos PLC.

Whats Click Fraud - Click fraud refers to the various tricks used to get clicks on advertising banners, which generate revenue for Web page owners.

Please follow the instructions for removing worms

Give a refreshing look to your desktop. Download the new set of icons from VistaIcons.com. They provide high quality icons in the PNG and ICO formats. Icons have a maximum size of 256 x 256 pixels, making them suitable for high-DPI displays.

Some of the packages :

VISTA STYLE ICONS ( Download )

ALPHA VISTA PACK ( Download )

IVISTA ICON PACK ( Download )

AEROVISTA ( Download )

VISTAICO AERO PACK ( Download )

So ever wondered to get your name instead of your hardware provider in the Windows System Owner Name and Informationin the System Properties. Go through the steps below and you are done !!

This hack involves the modification of your system Registry, so make sure you backup your Registry before continuing further :

1. Click ‘Start’ , Click ‘Run’ , type regedit.
2. Go to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion node.
3. Look for the values RegisteredOwner and RegisteredOrganization. Edit their values to you username and company name of choice.
4. Exit the Registry Editor

njoy ! 

I had some harddrive problem and that made my Adobe Professional 7 not to work properly. So i had to uninstall and use Adobe Reader as it was a urgent need for me. So i went to the official Adobe Site and downloaded the latest Adobe Reader 8. Its Free to download and free to view and print Adobe PDF (Portable Document Format) files, which is widely used as a way to present information.

You can always download latest version of Adobe Reader 8.0 from Adobe website. However, the setup file that you download is actually a download manager which has a small download size(533kb). The Adobe download manager will be launched later for configuration options and then the actual installer setup files for Adobe Reader can be downloaded once you have finished selecting the components you want. This small download manager is not really necessary.

If you download this direct download, even when you are offline, you will be able to install it without any hassles .

The Official direct download links to various localized language editions of Adobe Acrobat Reader 8 are listed below:

Visit [ Adobe Acrobat 8 ]

The Russian security company Kaspersky Lab claims to have created the world's first "proof of concept" iPod virus. They provide exceptionally few details about the "virus" itself, but what they do provide tells us that the virus that they created doesn't really exploit that much. They named the virus "Podloso," which is—again—a proof-of-concept program and "does not pose a real threat," writes the company.

Security vendor Kaspersky Labs announced it has detected the first virus designed to infect iPod portable media players. Photo by Kaspersky Labs

Condition to be Affected :

Kaspersky says the iPod must have Linux installed. The company says that the user must put the virus' file onto the iPod's disk first . ( this is too much limitation..who the hell would do that..)

Virus Activity :

Once there, the virus installs itself into a folder that contains program demos on the iPod. It then allegedly scans the disk of the iPod in order to infect all .elf files, and if the user tries to launch any of these files, a mocking message will be displayed on the iPod's screen: "You are infected with Oslo the first iPodLinux Virus."

"Podloso has no malicious payload, and does not present a real threat; it simply demonstrates that it is, theoretically possible to create malicious programs for such devices," writes the company.

Note : But still Ipod users are not away from the threat of being affected severely by malicious programmers . So be careful when you install any third party softwares or any hacks to your little music player .

via [ novinite ] 

There are problems with the patch Microsoft released Tuesday for a critical .ANI vulnerability, and hackers have launched a new spam campaign to take advantage of the flaw.

There are problems with the update Microsoft released Tuesday for a critical .ANI vulnerability, and hackers have launched a new spam campaign to take advantage of the flaw by promising nude pictures of Britney Spears to lure users to malicious sites.

Deborah Hale, a handler with the Internet Storm Center, reported in the site's daily diary on Wednesday that researchers there are receiving reports of users having problems with the patch, which Microsoft pushed out a week earlier than its normal monthly Patch Tuesday release. Microsoft confirmed a problem with the patch and provided a hotfix, or a patch for the patch, when the patch was first released.

Hale noted that other issues have arisen, as well, and Microsoft is investigating them.

Sophos reported in an advisory that the malicious site contains the Iffy-A Trojan that points to another piece of malware, which contains the zero-day .ANI exploit. Sophos detects this Trojan as Animoo-L.

"The message is simple: You must patch your computers against this vulnerability now or risk infection," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, in a statement. "Hackers are exploiting people's tardiness in rolling out updates and looking to infect as many PCs as they can. Microsoft issued a patch for the problem yesterday, but the hackers will continue to take advantage of the critical security loophole for as long as they can."

Problem :

The .ANI vulnerability involves the way Windows handles animated cursor files and could enable a hacker to remotely take control of an infected system. The bug affects all the recent Windows releases, including its new Vista operating system. Internet Explorer is the main attack vector for the exploits.

Effects of that Problem : 

Users are being infected after visiting a malicious Web page that has embedded malware designed to take advantage of the flaw. They also can be infected if they open a specially crafted e-mail message or if they open a malicious e-mail attachment sent by a hacker.

Solution :

Meanwhile, security firm eEye Digital Security Inc. has brought out an unofficial and temporary fix for the problem.

Who is spreading the attack code :

It is suspected that several websites, including at least two hosted in China, are offering the attack code that exploits the bug. 

via [ IW ] 

The first public beta of Google Desktop for Mac has arrived, providing integrated searching of local files and the web.

This is the first time the search engine has had it's search tool available for Mac users apart from using the web-based search engine.

"[W]e took the time to develop a product that deeply integrates into Mac OS X and maintains its high standards of usability," wrote Google software engineer Mike Pinkerton in the company's Mac blog. "This is a Mac product through and through, from the bezel on our search box down to correctly (and securely) handling multiple users and FileVault."

Features : 

Full text searches are supported for many file types include text, PDF, HTML, email (Mail, Entourage), iChat transcripts, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, music and video files, and Address Book contacts. The program also searches file and folder names.

Google Desktop provides a degree of integration with Spotlight, taking advantage of any installed Spotlight importers to broaden the range of file types that can be searched. It also uses the Spotlight privacy list to determine which items should not be searched.

PN :The first version of Google Desktop does not appear to be able to index PC-formatted drives.

Advantages:

- Google does not see or record Google Desktop results without the user's permission.

- If a user is still concerned, he can choose to disable the integration option in preferences.

- Google Desktop also returns results more quickly than Spotlight does.

- Google Desktop does the same partial word searches as spotlight during entry, but without the delay.

- Google Desktop is easy to use, allowing a search without going into the dashboard.

[ Google Desktop ]