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Friday the 15th of January 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Friday the 15th of January 2010

1. Virus Warnings
2. Daily Technology News
3. Latest Shareware and Freeware
4. FAQ for the day
5. Advice of the day
6. Internet Advice

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1. Latest Virus Alerts From Sophos
---------------------------------------
Troj/Agent-MEE on 15 January 2010 11:40:11 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmee.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Bredo-AD on 15 January 2010 11:40:11 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbredoad.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/JSRedir-AK on 15 January 2010 11:40:11 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojjsredirak.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Rootkit-HU on 15 January 2010 11:40:11 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojrootkithu.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Sinowal-I on 15 January 2010 11:40:11 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojsinowali.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Autorun-AXQ on 15 January 2010 11:40:11 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autorunaxq.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MEC on 15 January 2010 06:05:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmec.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Banker-EVF on 15 January 2010 06:05:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbankerevf.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/DwnLdr-HZP on 15 January 2010 06:05:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojdwnldrhzp.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/FakeAvJs-D on 15 January 2010 06:05:51 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojfakeavjsd.html?_log_from=rss

2. Latest Technology News From Slashdot
-----------------------------------------------

-- Antitrust Case Against RIAA Reinstated
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/3_Uvitf3FXs/Antitrust-Case-Against-RIAA-Reinstated)
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "After Starr v. SONY BMG Music Entertainment was dismissed at the District Court level, the antitrust class action against the RIAA has been reinstated by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In its 25-page opinion (PDF), the Appeals court held the following allegations sufficiently allege antitrust violations: 'First, defendants agreed to launch MusicNet and pressplay, both of which charged unreasonably high prices and contained similar DRMs. Second, none of the defendants dramatically reduced their prices for Internet Music (as compared to CDs), despite the fact that all defendants experienced dramatic cost reductions in producing Internet Music. Third, when defendants began to sell Internet Music through entities they did not own or control, they maintained the same unreasonably high prices and DRMs as MusicNet itself. Fourth, defendants used MFNs [most favored nation clauses] in their licenses that had the effect of guaranteeing that the licensor who signed the MFN received terms no less favorable than terms offered to other licensors. For example, both EMI and UMG used MFN clauses in their licensing agreements with MusicNet. Fifth, defendants used the MFNs to enforce a wholesale price floor of about 70 cents per song. Sixth, all defendants refuse to do business with eMusic, the #2 Internet Music retailer. Seventh, in or about May 2005, all defendants raised wholesale prices from about $0.65 per song to $0.70 per song. This price increase was enforced by MFNs.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- App Store Piracy Losses Estimated At $459 Million
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/38YpBbGZf_g/App-Store-Piracy-Losses-Estimated-At-459-Million)
An anonymous reader passes along this quote from a report at 24/7 Wall St.: "There have been over 3 billion downloads since the inception of the App Store. Assuming the proportion of those that are paid apps falls in the middle of the Bernstein estimate, 17% or 510 million of these were paid applications. Based on our review of current information, paid applications have a piracy rate of around 75%. That supports the figure that for every paid download, there have been 3 pirated downloads. That puts the number of pirate downloads at 1.53 billion. If the average price of a paid application is $3, that is $4.59 billion dollars in losses split between Apple and the application developers. That is, of course, assuming that all of those pirates would have made purchases had the application not been available to them for free. This is almost certainly not the case. A fair estimate of the proportion of people who would have used the App Store if they did not use pirated applications is about 10%. This estimate yields about $459 million in lost revenue for Apple and application developers." A response posted at Mashable takes issue with some of the figures, particularly the 75% piracy rate. While such rates have been seen with game apps, it's unclear whether non-game apps suffer the same fate.Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Dragging Telephone Numbers Into the Internet Age
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/y6MhHXldT3o/Dragging-Telephone-Numbers-Into-the-Internet-Age)
azoblue writes with this teaser from Ars Technica, presenting a tempting suggestion for online consolidation: "E-mail, IM, Facebook, phones—what if all of these ways to reach you over a network could be condensed into a single, unique number? The ENUM proposal aims to do just that, by giving everyone a single phone number that maps to all of their identifiers. Here's how it works, and why it isn't already widely used."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Former Exec Says Electronic Arts "Is In the Wrong Business"
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/m0PMtTEsZVA/Former-Exec-Says-Electronic-Arts-Is-In-the-Wrong-Business)
Mitch Lasky was the executive vice president of Mobile and Online at Electronic Arts until leaving the publisher to work at an investment firm. He now has some harsh things to say about how EA has been run over the past several years, in particular criticizing the decisions of CEO John Riccitiello. Quoting: "EA is in the wrong business, with the wrong cost structure and the wrong team, but somehow they seem to think that it is going to be a smooth, two-year transition from packaged goods to digital. Think again. ... by far the greatest failure of Riccitiello's strategy has been the EA Games division. JR bet his tenure on EA's ability to 'grow their way through the transition' to digital/online with hit packaged goods titles. They honestly believed that they had a decade to make this transition (I think it's more like 2-3 years). Since the recurring-revenue sports titles were already 'booked' (i.e., fully accounted for in the Wall Street estimates) it fell to EA Games to make hits that could move the needle. It's been a very ugly scene, indeed. From Spore, to Dead Space, to Mirror's Edge, to Need for Speed: Undercover, it's been one expensive commercial disappointment for EA Games after another. Not to mention the shut-down of Pandemic, half of the justification for EA's $850MM acquisition of Bioware-Pandemic. And don't think that Dante's Inferno, or Knights of the Old Republic, is going to make it all better. It's a bankrupt strategy."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Airport Access IDs Hacked In Germany
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BEOnrV-NSTk/Airport-Access-IDs-Hacked-In-Germany)
teqo writes "Hackers belonging to the Chaos Computer Club have allegedly cloned digital security ID cards for some German airports successfully which then allowed them access to all airport areas. According to the Spiegel Online article (transgoogleation here), they used a 200 Euro RFID reader to scan a valid security ID card, and since the scanner was able to pretend to be that card, used it to forge that valid ID. Even the airport authorities say that the involved system from 1992 might be outdated, but I guess it might be deployed elsewhere anyway."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Wii Hardware Upgrade Won't Happen Soon
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/OLO1m5JN1Yw/Wii-Hardware-Upgrade-Wont-Happen-Soon)
As high-definition graphics become more and more entrenched in this generation of game consoles, Nintendo has had to deal with constant speculation about a new version of the Wii that would increase its capabilities. Today, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime bluntly denied that a hardware revision was imminent, saying, "We are confident the Wii home entertainment console has a very long life in front of it." He added, "In terms of what the future holds, we've gone on record to say that the next step for Nintendo in home consoles will not be to simply make it HD, but to add more and more capability, and we'll do that when we've totally tapped out all of the experiences for the existing Wii. And we're nowhere near doing that yet."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- WHO To Investigate Handling of Swine Flu Information, Vaccine Orders
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Om3P1kOrkoQ/WHO-To-Investigate-Handling-of-Swine-Flu-Information-Vaccine-Orders)
krou writes "With swine flu fading in the UK (projected winter deaths of 65,000 have been downgraded to 1,000, and new cases are decreasing) the UK government has been left with millions of unused vaccines, and (unlike its contract with Baxter) no clear break-clause to get out of its contract with GlaxoSmithKlein. Although the amount paid for vaccines has not been disclosed, it likely cost the UK government several hundred million pounds. Other governments are also in a similar position: the US ordered 251 million doses of the vaccine, and France and Germany are aiming to cut back on their orders considerably. To say that the case for the pandemic has been over-estimated appears to be an understatement. Now, the WHO has announced that it is to investigate whether or not it bowed to pressure from drugs companies to overplay the threat." (Continues, below.)Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Robotics Prof Fears Rise of Military Robots
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/gEgCCLuUbLQ/Robotics-Prof-Fears-Rise-of-Military-Robots)
An anonymous reader writes "Interesting video interview on silicon.com with Sheffield University's Noel Sharkey, professor of AI & robotics. The white-haired prof talks state-of-the-robot-nation — discussing the most impressive robots currently clanking about on two-legs (hello Asimo) and who's doing the most interesting things in UK robotics research (something involving crickets apparently). He also voices concerns about military use of robots — suggesting it won't be long before armies are sending out fully autonomous killing machines."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- IE 0-Day Flaw Used In Chinese Attack
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/lbeRtUqEDSQ/IE-0-Day-Flaw-Used-In-Chinese-Attack)
bheer writes "A zero-day attack on IE was used to carry out the cyber attack on Google and others that's been getting so much ink recently, reports The Register, quoting McAfee's CTO. While the web (and security) community has pointed out the problems with IE's many security flaws (and its sluggish update cycle) in the past, IE shows no sign of vanishing from the corporate landscape."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Cliff Click's Crash Course In Modern Hardware
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/QdbBaJ267j4/Cliff-Clicks-Crash-Course-In-Modern-Hardware)
Lord Straxus writes "In this presentation (video) from the JVM Languages Summit 2009, Cliff Click talks about why it's almost impossible to tell what an x86 chip is really doing to your code due to all of the crazy kung-fu and ninjitsu it does to your code while it's running. This talk is an excellent drill-down into the internals of the x86 chip, and it's a great way to get an understanding of what really goes on down at the hardware and why certain types of applications run so much faster than other types of applications. Dr. Cliff really knows his stuff!"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Obama Appointee Sunstein Favors Infiltrating Online Groups
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/9x2b5-IqCME/Obama-Appointee-Sunstein-Favors-Infiltrating-Online-Groups)
megamerican writes "President Barack Obama's appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs advocated in a recent paper the 'cognitive infiltration' of groups that advocate 'conspiracy theories' like the ones surrounding 9/11 via 'chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine' those groups. Sunstein admits that 'some conspiracy theories, under our definition, have turned out to be true' Sunstein has also recently advocated banning websites which post 'right-wing rumors' and bringing back the Fairness Doctrine. You can find a PDF of his paper here. For decades (1956-1971), the FBI under COINTELPRO focused on disrupting, marginalizing and neutralizing political dissidents, most notably the Black Panthers. More recently CENTCOM announced it would be engaging bloggers 'who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information.' In January 2009 the USAF released a flow-chart for 'counter-bloggers' to 'counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the US government and the Air Force.'"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Powerful Linux ISP Router Distribution?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/5qJwo9gQnfg/Powerful-Linux-ISP-Router-Distribution)
fibrewire writes "I'm building a Wireless ISP using commercial grade, low cost equipment. My main stumbling block is that I cannot find a decent open source ISP class routing distribution. Closest thing to even a decent tool is Ubiquiti's AIRControl — but even it doesn't play well with other network monitoring software. I've used Mikrotik's RouterOS for five years, but it just isn't built for what I need. I don't mind paying licensing fees, but $300K for a Cisco Universal Broadband Router is out of my budget. Has anyone seen any good open-source/cheap hardware/software systems that will scale to several thousand users?"Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Google Switching To EXT4 Filesystem
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/eVmAelqi8pQ/Google-Switching-To-EXT4-Filesystem)
An anonymous reader writes "Google is in the process of upgrading their existing EXT2 filesystem to the new and improved EXT4 filesystem. Google has benchmarked three different filesystems — XFS, EXT4 and JFS. In their benchmarking, EXT4 and XFS performed equally well. However, in view of the easier upgrade path from EXT2 to EXT4, Google has decided to go ahead with EXT4."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Augmented Reality To Help Mechanics Fix Vehicles
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/dTL7AcoAcVo/Augmented-Reality-To-Help-Mechanics-Fix-Vehicles)
kkleiner writes "ARMAR, or Augmented Reality for Maintenance and Repair, is a head mounted display unit that provides graphic overlays to assist you in making repairs. An Android phone provides an interface to control the graphics you view during the process. Published in IEEE, and recently tested with the United States Marine Corps on an armored turret, ARMAR can cut maintenance times in half by guiding users to the damaged area and displaying 3D animations to demonstrate the appropriate tools and techniques."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Kodak Sues Apple & RIM Over Preview In Cameras
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BELQHMlESrg/Kodak-Sues-Apple-amp-RIM-Over-Preview-In-Cameras)
Dave Knott writes "Kodak is suing Apple and Research In Motion over technology related to digital cameras in their iPhone and BlackBerry smart phones. The complaint specifically relates to photo preview functionality which Kodak claims infringes on their patents. The company is asking for unspecified monetary damages and a court order to end the disputed practices. Kodak has amassed more than 1,000 digital-imaging patents, and almost all of today's digital cameras rely on that technology. Kodak has licensed digital-imaging technology to about 30 companies, including mobile-device makers such as LG Electronics Inc., Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson, all of which pay royalties to Kodak."Read more of this story at Slashdot.

3. Latest Shareware from Planet-Shareware
-----------------------------------------------

4. FAQ of the day from Helpforce
-----------------------------------------------

-- I have JS Seeker, how can I get rid of it?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: Hello, this is my problem. Every time I open word , excel or another office item I notice that my cursor on itself again to write . They call it JS Seeker.Please you help me get rid of this thing . it's making me crazy. thanks

Answer: The first thing you need to do id get a good antivirus program such as McAfee, Norton, etc. The web sites for these (www.mcafee.com and www.norton.com) have options to download fuly functional evaluation versions. Both also a great deal of information on this Trojan and other viruses/trojans...I have included the description and removal information from the Norton web site below:JS.Seeker Discovered on: December 15, 2000 Last Updated on: November 19, 2002 10:50:15 PM JS.Seeker is a Trojan horse program that alters the default startup and search pages of your Web browser. The Trojan horse sometimes arrives as a file named Runme.hta. This file runs only if the Windows Scripting Host is installed.Type: Trojan Horse Virus Definitions (Intelligent Updater) * December 19, 2000 * Intelligent Updater virus definitions are released daily, but require manual download and installation.Click here to download manually. ** LiveUpdate virus definitions are usually released every Wednesday.Click here for instructions on using LiveUpdate. Wild: Number of infections: More than 1000 Number of sites: More than 10 Geographical distribution: Low Threat containment: Easy Removal: Easy Threat Metrics Wild:High Damage:Low Distribution:Low Damage Payload: Modifies files: Registry Distribution Name of attachment: Runme.hta Size of attachment: 3 to 5 K When JS.Seeker is executed, it makes changes to the following registry keys:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Start Page HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Search Bar HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Default_Page_URL HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\Default_Search_URL HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Netscape\Netscape Navigator\Main\Home PageThe original registry values are saved in the \Windows folder as Backup1.reg and Backup2.reg . The Trojan horse creates the file Homereg111.reg in the \Windows folder and sets the previously mentioned registry keys to its own values. It then runs Removeit.hta, which deletes the file Runme.hta from the C:\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup folder.JS.Seeker also creates the Prefs.js file in the \Windows folder. This is a JavaScript file that changes Netscape Preferences to its own. Symantec Security Response encourages all users and administrators to adhere to the following basic security "best practices":Turn off and remove unneeded services. By default, many operating systems install auxiliary services that are not critical, such as an FTP server, telnet, and a Web server. These services are avenues of attack. If they are removed, blended threats have less avenues of attack and you have fewer services to maintain through patch updates. If a blended threat exploits one or more network services, disable, or block access to, those services until a patch is applied. Always keep your patch levels up-to-date, especially on computers that host public services and are accessible through the firewall, such as HTTP, FTP, mail, and DNS services. Enforce a password policy. Complex passwords make it difficult to crack password files on compromised computers. This helps to prevent or limit damage when a computer is compromised. Configure your email server to block or remove email that contains file attachments that are commonly used to spread viruses, such as .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files. Isolate infected computers quickly to prevent further compromising your organization. Perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media. Train employees not to open attachments unless they are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched. To remove JS.Seeker you need to:Run a full system scan and delete any files that are detected as infected.Delete the Homereg111.reg and Prefs.js files.Restore original settings by merging Backup1.reg and Backup2.reg into the registry.For instructions on how to do this, see the sections that follow.To run a full system scan:1. Make sure that Norton AntiVirus is set to scan all files.2. Run a complete system scan.3. Delete all files found to be infected with JS.Seeker.To find and delete the Homereg111.reg and Prefs.js files:1. Click Start, point to Find, and click Files or Folders.2. Make sure that Look in is set to (C:) and that Include subfolders is checked.3. In the Named box, type the following file names:homereg111.reg prefs.js4. Click Find Now. Windows will find the files (if they exist) and display them in the lower pane of the Find dialog box.NOTE: You are about to delete files. One of them is Prefs.js. If you are using Netscape, there is a legitimate Netscape file that is named Prefs.js. If you delete the legitimate Prefs.js, it deletes your Netscape preferences. If you use Netscape, and do not want to do this, when the files are found, just delete copies of Prefs.js that are not in a Netscape subfolder. For example, if you find a copy of Prefs.js in the \Windows folder, that does not belong to Netscape and should be deleted.5. Select each displayed file, press Delete, and click Yes to confirm.6. Leave the Find: All Files window open, and go on to the next section.To find and merge Backup1.reg and Backup2.reg into the registry:1. Click New Search, and click OK to confirm.2. Make sure that Look in is set to (C:) and that Include subfolders is checked.3. In the Named box, type the following file names:backup1.reg backup2.reg4. When found, double-click each of these files to restore the registry settings.5. Once the registry has been restored and the computer is working correctly, delete Backup1.reg and Backup2.reg. Additional information: There are other things that you can do to protect your system from this type of Trojan Horse.Script BlockingIf you are using Norton AntiVirus 2001, a free program update that includes Script Blocking is available. Please run LiveUpdate to obtain this.For other versions of Norton AntiVirus, SARC offers a tool to disable the Windows Scripting Host.Install the Microsoft patchThis worm takes advantage of a known Microsoft Outlook/Outlook Express security hole. Microsoft has provided a patch for this security hole at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS99-032.asp

5. Advice of the Day from ask-leo
-----------------------------------------------

6. Internet Advice
-----------------------------------------------

-- The Top Internet Memes(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/258223.htm)

Memes are viral bits of culture, spread around the world through email and instant messaging. Commonly, memes are jokes and urban legends. Sometimes, memes are also music and language...

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