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Wednesday the 3rd of March 2010

Welcome to the Helpforce Daily Briefing, on Wednesday the 3rd of March 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-MOJ on 3 March 2010 11:42:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmoj.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MPY on 3 March 2010 11:42:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmpy.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MPZ on 3 March 2010 11:42:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmpz.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/Agent-MQA on 3 March 2010 11:42:16 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojagentmqa.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Zbot-T on 3 March 2010 07:06:42 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malzbott.html?_log_from=rss
Troj/BredoZp-AB on 3 March 2010 07:06:42 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/trojbredozpab.html?_log_from=rss
W32/Autoit-IR on 3 March 2010 07:06:42 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/w32autoitir.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Bamital-A on 3 March 2010 04:09:02 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malbamitala.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/Boaxxe-A on 3 March 2010 04:09:02 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malboaxxea.html?_log_from=rss
Mal/IRCBot-B on 3 March 2010 04:09:02 Z
http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/malircbotb.html?_log_from=rss

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

-- Mariposa Botnet Beheaded
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/Rss4Wvd1Y1s/Mariposa-Botnet-Beheaded)
northernboy and many other readers sent news of the beheading of the Mariposa botnet with three arrests in Spain. "Defense Intelligence of Ottawa working with ISPs and Spanish authorities have taken down yet another > 12M PC botnet, called Mariposa. The three top-level operators are in custody, but remain anonymous under Spanish law (how quaint: apparently in Spain, the accused have some right to privacy). AP is claiming that the botnet included systems in roughly half of the Fortune 1000 companies, scattered over 190 countries. Interesting details: none of the three principals has a prior criminal record. Although apparently hardworking, they are not uber-hackers, but rather had connections to the Spanish mafia, which apparently helped to equip them. At the time of arrest, they were not showing signs of their significant new income level. From the article: 'Chris Davis, CEO of Ottawa-based Defence Intelligence, said he noticed the infections when they appeared on networks of some of his firm's clients, including pharmaceutical companies and banks. It wasn't until several months later that he realized the infections were part of something much bigger. After seeing that some of the servers used to control computers in the botnet were located in Spain, Davis and researchers from the Georgia Tech Information Security Center joined with software firm Panda Security, which is headquartered in Bilbao, Spain. The investigators caught a few lucky breaks. For one, the suspects used Internet services that wound up cooperating with investigators. That isn't always the case.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- BBC To Make Deep Cuts In Internet Services
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ernRr6ryGEI/BBC-To-Make-Deep-Cuts-In-Internet-Services)
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that the BBC has yielded to critics of its aggressive expansion, and is planning to make sweeping cuts in spending on its Web site and other digital operations. Members of the Conservative Party, which is expected to make electoral gains at the expense of the governing Labor Party, have called for the BBC to be reined in and last year James Murdoch criticized the BBC for providing 'free news' on the internet, making it 'incredibly hard for private news organizations to ask people to pay for their news.' Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, said 'After years of expansion of our services in the UK, we are proposing some reductions.' The BBC is proposing a 25 percent reduction in its spending on the Web, as well as the closure of several digital radio stations and a reduction in outlays on US television shows. The Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union, which represents thousands of workers at the BBC, says that instead of appeasing critics, the proposed cuts could backfire. 'The BBC will not secure the politicians' favor with these proposals and nor will the corporation appease the commercial sector, which will see what the BBC is prepared to sacrifice and will pile on the pressure for more cuts,' says Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of the union."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Write Bits Directly Onto a Hard Drive Platter?
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/GEkek_15S2k/Write-Bits-Directly-Onto-a-Hard-Drive-Platter)
kidcharles writes "I'm working on a project that requires writing bits to a magnetic hard drive platter in a completely controlled fashion. I need to be able to control exactly where 1s and 0s will appear physically on the platter. Normally when data is written to a drive the actual bits that get written are determined by the file system being used, as modified by whatever kind of error handling the drive itself is using (e.g. Reed-Solomon). All of the modern innovations in file systems and error handling are great for reliable and efficient data storage, but they are making my particular task quite daunting. My question for Slashdot: is there a way to get down to the 'bare metal' and write these bits? Any good utilities out there to do this? Obviously a free and open source solution would be preferable, but I'm open to anything at this point."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Printing Replacement Body Parts
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/609dtqvKmWE/Printing-Replacement-Body-Parts)
Deep Penguin sends in a piece that appeared in The Economist a couple of weeks back about a developing technology to "print" body parts for transplant. "A US and an Australian company have developed the $200,000 machine, which works by depositing stem cells and a 'sugar-based hydrogel' scaffolding material. (The stem cells are harvested from a transplant patient's own fat and bone marrow, to avoid rejection down the line.) The companies are Organovo, from San Diego, specializing in regenerative medicine, and Invetech, an engineering and automation firm in Melbourne, Australia. The initial targets are skin, muscle, and 'short stretches of blood vessels,' which they hope to have available for human implantation within five years. Down the line, they expect the technology could even print directly into the body, bypassing the in-vitro portion of the current process."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- $1M Prize For Finding Cause of Unintended Acceleration
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/ohX4A2VBjoI/1M-Prize-For-Finding-Cause-of-Unintended-Acceleration)
phantomfive writes "Edmunds Auto has announced that it will be offering a $1 million prize to anyone who can find the cause of unintended acceleration. As Wikipedia notes, this is a problem that has plagued not only Toyota, but also Audi and other manufacturers. Consumer Reports has some suggestions all automakers can implement to solve this problem, including requiring brakes to be strong enough to stop the car even when the accelerator is floored."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Officials Sue Couple Who Removed Their Lawn
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/5GVkcL6Hv5k/Officials-Sue-Couple-Who-Removed-Their-Lawn)
Hugh Pickens writes "The LA Times reports that Orange County officials are locked in a legal battle with a couple accused of violating city ordinances for replacing the grass on their lawn with wood chips and drought-tolerant plants, reducing their water usage from 299,221 gallons in 2007 to 58,348 gallons in 2009. The dispute began two years ago, when Quan and Angelina Ha tore out the grass in their front yard. In drought-plagued Southern California, the couple said, the lush grass had been soaking up tens of thousands of gallons of water — and hundreds of dollars — each year. 'We've got a newborn, so we want to start worrying about her future,' said Quan Ha, an information technology manager for Kelley Blue Book. But city officials told the Has they were violating several city laws that require that 40% of residential yards to be landscaped predominantly with live plants. Last summer, the couple tried to appease the city by building a fence around the yard and planting drought-tolerant greenery — lavender, rosemary, horsetail, and pittosporum, among others. But according to the city, their landscaping still did not comply with city standards. At the end of January, the Has received a letter saying they had been charged with a misdemeanor violation and must appear in court. The couple could face a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for their grass-free, eco-friendly landscaping scheme. 'It's just funny that we pay our taxes to the city and the city is now prosecuting us with our own money,' says Quan Ha."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Terry Childs's Slow Road To Justice
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/TOElNR2DnXE/Terry-Childss-Slow-Road-To-Justice)
snydeq writes "Deep End's Paul Venezia provides an update on the City of San Francisco's trial against IT admin Terry Childs, which — at eight weeks and counting — hasn't even seen the defense begin to present its case. The main spotlight thus far has been on the testimony of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. 'Many articles about this case have pounced on the fact that after Childs gave the passwords to the mayor, they couldn't immediately be used. Most of these pieces chalk this up to some kind of secondary infraction on Childs's part,' Venezia writes. 'Just because you give someone a password doesn't mean that person knows how to use it. Childs's security measures would have included access lists that blocked attempted logins from non-specified IP addresses or subnets. In short, it was nothing out of the ordinary if you know anything about network security.' But while the lack of technical expertise in the case is troubling, encouraging is the fact that the San Francisco Chronicle's 'breathless piece reporting on the mayor's testimony' drew comments 10-to-1 in Childs's favor, which may indicate that 'public opinion of this case has tilted in favor of the defense,' Venezia writes. Of course, 'if [the trial] drags into summer, Childs will have the dubious honor of being held in jail for two full years.' This for a man who 'ultimately protected the [City's] network until the bitter end.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Tethering Is Exhilarating (With the Nexus One)
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/46FIekJLhG4/Tethering-Is-Exhilarating-With-the-Nexus-One)
timothy found this link (hat-tip to Tim O'Reilly) to a paean to the joys of tethering. "In a short post, Steve Souders explores the current state of tethering 3G connections via iPhone (on which he basically gives up, for the perfectly decent reason of not wanting to jailbreak his iPhone) and the Nexus One, with which he has great success. His writeup serves as a micro-tutorial ('use PdaNet's Android app') as well as an endorsement."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft Says, Don't Press the F1 Key In XP
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/wgq8lSwMDpY/Microsoft-Says-Dont-Press-the-F1-Key-In-XP)
Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft has issued a security advisory warning users not to press the F1 key in Windows XP, owing to an unpatched bug in VBScript discovered by Polish researcher Maurycy Prodeus. The security advisory says that the vulnerability relates to the way VBScript interacts with Windows Help files when using Internet Explorer, and could be triggered by a user pressing the F1 key after visiting a malicious Web site using a specially crafted dialog box."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Netflix Gauging Interest In an iPhone App
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/YoGD-NOLIXI/Netflix-Gauging-Interest-In-an-iPhone-App)
gollum123 writes "A new survey sent out to Netflix subscribers indicates that the iPhone might be the next device that its streaming service rolls out on in the coming months. (The NY Times credits Hacking Netflix for the tip.) According to a tip sent to Hacking Netflix, the subscription video company is now asking users how likely they would be to use an iPhone app to view movies via its online streaming service. According to the survey, an iPhone app would give users all the same functionality that they have when streaming on a PC or other device, including all the same movies and TV shows without advertisements or trailers. If the app is rolled out, the ability to watch on the Apple mobile device would be offered at no additional charge to existing Netflix subscribers. There is good news for AT&T implied in the survey questions: it appears that the app would require users to be connected to a Wi-Fi network."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- A Second Lessig Fair-Use Video Is Suppressed By WMG
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/JOPWFEMseZ8/A-Second-Lessig-Fair-Use-Video-Is-Suppressed-By-WMG)
Bios_Hakr points out an ironic use of the DMCA: for the second time, a video tutorial on fair use that Larry Lessig uploaded to YouTube has been muzzled. This time the sound has been pulled from the video; last time the video was taken off of YouTube. (Video and sound for the new "webside chat" can be experienced together on BlipTV.) Both times, Warner Music Group was the party holding copyright on a song that Lessig used in an unarguably fair-use manner. TechDirt is careful not to assume that an actual DMCA takedown notice was issued, on the likelihood that Google's automatic copyright-violation detectors did the deed. "The unintended consequences of asking tool providers [e.g., Google] to judge what is and what is not copyright infringement lead to tremendous problems with companies shooting first and asking questions later. They are silencing speech, on the threat that it might infringe on copyright. This is backwards. We live in a country that is supposed to cherish free speech, not stifle it in case it harms the business model of a company. We live in a country that is supposed to encourage the free expression of ideas — not lock it up and take it down because one company doesn't know how to adapt its business model. We should never be silencing videos because they might infringe on copyright."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Microsoft VP Suggests 'Net Tax To Clean Computers
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/kVsw8quWIQ0/Microsoft-VP-Suggests-Net-Tax-To-Clean-Computers)
Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft's Vice President for Trustworthy Computing, Scott Charney, speaking at the RSA conference in San Francisco, has floated an interesting proposal to deal with infected computers: Approach the problem of dealing with malware infections like the healthcare industry, and consider using 'general taxation' to pay for inspection and quarantine. Using taxes to deal with online criminal activity is not a new idea, as demonstrated by last year's Louisiana House vote to levy a monthly surcharge on Internet access to deal with online baddies."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- New "Spear Phishing" Attacks Target IT Admins
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/QocqBL1cHCM/New-Spear-Phishing-Attacks-Target-IT-Admins)
snydeq writes "A new breed of 'spear phishing' aimed at IT admins is making the rounds. The emails, containing no obvious malicious links, are fooling even the savviest of users into opening up holes in their company's network defenses. The authentic-looking emails, which often include the admin's complete name or refer to a real project they are working on, are the product of tactical research or database hacks and appear as if having been sent by the company's hosting provider. 'In each case, the victim remembered getting a similar sort of email message when they first signed on with a service and, thus, thought the bogus message was legitimate — especially because their cloud/hosting providers keep bragging about all the new data centers they're continuing to bring online.' The phishing messages often include instructions for opening up mail servers to enable spam relaying, to disable their host-based firewalls, and to open up unprotected network shares. Certainly fodder for some bone-headed mistakes on the part of admins, the new attack 'makes the old days of hoax messages that caused users to delete legitimate operating system files seem relatively harmless.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- SCO Zombie McBride's New Plan For World Litigation
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/xI9Fn33IDKc/SCO-Zombie-McBrides-New-Plan-For-World-Litigation)
eldavojohn writes "Years after you thought it was all over, Groklaw is reporting that Darl McBride (ex-CEO of SCO) has formed a new company that is buying SCO's mobile business for peanuts — but he's also going to get 'certain Intellectual Property' with the deal. You may recall that McBride was the brains behind the Linux lawsuits that SCO launched and it appears he may be orchestrating an exit route where he escapes with some IP intact, in order to wreak havoc once again. Hopefully this is the part at the end of the movie where the zombie comes back to life one last time only to have the hero deliver the final final blow. When this news broke upon the investment world, SCO's stock skyrocketed a blistering 11%, bringing it up seven cents to a full seventy cents — a level which it has not achieved since 2007."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

-- Matt Asay Answers Your Questions About Ubuntu and Canonical
(http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/BzSOYoOlaZc/Matt-Asay-Answers-Your-Questions-About-Ubuntu-and-Canonical)
A couple of weeks ago you posed some questions for Matt Asay, who recently moved into the COO role at Canonical. Click below to read his answers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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

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

-- How can I delete a program?
(http://www.helpforce.com)

Question: How can I delete a program? Can I only delete, or there is another way ?

Answer: You can delete almost all your programs from:Start --> Settings --> Control Panel --> Add or Remove ProgramsYou will see a list of *all* your programs, and you can delete them from there.what I mean with *all* is that some programs aren't listed there, probably because they don't have an uninstaller, and you gotta delete them manually

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

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

-- What Is Scareware?(http://netforbeginners.about.com/b/a/257729.htm)

The New York Times reports that a Russian operation seemed to be earning $5 million a year selling fake antivirus software, or "scareware." Often in the form of "rogue scanners",...

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