This is a nice article on botnets.

http://www.hostreview.com/icontent/the-blog/drugged-three-year-olds-enslaved

~Jeremy

I’m planning on making some apps portable…so here’s the first.  but after making it portable, I realized that the guy(s) released another version.  Oh well, I’ll update it soon.

~Jeremy

This video shows you how to "tweak" your file context menu. The shexview.zip info is located here: http://tinyurl.com/shexview or download it directly: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.zip

~Jeremy

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Do you want to configure Comodo Internet Security to protect you, yet give you no alerts? Here's how!
This will let any existing program on your computer run, but will block any new program. Recommended for public computers.  

Note: This means that some things won't install.  If experiencing trouble, please disable the Parental Control.
  

~Jeremy

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There are too different sites I use to collaborate online in real-time (means that when someone changes it, everyone else who is there sees the new change).

If you want a simple, plain-text real-time editor, EtherPad is the way to go.  No need to create an account or sign up.  The “pad” is located at a randomly-generated number to prevent vandalism.  There are revisions available too.

EditGrid is for editing online spreadsheets.  It has much more features than EtherPad.  You have to get an EditGrid account to make a spreadsheet, but then you can publish it so that anyone can edit.
There are many security features here, so I can’t go through them all.  You have to “explorer”.

~Jeremy

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This video shows you how to install and run a program designed for Vista on Win7.
 

(Rate this video here)

As you can see, I finally got my screen recorder to work and also figured out its “crazy” captain system. :-)

~Jeremy

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Some of you may have had trouble deleting groups (I certainly have).

Well, I asked the support dudes to delete a group for me.  This is their reply:

[…]

Thank you for writing to Windows Live Groups Technical Support. My name is Alvin and I understand that you are unable to delete your Windows Live Group. I appreciate that you have taken the time to write to us regarding this.

This issue has been identified by the product team as high-priority and we want to assure you that we are working seriously to have this feature back as soon as possible. Due to the complexity of this issue we currently project weeks of testing for our engineers to narrow down the exact server and resolve the issue.

I would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has brought and we would like to thank you for your patience in the matter.

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Windows Live Groups.

[…]

I just wanted to tell you all about this so you know it is a known issue.

~Jeremy

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I have created an internet security group here.

If you have questions, info, comments, or news about technology and specifically PC security that you want to share, you can do it there.  I (we?) could also give free remote support. 

~Jeremy

Because I’m trying to do a video tutorial, and things aren’t working out well.  Plus I’m sick (again).  :-\

~Jeremy

Yes, usually I’m the one who is explaining things.  But now I have a question.  Why post it here?  First, hopefully some here knows, and second, I’m going to be giving links to this post around on different forums and asking for answers.

Now, the questions:

1. Can you copy someone’s digital signature?  I know Comodo and a few other security software companies identify “trusted” vendors by their digital signatures.  Great! you might think.  But wait a sec…does this mean someone else can give a digital signature that has the same name as a “trusted” vendor like Microsoft to their little malware file? 
   Yes, I have heard of those dudes who created a digital sig with ~200 Playstations (what a waste! ) that was like VeriSign’s or something.
   But not every malware developer has ~200 Playstations at hand.
   So what am I talking about?  Well, CIS identifies the digital sigs by their name (I think).  How do I know?  Let’s look at where they keep the trusted vendors stored:
   In a file called “vendors” which I open with Notepad I see:
   ᫿Adobe Systems Incorporated᯿Adobe Systems, Incorporated૿Apple Inc.໿ALWIL Software᏿Apple Computer, IncᇿComodo CA Limited໿Comodo CP, IncᇿESET, spol. s r.o૿Google Inc௿McAfee, IncᗿMicrosoft CorporationᇿMicrosoft Windows᯿Microsoft Windows Publisher◿Microsoft Windows Component Publisher᏿Mozilla CorporationዿOpera Software ASA࿿PGP CorporationᗿSkype Technologies SA᛿Sun Microsystems, Inc.௿Paltalk.comዿAuslogics Software
   Now you can see that it appears like CIS identifies the digital signatures by their names.  I think anyone can make their sig have a name like that, but it is copying the details which took awhile (don’t ask me how, this is just how I understand it.  I might be totally wrong…this is why I’m asking ).
   
   
   On the left window is what I believe to be the hard to copy details.  The right is what any very computer savy-guy can copy (?).
2. I’ll borrow your site domain for a bit.  Who keeps track of which domain names someone owns?  What can keep someone else from using your domain?
3. Just let me send a couple emails in your name.  Similar to the question above, are you able to send an email in someone else’s name/address and have it seem totally legit?

You see, I’m always wanting to learn about computers and the internet.  The very details.     :D

~Jeremy

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I’ve always thought so.  But recently, comments from a friend made me think: is outbound protection in a firewall really necessary?

To begin with, I found this page that speaks against outbound firewalls.  This is what I’ll use for the “opposing” argument.
And, of course, some of the guys over at Comodo Forums are for the outbound firewall.

So which should we believe?

Let’s take a look at the main points:

First, the “against” reasons:

• Leo says that:
  It's too late. As you pointed out, if an outbound firewall detects something that is, in fact, malicious in nature it's because your machine is already infected. Something in your inbound defense failed and your machine has acquired some form of malware. Yes, I suppose it'd be nice to know, but in fact those very inbound defenses - firewall and anti-malware scanners - should have already either prevented or detected the problem. With adequate inbound protection, an outbound firewall is redundant.
  First of all, the “blacklist” technique lets some malware through (because it doesn’t recognize it)…so that is how the machine could become infected.  But instead of “messing up” the system like a virus, it watches what you do and tries to send it back to the developer.
  I conclude that it is “too late” to protect yourself, but not to block the malware from connecting to its owner.  And the suspicious attempt can warn you that you might be infected, so then you could ask for help or “cleanse” your own system.
• It's intrusive. Outbound firewalls are only practically available as components of software firewalls that you install on your machine. As such, these firewalls take up additional resources to do their job. Rather than do that, a router will give you the inbound protection you need without taking up additional resources on your machine.
  I do agree that a router gives some of the best inbound protection.  And some firewalls like the one in CIS are quite light on resources…I believe that it is worth it.
• It's frequently wrong. One of the very common complaints about outbound firewalls are warning messages that are either incomprehensible, overly frequent, or don't give the average user enough information to make an informed decision. Frequently, they'll simply report a connection attempt to or from an IP address with little or no additional information. I also commonly see people asking about warnings that arise from totally legitimate processes on their machine accessing the internet for things like software updates or the current time and date. With too many errors, indecipherable messages or false positives, people tend to ignore the warnings after a while, rendering the outbound firewall ineffective.
  Firewall alerts are often very confusing.  That and the fact of many alerts bogging down the user is one of its main cons.  So what are we to do?  I don’t know about other firewalls, but Comodo is trying to use a feature which lets you see what other users answered.  This can be helpful, although it is buggy right now.
• But lets assume that you did get infected by a truly malicious key logger - one that was attempting to hide, and send all your keystrokes to some overseas hacker. Well, at the risk of repeating myself too many times: it's too late. Your machine has been compromised, and you can no longer trust it; and that includes trusting your firewall. Yes, your outbound firewall might block the transmission - or it might not. The malware could, in fact, include additional code to actually reconfigure your firewall to let the malware's communication through. It's been done.
  That’s why there are leak tests, to see which firewalls are “up top” in outbound protection.  One such testing site is Matousec.

Now, the “for” reasons:

• LHammonds on Comodo Forums makes this point of how a outbound firewall would be useful on a large network:
  If I have a salesman that messes up and infects himself with a new malware program, Windows Firewall is NOT going to block attacks from the computer if they are on the same network.  A loophole.  I would feel much safer if my workstations were only allowed to communicate to the Internet (via certain applications) and to certain servers / printers and nothing else.  Removing the ability of an infected PC to probe other possible vulnerable PCs on the network would greatly improve the robustness of my network even if we have people voluntarily letting malware loose on their own PCs.
  You see, most outbound firewalls let you configure who you want them to contact.
• Ronny, a mod on Comodo Forums says:
  As being a Network System Engineer in a large Enterprise I can assure you that outbound firewalling is needed.
  Not only at PC level [but] also on the corporate network, you can prevent so much damage with it, it needs to be best practice.
  Some hospitals got a confliker infection, 3000 pc's infected!
  That happened because their network topology is apparently flat and allows all PC's to access all PC's so they can happily infect each other.
  If they segmented those PC's in to smaller networks and firewalled the traffic "outbound from the PC's" then the infection could have been isolated in to a few segments, instead of infecting the whole hospital.
  And that's just a small example, how about spambot's sending out spam with your IP address, so you end up on a blacklist and your real email get's blocked also! [Minor spelling and capitulation errors corrected]
  So outbound protection can help in large networks.
• And last of all, it can help save bandwidth by blocking legit apps from the internet if they don’t have any need to connect. 

So I think outbound firewalling is needed.  Of course, if you have a firewall in your router you can be just fine with the Windows Firewall too.  But I want to be in control of my PC.  And using an outbound firewall is one way to do it.

~Jeremy

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First of all, I need to give you a warning.  If you came here looking for technology stuff, this post is an exception.  The only “technology” thing here is that I took the pics with a digital camera.

When I was little, my mom said, “Look! Signs of spring!” whenever she saw these flowers:

So for a few years I thought these flowers were called “Signs of spring”.

Well, the “signs of spring” are here again along with other flowers.

Check them out! (If they aren’t all there yet, don’t worry.  I’m still uploading.)

~Jeremy

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The Windows Live Team wrote this entry to combat Hotmail email scams.  But since it is such a good article, you can use it too as guidelines to follow because this applies for almost any email from any company or person. 

~Jeremy

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Avira AntiVir 9 is out! Check out the new features.  And read more info.

From most tests I have seen, Avira has some of the best detection rates.  Though it also has a more false positives (detects legit app) than others.

~Jeremy

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Now I sometimes use the “To Do” feature of the online Calendar, but I use the WL Mail app more.  I think Mail should include that feature in its Calendar section.

Vote here!

~Jeremy

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Watch GeSWall in action! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBKNHBl-yos (BTW, not a video by me.  A private AV/security tester.)

~Jeremy

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Do you want to help translate CIS into another language?

If you speak English and one of these languages, you can:

1)German
2)French
3)Italian
4)Portuguese
5)Spanish
6)Japanese
7)Arabic
8)Hungarian
9)Romanian
10)Croatian
11)Dutch
12)Swedish
13)Norwegian
14)Bulgarian
15)Turkish
16)Greek
17)Taiwanese
18)Czech
19)Polish
20)Indonesian
21)Malay
22)Finnish
23)Hindi
24)Urdu
25)Hebrew
26)Persian
27)Korean
28)Thai
29)Vietnamese
30)Catalan

I offered to help translate into Latin, but I’m not so sure they’ll except. 

(Note: I don’t think they are paying.    )

~Jeremy

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Well, here it is:

I found something interesting, and posted a small *reminder* draft to WL Spaces via Writer.  So far, so good.   But then, a few days later, I decided to write a little more about it.  Then I posted it, and found out that, instead of appearing on the top of the blog list, it had the published date of when I posted the draft.

~Jeremy

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Ok everyone, I have now finally claimed my blog on Technorati! Please click here to see it.

I had tried to add some cool Technorati widgets to my space, but I think Spaces doesn’t support scripts. 

~Jeremy

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