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Rootkit Detection and Removal (posted 09 JUN.08)
Rootkits are getting more common, and more sophisticated and dangerous. Government is Stepping Up (posted 03 DEC.07) Government web pages dedicated to giving advice regarding internet safety are becoming more common every day. Many of them contain only basic "common sense" information, but serve as good reminders to *USE* common sense. The FBI Cyber Investigations page offers guidelines, and links to several interesting articles. The Department of Justice Internet and Telemarketing Fraud page offers much good information. They also have a page that focuses on Identity Theft issues - methods, prevention and more. The Department of Justice maintains an entire site dedicated to Computer Crime & Intellectual Property. This is another Internet Fraud page, hosted at usa.gov, that includes a number of methods to report various types of fraud, identity theft and more, as well as numerous educational links. As well as direct government sites, there are many sites that are government funded, including this Carnegie Mellon Internet Fraud page, one of many such pages hosted at institutions of higher learning all across the nation. Information on such pages can be helpful in locating helpful resources if you are a victim of internet fraud. Prevention is always the best approach, of course. Various facets of Technology in Government are highlighted at the Government Technology site. |
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Just for Fun
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Hot Computer Security Software available! These security tools are free for personal use. Attention Comodo Firewall users: There is a new version available at the Comodo web site. (posted 23 NOV.07) → Recent experience has given me second thoughts on using (or not) the Comodo firewall. (posted 28 DEC.07) I still believe that for "non-power" users, it's a good application, but I'm also very discouraged by the almost complete lack of responsive support for the product, and even more so by the severe system performance impact caused by the product. It introduces severe latency when copying files to an external USB device for example. When I have time to do testing, I will post detailed results. Note that the system performance issues were introduced with the newest version. Sun Java Platform 1.6.0_10 is available. This is an important update! Note that as of September 26 2008 the version is "1.6.0_10-b33" (the external version number is "6u10"). NOTE also that the version information was taken from the Sun Java JRE Release Notes NOTE also that this update was problematic for some people. I did not post it's availability sooner (is 38 days old as of 03 NOV.08) because of reported issues. As of November 03 2008, I have installed this update on 10 computers, none of which encountered difficulties. There is a free "test" to determine if you have the latest version. Read the Release Notes for details. Check out the Secunia Software Inspector. The Software Inspector is a free service that * Detects insecure versions of applications installed * Verifies that all Microsoft patches are applied * Assists you in updating your system and applications * Runs through your browser... no installation or download is required Note that Secunia updates the SI rules periodically. Check out the Belarc Advisor. The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) computer security benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC - it is not sent to any web server. This is an excellent tool for your security toolbox. Check out SilentRunners, a script that identifies ALL software launched during the start-up process on a Windows computer. This script has helped thousands of people since its original release in May of 2004. Steady improvements help keep this script the best of its kind. Like the Belarc Advisor, this script does not "fix" anything, nor does it make any changes on your computer. But the report that it creates will help you understand exactly what is running on your computer, how and where everything is launched, and identify software that you may want to remove. Works with Windows versions from "95" through Vista. Check out Sandboxie, a really cool way to protect your computer. Check out this mvps.org page, "Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File". This continues to be one of the easiest and best defense measures available. This works with Windows Vista as well as XP. Already infected? Use the free online scanner from ESET to clean your system. See also, "Topic of interest: Cleaning an Infected Computer with Online Tools", further below on this page. As of November 5 2007, ESET offers bundled computer security software that includes anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and a personal firewall. If you want the best computer security software available, look at this product. If you are tired of computer software that consumes all your system resources, that causes system instability, and that fails to detect dangerous threats, then this product is for you. Please note that I am not employed by nor do I have any vested interest in ESET or any business related to ESET in any way. The same is true for all products mentioned on this page. My recommendations are based on years of experience and extensive research and testing. I only recommend software that I run on my own systems, and that I feel confident are of the highest quality and give the best performance among those of their kind. Recommended Software for Windows Here's my list of recommended computer security software for Windows. (posted 10 NOV.07, updated 03 DEC.07) Note that the list is "extended" . . . a "basic bare-bones" list is below. (see "Recommended Computer Security Software and Operations" block) Anonymous Email Message Service (posted 27 OCT.07) A Secure Anonymous Email Message Service, at ShroudMail, offers you the ability to send untraceable messages to any email account. It's free, easy to use, and completely legal. Note that there is no software to download to your computer - this is an online service. That is part of why there is no way to trace the message back to you. The site requires no personal information to register, and does not have any annoying ads to look at. And best of all, it is not owned or operated by any government intelligence agency. Topic of interest: Cleaning an Infected Computer with Online Tools (posted 21 OCT.07) If you suspect your computer is infected, but can not "disinfect" it yourself, and/or you don't have the money to take it to a professional to get it fixed, which sometimes is not such a good deal, read on . . . A friend of mine recently took her daughter's notebook computer back to CompUSA to have it "fixed", after finding that the machine had somehow picked up a computer virus (or worm, or whatever). She had purchased an "extended warranty" when she bought the machine, which was supposed to cover "anything". Over three weeks later she received the machine back, and discovered that they simply formatted the hard-drive and reinstalled the operating system. All the "extra" software that was on the machine when it was purchased was missing. Worse - much worse in my opinion - is that they did not install ANY updates on the machine. When she protested, they told her that for $199 they would do the updates, that it was not covered under the warranty. There were over 100 Windows updates needed, not including all the updates required for Office, and those for other software that had to be installed to bring the machine back "to where it was." After we got the machine running properly, the girl had to uninstall the AV software I had installed, and install the one that her school requires. While connected to the school network, the machine got infected again! Needless to say, Mom was not too thrilled. Being a strong NOD32 advocate, I asked her to go the their site and run the online scanner that they offer, found at the ESET Online Scanner page. She did, and the worm was identified as one of the "Netsky" variants, and was safely removed. We reported the data to the school IT department, and they managed to find and remove it from their network. So this experience got me thinking about how many people there must be out there who simply don't know how to fix this kind of problem, and how many "professionals" are out there who really don't care if their customer is inconvenienced (or worse) as a result of their "repair" work. Personally, I believe the shops should be held accountable when their work is so incompetent. So, here's some links that I hope are helpful . . . ESET Online Scanner (same one as shown above) TrendMicro Online Scanner Web Threat Watch USA, a "whitepaper" from TrendMicro (requires a PDF reader) ewido networks AVG Anti-Spyware Free Spy Audit from Webroot Software SmitFraudFix, a tool for removing Desktop Hijack malware (this one is a download - it is not an online scanner) WARNING: There are numerous BOGUS web sites that claim to offer a free spyware and/or virus scanner. Be careful! Run only a trusted scanner on your computer. Luckily, sites like Spyware Warrior help to keep us informed. Topic of interest: SQL Injection Compromises Computer Security (posted 19 OCT.07) There has been a great increase of attacks by SQL injection recently. Learn more about it here . . . SQL injection is a technique that exploits a security vulnerability Advanced SQL Injection by Chris Anley (requires a PDF reader) |
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Recommended Computer Security Software and Operations:
(posted 15 SEP.07) (for computers running a Windows Operating System)
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Much has been added to my technology page recently, including links to hundreds of free technical journals, computer and system resources, technology search engines, and more. A dedicated search has been added to help you quickly find a given topic of interest. Some potentially helpful links to articles and/or helpful sites can be found here. Are you adding external storage to your computer? Here's some test data for a few drives. This software developers Programmer's Resources page has some helpful links; mostly free stuff. Visit my Computer Security News site for information about computer security in general. Firefox vs. Internet Explorer :: Vulnerabilities, fixes and more, presented in a graphical view. Keep your computer safe from Parasites! Learn how easy it really is!. You may wonder why this is listed here, as it also appears above . . . the entry remains here simply because, in my opinion, this solution is very effective and very easy to install. Special thanks to those of you who visit this site. See my site map for links to the various pages that are currently available. |
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| Are you actively seeking or considering certification? Check out these Security Certification exam preparation materials from ExamForce. The folks at ExamForce have a wide range of products to help you achieve certification in many areas. Get your career into the passing lane! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
There is free anti-spyware software available from Microsoft, named Windows Defender. See this page for details, and/or to download the software. |
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If you are serious about protecting your computer from malware, spyware and other vile infections, you should consider a better alternative. There are many to choose from, of course. One such application that is highly recommended by industry professionals is SUPERAntiSpyware. There is a "free for home users" version available, but the "professional" version offers much more, and at a very affordable price. You can compare features of them here. If you consider what it will cost you to have your computer repaired if/when it does get infected, this software is indeed a bargain. And as a point of reference: in the past three months, well over 50 percent of "computer literate" users that I know or have met, have had to PAY to have their computers cleansed of malware. If you spend the time to do any research at all on this issue, you will quickly discover that the new breed of malware/spyware is very sophisticated, and also can be extremely difficult to remove. Many people lose all their data in the process. Prevention is the best medicine! Another product worth mention is ewido anti-spyware. Some time soon I hope to be able to present a better overview of this product, but for now can only say that my initial evaluation left me quite impressed - excellent features, very good performance, and a good user interface. But I have many more tests yet to perform. For computer virus protection, I have not found a product equal to or better than NOD32 Antivirus. The user interface is very well designed and engineered, resource usage is low, and the overall performance of this product is nothing less than excellent. I base that statement partly on research, and partly on recent experience installing and using the product. And another benefit is that as well as being available for most flavors of Windows, the product is also available for a number of different platforms, including MS-DOS, Linux and Novell servers, and mail servers including Exchange, Linux, and Lotus Domino for example. So if you are considering a change of vendor for your virus protection, or looking to protect a new computer, you should take a close look at this product. |
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Antivirus Software (some free, some not) Antivirus for Linux http://www.bitdefender.com/site/linux/ http://www.centralcommand.com/ http://www.clamav.net/ http://www.f-prot.com/products/ http://www.grisoft.com/doc/5/lng/us/tpl/tpl01 Antivirus for SmartPhones http://airscanner.com/downloads/smartphone/smav.html http://www.f-secure.com/estore/avmobile.shtml Antivirus for Windows http://www.eset.com/ NOD32 Antivirus ← is best one available, in my opinion http://www.my-etrust.com/microsoft/ http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5 http://www.bitdefender.com/site/windows/ http://www.clamwin.com/ http://www.f-prot.com/products/ http://usa.kaspersky-labs.com/products/anti-virus.php http://safety.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm http://www.windowsonecare.com/ |
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Cool Stuff from Microsoft There is a tremendous amount of interesting and valuable research being fostered by Microsoft Research. Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research has developed into a unique entity among corporate research labs, balancing an open academic model with an effective process for transferring its research to product-development teams. The links below are to a few of the many fascinating and useful applications developed by Microsoft Research. Connecting to multiple IEEE 802.11 networks with one WiFi card VirtualWiFi is a virtualization architecture for wireless LAN (WLAN) cards. It abstracts a single WLAN card to appear as multiple virtual WLAN cards to the user. Virtual WiFi Researchers in Microsoft Research Redmond, Cambridge, and Silicon Valley are working to create wireless technologies that allow neighbors to connect their home networks together. Self-Organizing Neighborhood Wireless Mesh Networks Scalable Fabric is a task management system for the Windows desktop. A central focus area, defined by you, contains windows that behave in the traditional way. When you drag a window into the periphery, it becomes smaller and continues to get smaller the closer you get to the edge of the screen. Microsoft Scalable Fabric When you visit a web site, your browser may be instructed to visit other third-party domains without your knowledge. Some of these third-party domains raise security, privacy, and/or safety concerns. The Strider URL Tracer is a tool that reveals these third-party domains. Strider URL Tracer with Typo-Patrol (requires .NET Framework 2.0 or newer) NOTE: Even if you do not wish to install the Strider URL Tracer, this page is worth reading. "Cool Stuff" post date: 30 APR.06 |
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Bit9 FileAdvisor™ for Windows Check out the file scanning service available online at Bit9. This free online service can help protect you from malware. As described at InternetWeek, this service can "identify unfamiliar software applications and executables found on any computer running the Windows operating system." Note that registration is required, and that at times their site may be slow to respond (perhaps was just busy when I tried it). But the concept is interesting, and offers home users another potentially powerful tool in the battle against malware. For corporate environments, their product "Bit9 Parity" looks like a worthwhile addition to help assure clean and trouble-free desktop workstations. Home users can download an installer, "FileAdvisor.msi", that adds a "FileAdvisor" menu choice, visible when you right-click any file in Windows Explorer. Note that a live internet connection is required. Registered users will then see their browser open to a page with a brief report, and a "Email Results" button on it. Click the button, and you can mail a synopsis to the email address of your choice. When I first tried to evaluate this service, I navigated into my Windows folder, and right-clicked on "notepad.exe". The resultant page showed me six different recognized sources, including 17 variations from Microsoft. I'm not sure why it did not immediately identify *which* notepad.exe file I had clicked on, as it was listed among the 17 variations. Some of the files I tried were not found in the database. In those cases, I was presented with a page that stated "Hash Not Found", and offered the ability to submit file information. While I see this as a potential maintenance nightmare for Bit9, given that numerous of what I consider "common" files were not found, I also see this as a powerful tool if/when a large user base contributes information. Give it a try... you might like it, and it could save you some headaches if/when some rogue malware finds it's way into your computer. Evaluation date: 13 MAR.06 |
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Computer Security Information Resources Home Network Security Cisco: Secure Your Network Cisco: Security Advisories and Notices CERT Coordination Center United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) Computer Security Division, Computer Security Resource Center W3C Security Resources Microsoft Security Home Microsoft TechNet Security Center Security Guidance for Applications US Department of Homeland Security US Department of Energy, Office of Cyber Security SANS Institute |
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Computer Security Bulletins Cisco: Security Advisories and Notices US-CERT Cyber Security Bulletins US-CERT Current Activity Computer Security Division, Computer Security Resource Center US Department of Energy, Office of Cyber Security Internet Security Systems X-Force Security Alerts Secunia Research SANS Internet Storm Center Sun Security Resources (Solaris) Sun Microsystems Security Bulletin Archive |
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Personal Computer Security Resources U.S. Dept of Justice Identity Theft page Identity Theft Resource Center FirstGov Internet Fraud page U.S. Dept of Justice main Fraud page U.S. Dept of Justice Internet Fraud page Federal Trade Commission: Take Charge: Fighting Back Against Identity Theft ID Theft: What It's All About Free Credit Reports |
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Windows Debugging (posted 17 JUN.06) Recently, a friend was having trouble with one of her home computers. It is a relatively new machine running Windows XP Pro, and until recently has been a solid performer with no signs of instability or other problems. But then it began acting oddly, with periodic episodes of "freezing", where it would become unresponsive for long periods. I will not bore you with the details. Rather, I will share with you some information I found while looking for a solution to the problem. Doing a Google search, I found an article at Network World titled "How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes". The information in that article proved to be quite helpful. It led me to the Microsoft "Debugging Tools for Windows" page, and ultimately to the Windows Debugging Tools, Current Release version 6.6.7.8 - July 18, 2006. For those of you who may do troubleshooting of issues on Windows machines, this should prove to be a very helpful tool. It was certainly helpful to me. It is worth mention that the "top level" page, Tips from Windows Developers, has a wealth of information available. It is geared toward Windows application software developers, but is equally valuable for anybody seriously interested in the technical aspects of the Windows operating system. Visit my Windows Diagnostics page for additional Windows diagnostic information. |
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Creating Strong Passwords If you use a computer regularly, it is a fair possibility that you need to use a password or two. For system logon, web page logon, electronic bank account access and more, we often find the need for a password these days. And if you ask ten "experts" how to create a strong password, you are likely to get as many different answers. So I did a little browsing, and am providing links to some of what I found. I have also come to believe that perhaps the best way to protect a password is to prevent access to the system in question to begin with. I mean, if nobody can access the system but you, then it follows that any password would be strong enough. Of course, in the real world, that is not a likely scenario. A "next best" alternative might be a system that would only forgive a single access error, granting a maximum of two attempts to correctly enter your password. Perhaps that would cause some people some degree of difficulty. But the truth is that we all have to deal with a number of different schemes for a given password protection mechanism, and there is always a chance that some person will attempt unauthorized access, hence the desire for "strong" passwords. So, what is a "strong" password? You can find a fair explanation at Wikipedia. And on that note I shall cease opinion, and simply provide some links to pages that discuss various aspects of password creation and protection, and cracking, too. 7 tips in 7 minutes: Windows Password Creation Creating strong passwords How to Create Strong Passwords (UCLA) The Simplest Security: A Guide To Better Password Practices Expert HOW-TOs: Creating strong passwords Creating Strong Passwords (University of Tennessee) Best Practices for Creating a Password (Penn State University) Rainbow Crack - Not a New Street Drug OPHCRACK v1.0a (the time-memory-trade-off-cracker) (that page includes a form with a hash-table included) And a newer version (2,0) is available here, with Rainbow tables, too. You can test your passwords using this Password Strength Test Note that it is a relative indicator. I suggest you try simple words, then harder ones. I hope this information is helpful, and please feel free to send me your comments and suggestions. |
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Thanks for visiting this site. I hope the materials and/or references provided here are helpful, and I shall continue to update the site as time
permits. If you find any dead links, typos within the text, or anything else that should be fixed, please let me know. Your feedback is
greatly appreciated. And lastly, there shall be new and/or improved pages soon! I am planning to expand the Windows Vista section, and to add a comprehensive *IX section - FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, and more - in the near future. If you have any special requests, please let me know. While I can not promise to fulfil your requests, I do read all feedback and comments. You can contact me via web form here, or email me directly at the address shown below . . .
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