The State of Tech.

Dodgy ISP McColo briefly comes online, updates botnet

Seeded on Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:14 AM EST (Computerworld)

McColo has been identified as hosting the command-and-control servers for no less than five large botnets that are responsible for the majority of the world's spam. When McColo dropped offline, analysts found that spam levels dropped up to 75%.

technology, bot, spyware, spam, virus, botnet, mccolo

Online blunders: common mistakes

Seeded on Tue Oct 7, 2008 10:25 AM EDT (consumerreports.org)

These common mistakes can ruin your computer or invite identity theft

technology, security, email, phishing, scams, malware, adware, online-security, spuyware

Microsoft, Washington state sue over 'scareware' pop-up ads

Seeded on Tue Sep 30, 2008 10:05 AM EDT (CNET.com)

It's a "blatant rip off of consumers," Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna said in a news conference. Consumers were "duped into downloading a fake scan (of the computer) and then duped into paying for software they don't need."

technology, lawsuit, microsoft, virus, xp, pyware, scareware

10 Ultimate Rules for Effective System Administration

Seeded on Tue Aug 5, 2008 10:21 AM EDT (cyberciti.biz)

The following 10 items are guidelines more than rules, that I have learned over the years doing intensive work on the IT infrastructure.

technology, tips, admin, top-10, windows, linus, sysadmin, system-administration

Report: size doesn't matter when it comes to cybercriminals

Seeded on Tue Jul 29, 2008 10:15 AM EDT (Ars Technica)

Think about it. Even if your business has just one employee, chances are you store confidential data about your customers on your machines, and that's enough to motivate a cybercriminal to look for security lapses.

technology, bot, security, small-business, hacker, data, cyber, cyber-crime, botnet, network-security

Unpatched Windows PC Survival Time

Seeded on Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:00 AM EDT (isc.sans.org)

While the survival time measured varies quite a bit across methods used, pretty much all agree that placing an unpatched Windows computer directly onto the Internet in the hope that it downloads the patches faster than it gets exploited are odds that you wouldn't bet on in Vegas.

technology, spyware, patch, windows, patches, adware, firewall, nat, port-scanning, port-blocking

Dual-Touchscreen Notebook Coming within Two Years

Seeded on Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:15 AM EDT (laptopmag.com)

The thought of a dual touchscreen laptop was mouth-watering, and the pictures of a touch keyboard had us all wondering if it would create a whole new way of computing

technology, us, pakistan, politics, laptop, touchscreen, joseph-biden, richard-lugar, dual-monitors

Man rushes into burning house to save PC

Seeded on Wed Jul 9, 2008 9:19 AM EDT (theinquirer.net)

Coppers tried to calm him down and tell him to stand back and let the fire-fighters do their jobs. For a while Guy agreed, but when no one was watching, battled the flames and smoke to sneak inside to save his PC.

technology, fire, pc, save, women-children-and-pcs-first

PDF format becomes ISO standard

Seeded on Mon Jul 7, 2008 3:26 PM EDT (iso.org)

Most businesses use PDFs as the main way of transitioning from paper to electronic documentation, and now a slew of new readers, writers and development tools for the format will likely be unveiled in the near future.

technology, adobe, pdf, reader, acrobat, iso, dopdf

Use Gmail as your system's default mail client

Seeded on Mon Jul 7, 2008 10:00 AM EDT (freewaregenius.com)

Integrating Gmail into your system as your default email service can be useful in a myriad of ways.

google, technology, outlook, email, gmail, links, mapi, attachments, mailto, outlook-express

5 Ways to Build Your Virtual Office

Seeded on Wed May 21, 2008 8:55 AM EDT (PC World)

When it comes to running a business, our feet are firmly on the ground but our data and software are increasingly in the cloud. My burgeoning media empire consists of two people (my lovely wife and me), but to the outside world we seem a lot bigger, thanks to online applications.

technology, office, mobile, skype, home-office, apps, grancentral

10 IT Problems You Might Not Know You Have

Seeded on Thu May 15, 2008 10:00 AM EDT (eweek.com)

There's no shortage of tough problems that jump right in the faces of IT administrators, but some of the worst IT problems facing companies are the ones they don't know they have.

technology, network, it, administration, administrator, admin-system

Hackers Indicted for Sniffing Credit Cards from Dave & Busters

Seeded on Tue May 13, 2008 2:37 PM EDT (Wired News)

Three hackers have been indicted for allegedly using "college-level knowledge of computer programming skills" to steal and sell credit card numbers from customers of Dave & Buster's restaurant chain, the Justice Department said Monday.

technology, security, credit-card, data, hack, sniffer, network-sniffer, credit-card-data

100 e-mail bouncebacks? You've been backscattered.

Seeded on Mon May 5, 2008 11:08 AM EDT (computerworld.com)

you're just getting a little backscatter -- bounceback messages from legitimate e-mail servers that have been fooled by the spammers.

technology, email, spam, spammers, bounce, bounceback, backscatter, email-servers, bounced-email

Between black and white: the state of grayware on the PC

Seeded on Thu Apr 24, 2008 9:16 AM EDT (Ars Technica)

The new term was grayware, an apt description given the legal gray area these programs inhabit.

technology, spyware, gator, virus, malware, adware, gain, grayware

Google offers a new perspective on Earth

Seeded on Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:08 AM EDT (svextra.com )

How cool. When are they gunna merge this with a video game like GTA IV?

google, technology, beta, google-earth

Is the PC upgrade cycle dead?

Seeded on Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:16 AM EDT (CNET News.com)

After Windows 95, however, operating system upgrades were no longer strong enough on their own to prompt upgrade cycles. A slight bump in sales might occur, but it was hard to say whether it was related to a new OS.

technology, intel, os, hardware, windows, vista, upgrade

iPhone's Wi-Fi Positioning System spoofed using laptop

Seeded on Wed Apr 16, 2008 4:40 PM EDT (Security.uk)

The Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) used by Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch and other mobile devices can easily be supplied with false information that makes the mobile think it's somewhere other than its true location.

technology, apple, wi-fi, iphone, loki, wps, skyhook, ipd-touch

Dell offers Windows XP to save folk from Vista

Seeded on Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:57 AM EDT (The Inquirer)

You get XP installed and a pretty littlte Vista disc to hang on the wall.

technology, dell, downgrade, windows, vista, xp, upgrade

Cyber-attack launched from 10,000 web pages

Seeded on Fri Mar 14, 2008 8:36 AM EDT (ITnews.com)

The redirects and attempted break-ins are all hidden from the unwitting user. Compromised web pages include everyday destinations such as travel, government and hobby sites. The attack serves as a reminder that even trusted websites can be malicious, McAfee warned.

technology, security, spyware, malware, redirect, hijak, mcaffee

Padded lampposts for distracted texters

Seeded on Thu Mar 6, 2008 10:31 AM EST (Engadget)

According to a recent report, human beings are becoming so incredibly stupid that they require cushioned lamppost bases so that when they run into them they don't mess up their idiotic faces.

technology, text, walking, uk, lampposts, texting, cellphone, messaging, txt, padded

How They Hack Your Website: Overview of Common Techniques

Seeded on Thu Mar 6, 2008 9:16 AM EST (www.cmswire.com)

Is hacking really as inaccessible as many of us imagine; a nefarious, impossibly technical twilight world forever beyond our ken? Not really.

technology, internet, web, cracking, hacking, website, sql, password, username

Sync your Google and Outlook calendars FREE

Seeded on Thu Mar 6, 2008 8:25 AM EST (CNET News.com)

I've been waiting for an App like you to come into my life I've been waiting for an App like you, your compatability will survive I've been waiting for something new to make me feel alive Yeah, waiting for an App like you to come into my life

google, technology, outlook, calendar, events, sync, web-based

January 2008 Web Server Survey

Seeded on Tue Feb 5, 2008 11:34 AM EST (netcraft.com)

In the January 2008 survey we received responses from 155,583,825 sites, reflecting a much slower growth of only 354 thousand sites, compared with last month, where the increase was 5.4 million.

technology, internet, survey, sites, websites, web-server

Realplayer = Adware

Seeded on Mon Feb 4, 2008 9:04 AM EST (www.stopbadware.org)

It probably is not news to most folks that this cumbersome video player has fallen from grace. Once the standard for streaming video, Realplayer has become nothing more than malware. Real Alternative is a good substitute for Realmedia files.

technology, real, video, streaming, real-player, real-alternative

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