Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

While it is certainly nothing new, yet another threat to your email security is floating around the internet.

This email made it through our formidable spam filters (as well as through Google’s filters) to find its way to my inbox.

Dear Customer,

This e-mail was send by schrockinnovations.com to notify you that we have temporanly prevented access to your account.

We have reasons to beleive that your account may have been accessed by someone else.

Please click on the following link (or copy & paste it into your web browser):

http://limpadoralimptec.com.br/instructions.exe

(C) schrockinnovations.com

As usual, the message is plagued with misspellings and the link (removed in my example) to the instructions.exe file would have attempted to infect my computer.

As a general rule, email system administrators do not send broadcast emails to users notifying them of an intrusion.

Microsoft is releasing six new updates today that will impact all Windows users in some way.

The updates, scheduled to be automatically downloaded and installed tonight on most Windows systems, patch severe security issues in Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, and Microsoft Office. Because of the Internet Explorer 7 component, just about every Windows System made after 2001 will be impacted.

This set of updates will address a critical security flaw that could allow users to take control of your computer, so it is important you get these installed.

If your computer is having trouble installing updates for any reason, contact us in Lincoln or Omaha, or seek the assistance of a technician who can get them installed before your computer is infected.

An affiliate network called the Partnetka is working hard in Russia to bring malware to your beloved Mac at a bounty of $.43 per infection.

Affiliate networks are nothing new on the web – in fact they are much more common than you might imagine. The basic concept is that webmasters run websites that people go to. They use their websites to promote products and services and gt a piece of the action when people buy.

It turns out that according to ZDnet that this network was offering a $.43 payment for every Mac that could be infected and handed over.

Most Mac infections come in the form of DNS changing Trojans that are downloaded in relation to porn videos.

Affiliate networks are pay-for-performance deals. This means that someone out there somewhere intends to make more than $.43 on every Mac they can infect. The days of the Mac being an invincible platform are clearly numbered.

There is a new piece of exploit code circulating on the web that takes advantage of the SMB v2 service in Windows Vista to remotely access your computer.

At this time there is no patch to fix the problem (although the problem was repaired in the final release of Windows 7). Bevause thuis is a new exploit, it is also likely that any attackers using this code could also bypass your security software.

To TEMPORARILY fix this problem, there is a utility you can download to turn of the SMB v2 service. This may impact your home networking situation depending on your configuration, however it will not impact most users at all.

In the absence of a patch, here’s what you can do:

* Click Here To Disable SMBv2

To revert the workaround, and re-enable SMBv2, you can:

* Click Here To Re-Enable SMBv2

Microsoft is reporting today that the “Tear-drop attack” sample code that was claimed to successfully crash Windows 7 remotely can’t touch Microsoft’s upcoming golden child.

It seems that the person who was testing the code tested it on a release candidate version of Windows 7. The release candidate was impacted by the security problem, however Microsoft responded in their bulletin that the final release of Windows 7 (pressed to DVDs in July) is not impacted by the flaw.

This is the first specific example of a security threat impacting Windows Vista that was preemptively blocked by Windows 7.

I am sure there will be other exposed threats that will impact Windows 7, but this victory comes just in time for Vista’s October 22nd release and will add ammunition to Microsoft’s claim that Windows 7 is the most advanced operating system on the planet (a claim that Apple is making in their music on hold right now about Snow Leopard.

For the past few years Apple has had a heyday with ads proclaiming that Macs are inherently free of viruses and spyware because of the superior software they employ.

And for the past three years on my radio show I have said that the reason Mac users don’t get many viruses is because not many people were using Mac.

After Vista’s shortcomings gave Apple an opening to sell a LOT of Macs and their marketshare broke 10% of users in the US.

With more and more people using Macs, attackers are now realizing that Mac users are a very undeserved population. Many don’t run any security software at all because they believe they are impervious to attack.

Do Mac Users Need Security Software?

In short, if you plan on doing anything important with your Mac, you need security software. If you are using a Mac to play games for your 4 year old, then you can probably go without.

Before you pack your student up for college and send that Mac off to class, here is a list of security software providers who have products you can use to protect yourself and your identity.

Yesterday ZDNet reported that a new exploit was published that uses Adobe’s widely distributed free Acrobat Reader program.

While there are no reports of viruses taking advantage of this exploit yet, sample code has been published online that is often a precursor to B-class virus attacks.

I strongly recommend that you download any available updates for your Adobe Reader program. You may have to manually install these updates or the Adobe updater may pop up in the lower right corner of your screen telling you that updates are available.

Over the past few days there has been a lot of concern about the Conficker virus that is expected to strike on April 1, 2009. Callers to my radio show asked me if they should be concerned, and my answer was pretty straight forward.

If the following describes you, you should be relatively safe from the Conficker virus:

* You have a genuine (not illegal) copy of Windows
* You have up-to-date Antivirus Software from a company like Symantec (not free antivirus from your ISP or Free AVG)
* You are current with your Windows Updates
* You can get to the website www.symantec.com

With that said, there are also important details about this infection that you should know to help keep your friends and relatives safe as well.

Today Microsoft will be pushing out a critical Windows Update designed to seal the browser vulnerability that as been gaining fame in the national media over the past few days.

In the past several hours that attack has also expanded to include the distribution of rouge anti-virus programs like XP Antivirus 2009 and similar variants.