Monroe

I guess this is just a "practice run" for now ... the “Chameleon” virus ... “It was assumed, however, that it wasn’t possible to develop a virus that could attack WiFi networks — but we demonstrated that this is possible and that it can spread quickly.” First Contagious WiFi Computer Virus Goes Airborne, Spreads Like the Common Cold 02/25/2014 http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/25/first-contagious-wifi-computer-virus-goes-airborne-spreads-like-the-common-cold/ Computer science researchers have demonstrated for the first time how a digital virus can go airborne and spread via WiFi networks in populated areas at the same pace as a human diseases. The “Chameleon” virus, designed by a University of Liverpool team, showed a remarkable amount of intelligence by avoiding detection and breaking into personal and business WiFi networks at their weakest points — spreading at an alarming rate. Network Security Professor Alan Marshall said the virus doesn’t try to damage or disrupt established networks — instead, the virus slips in unnoticed to collect the data and log-in information of all users connected to the network via WiFi, and seeks other WiFi networks through them — a much more subtle, sinister and dangerous objective. “WiFi connections are increasingly a target for computer hackers because of well-documented security vulnerabilities, which make it difficult to detect and defend against a virus,” Marshall said in a ScienceBlog report. “It was assumed, however, that it wasn’t possible to develop a virus that could attack WiFi networks — but we demonstrated that this is possible and that it can spread quickly.” The secret to Chameleon is the method by which it avoids detection. Traditional computer antivirus programs look for viruses present on computers and the Internet itself. Chameleon sticks strictly to WiFi networks, bypassing secured, more heavily encrypted networks to enter and spread through weaker ones — especially free public access points like those found in cafes, on trains and in airports. A lab experiment by the University’s School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Electronics simulated what researchers likened to an airborne contagion attack against Belfast and London, entering WiFi access points that connect public and private networks to the Internet. The virus traveled fastest across access points within a 160 feet or less of each other, following similar rates of human infection by viruses among more densely populated areas. “We are now able to use the data generated from this study to develop a new technique to identify when an attack is likely,” Marshall said. ...

Interesting stuff jaclaz ... one tip off from the first article that we can watch out for ... if someone or a crew starts digging up the sidewalk in front of your home / office ... or road if you are in the country ... start to get concerned. "There were curious moments in New York, too, from where many Snowden stories were reported. Within hours of publication of the first one - which revealed that the NSA was mass-scooping data from the US telecoms company Verizon - diggers arrived outside the Guardian's loft office in Broadway. It was a Wednesday evening. They dug up the pavement and replaced it. The same thing happened outside the Guardian's Washington bureau, four blocks from the White House and the Brooklyn home of US editor-in-chief Janine Gibson. Coincidence? Perhaps." Three different sidewalk locations dug up ??? ... too bad when the dig crew left, they didn't have another crew come in to see what might have been placed there ... some sort of listening device? I just looked out my window, nobody digging there yet !!! ...

As JorgeA mentioned earlier ... Welcome back! ... never realize how much you miss posts from various members until it actually happens. I figured it has to be the weather as you said as much earlier but the thought did cross my mind that maybe the "spooks" were nearby surrounding the property and all communication was cut off. I guess when most of us think of spooks we picture them dressed in black, or at least I do ... easily seen in the snow but maybe they also dress in white every so often to blend in with the snow pack ! ...

GrofLuigi ... thanks for the reply, no it didn't make sense to me but that's usually the case with me ... sometimes I have to read something over a few times (or many times) to make some sense of it or hunt up more information. So Winapp2.com is an add on ... never heard of it. This sounds very much like a program I found last week as an "add on" for CCleaner ... It slowed CCleaner up quite a bit but I didn't take time to tailor it or work with it very much. I decided not to use it for now until I have more time for all that. CCEnhancer v3.8 http://singularlabs.com/software/ccenhancer/ 08/26/2013 Windows XP/Vista/7/8 172 KB - Freeware CCEnhancer is a small tool which adds support for over 1,000 new programs into the popular program CCleaner. The tool uses the winapp2.ini system built into CCleaner to easily add new rules and definitions for programs. The rules were sourced mainly from the Piriform Support Forum, with several sourced from other places around the internet. Instructions: The actual file containing the definitions is not included with the program, but is instead downloaded by the program. Simply press ‘Download Latest’ and the tool will automatically download the most recent version of the definitions. If CCEnhancer cannot locate the CCleaner.exe file you can open a dialog box and select the page yourself. ...

I have been looking for some older CCleaner Portable versions to try out on Windows XP ... I have searched the last few months and just couldn't seem to find any older versions. I am thinking maybe some of the older versions "might" run better on XP before all the Windows 7 and 8 add ons. Perhaps there would be no difference in the latest version compared to an older version with XP ... just curious. I found a site that seems to have all the older CCleaner Portable versions up to the latest. All the versions seem to have been added on 23 Jan 2014... if you click on the Info tab, so it's been less than a month for them to all be available in one place ... if you had been looking for some older portable versions for XP, 2000 or any other OS ... enjoy! CCleaner (portable) v3.05.1408 http://www.afterdawn.com/software/security/system_cleanup/ccleaner_portable.cfm/v3_05_1408#tab1 Click on the "All Versions" tab for the list. All Versions http://www.afterdawn.com/software/security/system_cleanup/ccleaner_portable.cfm/v3_05_1408#all_versions Added: So far with two older versions that I have tried against the latest version, I don't really notice much difference in the speed they all operate at. Just a difference in download size of course, in MBs from older to newer.

Thanks Charlotte for clearing it up about Bob Ross ... I knew the name but couldn't register it in my brain and I was too cold and lazy to search it out. I also liked William Alexander and watched him for years ... but my really favorite was Morris Katz who could paint a "masterpiece" in less than ten minutes using only "toilet paper". He was great, saw him several times on TV as a guest ... truly entertaining and he painted really good. He was known as the "fastest painter" also ... like I said, a masterpiece in less than ten minutes ... sometimes only seconds! Morris Katz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Katz Morris Katz (born Moshe Katz on March 5, 1932 in Galicia, Poland, died November 12, 2010 at age 78 in The Bronx, New York) was a Jewish-American painter. He holds two Guinness World Records as the world's fastest painter and the world's most prolific artist. He has also been called the "King of Schlock Art" and the "King of Toilet Paper Art" because of a novel means of painting he developed using a palette knife and toilet tissue instead of a paintbrush. Morris Katz (web page) http://www.morriskatz.com/ Some of his paintings in the Art Gallery tab. Beautiful Scenes Gallery http://www.morriskatz.com/sceneGallery.cfm ... I didn't know he had passed away ... you posting about Bob Ross brought him back into my head.

Let's not forget Captain Kangaroo !!! ... what the heck is all this about ??? ...

Kind of interesting that Snowden maybe used a “web crawler” software to grab all the secrets ... totally fantastic ... who is in charge protecting everything ... there must be more web crawlers. Snowden Used Low-Cost Tool to Best N.S.A. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/us/snowden-used-low-cost-tool-to-best-nsa.html?_r=0 FEB. 8, 2014 WASHINGTON — Intelligence officials investigating how Edward J. Snowden gained access to a huge trove of the country’s most highly classified documents say they have determined that he used inexpensive and widely available software to “scrape” the National Security Agency’s networks, and kept at it even after he was briefly challenged by agency officials. Using “web crawler” software designed to search, index and back up a website, Mr. Snowden “scraped data out of our systems” while he went about his day job, according to a senior intelligence official. “We do not believe this was an individual sitting at a machine and downloading this much material in sequence,” the official said. The process, he added, was “quite automated.” The findings are striking because the N.S.A.’s mission includes protecting the nation’s most sensitive military and intelligence computer systems from cyberattacks, especially the sophisticated attacks that emanate from Russia and China. Mr. Snowden’s “insider attack,” by contrast, was hardly sophisticated and should have been easily detected, investigators found. more at the link ...

Thanks Charlotte, RacerBG and HarryTri for all the information. Nice little program to have handy for a quick check. Was aware of MAMB for several years, just never really checked it out. I thought it might have to be "running" all the time so I never took interest. I saw that right click ... check a file tab, have used it for some downloads. I have three notebooks to update which is simple and quick to do but I sometimes just update one notebook and then manually update the other two myself with the "rules.ref" file and also the "database.conf" located within the Configuration folder. I found these instructions for anyone with a computer not online: Just a quick note ... C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data ... the Application Data folder is a hidden folder so I changed that to be always visible. Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (MBAM) I need to get the latest database onto a computer that cannot access the Internet. You can manually copy the database from a working computer using a flash drive or CD onto the infected PC. Our database file is stored in the following locations. Windows XP and 2000: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\rules.ref Windows Vista and Windows 7: C:\ProgramData\Malwarebytes\Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware\rules.ref Note: Starting with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 1.60, you must also copy the file database.conf located within the Configuration folder which is in the same folder as rules.ref listed above. Update: http://data.mbamupdates.com/tools/mbam-rules.exe You can also download a manual update from here - NOTE: This manual update will always be way behind in version level compared to updates from within the program. MajorGeeks - Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware Database http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/malwarebytes_anti_malware_database.html TECHSPOT - Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Database http://www.techspot.com/downloads/4844-malwarebytes-anti-malware-update.html ...

I appreciate you going into more depth about MBAM. You wrote about it a few days ago in the XP Security post and I decided to try the free version. I don't like something always running or wanting to update. I like running the program when I just want to do a quick check. I like the free version and it did find three suspicious items on my notebook which probably have been there for sometime. From what I could find on searching around ... these items should probably not be there. Items Found: Registry Data Items Detected: 3 HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center|AntiVirusDisableNotify (PUM.Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> No action taken. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center|FirewallDisableNotify (PUM.Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> No action taken. HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Security Center|UpdatesDisableNotify (PUM.Disabled.SecurityCenter) -> Bad: (1) Good: (0) -> No action taken. ...

Hey ROTS ... Man that's one of my favorite films ... "Cherry 2000" ... should be required watching before a person graduates from high school ... the way it once was and what the future has become. My toaster oven burned out in Dec and I could have gotten one from "Six Fingered Jake" ... remember all the toaster ovens stacked up in his cave or grotto. Vegas was a wasteland and people were going back to toaster ovens and things that worked and were simple! Cherry 2000 (1988) http://www.amazon.com/Cherry-2000-Melanie-Griffith/dp/B0000542CA/ref=sr_1_3/185-4129164-2590566?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1391459631&sr=1-3&keywords=cherry+2000 Price has gone up on the older DVD but there is a newer cheaper release.

Found this interesting Services Utility chart over the week-end ... maybe some will find it useful or confusing. I never saw it before and it may be new to a few others. It really can be used for many operating systems ... takes a few minutes to figure it out. If you go to the bottom of the chart ... just click on "XP Home / Professional" or any OS you are interested in and the utility will filter all the others out. Vernalex Tools: Services Utility http://www.vernalex.com/tools/services/ Welcome to the Services Utility. This page contains most Windows services; their expected platforms, their default and desired startup types, and clicking on them gives you a very complete explanation of them. This utility contains a great amount of information for Windows services, and is able to be searched from the search box at the bottom. If you are unsure what services are or want more information on Windows services in general then please read my Windows Components guide on services. If you want to know the meaning of the columns and the color codings or if you want to know how to use the search box properly or for other explanations on how to use this page then please see the services legend / reference. ... after I posted this, I started thinking that I may have seen this web site after all sometime back. It doesn't look too familiar to me but in some ways it does ... anyway, maybe it will be new and helpful to someone else.

Well the World Championship game price was news too me ... been out of the gaming loop for awhile. I didn't know about Earthbound also ... that's not chump change. My NES system is from 1988 ... The Action Set, retailing in 1988 for US$149.99, came with the Control Deck, two game controllers, an NES Zapper and a dual Game Pak containing both Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt. Went to a Play Station 2 and probably won't get past that ... darn games are too hard with that setup ... liked Tomb Raider and can get pretty far with it. ...

I was going to put this in the General Discussion forum but it is gaming news. I have a mint older Nintendo and a bunch of games but not this one. Only 116 copies were made so it's not in my collection but someone may have one in a box of "old" game cartridges sitting in a closet or somewhere. 'Super-rare' Nintendo game hits eBay 24 January 2014 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25878678 An extremely rare Nintendo game is expected to fetch thousands of dollars in an eBay auction. Only 116 copies of Nintendo World Championships were ever made, as part of a special event in 1990. The first bid came in at $4,999 (£3,000), but the game is likely to fetch more, one Nintendo expert said. Unfortunately for collectors, the cartridge is in poor condition - with a ripped label and "Mario" written on it in ballpoint pen. "This is quite unfortunate but happened many decades ago," explained the seller in his description of the "super-rare" item, adding that whoever wrote on the label did not have "a clue what they actually had". Scratched Ferrari Created for the Nintendo Entertainment System - better known as NES - Nintendo World Championships was designed for a competition, and never went on general sale. The game features shortened versions of three classics - Super Mario, Tetris and Rad Racer. Competition entrants were given six minutes to amass points on the games, with whoever came top winning a trophy, a trip to Universal Studios and various other prizes. A detailed history of the contest and its winners can be found on Wikipedia. Each of the 90 semi-finalists was given a grey cartridge like the one now up for auction. Rarer still are the "golden" cartridges of the same game, sent out as part of a separate competition by Nintendo Power magazine. Genuine copies of the game are hard to come by, and so the poor condition would not be too much of a deterrent to keen collectors, predicted Chris Scullion, games editor for Computer and Video Games. "It's like finding the rarest Ferrari but with a scratch - you'd still buy it. "They are considered the holy grail among Nintendo collectors." In 2011, the same game sold at a charity auction for $11,000 (£6,600) - but it was in better condition.

CharlotteTheHarlot ... boy does that bring back memories ... "Rock Em - Sock Em" !!!

dencorso ... see you revived the topic, it was getting ready to go to "Page 2" or into history. I did see the article you posted about and I decided not to post about it, I agree with everything you said. Ok, so military people are replaced that have to be fed three times a day ... instead of a barricks, a warehouse of some sort would give the drones shelter but the maintenance cost might be the same as feeding the troops three meals a day ... keeping them all in working order, installing new generation chips, replacing worn out parts. It's all interesting ... maybe a balance or mix of drones and people will be the way they go in the future. Saw this today ... Swarms of drones could be the next frontier in emergency response 01/25/2014 ... 6 hours ago Nidhi Subbaraman NBC News http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/swarms-drones-could-be-next-frontier-emergency-response-2D11988741 Robots that can buzz, whir, and clamber into some of the most dangerous crime scenes and disaster zones are coming to the aid of police officers and other first responders who put themselves in harm’s way. In October 2013, a parolee barricaded himself in a Roseville, Calif., suburban home of a young couple and their toddler, taking mother and child hostage. A SWAT team from the local police station captured the alleged offender and took him in, but not before gunfire ripped through the one-story home and injured officers. Law enforcement officers on the ground had help from bomb squad robots, that helped push aside the furniture the suspect had piled up as a barricade. But two detectives believe that a bit of unmanned aerial backup would have made a big difference. .... all good points jaclaz about future wars ... Tripredacus ... have to agree, maybe it will always be a dream ... how's this scenario, we have an army of robot drones guarding a city or for an invasion ... there they are facing the enemy in lines and columns ... but the enemy hacks into the "machine army" computer brains, slowly they start turning around to join forces with the enemy to attack us ... people running everywhere for the hills in panic. Could we honestly ever get a good night's sleep counting on a robot drone army to keep us safe. Maybe well into the future after all the kinks are worked out. typo edit ... "the enemy" instead of "he" ...

Facebook article ... Facebook May Lose 80% of Its User Base by 2017 http://www.vocativ.com/01-2014/facebook-will-lose-80-user-base-2017/?ModPagespeed=noscript Eric Markowitz Jan 20, 2014 Social networks function like infectious diseases, according to Princeton researchers. They spread fast—and then disappear. Like the bubonic plague, Facebook will eventually come to an end. According to new research from Princeton, which compared the ”adoption and abandonment dynamics” of social networks by “drawing analogy to the dynamics that govern the spread of infectious disease,” Facebook is beginning to die out. Specifically, the researchers concluded that “Facebook will undergo a rapid decline in the coming years, losing 80 percent of its peak user base between 2015 and 2017.” more at the link ...

JorgeA ... interesting reading "You May Think You Have Nothing To Hide" ... the part "why it is never a good idea to talk to the police" makes me think of the old show "Hogan's Heroes" and Sgt Schultz and him always saying: "I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!"

I was wondering what the KB number was since it wasn't mentioned in the article ... these were the only two updates I had ... one for XP and one for my Office 2000. MS Updates 01-2014 Security Update for Windows XP (KB2914368) 01/14/2014 Security Update for Microsoft Office 2007 suites (KB2837615) 01/14/2014

Microsoft indicated this week that it has fixed a Windows XP resource-hog problem associated with the system's SVCHOST.EXE processes. Microsoft did not announce the fix broadly. Instead, it released the above statement to Susan Bradley, a Microsoft MVP and moderator of the PatchManagement.org list-serve service, which is a discussion group for IT pros. Apparently, that's the only venue where the statement appeared publicly. Microsoft's January security bulletin announcing four patches and nonsecurity releases did not mention the SVCHOST fix for Windows XP. Microsoft did not announce the fix broadly. Instead, it released the above statement to Susan Bradley, a Microsoft MVP and moderator of the PatchManagement.org list-serve service, which is a discussion group for IT pros. Apparently, that's the only venue where the statement appeared publicly. Microsoft's January security bulletin announcing four patches and nonsecurity releases did not mention the SVCHOST fix for Windows XP. Microsoft's fix took effect on Tuesday. It apparently stops systems from grinding through older Internet Explorer updates before releasing system resources. The fix also seems not to require any actions by Windows XP users or IT pros to take effect. Of course, Windows XP users still face the broader problem of the operating system falling out of product lifecycle support by Microsoft. On April 8, 2014, Microsoft won't issue updates to the 12-year-old OS at all.

I don't think it's off topic, good to have all this information. It may be of use to someone. I just want to add from my first post ... as I said earlier, I do not have an antivirus program installed on my computer but I do keep a current copy of Stinger handy on a flash drive in case of a problem. It seems to be updated everyday and comes in a 32 or 64 Bit download. It may still work with Windows 98SE ... not 100% sure anymore. Stinger http://www.mcafee.com/us/downloads/free-tools/stinger.aspx McAfee Stinger is a standalone utility used to detect and remove specific viruses. It is not a substitute for full anti-virus protection, but a specialized tool to assist administrators and users when dealing with infected system. Stinger utilizes next-generation scan technology, including rootkit scanning, and scan performance optimizations. It detects and removes threats identified under the "Threat List" option under Advanced menu options in the Stinger application. ... if you look in the Release Notes on the right side you will see the current dated version. This is what's there now. Stinger Release Notes Build Number: 12.1.0.750 Build Date: 17-Jan-2014

All these new appliances being brought into homes with these "smart chips" maybe could be a problem. I don't have a smart phone but maybe this is similar ... everything being connected? I didn't see this posted anywhere. Hackers Have Used A Refrigerator To Attack Businesses. Security researchers at Proofpoint have uncovered the very first wide-scale hack that involved television sets and at least one refrigerator. * The hack happened between December 23, 2013 and January 6, 2014, and featured waves of malicious email, typically sent in bursts of 100,000, three times per day, targeting enterprises and individuals worldwide. For The First Time, Hackers Have Used A Refrigerator To Attack Businesses Julie Bort Jan. 16, 2014 http://www.businessinsider.com/hackers-use-a-refridgerator-to-attack-businesses-2014-1 Security researchers at Proofpoint have uncovered the very first wide-scale hack that involved television sets and at least one refrigerator. Yes, a fridge. This is being hailed as the first home appliance "botnet" and the first cyberattack from the Internet of Things. A botnet is a series of computers that seem to be ordinary computers functioning in people's homes and businesses, but are really secretly controlled by hackers. The Internet of Things, is a new term in the tech industry that refers to a concept where every device in your house gets its own computer chip, software, and connection to the Internet: your fridge, thermostat, smart water meter, door locks, etc. To a hacker, they all become computers that can be hacked and controlled. In this case, hackers broke into more than 100,000 everyday consumer gadgets, such as home-networking routers, connected multi-media centers, televisions, and at least one refrigerator, Proofpoint says. They then used those objects to send more than 750,000 malicious emails to enterprises and individuals worldwide. In the press release, Proofpoint explains: * The hack happened between December 23, 2013 and January 6, 2014, and featured waves of malicious email, typically sent in bursts of 100,000, three times per day, targeting enterprises and individuals worldwide. * About three-quarters of the emails were sent by regular computers, but the rest, slightly more than one-quarter, were sent by hacked home appliances. * Hackers didn't have to be amazingly smart when breaking into home appliances. Many times they gained access because the home owners didn't set them up correctly, or used the default password that came with the device. Most homes are not yet a part of the Internet of Things, and looks like hackers will already be there to greet them when they arrive. ...

Thanks submix8c for the extra reading. It will be interesting as these few months click by ... less than three months. Then what will develop after that ... an underground group of people with unofficial fixes, of course they don't have to be "underground" but they will be out there somewhere tinkering around ... it's human nature wanting to fix something ... like an old toaster oven or Windows XP, instead of throwing it on the junk pile. With my limited knowledge of the inner workings of XP, I can't think of what I might need to be fixed down the road ... maybe a new Daylight Savings Time update occasionally? I have a good working system ... maybe one day I won't be able to get on the internet, that might be a possibility I guess. I don't use IE 8 except for updates, I still use the old K-Meleon browser (an updated version) and it works just great for my setup. So I guess we will see ... let's get these updates over with ... let the challenge of the "unknown" begin!

I don't use an antivirus program myself, however came across this article for people that like using them. Most antivirus programs to support Windows XP well past its own end date 01/16/2014 ... 5 hours ago http://www.neowin.net/news/most-antivirus-programs-to-support-windows-xp-well-past-its-own-end-date On Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it will continue to provide antivirus signatures for its free Security Essentials program until at least July 2015. Now a new survey of 29 antivirus software companies shows that most of them will continue to support Windows XP for at least two more years, and in some cases even longer. The list was complied by the independent antivirus testing firm AV-TEST, and shows that only Symantec has yet to provide any information about when their Windows XP support will end. Most of the companies have yet to offer specific support end dates for Windows XP, with many saying that it won't end for at least two more years. Microsoft is still planning to stop providing all security and bug fix updates for the OS on April 8th, over 12 years after it launched. There are a few antivirus companies on the list that have set specific end dates for Windows XP antivirus support, besides Microsoft. Avira and ThreatTracker will stop on April 2015, while Sophos shuts down its Windows XP definitions in September 2015. Bitdefender says it will end support for consumers om January 2016, and for corporate customers on January 2017. Trend Micro stops supporting Windows XP in January 2017 and Kaspersky Lab will end support for corporate users in the second half of 2016, but will continue supporting consumers until at least 2018. Webroot has the most distant Windows XP end date; it won't stop supporting the OS until at least April 2019 when the OS will enter it's 18th year!

Thanks jaclaz ... maybe I posted an old article from a year ago that I thought was from yesterday. The article only had Jan 15 ... I added the 2013 which should have been 2014. Still messing up with the new year. So we have a funny company here. ... your zdnet article has 2014 but the one I referenced has no year.