Security

Lots of important updates for Windows versions 2K-Windows 7. Details

News of the latest Internet Explorer vulnerability has spread the web today. As has become the norm folks have blown the issue way out of proportion. As stated in the security advisory (see link below) covering this issue, “At this time, we are unaware of any attacks attempting to use this vulnerability.” So keep that in mind if you want to use the workaround.
Microsoft Security Advisory (980088)
The Workaround:
The easy way (recommended solution for IE users): See this page and run the Fix It tool (Enable Network Protocol Lockdown). Bookmark the page so that you can undo it later with the Fix It tool next to it. This solution should be enough until a patch is released.
The hard way: Go to the security advisory page above and follow the steps in the workaround.
The super easy way: Don’t use IE!

“This Guide was designed to help IT professionals better understand and use Microsoft security release information, processes, communications, and tools.”
Aimed at IT people but Geeks my find some good info here on the what,whys, and hows of Windows Updates.
The Microsoft Security Update Guide

Updates available for 2K, XP, 2K3, Vista, 2K8… March MS Security Bulletin

Microsoft will release a patch for the latest Internet Explorer security issue tomorrow according to Yahoo.
Firefox 3.0.5 has hit the mirrors and should be official any time now.
Hit the Firefox home page for the “official” release or see Major Geeks if you want it now.

I am now cleaning my 8th PC of this nasty little virus for folks. For those who have not run into this thing just Google it. My observations based on these 8 removals:
1 – All 8 machines were running XP.
2 – 6 of the 8 machines were still on SP2.
3 – 7 of the 8 machines had an EXPIRED AV program.
4 – None of the 8 computers had an image (Acronis/Ghost/etc.) to restore from.
BleepingComputer has a decent guide on how to remove this:
How to remove XP Antispyware 2009
BUT, I have some tips to improve on the above guide instructions. This is the only method I have found to remove everything.
1 – The first and most important thing. If you entered your credit card info in one of the pop-ups, call your credit card company immediately!
2 – As per the above instructions download Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. Then go here and download SmitFraudFix and print the instructions.
2 – Disconnect the target machine from the internet and install Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. Reboot into Safe Mode and run a FULL SCAN ON ALL DRIVES. Quarantine and then remove the files it finds, then reboot.
3 – Install and the run SmitFraudFix as per the instructions.
4 – Connect the target machine back to the net and update Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware. Reboot into safe mode and do step 2 again.
That should do it.
Now, PLEASE, download and install an AV program and run a complete scan. Then fully update Windows.

Time for an update! To keep up with the latest threats, and solve some issues and feature requests users had, we’re proud to announce Spybot-S&D version 1.6. Some of the features include:
-Improved Scan Speed
-Up-to-date browser support
-Easier On-Access Use
-OpenSBI
-And quite a lot more bug fixes and new features, which can be found on bug tracker.

Spybot – Search & Destroy detects and removes spyware, a relatively new kind of threat not yet covered by common anti-virus applications.

Download & Info