The Crusaders

I don’t understand why people don’t get rid of these Microsoft’s default apps (Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer) as soon as they install their OS. They are absolutely useless piece of junks.

Most of those who have and still are using it must have noticed that you frequently are asked to download new codec when you play multimedia files thru Windows Media Player. And most of us don’t even bother to check what the codec are or what they really are for…we just click ok. Well, this might be the biggest mistake you are doing. Microsoft media formats have long been used for hijacking WMP for malicious purposes (one of the reasons why tech savvies don’t use WMP).
Just look at this new breed of Trojan which is using Windows Media Player (WMP) as its carrier. Actually there is this new malware that inserts links to dangerous web pages within ASF (Advanced Systems Format) media files. If a user plays an infected music file, it will launch Internet Explorer and load a malicious web page that asks the user to download a codec if you want to play the media file. And if you click ok the actual download is not a codec but a Trojan horse that installs a proxy program on the PC that hijackers use to cover their tracks for their other malicious activity. The malware is also said to be capable of converting files such as MP2 and MP3 into Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. So, none of your music files are safe. Once downloaded the pop up will not appear which gives a feeling to the users that the codec was successfully downloaded which is just what the hijackers want us to think. Now if the multimedia files are shared through a peer-to-peer network, anyone who downloads music or video file from an affected system will be at risk of getting infected as well.

Trend Micro calls the malware “Troj_Medpinch.a,” Secure Computing named it “Trojan.ASF.Hijacker.gen,” and Kaspersky calls it “Worm.Win32.GetCodec.a.”

The best suggestion I give is to just get rid of that damn Window’s Media Player.

written by rajit \\ tags: Hijacking, Malware, Multimedia Files, security, Trojan horse, Windows Media Player, WMP

Deep Freeze is pretty solid software from Faronics to protect you computer for Virus, Trojans, Spywares, etc. It’s something similar to system restore but not quite same. In the frozen state it works like a shield. The virus, trojans, worms gets attached but when your computer restarts the germs are cleaned and your computer is same as before. I have used this software and I personally recommend this software to internet users especially who are more vulnerable to attacks.

But the one serious problem with this software is that once you have put your computer in a frozen state and if somehow you forgot your password, then you are gone. There is no other alternative than to re-install a new Operation System as you won’t be able to save anything in you computer once in a frozen state. But is this the only alternative. I myself had similar problem as I tend to forget my password and in this case there is no “if you forgot your password, click this link”. Hopefully, there was a solution though. There is an executive file called Deep Freeze Unfreezer which changes the state of Deep Freeze without needing for you to enter you Deep Freeze password. There are 2 versions of this software that you can download from this link http://usuarios.arnet.com.ar/fliamarconato/pages/edeepunfreezer.html depending upon the OS that you have.

written by rajit \\ tags: Antivirus, Deep Freeze, Deep Freeze Unfreezer, Faronics, Internet, security, Unfreezer

Do you hae a updated strong Antivirus installed on your PC or Laptop? Are you sure, it will get your system immune of any kind of attacks of viruses? The answer maybe yes, it does. But what if your Antivius is sleeping? You might get surprise by the term ‘Sleeping’. Let me clear you this. You all know that when system boots, your Antivirus is not yet activated. At that time, it may be called as ‘Sleeping’; if your pen drive or floppy, which might have unknown hidden viruses that have brought from others, is inserted may copy to your system automatically. And your system may be infected. Don’t you believe?
In computing, booting (booting up) is a bootstrapping process that starts operating systems when the user turns on a computer system. A boot sequence is the set of operations the computer performs when it is switched on that loads an operating system. The boot device is the device from which the operating system is loaded. A modern PC BIOS supports booting from various devices. These include the local hard disk drive (or partitions on a hard disk), floppy, optical disc drive, a SCSI device, Zip drive, LS-120, a network interface card using PXE and a USB device (USB-FDD, USB-ZIP, USB-CDROM, USB-HDD, USB flash drive). Typically, the BIOS will allow the user to configure a boot order. If the boot order is set to “firstly, the DVD drive; secondly, the hard disk drive”, then the BIOS will try to boot from the DVD drive, and if this fails (e.g. because there is no DVD in the drive), it will try to boot from the local hard drive. So, if you leave a pendrive or floppy disk in your PC unplugged, then during booting process, your system may scan it and the viruses may be loaded to your system before your Antiviruses get awake. So, don’t insert them before or during the OS booting.
So always it’s safe to take out floppy, pen drive or any removable disks out when you are not using them. Because, they might cost you pay very high. And also always scan them by your trusted updated Antivirus after inserting them in their drives.

written by rajit \\ tags: floppy, pendrive, safety measures, security, USB