Attack Computer Wiz

RSA 2012 - Free Expo Pass Codes

2012-01-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

Use the below codes and this link to register (https://ae.rsaconference.com/US12/portal/login.ww)

ProofPoint - EC12PRF
DeviceLock - EC12DVL
IronKey - EC12IRN
Symantec - SC12SYM
SF Bay InfraGrid - 1412RLPXPO
FortiNet - EC12FRT

Emails From PayPal Crashes Outlook

2011-10-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Whether it be a syntax error or a new "feature", PayPal emails, when opening in Outlook have suddenly started to cause extreme delays or even crashing Outlook altogether. Upon launching Outlook 2010 some may notice there is a delay and Outlook displays a message about "Contacting \\102.112.2o7.net\b\ss\paypalglobal....". Now that we know where the hang up is we can create an easy fix to stop Outlook from tying to contact this URL. Follows these steps and your email client will start working again!

Open Notepad.exe, (if running Vista or Windows 7 you need to open Notepad.exe by right clicking the exe and choosing "Run as Administrator"),
Open your hosts file "C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\etc\hosts,
Paste the following at the bottom of the Hosts file
```
127.0.0.1    102.112.2o7.net
```
Save the Hosts file and restart Outlook.

Enjoy pause and crash free email!

Facebook Releases iPad App, Finally.

2011-10-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

Though you may not have heard about it, yesterday Facebook announced that its Facebook social networking application was now available on the iPad. For only being out for a single day it already has a solid four star rating with over 1.8 million votes on the Apple App Store. The app is very easy to use and includes many of the features and options that previous third party applications were lacking. Some examples are the ability to modify your security and privacy settings as if you were logged on to the Facebook website.

There is a very good walk through of the new app over at PCWorld (LINK).

I have been using a third party Facebook application since the iPad came out. Unlike third party apps, I enjoy how the application looks and feels very similar to the web based version of the site.

Bank of America Charging for Debit Cards

2011-09-29T19:20:00.000-07:00

Bank of America has announced that it will begin charging a $5 per month fee for using a debit card. According to the Yahoo story, they will begin rolling out these fees next year and will only affect people who use their cards for debit purchases and not for normal ATM use.

This just adds to my long time opposition of even using debit cards. As I have said time and time and time and time again, debit cards are not safe. They are a direct link to your cash. Unlike credit cards where you barrow money on credit and make a monthly payment, debit cards are linked to your cash and fund the vendor (or crook) the second the transaction is complete. If you use a credit card you can dispute a charge and more often then not have the charge reversed. Disputing a charge to a debit card means that you have to TRY to get your money back, good luck! Oh... and now BofA is going to charge you $5 for the hassle. Source:Yahoo!

California Hosting Provider Hacked

2011-09-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

On Monday, September 26, 2011, I visited the online news paper Plumasnews.com. I visit this and many other newspaper sites in my area on a daily basis. I was only somewhat surprised to see a "HACKED" splash screen indicating the the newspapers web server had been defaced. A couple days later (Wednesday) ThreatPost.com reported that this site and an estimated 700,000 other websites hosted by California based hosting provider InMotion had been exploited and defaced.

Todd Robinson of InMotion wrote, "The hacker used a system exploit to change a system password to allow him to access index files. We have blocked the exploit and changed the system password. As always though, it is recommended that you update your Cpanel and FTP passwords... Our systems team has blocked the exploit and is aggressively scanning for any other potential exploits."

The hacker using the handle Tiger-M@te claimed responsibility and stated in a message "I hack 700000 websites in one shot, this may be a new world Record. After submitting 200,000 domains,zone-h was going down again and again and became almost unresponsive in the end.so i was unable to submit all websites.so i’ve listed all domains in attachment. It was not just a server hack, actually whole data center got hacked."

Source: ThreatPost.com

Apple Adds Daily Malware Updates

2011-06-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

For an operating system that cannot get virus's I find it very odd that Apple would release daily malware definition checks to their Mac OS X operating system. Of course it is true that Apple does not get virus's, right? Or at least that is what the 'experts' over at Best Buy will tell every one.

Fact is, just like any OS out there, they can, and they do get virus's and they are affected by malware. It is recommended that you protect all systems, including Mac OS X, with an anti-virus product form a reputable vendor. Don't bother looking to hard in the Apple Store though, you probably won't find many, after all, Mac's don't get virus's.

Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac

Source: Threat Post

Bing App for iPad Shows Nude Images

2011-04-09T16:32:00.000-07:00

I installed the Bing app on my iPad because it has been getting some good reviews. I too thought it was nice but was noticing right away that a hand full of the headlines did not match the photos. I noticed a headline about Tina Fey's pregnancy but showed a photo of Russel Brand. There were a few others, some comical, but the one that caught my keen eye was a headline that said "Longoria shows her kitchen skills in new cookbook." One would expect to see a photo of Eva Longoria and her new cookbook. Instead there is a photo of Cermeron Diaz with her breast exposed and another woman also with an exposed breast. Need proof, see the photos below. You can confirm that it is Cameron Diaz with a simple Google image search. Also below there is a mistake where a school shooting in Brazil is somehow associated with the movie Rio and Governor Rick Snyder is associated with the movie Sucker Punch.

Children Targets of Identity Theft

2011-04-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

According to a study at Carnegie Mellon Cylab many children are becoming the victims of identity theft. Children are often easy targets for thieves because the theft can go unnoticed for many years. Often it is not until the child reaches adulthood and they apply for their first credit card or car loan is it discovered that their credit has been ruined. This is a huge problem and the credit reporting agencies do not help the issue, in fact, in my opinion, they aid the thieves.

If I wanted to see my credit report and determine if there are any fraudulent charges I simply need to visit https://www.annualcreditreport.com and I can have access to each of the three reports at no charge, once per year. But try to access your child's credit report, go ahead, try it... I can wait.

You will find, like I did that you cannot access the report online. They claim that they "do not knowingly maintain credit files on minor children". If this is the case, why are there credit cards issued to minor children and why is this information not being verified? Oh, I missed the 'knowingly" part... really? Is a killer less a killer because they did not "knowing" put bullets in the gun before they fired it?

So what now, assuming you are not lazy, and want to ensure that your kids are able to receive credit someday, you need to take proactive action and take that action sooner rather then later. In order to get the credit reports you must request them in writing from each of the three agencies. In order to do this you must:

Write a letter of request,
Include your name, address, phone number,
A copy of your drivers license or other government issued identification with your current address,
A copy of a current utility bill that shows your current address,
Your child's full name, address, date of birth,
A copy of your child's birth certificate,
A copy of your child's social security card

Send your request to the below agencies:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, Georgia 30374

Experian
P.O. Box 9554
Allen, Texas 75013

TransUnion
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92834

Now sit back and wait for the magic of inconvenience, no technology, snail mail, and most likely 6-∞ weeks.

Source

Google Motion

2011-04-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

Another great April 1st announcement from Google.

Google Motion.

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html

CJ - Commission Junction SUCKS!

2011-03-30T17:43:00.000-07:00

I understand that I do not have a huge following and that I may never have one. But I enjoy blogging every now and then and enjoy sharing my knowledge. While I try to keep expenses at a minimum there is still a cost to owning a domain and some other minor costs associated with a blog. For me, I am lucky to keep those costs to around $40 a year. Very cheep thankfully.

I do try to generate something to offset those costs through Amazon Associates, Google Ads, and until today Commission Junction. I just discovered a very fine print in CJ's agreement that basically states that if no one makes a purchase on any of my ads within a 6 month time, CJ will tag my account as dormant and charge me $10 per month until my account is empty and then cancel it. CJ does not pay out until the account reaches $100 so there is basically no way possible to preserve any funds that my account has generated and in a few short months, any money that was generated by my work will be lost and my account closed.

Gee, thanks for nothing Commission Junction.

Amazon Launches Cloud Drive

2011-03-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

Amazon announced today the launch of their "Cloud Drive" online storage service. Anyone can get 5GB of free storage that can be used to store and stream audio, photos, and other files. Want more, no problem, for $20/year or free with the purchase of a single album from Amazon you can have your storage increased to 20GB. Amazon has a tiered plan that can increase your storage for $1/GB/year. They also tout that you can access your files from any computer and many devices (not Apple though).

It is a great idea but Amazon is very late to this game and their pricing structure is incredibly high... no not incredibly high, astronomically high and they didn't even slap an apple logo on it to justify the rates! $1,000 per year for a 1000GB plan is insane. No music collection can possibly worth that.

There are other, better solutions for online file storage. Mozy for one; Their unlimitied plan seems to be gone but I still think they beat Amazon. Or even better, Carbonite which offers "Unlimited" storage for only $54.95/year. Carbonite, similar to Amazon, allows you to access your file from any computer and many mobile devices, including Apple devices.

ICANN Finally Approves the .XXX Domain

2011-03-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has finally approved the .XXX top level domain name. This clears the way for pornography and other sexually explicit material a new, clearly marked and obvious, home on the internet. This will help schools, organizations, companies, and parents have the ability to block and review access to such material.

It appears (or I missed it) that there is no longer the requirement for existing adult sites to move their .com's to the new .xxx and having penalties if they did not. This may have been the provision that got the final green light.

Source: PC Magazine
Other posts by me on this subject: .xxx Domains Could be 70 Days Away! and .xxx Domain for Pornographic Websites

Wipe Your Drive to Protect Your Data

2011-03-11T08:01:00.000-08:00

All too often people simply dispose of their computers, disk drives, portable devices, thumb drives, etc. when they are done using them. By doing this, often they expose themselves to identity theft. Anyone can simply take that drive, connect to to a computer system, and read your information.

But you formatted it so your data was all erased, right? Wrong! The fact is, formatting a drive does nothing more then tell the allocation table on the drive (which is like the drives table of contents) that the data is available to be written over. That does not mean the data is gone, in fact the data is not gone.

In order to completely erase all data on your drive before you dispose of it s to wipe the drive with a tool that uses at least a three pass Department of Defense compliant wiping process. This process actually deletes all data on the drive, then writes useless data to every sector on the drive, then erases the drive again. The software will repeat this process at least three times eliminating the possibility of anyone recovering your data. There is a great free tool called Disk Wipe for this. I encourage you to use it, or a sledge hammer.

Fast and Easy Way to Install and Update Software

2011-03-10T05:13:00.000-08:00

Are you a system builder or just rebuilding your Windows computer? Are you tired of having to go out and download application after application to get the system back to where you want it? It is such a hassle to to go out to all those vendor websites, download the software, click through all of the installation screen, un-check the tool bars and addon's, agree to the licenses, and so on.

A friend of mine found a great website that allows you to select the applications that you want to install by simply checking a box. After you select the programs you simply click the "Get Installer" button and run the custom installer. Soon every application that you selected will be downloaded and installed for you. Headache and hassle free! As of this post there are about 84 free and/or open source applications available for quick and easy download and installation including; iTunes, VLC, Flash, Safari, FireFox, 7zip, WinRAR, Open Office, Skype, Chrome, and many more. Check it out.

NiNite.com is the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Pass Microsoft Exam, Get a Free TechNet Subscription

2011-03-09T18:41:00.000-08:00

Microsoft is currently running a promotion through June 30, 2011 that will give away a Microsoft TechNet Subscription to the first 1,000 participants who sign up and pass any Microsoft Virtualization Certification. You must register at the site I link below and you must pass your exam before June 30, 2011. The TechNet subscription is good for 12 months. TechNet is a great deal at $349 but free is even better! You can also find promo codes that are good for discounts on TechNet. I have seen them as high as 50% off.

Virtualization Exam Offer

iOS 4.3 Software Update Availalbe Now

2011-03-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

The Apple iOS 4.3 Software Update is now available and can be installed by simply connecting your compatible iPhone, iPod, and iPad device(s) to your computer running iTunes. This is a free minor release of the iOS 4.x operating systems for select portable Apple devices.

Enhancements to this version of iOS include:

AirPlay Enhancements which allows the user to wireless stream content from their device to their Apple TV device,
Improved Safari performance,
iTunes Home Sharing which allows the user to play their iTunes library on their portable devices from anywhere on their network,
A change to the way the iPad Side Switch works,
Personal Hotspot.

This update is only available on the iPhone 3GS, iPhone GSM, iPod Touch 3rd Generation, iPod Touch 4th Generation, iPad, and iPad 2.

How to Install Mac OS Snow Leopard in VMWare - Better Way!

2011-03-09T11:02:00.000-08:00

This post is a follow-on to the post "How to Install Mac OS Snow Leopard in VMWare". Much of the information is similar, but this is a much better way to get started and provides for a much better start up and shutdown process. While I am going to keep the other guide up, because this is in the spirit of testing and learning, I encourage you to use this guide first. Once again I stress:

"Apple licensing does not allow for the virtualization of OSX Client on any hardware and only allows for the virtualization OSX server on Apple hardware. Anything else is in violation of the license agreement. This article is for informational purposes only, you can never achieve full utilization of Mac OS X on VMWARE. So if you like the Mac then go ahead and buy a Mac."

Requirements:

Mac OS X version 10.6.3 Snow Leopard
Windows (XP, Vista, 7),
VMWare 7.x Workstation,
Intel based, multi-core computer,
The "macosx_guest_vmware_7.tar.gz" file from MediaFire OR insanelymac.

Instructions:

Exctract the "macosx_guest_vmaware_7.tar.gz" file to a temp folder,
Close all VM's and close VMWare,
From a command prompt (is Vista or 7 run as administrator) execute the "windows.bat" from the tar.gz file you just downloaded. (credit to Albert Nietsnie for creating this file).
Create a new Custom VM Machine with the below configurations:

CD/DVD = Use physical DVD with the Snow Leopard DVD inserted,
"Apple Mac OS X" and "Mac OS X Server 10.6" or "Mac OS X Server 10.6 64bit",
CPU = at least 1 CPU and 2 cores (I assigned 2 CPU's and 4 cores),
Memory = at least 2GB,
New virtual disk set to SCSI, and at least 40GB of space (I assigned 100GB),

If you are using a i3, i5, or i7 CPU you need to make be below tweak, if not move to step 6:

For i3, i5, or i7 you need to edit the *.vmx file that was created in the above steps. This file is located in the folder you specified in setup and the * is the name you specified in setup,
Open the *.vmx file in notepad or other editor and add the below line:
```
cpuid.1.eax = "0000:0000:0000:0001:0000:0110:1010:0101"
```
Now save and close the *.vmx file. (credit to Mac Son of Knife)

Launch the VM booting to the DVD,
When the "Welcome" screen appears, choose your country and click "Continue". On the next screen you will notice that you now have options at the top of your screen. Click on "Utilities" and then "Disk Utility...". You will see the VM hard drive that you will install Leopard on. Select the drive, label the drive as you desire, and click the erase button. Save and close utilities,
As you continue with the setup watch for the customization button to appear (lower left). When it does, click "Customization". De-select Printer Drivers and Language Translations. I skipped this step at first and had problems. I also decided to add some things and had problems. I recommend leaving all selections as they are other then un-checking these two,
Once the installation is done the machine will reboot,
You should not be booting into Mac OS X.

Tweaks:

* Take a snapshot of your VM machine before tweaks*

Adjust the Resolution: Again thanks to ihackintosh.com for this: Find the

Move the file to another location and add the below two lines just above the </dict>:

<key>Graphics Mode</key>     
<string>1280x1024x32</string>

You should replace the 1280x1024 with whatever resolution you want and is supported by your display.
Save the file, move it back to the original location replacing the original file, and reboot.

Audio: find the EnsoniqAudioPCI.mpkg.tar.gz file that you downloaded earlier. Copy that file as it is to your VM and launch it. Select both options and after a reboot your sound should work.

Software Installation:

At this point your box should function nicely. I was able to successfully install just about anything that I had. Good Luck!

*note: I am not an expert in Mac OS or VMWare. I am learning, just like many of you. I probably cannot answer your technical questions.

**Thanks to Jason for help, links, advice, and finding this new and improved method!

How to Install Mac OS Snow Leopard in VMWare

2011-03-09T11:01:00.000-08:00

See my updated post: "How to Install Mac OS Snow Leopard in VMWare - Better Way!"

I found a great write-up at ihackintosh.com on how to install Mac OS Snow Leopard on a Windows VMWare Workstation. When I find the ones that work well, I like to include them in my blog and make some changes and/or recommendations that I found useful. As Vinay states on the ihackintosh site:

"Apple licensing does not allow for the virtualization of OSX Client on any hardware and only allows for the virtualization OSX server on Apple hardware. Anything else is in violation of the license agreement. This article is for informational purposes only, you can never achieve full utilization of Mac OS X on VMWARE. So if you like the Mac then go ahead and buy a Mac."

Requirements:

Mac OS X version 10.6.3 Snow Leopard
Windows (XP, Vista, 7),
VMWare 7.x Workstation,
Intel based, multi-core computer,
Snow Leopard VMDX and dariwn_snow.iso from one of these links:(Rapidshare1, Rapidshare2, MediaFire, Megaupload).

Instructions:

Open VMWare and load the.vmx file that came in the above download,
Edit the machine settings to the below configurations:

CD/DVD = "Use ISO image file": assign the dariwn_snow.iso from the package,
CPU = at least 1 CPU and 2 cores (I assigned 2 CPU's and 4 cores),
Memory = at least 2GB,

Power on the VM and as soon as you can control it, start pressing the "F8" key rapidly. If you see anything other then a short boot menu, you went too far, restart the VM,
At this point you need to edit the VMWare DVD settings. Un-mount the ISO and assign the physical DVD drive to the VM. Insert your Snow Leopard DVD into the DVD drive,
Press "C" to boot to the DVD and press F8 immediately for options. Type "-v" at the prompt. Now wait, this may take a few minutes,
When the "Welcome" screen appears, choose your country and click "Continue". On the next screen you will notice that you now have options at the top of your screen. Click on "Utilities" and then "Disk Utility...". You will see the VM hard drive that you will install Leopard on. Select the drive, label the drive as you desire, and click the erase button. Save and close utilities,
As you continue with the setup watch for the customization button to appear (lower left). When it does, click "Customization". De-select Printer Drivers and Language Translations. I skipped this step at first and had problems. I also decided to add some things and had problems. I recommend leaving all selections as they are other then un-checking these two,
Once the installation is done the machine will reboot. When the machine fails to shut off cleanly, or to reboot, or you get some error messages about your CPU changing or whatever, don't worry, just do a hard power off of the VMWare machine,
Once again, edit your DVD settings so the you are again booting to the dariwn_snow.iso file, save, and power the VM back on,
Again, as soon as you can, start pressing the "F8" key until you see the boot menu,
This time choose "h" to boot to the first hard disk. You should not be booting into Mac OS X.

Issues:

If you experience very long delays in booting up, you may have to hard reboot the machine. I found this to be the case in about one out of five start ups.
When you shut down or restart the VM it will not shut down clean and you will get an error message. At this point don't worry, just power off the machine and reboot as normal.

Tweaks:

* Take a snapshot of your VM machine before tweaks*

CD/DVD Drive: Add another CD/DVD device in the VM configuration and assign your physical drive to it. This will allow you access your DVD drive without the need to un-mount and re-mount.
Adjust the Resolution: Again thanks to ihackintosh.com for this: Find the

Move the file to another location and add the below two lines just above the </dict>:

<key>Graphics Mode</key>     
<string>1280x1024x32</string>

You should replace the 1280x1024 with whatever resolution you want and is supported by your display.
Save the file, move it back to the original location replacing the original file, and reboot.

Audio: find the EnsoniqAudioPCI.mpkg.tar.gz file that you downloaded earlier. Copy that file as it is to your VM and launch it. Select both options and after a reboot your sound should work.

Identity Theft is King in 2010

2011-03-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

According to the Federal Trade Commission, Identity Theft is number one in consumer complaints for 2010. There were 250,854 complaints about Identity Theft, of the 1.9 million total complaints, making it 19% of all reports. This is the 11th year in a row where ID theft has been at the top of the list according to CNNMoney.com.

Also according to the CNNMoney.com report fraudulent government documents were the top source of the ID theft complaints. For those of you that don't know, that is someone stealing and using your Social Security Number or other government issued document. At the 2011 RSA Security conference I listened to Kimberly Peretti a former senior litigator for the Department of Justice speak. She was the lead prosecutor in the Albert Gonzolez case speak. She confirmed that SSN's are still the number one target of ID thieves.

Ashton Kutcher's Twitter Account Hacked

2011-03-08T05:59:00.000-08:00

Just last week at the TED conference in Long Beach California, Celebrity Ashton Kutcher had his Twitter account hacked, this according to reporters over at Threat Post. As my readers may recall I posted about FireSheep back in November of last year. It is a FireFox plug in that allows a hacker to intercept social networking session over un-secured wireless connections.

A sample of the messages posted to Kutchers' account are:

"Ashton, you've been Punk'd. This account is not secure. Dude, where's my SSL?"

"P.S. This is for those young protesters around the world who deserve not to have their Facebook & Twitter accounts hacked like this. #SSL"

Coming Soon to Facebook, Angry Birds

2011-03-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

Can't get enough of Angry Birds on your iPhone, iPod, iPad, Android, Palm, Nokia, etc.? Well your wait for Angry Birds on Facebook is soon to be over. On an undisclosed day in April, Rovio will be releasing a new version of Angry Birds with new aspects that the other versions do not have.

If you are interested and would like to be updated on this new version simply "Like" the Angry Birds Facebook page.

Source: Mashable

Free Social Teaching and Learning Network - Sophia.org

2011-03-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

Sophia is an online learning community designed to allow people to learn about topics of their choosing at no cost. It is in beta right now but the concept and the presentation seems very good. Strangely though, I do not see any IT related content yet.

Below is taken from the Sophia site:

"Sophia enables innovation by connecting learners, teachers, experts and parents. We provide an academic community where everyone has access to learning that surrounds and supports the traditional classroom. We encourage variety and creativity in teaching so that everyone can learn in a way that makes sense to them.

Sophia is a social teaching and learning platform that taps the teacher in all of us and enhances the learning process by providing access to a wealth of knowledge, help, instruction, standards-aligned content, and expertise available to learners everywhere.

We want to harness technology for the betterment of the educational system as a whole. We can all help others learn. And Sophia’s mission is to be a catalyst in this educational movement."

THQ Balloon Stunt Angers San Franciscans

2011-03-06T20:14:00.000-08:00

In a promotional stunt to advertise their new game Homefront, THQ released 10,000 Luftballoons (red balloons) into the skies of San Francisco. But what goes up must come down of course and soon after the launch many of those balloons came to rest in the San Francisco bay. A spokesperson from THQ said that the balloons are biodegradable and will not be there long.

This sure seems like a dumb move for a company to pull. People don't like to see trash in our oceans and sea animals being choked by our litter. Gamestop probably was not too happy about this stunt either. The balloons had there name on them even though they claim not to be involved.

Source: Yahoo!

iPad 2 VS. iPad Original

2011-03-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

The iPad 2 will hit the shelves on March 11, 2011. That's only a week away! I didn't run right out and buy the original iPad when Apple released them last year. No, I waiting until after lunch before I bought mine. I have been satisfied with it and have been able to figure out ways to work around the lack of flash and VPN.

The new iPad will introduce a few new features that frankly should have been in the first version. A dual core CPU, a little thinner, a little lighter, a little faster graphics, and a camera located on the front and back and still no flash (Specs). The new iPad will be sold for the same price as the current version and the current version has been reduced in price by $100. The best deal though in on the refurbished iPads direct from the Apple Store. There you can find a 32 GB WiFi only for $429, that's $170 off from April of last year!

Am I going to buy an iPad 2? No. Would I recommend it? Maybe, if you think you will use the new features, but if you would be happy with a first generation iPad go get a refurbished one and save the money!

If you can count on anything in life, besides death and taxes, is the fact that Apple will be releasing another iPad within the next 10-12 months that will be even thinner, even lighter, and even faster and probably still no flash. I will sit this round out, but may look at the Motorola Xoom.

RSA 2011 San Francisco Swag Report

2011-02-22T09:21:00.000-08:00

Below is this years haul. After being there for the full week I could have gotten a lot more but didn't want to carry it around all day. Once again a great conference and I walked away with a lot more knowledge then swag. Qualys wins for best swag; those insulated cups are really nice!