Andrew McAffee coined the phrase ‘Enterprise 2.0′ to describe the application of ‘Web 2.0′ tools in the business sector.  As far as definitions go, the emergence of Enterprise 2.0 in organizations has broadened the definition of social media; no longer are Twitter or Facebook and productivity mutually exclusive.

In his first book – Enterprise 2.0 – McAffee identifies three trends in Web 2.0 that have allowed it to be come as successful and prevalent as it is today.  First, he discusses the need for a platform for a communication that is both free and easy; second there must not be an inherently imposed structure; third, structure must be allowed to develop organically.

The most startling example McAffee gives of this is Wikipedia.  Jimmy Wales’ first stab at creating a high-quality encyclopedia was Nupedia, a bureaucratic process of expertly-reviewed articles that generated 24 entries in 42 months.  Wikipedia, on the other hand, had no such stipulations and allowed anybody to submit and peer-review articles.  It published over 19,000 high-quality encyclopedia entries in less than 12 months.

While the expectation might be absurd, the fact that Wikipedia’s hundreds (if not millions) of users successfully generate accurate and high-quality content is impressively outrageous.  But it works.  Remember: just because there is no imposed structure does not mean there is no structure at all.

As an activity that involves human behavior, Wikipedia or Twitter are complex adaptive systems – participants are constantly acting and reacting in ways defined by other people’s own actions and reactions.  The network of connections within an organization that allows this is intertwined, very complex, and unpredictable though not irrational.  The theory of complexity goes hand-in-hand with the ‘orderly disorder’ that is presented in a theory called chaos.  But that’s for another discussion.

Like many, I’m sure, I first learned about the earthquake in Haiti over Twitter and it has been the dominant news story in all forms of media for the past week.  Peter Shankman is a published author and self-proclaimed CEO, entrepreneur, and adventurist, but with his journalism experience and social media prowess, he came up with a list of ways to use Twitter to report breaking news.  His very suggesting of ways to use Twitter might look like he’s butting heads with the open-source and free-form fabric of social media, but Shankman’s list actually compliments McAffee’s points nicely as the list on his blog reflects the structure autonomously created and accepted by Twitter users and not Twitter itself.

This means that social norms and social media are friends.  About this, McAffee writes on page 75:

Most decisions are made by consensus among senior members of the community…As Wales has put it, “The wiki model…gives you an incentive when you’re writing.  If you write something that annoys other people, it’s just going to be deleted.  So if you want your writing to survive, you really have to strive to be cooperative and helpful.”

The social aspect of social media – whether it’s in the form of an organizational network or a group of friends on Facebook – comes with the same baggage as ‘real life’ social networks and groups.  We want to be popular.  We want to fit in and be noticed as having worthwhile contributions instead of ostracized and ignored.  The extent to which we crave this varies, but the same motivations do apply online and have been guiding the structure of Web 2.0 since the beginning.  The Nupedia/Wikipedia numbers illustrate the potential quite nicely and now, those who embrace Enterprise 2.0 will be able to support the same kind of creativity and innovation in their own boardroom.

Wer braucht schon Stoppschilder im Internet, wenn es auch so genannte “Sicherheitssoftware” gibt, dieses ganze technoabergläubisches Zeug wie etwa Anti-Viren-Programme. Ja, das ist ernst gemeint. Nicht nur, dass diese ganzen Programme zum Absichern des Rechners ziemlich wertlos sind und ihren Käufer in gefährlicher, falscher Sicherheit wiegen, sie machen neuerdings auch gewisse Bereiche des Internet unsichtbar:

Der Anti-Viren-Konzern Trend Micro (“McAfee”, “OfficeScan”) blockiert MMnews ohne Grund. User erhalten Warnung wegen angeblicher “Bedrohung”. MMnews auf Liste der “bösartigen Seiten” aufgenommen. Auch andere Seiten betroffen. Anti-Viren-Software: Die Zensur der Zukunft?

Manchmal passieren Dinge, die glaubt man eigentlich gar nicht. Doch uns erreichen derzeit Mails, die besagen, dass das MMnews von Anti-Viren-Programmen gesperrt wird. [...] Trend Micro kennt dabei offenbar kein Pardon. Seiten, die vom Konzern als “bösartig” eingestuft wurden, werden erst gar nicht angezeigt. Stattdessen erhält der User die Warnung, dass es sich um eine betrügerische Seite — “Bedrohungsquelle” handelt.

Überflüssig zu erwähnen, dass dieser Hinweis völlig willkürlich eingeblendet werden kann und dass kein eingeschüchterter Computer-Analphabet irgendeinen Fingerzeig bekommt, warum denn jetzt dieser Hinweis anstelle der gewünschten Website kommt, was also der Grund für die Speere ist. Stattdessen ein knapper, technokratischer und autoritär hingepusteter Text:

Die Seite, die Sie ansteuern, ist ein potentielles Sicherheitsrisiko. Trend Micro OfficeScan blockiert diese URL entsprechend der Netzwerk-Sicherheitsregeln.

Na, erinnert das nicht deutlich an die Stoppschilder, die eine gewisse Frau von der Leyen ins Internet stellen wollte?

Bitte den Rest dieser Geschichte bei MMnews weiterlesen…

Ach, und wer etwas gegen die Gängelung durch irrsinnige Softwareverkäufer und die dadurch verursachte künstliche Abhängigkeit und Unmündigkeit hat, der nehme bitte ein freies Betriebssystem für seine tägliche Arbeit am Computer. Es gibt genug davon.

This week, we’re going to be looking at staying secure and safe when using a computer. Today, we look at how you can stay safe when using the internet in general.

Similar to yesterday, I’m going to try and spice things up rather than just give a boring sermon on using firewalls, etc. Having said that…

Firewalls

Just briefly (I swear) let’s discuss firewalls. They generally come shipped alongside antivirus software, which is very important too. Personally, I use McAffee, but other good options include AVG (a free one) and, apparently, Kaspersky. I’m hesitant to recommend the ubiquitous Norton, because I’ve had bad experiences (not the least of which is that it was stopping WoW working) but since they changed it to the 2010 model, it seems alright. Whatever you pick, just make sure it works, or you’re going to be swimming in malware and viruses faster than you can say ‘Patchwerk want to play!’.

Email

Somewhere else you need to be secure, although you may not realise it, is with your emails. Once you send something to someone, how can you be sure that they won’t keep that information or pass it on, even if they say they have deleted it? It would still be in their Deleted folder anyway. Well, like a rogue, we can use Vanish!

Vanish is a program which essentially creates self-destructing files, and it can be used in sending emails, posting messages on forums and even for blog posts. This is how it works in an email situation:

1. You write the email message.
2. You encrypt the message with Vanish, but you never learn the encryption key (like a password). A “timeout” is assigned to the message, in eight hour increments – this means you can set it to last 8, 16, 24, 32 hours, etc.
3. The message is sent. Anyone can decrypt and read it for the time being.
4. Eventually the message reaches its timeout limit, and essentially disintegrates.
5. Nobody can ever read the message again, nor can you be forced to give up the password to unlock it, because you don’t know it.

Simple but effective! Of course, there is nothing to stop someone copying the contents of the message before it destroys itself, but it certainly helps if you’re sending very confidential or private information.

Unfortunately, I’ve got to cut the post short there, but if you’re reading a blog, you’re probably internet savvy enough to know not to give out any personal details, nor to meet up with people you don’t know in real life, and so on. Stay safe, stay happy, and I shall see y’all tomorrow.

Vel.

Yesterday it was announced that a Twitter employees e-mail account was hacked into.

The person who hacked into it was able to get a lot of information about the company, including its long range plans and estimated revenue growth.

This brings up a few things that I always like to remind those I teach…

1. Install  anti-virus and anti-spyware software on your computer. Make sure that it’s being updated on a daily basis and is running a full system scan at least once a week. Yes, even if you have a MAC…they’re not 100% secure. Spend that $19-$30 a year for the update subscriptions, it’s chump change compared to the time and money you’ll spend getting your  computer made virus free.

2. Your data is not 100% secure on the internet, or even on your computer. If there’s something you would never want the whole world to see, then don’t keep it on your computer.

3. Use unique passwords that include numbers and varying characters.

4. Don’t use the same password for online shopping, as you would for financial accounts such as e-trade, online banking, online credit card account. While I know that the online merchants have a good deal of security they’re not required to be as secure as the online sites for financial institutions. The financial institutions have to implement more security thanks to the many regulations imposed by the federal government. Although that hasn’t kept them from being hit either.

5. If you’re not sure about something that was sent to you, don’t click or open it. Check with the person its supposed to be from to make sure they sent it. Most of the viruses and re-directs to websites that will infect your computer with a virus have language that is often misspelled or just sounds odd. This goes for text messages you get on your phone as well. Remember…your phone is a mini-computer.

You can read articles on the incident:

Here – http://technologizer.com/2009/07/15/with-online-passwords-dishonesty-can-be-the-best-policy/

and here – http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/technology/internet/16twitter.html

Let’s be safe out there folks!

C’est en buvant mon café, en cette matinée d’un affolant conformisme météorologique pour un mois de juillet, qu’un article publié sur le quotidien national Le Soir d’Algérie (qui en fait parait le matin, vous l’aurez compris), m’a littéralement fait bondir de stupeur et d’incrédulité tel que l’aurait été un romain face a l’arrivée d’Hannibal Barca aux portes de sa ville, vers les coups de 7h30 du matin avant J-C, enfin, dans ces eaux là.

A la simple lecture du titre je me suis dis khlass, ça y est, c’est la fin, le grand Game Over, le Salam Alikoum numérique, Etzaguet, Ethardet ya mhaynek. On nous annonce sur un journal à tirage national et sans aucun préliminaires que le pire des virus (annam ya sidi) vient d’être découvert hier après midi par les équipes de chez McAffee (l’éditeur du fameux antivirus du même nom), je me dis que là, c’est du sérieux, surtout qu’ils ajoutent dans l’article que Microsoft à fait un communiqué officiel juste après pour, à son tour, mettre en garde les utilisateurs en annonçant qu’il se classe directement comme étant le virus informatique le plus dangereux et le plus destructeur jamais découvert à ce jour. Bon, à ce moment, j’éteins mon ordinateur directement par le bouton et j’en profite aussi pour faire de même avec le grille pain juste à coté, parce-qu’à ce niveau, on ne sait jamais, après tout, les gars du Soir d’Algérie sont des pros, s’ils ont laissé paraitre un truc pareil c’est que c’est du lourd et qu’après vérifications, il apparaissait clairement que leurs sources étaient en béton armé.

Bref, je reprends la lecture de mon journal, j’en étais au son des trompettes de la mort et à la moitié de mon pain au raisin. On me dit aussi que la menace se propage comme une trainée de poudre et que le virus détruit systématiquement le secteur zéro des disques durs qu’il arrive à infiltrer, les rendant par là même, définitivement inutilisables. A ce moment précis, j’ai eu une brève pensée pour toutes les personnes qui lisaient aussi le journal ce matin, en majorité des gens pas très avisées sur la sécurité informatique mais assez familiarisés avec l’outil Internet pour baliser sérieusement face à une telle annonce, une telle menace et à une injonction de réagir si urgente qu’elle aurait fait bouger le plus léthargique des cafféinoman.

D’ailleurs, en parlant de réactions, c’est là que j’ai commencé à trouvé le texte plutôt bizarre, comme s’il en émané une odeur de déjà vu, ça se bousculé dans ma tête, quelle type de faille ce virus pouvait-il bien exploiter, quel cerveau génial avait bien pu coder l’ultime destructeur, puis, tout à coup, tout devint claire en un éclaire, je compris ce que j’avais sous les yeux, ce que j’étais en train de lire, je n’arrivait pas à y croire, c’était pour moi une chose impossible et pourtant c’était limpide et implacable. Aussitôt, ma crainte se transforma en un éclat de rire incontrôlable, le contre coup du choc, sans doute. J’en revenais toujours pas !

Je vous cite ci-dessous l’article en question, en mettant en évidence les passages vérifiables en moins de deux cliques de souris et ceux qui font carrément bondir ou mourir de rire(c’est selon). Accrochez-vous bien, si vous êtes familiers de ce genre de choses ça risque de vous faire un choc à vous aussi car je le répète, ceci est un article publié sur un journal, une édition nationale de surcroit !

Le plus mauvais virus jamais annoncé
Article publié sur le Le Soir d’Algérie, page 7, daté du 14 juillet 2009.

Un nouveau virus a été découvert. Il a été classé par Microsoft comme le plus destructeur à ce jour. Ce virus a été découvert hier après-midi par McAffee et rien n’a encore été développé contre lui.
Il détruit simplement le Zéro de Secteur du disque dur où les informations essentielles de son fonctionnement sont stockées.

Ce virus agit de la façon suivante:

il s’envoie automatiquement à tous les contacts de votre liste avec le titre : «Une-carte-pour-vous». Aussitôt ouverte, la carte gèle l’ordinateur. Quand les clefs «Ctrl Alt Suppr» et la commande de redémarrage sont activés, le virus détruit le Zéro du Secteur, détruisant ainsi de manière permanente le disque dur. Ne pas accepter le contact : «staline62@Hotmail.fr», c’est un virus !

Si vous ne le faites pas passer et qu’un de vos amis le rajoute à ses contacts, vous en serais vous aussi atteint ! Envoyez ce message à vos contacts. Vos amis préféreront le recevoir 25 fois que ne pas en avoir été avertis. SVP. Faire suivre ! Et vite.

Dites à tous vos contacts qui sont dans votre liste de ne pas accepter le contact alantropic@hotmail.fr, c’est quelqu’un qui va pirater votre ordinateur.
Si un de vos contacts l’attrape, vous serez touché !

.

Alors, étonnant, non ? La rédaction a publié (ou a laissé publier) un bon vieux Hoax qui s’envoie par mail entre adolescents et qui traine sur le Net depuis près d’une décennie comme si c’était une info recoupée, sourcée et de première main. Ils balancent comme ça, sur leur journal, une info alarmante pour le citoyen lambda, l’utilisateur de Windows et de Live Messenger de base, sans même vérifier ne serait-ce qu’une picoseconde la crédibilité d’une telle alerte, parce qu’en fin de compte c’est bien de cela qu’il s’agit, la “rédac” du Soir d’Algérie a reçu cette info, par un moyen ou un autre, puis, elle a décidée (sur quels critères ?) que c’était une information tellement crédible, importante et pertinente pour son lectorat, qu’il fallait l’imprimer sur sa prochaine édition sans s’embarrasser des éventuelles vérifications d’usages.

Honnêtement, je trouve cela tout simplement effarant, démoralisant, voir même scandaleux dans une certaine mesure. Lire un canular, une blague, un Hoax qui se ballade sur Internet depuis des années, repris tel quel sur un grand quotidien national comme si c’était une information sérieuse, c’est à se demander comment la rédaction de ce journal fonctionne réellement.

Nota: Le canular publié sur le journal est en fait un mix entre deux Hoax bien connus, l’un datant de cette année et l’autre, de 2001. Il s’agit de Staline62 et Une-Carte-Pour-vous, signalés sur le site Hoax Killer en tant que Faux Virus et Supercherie.

www.hoaxkiller.fr/hoax/2009/virus-staline62.htm
www.hoaxkiller.fr/hoax/2001/virus_virtual_card.htm

Bien entendu et comme conseillé par HoaxKiller, il ne faut pas paniquer à la lécture de cet article sur le journal et l’ignorer tout simplement. L’autre conseil prodigué par ce site est de prévenir l’expéditeur du message de l’etendue de la supercherie, dans le cas qui nous concerne, la naïve personne à prévenir n’est autre que… La rédaction du journal Le Soir d’Algérie !

today, if not the past few days, has been a real bitch slap on my right hand. i am so stressed that it’s AP week, but at the same time, it’s like two weeks of pure torture – almost like a mind fuck – and then the rest of the year is (or at least should be) a cloud. i took my stats final today and the AP test yesterday… let me tell you something: i am a champion!!… of failing on epic proportions. i am so sad, i’d cry if i didn’t have essays to write.

on another note, my dad is treating me like a tech slave. at first, i was flattered that he preferred me over my sister for help, but it’s starts getting annoying, especially when he says “oh carol’s busy busy, so help me instead”. come on man… be cool. don’t say to my face that i’m #2 (always will be though). today could not have been any worse. while stressing over the 4 essays i need to complete for tomorrow (two of which are done at this time, ~10:30PM), he asks me for help. the thing is, it’s usually just small stuff, but the sites he goes on are loaded with malware, spyware, viruses, etc. eventually, his computer got infected with a virus. this is the FOURTH COMPUTER. he doesn’t install anti-virus on them, and if he does at all, it’s way too late. honestly, i really want to beat the shit out of the guy who invented the first computer virus. they don’t do anything but make people miserable!! so anyway, i think some file explorer.exe was infected and got quarantined by norton. norton has been expired for months (because it’s just a sample and it’s so damn annoying with pop-ups of its own), so i had to uninstall it to install our somewhat outdated McAffee. and now his computer just seems to work for 5 minutes before all his desktop icons disappear. i really don’t want to deal with it.

speaking about McAffee, i haven’t touched it in months. when i pulled it out for today, i discovered a thick ring of scratches, usually associated with someone copying a disc. i remembered i lent it to my cousin Ro for ~4 months or so, so i called her up and asked her if she tried to copy it (mostly out of curiousity). she gave me a sheepish, vague-but-so-obviously-guilty answer of “i think so.” i think so? come on, Ro, please. just say ‘yes’ and i’ll forgive you. i mean, you copy EVERYTHING else i lend you – my dramas, my manga, my anime, my programs. Anti-virus that i paid $60 for won’t make a difference. it’ll just make me peeved.

well, yea. enough venting. i gotta go back to work.

by Alexis Cala, PICurrent Assistant Producer

Courtesy of Buggolo

Spammers are sending billions of spam, or junk emails all over the world using “swine flu” to trick people into opening messages. Your inbox could be next.

Every day 80 billion to 170 billion email messages are sent out, and about 90 percent of those are spam, according to McAffee security experts. Unfortunately, even cyber criminals are trying to cash in on the swine flu publicity and are using email as a way into your wallet, information, etc.

If you’re not sure, delete it.

The majority of people who do open these emails are directed to sites selling fake products, like vaccines or PDF documents. What they don’t know is that these sites are actually trying to install malware (tracking cookies, Trojans, worms, etc.) which steals information and/or can damage your computer (read the full story on Reuters).

Several groups recommend immediately deleting any e-mail messages with the following subject lines:

• Swine flu worldwide
• Swine flu in the USA
• US swine flue fears
• First US Sine flue victims
• Swine flu in Hollywood
• Selma Hayek or Madonna caught swine flu
• US swine flu statistics
• NY victims of swine flu
• First US swine flu victims

If you receive an email with one of these subject lines, don’t click any links or open any attachments!

The officials at the Better Business Bureau offer these tips to avoid swine flu spam:

• Do not open e-mails from unknown sources. Do not click on any website links in the body of suspicious e-mails or open any attachments.
• Keep anti-virus and anti-spyware software up-to-date. If your computer becomes infected as the result of a spam e-mail about swine flu, you can report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.
• Forward suspicious e-mail to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov

Visit our sister site, The Beehive, for more information and a great section on how to keep your computer safe.

For more:

PC World

USA Today

What is this?

Over dramatic? You talk to these assholes.

Basicly, I got kicked out of the band for not showing enough dedication. I practiced all night on some days just so that I could be as best as I could. They kicked me out without a moments notice, after telling me they had been planning it for weeks. Yep, don’t tell me you little shits, just let me live oblivious instead of taking action.

So this has got me onto the topic of backstabbers. I get backstabbed so much in my life, its unbelievable.  Anywho. lets get on to the current events so far. So… Swine Flu. I love it. Do you want to know why?

Thats right, I'm right in between Chipping Sodbury and Downend.

So, before you start moaning – The second human to human transfer was confirmed in Chipping Sodbury. I live a 5 minute walk from that blokes’ house. I have stepped up hygiene so much now… My room is getting disinfected daily and it is clean 24/7 – Its NEVER been like that.

Sorry I havent posted in over a month (!?) I’ve been doing coursework.

A huge hype is happening across the internet community about the latest “threat” to our systems. It is believed that the Conficker is a genuine virus, cleverly masked by the event tomorrow. It was previously thought that the Conficker or Downadup virus was probably a joke, and nothing to worry about however after recent study of infected machines, this could be much, much more.

The virus checks a list of over 50,000 websites for instructions on what it should do next – just one of these websites needs to be under the hacker’s control to tell the infected computers to do something, all at once. This is otherwise known as a botnet. Botnets have been known to be able to take down massive websites such as Microsoft and spread to various other machines.

Once the virus makes it’s way onto your system, it can be extremely hard to get rid of. It disables all vital security programs such as Avast, Mcaffee, AVG, Zone Alarm, Windows Firewall, Windows Update, Windows Defender and many keywords on domains such as “defend”, “remove” and “anti” are blocked by the virus.

“Scareware” producers have been taking advantage of this by creating fake Conficker removal tools, which are essentially keyloggers and will cause more harm to your system. They have been bumping their fake websites to the top of popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

Removing Conficker

Many websites are offering a tool to remove Conficker, however I would trust only two sources. **WHEN DOWNLOADING THESE FILES, ALWAYS CHECK THAT THE DOMAIN NAME IS THE SAME AS THE PRODUCT ON OFFER**. Below are some reccomended tools:

Microsoft’s Conficker Removal Tool
Ensure that windows update is ran as soon as possible, and keep checking for updates regularly. It is likely that when the botnet is activated (Estimation midnight TONIGHT) that Microsoft will release a variety of patches and security updates for all windows versions in order to stop conficker from ever making it onto your system.

If this is an april fools joke, it is probably the best planned joke ever.

It’s been awhile.  I want to start blogging again.  I really don’t have much of an excuse except that I’ve been busy…but that’s not really anything new.

Sunday night, I finally had the chance to sit down and relax.  I grabbed my laptop and went straight to my favorite celebrity gossips sites.  While reading about Lindsay Lohan’s latest debacle of drugs, lies, and whatnot on perezhilton.com, a little McAffee notice popped up and said it had blocked a tojan.  I thought, “great” and continued to read on…and then the same little message popped up again.  After my last account with a virus that killed my hard drive (thank goodness for a former co-worker who was magically able to suck all of my data out!), I got scared and went to shut my browser down.

Then, the IE pop up windows started going crazy.  There were about 8 of them, in all different shapes and sizes, that said I had a virus and to click here to buy anti virus removal software.  Right.  Like I’m that stupid.  Sitting next to self-proclaimed computer geeks at work for three years did teach me something   I went to my task manager to shut down the browser, and then re-opened it.  The pop ups went biserk again.  I was able to move them off to the side andcontinue to use the browser somewhat, so I googled virus 2009 (what the popups were referring to).  I found some really good information on how to remove it, and yay….no more virus! 

Morals of the story…be careful on perezhilton.com (I tried it again fro work and got virus notifications…not cool!), always use layers of anti-virus and malware protection, and never click to buy anything you’re not sure of!

UPDATE 4/13/09 – I was just watching my favorite journalist Harry Smith on the CBS Early Show, and apparently, this is Conficker!  Be careful…don’t click on anything you’re not sure of.  Quick check to make sure you’re not infected by Conficker:  http://www.joestewart.org/cfeyechart.html  Lucklily, I can see all of the images

I guess I am too used to working foreclosures and in general, real estate, so I really don’t want to discuss HOW I got the FakeAV virus – just how I got RID of it!

Firstly,  how did I know that my computer had a virus in the first place?  Honestly,  as anal as I am, I am paranoid about maintaining a clean computer, as much for my protection as for those with whom I am in communication (for which reason,  no-one has heard from me for three days!).  I was doing an Internet search for electricians, but what came up, was a list of dating sites.  HUH?  I am married and wouldn’t need a dating site!  I checked my search criteria, just in case I typed it incorrectly, but no….  I was correct!  Second guessing myself (as we do) I typed it in again and guess what?  I got dating sites again!

My next search (logically) was for new viruses,  as I have virus protection and assumed that the virus I might have was something not detected by my current program.  This time I got vacation resort sites!

Huh?  What the ———?  Just the mere typing of the word virus, took me to all and sundry sites EXCEPT for those that might give me information.  I launched my McAffee virus protection (and eradication) software only to find that ‘Scan’ etc, was grayed out!  Well naturally,  the virus didn’t want to be removed and therefore had disabled my protection software! Clever little virus, wasn’t it?

Now,  my biggest fear was that this type of virus (a Trojan or worm) is used by those criminals who reduce your computer to ‘zombie’ status, and use it as a mail server to launch thousands of e-mails!  Consider those ads that offer you X-thousands of mailouts for $Y.00?  Yup,  they’re coming from YOUR computer,  so when it is time to black list for spam,  it’s YOU they black list! And you don’t even know that your computer is being used!

This was Friday afternoon and thus started a weekend of virus hide and seek.  My first line of attack was to seek out all the files created in the last 24 hours (I would have expanded to the last week etc, had this not been successful) and sure enough,  I found a Windows file that was downloaded outside the update time frame.  Upon closer scrutiny, I noticed that this appeared to be a Microsoft file, BUT, checking the original name (through Properties) a non-Microsoft name was revealed with no manufacturer.

“Ah-HA!  Got you,  you little sucker”, I thought, and promptly deleted it!  There followed a list of 103 files generated in an around the time that I deleted the offending file!  What now?  It would appear as though deleting the master file, caused the virus to ’spawn’ hundreds of aliases in different folders.  “Aw…..  I don’t have time for this,  I thought ~  I’ll call a geek!”

Now understand that my Internet Explorer was giving me everything EXCEPT what I was searching for, so I fired up my laptop, found Best Buy and called them.  HOW MUCH?  $399 per incident to remove a virus (any virus) – $299 if I took my tower in!  You MUST be JOKING!  I remember telling the Best Buy person: “You can’t see me, but I don’t LOOK stupid, either!” Dang…  I’m in the wrong business!

Doing a little research on the Internet via my laptop,  I found the file extension of the spawned files (all three of them) and started searching and deleting the files, one by one. This added a new challenge – as I scrolled down the list of files,  the window would freeze, halting my system, but with each file that I deleted, I noticed that a file was being added to my Trash Can, but that nothing was visible when I opened the Trash Can window!  Sneaky – very sneaky!  Still,  I dutifully instructed my computer to empty the Trash Can and sure enough,  the file had gone from the list.

103 files,  103 deletions,  103 Trash Can empties. 103 painful file searches and 103 reboots and finally,  my McAffee would work to the point where I could scan for malware!  By the time I was done,  it was Monday morning at 11am,  but I was virus free, adware free and spyware free!  My system was so squeaky clean that it just plain glowed!

Just a word of advice:  Download McAffee Stinger (free from the McAffee web site) which will scan for 538 of the most virulent viruses, Trojans and variants.  Follow this up with Windows Defender (free from Microsoft.com) which will catch any spyware or adware that might still exist.

Oh…..  I must mention that when I was ready to tear my hair out this morning,  I called my son, who is possibly THE most knowledgeable IT person I have ever known.  It was he who pointed me in the direction of Stinger and Defender, but by that time, the virus had already been arrested and removed.  Still,  in all my ‘hacking’  I had made quite a mess of my Internet settings and really needed someone ‘in the know’ to check on what I had done!

Thanks, son…..  I guess I really am in diaper credit now!  (For those of you who might not understand the currency of diapers:  a mother leverages the years of diaper changes – “I changed your diapers….  I washed your diapers” etc.  Well,  by now,  my diaper bank account is sorely in overdraft!  LOL) 

As sons go,  I don’t know how he got so smart, while I am so dumb for having got that virus, when I really knew better!

–
Althea Garner
REALTOR (R) MBA, MCI, e-Pro
Executive Real Estate
House Of Homes Online
(714) 264-3458

Search over 50,000 listings at my web site:

http://www.HouseOfHomesOnline.com

Women’s Council of REALTORS(R):
Treasurer – 2008 (Coastal-West)
Webmaster – 2009 (Long Beach)
Editor – 2009 (Long Beach)
Education Committee – 2009 (California State)

Orange County Association of REALTORS(R):
Education Chair – 2009

The Answer is YES!! Finally, after ten years of being on the internet, there is an effective ,very simple program that gets rid of viruses and KEEPS them away. I have tried almost everything, AVG, Norton, McAffee, and other ‘free’ virus protections have done pretty well. However, if there was ever a problem with one of these, the support was either not available or it cost money to have support to a program that you already have purchased.