DISCONNECT URSELF

1.  The issue of privacy browsing is a growing worry for  internet users including me.Various attempts in form of third party utilities,browsers offering incognito/privacy mode have been made and are being made in the current webosphere.In the search for handling these issues I recently came across this plugin...DISCONNECT.ME at http://disconnect.me/

2.   Next is straight lift extract from the site :

If you’re a typical web user, you’re unintentionally sending your browsing and search history with your name and other personal information to third parties and search engines whenever you’re online.


Take control of the data you share with Disconnect!.


From the developer of the top-10-rated Facebook Disconnect extension, Disconnect lets you:


• Disable tracking by third parties like Digg, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo, without requiring any setup or significantly degrading the usability of the web.


• Truly depersonalize searches on search engines like Google and Yahoo (by blocking identifying cookies not just changing the appearance of results pages), while staying logged into other services — e.g., so you can search anonymously on Google and access iGoogle at once.


• See how many resource and cookie requests are blocked, in real time.


• Easily unblock services, by clicking the toolbar button then services (and reloading current pages) — e.g., so you can play games on Facebook.


To learn more about online privacy and protecting yourself and find out when additional browsers are supported, subscribe to the Disconnect Newsletter at http://disconnectere.com/.


Disconnect is open-source software — you can get the code at http://j.mp/dsource.


Known Issues:


• The scary installation warning is explained at http://j.mp/dinstall (the text refers to Facebook Disconnect but also applies to Disconnect).


• Click the “d” button then the “Depersonalize searches” checkbox to turn search depersonalization on (or back off in case you have trouble getting to Google or Yahoo services).


• Search depersonalization isn’t yet implemented for international Google domains — google.fr, google.co.jp, et cetera.


• Yahoo has to be unblocked while you’re logging into Flickr or Delicious but can be blocked again afterwards.


• Unblocking Facebook isn’t possible while Facebook Disconnect is running — that extension will be autoupdated to be compatible with Disconnect in the next few days.


• You should unblock Google and Yahoo before disabling or uninstalling Disconnect — doing so will restore your cookies to their original state.


3. I have started using it without issues till now....download this at http://disconnect.me/

4.  Thanks disconnect.me

Our Browsing History Is Leaking into the Cloud!!!!

1. You do it on INCOGNITO mode or the PRIVACY mode or keep removing cookies to ensure that you are not being tracked or u think like your browsing history does not exist....this is going to shock you.....watch this video "DEFCON 19: Tracking the Trackers: How Our Browsing History Is Leaking into the Cloud"....click down to see....

2.  The summary goes like this....

 - 350 services get at least 1 % of your browsing activity

 - 33 services get at least 5% of your browsing activity

 - 16 services get at least 10% of your browsing activity

3.  Any solutions for avoiding......yes...the video itself gives you the solution ....and as on date millions have already adopted it...now that includes me tooo.....download the plugin for your respective browser from http://www.disconnect.me/

DUQU's MICROSOFT LINK!!!

1.   While as on date the security and anti virus teams and experts across the globe are racing to find and unlock the details on DUQU,some useful information on the subject bug has been released by Microsoft,which says that hackers exploited a previously unknown bug in its Windows operating system to infect computers with the Duqu virus."We are working diligently to address this issue and will release a security update for customers," Microsoft said.But on the other hand the odds are that Microsoft won't patch the Windows kernel bug next week that the Duqu remote-access Trojan exploits to plant itself on targeted PCs.

2.   Meanwhile,Symantec researchers said they consider hackers sent the virus to targeted victims via emails with infected Microsoft Word documents attached. If a recipient opened the Word document and infected the PC, the attacker could take control of the machine and reach into an organization's network to propagate itself and hunt for data, Symantec researcher Kevin Haley told Reuters. 

3. Thanks http://itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com and http://www.computerworld.com

RED PHONE : ENCRYPTED VOICE FOR ANDROID!!!

Here is something every android user would lov to use....AIM IS TO LISTEN AND SPEAK ON YOUR ANDROID HANDSET WITH INBUILT ENCRYPTION OF RED PHONE APPLICATION.......isn't it gr888888!!!

" RedPhone provides end-to-end encryption for your calls, securing your conversations so that nobody can listen in. It's easy to use, and functions just like the normal dialer you're accustomed to. RedPhone uses your normal mobile number for addressing, so there's no need to have yet another identifier or account name; if you know someone's mobile number you know how to call them using RedPhone. And when you receive a RedPhone call your phone will ring just like normal, even if it is asleep. "

Got this info from http://www.anti-forensics.com/blog.More at http://www.whispersys.com/index.html

SOME MORE ON DUQU

Some more good info and FAQs on DUQU.....AT
http://www.secureworks.com/research/threats/duqu/

BACKTRACK 5 : How to use ?

Recently uploaded a step by step with screen shot on how to use and benefit from BACKTRACK 5 on a virtual lab platform.....

Backtrack 5

DUQU : FROM THE GEN STUXNET????

1.  Do u remember the gr8 STUXNET...who hit the cyber theatres about a year back?....i call it gr8 since that was the first piece of trojan which the experts called with words like marvelous,the world's first 'open source weapon'.....the code which shocked the experts...though it was meant to target Siemens industrial software and equipment running Microsoft Windows....but the percentage affected was enough to do the early damage and show the trailor of what  can come ahead....now comes another in the offering which Researchers from Symantec say is likely written by the same authors and based on the same code.This is known as DUQU.....also coming to be known as “Son of Stuxnet” and a “precursor to a future Stuxnet-like attack.”

2. But another analyses by security researchers from Dell suggest Duqu and Stuxnet may not be closely related after all. That’s not to say Duqu isn’t serious, as attacks have been reported in Sudan and Iran. But Duqu may be an entirely new breed, with an ultimate objective that is still unknown.“Both Duqu and Stuxnet are highly complex programs with multiple components,” Dell says. “All of the similarities from a software point of view are in the ‘injection’ component implemented by the kernel driver. The ultimate payloads of Duqu and Stuxnet are significantly different and unrelated. 

3. The security vendor Bitdefender has also cast doubt on the supposed Duqu/Stuxnet link in its Malwarecity blog. “We believe that the team behind the Duqu incident are not related to the ones that released Stuxnet in 2010, for a number of reasons,” BitDefender’s Bogdan Botezatu writes. While a rootkit driver used in Duqu is similar to one identified in Stuxnet, that doesn’t mean it’s based on the Stuxnet source code.

4. Now till date,DUQU was reportedly seen infecting machines in and around IRAN......but now the Symantec version reported is that a server machine in aamchi Mumbai is effected by this new VIRUS!!!!!!!Indian authorities seized computer equipment from a data center in Mumbai as part of an investigation into the Duqu malicious software that some security experts warned could be the next big cyber threat. Two workers at a web-hosting company called Web Werks told Reuters that officials from India's Department of Information Technology last week took several hard drives and other components from a server that security firm Symantec Corp told them was communicating with computers infected with Duqu. 

5. So DUQU is here in INDIA.......and I m sure with the high percentage of pirated software users in India....we r the most vulnerable to such kinds of threat.....be updated...buy genuine....keep taking updates to avoid being EXPLOITED by EXPLOITS..................

6. Thanks http://arstechnica.com 

WIRESHARK Troubleshoot

1. The most common trouble that comes up first time users of Wireshark is that CAPTURE INTERFACE drop down shows the NPF not running and thus the interface list shows NIL.....

2. The small work to be done is that you need to install and then run WinPcap.So after you have installed Wireshark  and u have a shortcut of the application on the desktop...just right click the Wireshark  and run as the administrator.....should solve....

HIBERNATION MODE : HOW SAFE FOR YOU?

1. How often while using your PC u use the hibernation mode?I am sure that after reading the text below u r hardly going to use it owing to the serious compromise of your info of what you do and when you do ?

2. Ok…what do we mean by hibernation mode?......it simply means that via using this mode we are basically creating a snapshot of the contents of the computers RAM which is then saved to the root of the hard drive as “hiberfil.sys”!!!!This would now mean that the then current running applications and other data in RAM will be written to the hard disk.

3. For example, if we went into the hibernation mode with our browser still open…..then textual strings such as the last Google search performed or text from an open web page will be written to hard drive as the computer “hibernates”.

4. The Windows hiberfil.sys also become an issue while using encryption software such as TrueCrypt. If a Windows system is placed into hibernation mode without unmounting encrypted containers or volumes then the encryption keys used to access these containers will likely be left in RAM in plain-text. RAM will then be saved to the hard drive in the hiberfil.sys. This means that we will be leaving the keys (passwords) to all of your private containers and volumes free for the finding.

5. Ok…..if at all we get hold of the hiberfil.sys…is it going to be that easy to read all that hex dec info?...no certainly not…here come sandmen project for assistance….now whats SANDMEN PROJECT….pls google….in short it is a library which assists in parsing data from the hiberfil.sys.

Disable Hibernation mode on Windows XP:

• Right-click empty area on desktop

• Choose “Properties”

• Select the “Screen Saver” tab

• Click “Power…”

• Select the “Hibernate” tab

• Uncheck “Enable hibernation”

Disable Hibernation mode on Windows 7:

• Open “Control Panel”

• Click “Power Options”

• Click “Change plan settings” for you current power plan

• Click “Change advanced power settings”

• Expand “Sleep”

• Expand “Hibernate after”

• Enter “0″ for “Setting:” to set hibernate to “Never”

6.    Thanks http://www.anti-forensics.com

nVidia GeForce GPU cracks six character password in four seconds

1.  An nVidia GeForce GT220 graphics card, which costs about £30, is capable of cracking strong passwords in a matter of hours. Security experts were able to crack a  6 character password in 4 seconds, a 7 character password in less than 5 minutes, and 8 character password in four hours.So guys ...have mentioned it so many times earlier...even a password upto 14 character in length has been shown easy to crack when i discussed at a post here about one year back....so better take care of ur passwords...small case with few caps and special characters with numbers upto a length of 10-15 should do it for the time being....things r getting nasty in the hacking world.....take care....

2.  more about this at...here...here...here....here...

Common Malware Symptoms

If you are malware hit....u r likely to see one or few or all of these symptoms:

 Your programs and files are suddenly missing.
 Homepage of your web browser has changed.
 Search results are being redirected.
 You start ending up at websites you didn't intend to go to.
 New icons & programs appear on the desktop that you did not put there.
 Your desktop background has changed without your knowledge.
 Your programs won’t start.
 Your security protection have been disabled for no apparent reason.
 You cannot connect to the internet or it runs very slowly.
 Strange or unexpected toolbars appear in your web browser.
 Takes longer to start and runs more slowly than usual.
 Computer shows strange error messages or popups.
 Freezes or crashes randomly.
 Computer is performing actions on its own.
 You cannot access security related websites.

DEEP FREEZE : II

In continuation with the earlier post here....would like readers to read this for info and value addition

http://forums.techguy.org/all-other-software/708554-other-progams-like-deep-freeze.html

DEEP FREEZE : A way to protect ur system!!!

1. Deep Freeze, by Faronics, is an application available for the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and SUSE Linux operating systems which allows system administrators to protect the core operating system and configuration files on a workstation or server by restoring a computer back to its original configuration each time the computer restarts.The other interesting salient features are mentioned below :

-  Deep Freeze is a kernel-level driver that protects hard drive integrity by redirecting information being written to the hard drive or partition.

-  Leaves the original data intact. 

-  The directed information is no longer referenced once the computer is restarted, thus restoring the system to its original state at the disk sector level. 

-  Allows users to make 'virtual' changes to the system, giving them the appearance that they can modify core files or even delete them, and even make the system unusable to themselves, but upon reboot the originally configured 'frozen' state of the operating system is restored.

-  To make changes, a system administrator must 'thaw' the protected partition by disabling Deep Freeze, make any needed changes, and then 'freeze' it again by re-enabling Deep Freeze. These changes become part of the protected partition and will be maintained after restarts. 

2. Deep Freeze can also protect a computer from harmful malware, since it automatically deletes (or rather, no longer "sees") downloaded files when the computer is restarted. The advantage of using an application such as Deep Freeze antivirus / antimalware is that it uses almost no system resources, and does not slow your computer significantly. The disadvantage is that it does not provide real-time protection, therefore an infected computer would have to be restarted in order to remove malware. 

3. More at http://www.faronics.com/.Thanks WIKI......

XSS and CSS : Whats the difference ?

I often used to read XSS and CSS being read in the same context when i knew that CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets.There has been a lot of mixing up of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and cross site scripting. But actually when people are speaking of CSS in context of Cross site scripting what they actually mean is XSS only....its the same.....

CYBER SECURITY : ACTIVE ATTACKS

An active attack involves probing the netwrok to discover individual hosts to confirm the information gathered in the passive attack phase.A lsit of tools i recently read are listed below for info.These are small but great tools for experimenting....m doing it on a VMware machine......

arphound

arping

bing

bugtraq

dig

dnstracer

dsniff

filesnarf

findsmb

fping

fragroute

fragtest

hackbot

hmap

hping

httping

hunt

libwhisker

mailsnarf

msgsnarf

nbtscan

nessus

netcat

nikto

nmap

pathchar

ping

scanssh

smbclient

smtpscan

tcpdump

tcpreplay

thcamap

traceroute

urlsnarf

xprobe2

HDFC CLEAN BOWLED by Hidden SQL Injection Vulnerability

1.  Howoften do we find ourselves getting irritated with the constant reminders from banks to change passwords every 15 days...to include few small cases,few caps,few numbers and few special characters and more often then not 40% of the account holders forget keeping a tab on what was the last password.....Inspite of heavy claims by most of the banks that they have the highly secured banking netwrok here comes a boomrang for HDFC...inspite of ample number of warnings by zSecure , a firm committed in providing comprehensive and cost-effective Penetration Testing services Networks, Servers and Web application,HDFC had no inkling of what they were warned about and what was supposed to be done....simply banking on some third party solution and getting into a SURRENDER SITUATION.....the story goes like this

HDFC was warned about Hidden SQL Injection Vulnerability by the firm ZSECURE.The subject vulnerability was discovered on 15-July-2011 and was reported on 17-July-2011 (reminder sent on 24-July-2011). The HDFC Bank’s team took around 22 days to respond to our e-mail and their first response came on 08-August-2011 with a message:

“Thank you for sending us this information on the critical vulnerability. We have remediated the same.“

After their e-mail, we again checked the status of said vulnerability and found that the vulnerability was still active on their web portal. We immediately replied to their email with additional proof of vulnerability and asked them to fix the same asap. Later on, after 2 days we again received an e-mail from their team with a message:

“We have remediated all the vulnerability reported on our website. Also we have got the application vulnerability assessment performed through one of our third party service provider and they confirmed that there are no more SQL Injection vulnerability.“

Their above response left us with an unexpected surprise. We were not able to believe that such a big organization doesn’t have proper vulnerability assessment in place because we already reported the vulnerability to them and even after conducting vulnerability assessment from a third party (as claimed) they were not able to find the active vulnerability in their web-portal.Thereafter, we sent complete inputs about the vulnerability to their security team and finally the vulnerable file was removed from HDFC’s web-server.

2.  The story goes on to confirm how much vulnerable we all are to such holes.Not blaming the bank singly,but the policies and the measures supposed to be taken and adopted have no firm policies on date.It is entirely left to the third party dependency solution....its high time for all banks to constantly take measures and keep itself updated to all new vulnerabilities hanging around......

3.  Thanks http://www.zsecure.net

CHINA CAUGHT ON WRONG FOOT in its own MARCH

1. Across the globe ,across all the cyber attacks investigated one thing that comes out common is the source of attack ie CHINA.As always China has been always denying all claims and has been doing reverse propoganda of actually deep rooted spoofing and involvement of other countries.But recently it was caught on the wrong foot in front of the international nietizens....

2.   Below is the extract straight from FEDERAL COMPUTING WEEK penned as China provides smoking gun against itself in cyberattacks by John Breeden II

" But now, thanks to China itself, I have proof that the People’s Liberation Army does attack the United States, and likely does so on a regular basis.

China’s claims of innocence have come crashing down because of an apparent mistake in editing in a documentary on the country’s own state TV that should never have gone live. The PLA presentation demonstrated its military capabilities. Amid all the tanks and planes, the propaganda piece showed a mere four seconds inside the group's cyber warfare center.Without narration, one has to think that the cybersecurity part of the piece was only put into the video by accident, a technical background shot placed between segments for a bit of extra color. However, those four seconds are both telling and damning to the Chinese lie that they don’t attack the United States.

Here is the incredible part: During those four seconds, we clearly see a Chinese soldier use a drop-down list to choose from preset target websites around the world. Then he actually attacks a website in Alabama.

In this case, the website was setup to support Falun Gong, a spiritual movement outlawed in China that practices meditation and a philosophy that emphasizes moral responsibility.

Even though all the targets shown in the four-second video were Falun Gong sites around the world, the fact that they were in a drop-down menu is telling and appalling. You don’t set up drop-down menus with attack buttons unless you plan to use them. And the Chinese military did push the attack button in the video, so apparently it has no problem pulling the trigger.

So to all you people who wanted to know where my smoking gun was, watch the video. It’s clear to me that we are under attack from China right now.

It’s time for China to own up to what it is doing. Or it’s time for the United States to do something about it."

3. The video link is shown below for info of all.Watch it carefully!!!!

4. Thanks http://fcw.com

touched........20,000

thanks 2 all visitors.....

Now Aerial cyber attack!!!!r u safe anyway?

"Imagine sitting in a cofee house with your laptop and chatting with your dear friend.....and then calling a friend on your phone and then paying your bill and moving out for ur regular work"

1.    Now imagine some thing u never imagined.....all what you chatted and all what you spoke on phone in the cafe house is compromised....all saved at a location unknown to you....

2.    Two security professionals proved as much at the Black Hat cybersecurity convention in Las Vegas.This has been made possible after investing a few thousand bucks, a tool box and some technical skill like these two security professionals,Richard Perkins and Mike Tassey have done.These two guys have assembled a small, unmanned airplane that is capable of some truly remarkable and potentially disastrous hacks.

3.    Perkins is a security engineer supporting the U.S. government and Tassey is a security consultant for Wall Street firms. But after work, the long-time buddies would take off their cyber attack prevention hats, put on their evil hacker thinking caps, and build their airplane in Perkins' garage.

4.    The plane can wreak lots of havoc.

- For instance, it can fly over a Starbucks (SBUX, Fortune 500) and steal the personal information of everyone connected to the coffee shop's free Wi-Fi network. It can intercept your cell phone conversations and even reroute your calls to another number. It can trace the location of specific people and follow them home.

- Perkins and Tassey spent a total of just $6,190 to build the plane. They made a point to keep it relatively cheap and to buy components that were readily available to prove that literally anyone could make one."You don't need a Ph.D. from MIT to do this," said Perkins. "There are no custom parts, it was fabricated using hand tools, and very little coding is required. All you need is dedicated people."

5.    Thanks CNN

IBM developing PCs that may run 30 times faster

1.   A one-atom-thick layer of carbon has currently become the focus of interest of IBM and the U.S. military to build computers that function at near the speed of light.

2.  The focus is actually based on GRAPHENE, the thinnest and toughest material ever produced, that conducts electricity, a breakthrough that opens the door to its use in digital electronics

3.   Some key finding on GRAPHINE :

- Graphene is the basic structural element of some carbon allotropes including graphite, charcoal, carbon nanotubes and fullerenes.

- Graphene conducts electricity 30 times faster than silicon -- approaching the speed of light

- Until recently, use of graphene was limited to development of more-efficient batteries and foldable touch screens.

- Nokia, the world’s largest maker of mobile phones by volume, is investigating the material’s potential use in cell phones, touch screens, and printed electronics. 

- Graphene’s flexibility and strength is astonishingly 300 times tougher than steel - may lead to the Nokia Morph, the first foldable phone.

- “With a graphene battery the same amount of weight and volume as a current one, you could drive 300 miles instead of 100,” said Yuegang Zhang, a principal investigator at the lab. 

- Graphene has the ideal properties to be an excellent component of integrated circuits. Graphene has a high carrier mobility, as well as low noise, allowing it to be used as the channel in a FET.

4.     Thanks Wiki and electroiq

JAVA SE DEVELOPMENT KIT NOT FOUND!!!!

1.   On way to experiment with android application with the stand SDK toolkit....i got messed up with the installation procedure so much that i thought of just leaving it..... in spite of all java installed  i got this screen.....

2.   I read all trouble shoots of on JAVA site.....some diverted me to registry editors and what not.......till i got the correct answer...simply click BACK and then NEXT again......khatam...thats the end of it.....

ANDROID APPLICATIONS CLONED : Developers make it spam

1.    The latest to add on to the growing web of spams is repackaged android applications.....though till now most of the descried repackaged applications are not reported to have any malicious code in them and also like the genuine ones they are also made available for free. These effected applications have the same module as the original, but include an advertisement module ,thus developers of these apps try making money off the clicks on the advertisements.

2.   The thing is easy on part of the developers since it is easier on thier part to just fiddle with original Android apps which are written in Java and are, therefore, easily cloned.....

3.   Thanks www.f-secure.com

Your VOICE to charge your MOBILE

1.     Amazing as it may sound reading.....but here is the way thats gonna please us all to get resolved on issues of mobile charging...so many times it has happened that on our way out either we think the mobile is fully charged or when we talk too much on phone.....or just when one small query will resolve us of a standing problem...the mobile goes offffff......problem : MOBILE BATTERY IS DRAINED ....no more.....please read ahead for brief details on the subject....

2.   The new technique developed by Korean engineers for turning sound into electricity - technology that could allow cell phones to be charged while users chat(...bak bakk).Thus Phones equipt with the technology could generate power from any kind of background noise — meaning the phone could be charging even when you’re not speaking directly into the phone. The need to carry around an outlet charger could be supplanted by time spent listening to music, or perhaps even the sound of the wind roaring past your car window.The technology is made possible by tiny strands of zinc oxide that are sandwiched between two electrodes. As a sound-absorbing pad atop the device vibrates to ambient noise, causing the zinc oxide wires to compress and release. This movement is what generates the electrical current.A prototype has already converted sound of about 100 decibels into about 50 millivolts of electricity. That’s not enough to charge a phone, but it’s an encouraging test, and researchers are optimistic that the technology could soon be developed into something more powerful.

3. Thanks http://blogs.forbes.com/  and http://inhabitat.com

MAKE incognito YOUR DEFAULT SETTING

1.    We all know how to browse hidden ie Pages you view in this window won't appear in your browser history or search history, and they won't leave other traces, like cookies, on your computer after you close the incognito window. Commonly it is known as "incognito" or "privacy browsing".......an avid user of chrome ....I always had to open the browser and then select "New Incognito Window" to work...but not till today....a simple amendment in the target setting of properties of chrome shortcut will always make you open the incognito window......simply append "--incognito" at the end of the link address as shown below : 

C:\Users\???????\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --incognito

2.    More clearly ...right click on the chrome shortcut on the task bar or on the desk top and click properties.In the target text box append "--incognito" to what is already there defining the location of the chrome browser....

3.     Thats it......

FLIRT BOTS

1.   I am sure most of you at at some point of time in your cyber surfing would have come across chat/messenging softwares like MSN or yahoo to mention a few....now although pretty old for the regular security guys, but thought of mentioning it here in my blog of how many of us succumb to the meanly desires of hackers via FLIRT BOTS.....u heard it correctly they are known as FLIRT BOTS.... 

2.  Here's how Flirt Bots work:

- The Bot strikes up a conversation in a chat room

- The Bots use a series of easily configurable "dialogue scenarios" with pre-programmed questions and discussion topics to compile a report on every person it meets

E.g.: ilovyou@yahoo.com says: "hey, whats up?" and further to this conversation they are invited to visit a website which could be used for any variety of malicious activity.

E.g.: ilovyou@yahoo.com says: "Ok go to http://??????.??/?????? and accept the invite on the page baby"

3.   In this case the victim is sent to a website "?????????.com" and is asked to provide personal information including credit card details in order to view the "webcam."

4.   The site can be used for many things - to host malicious downloads, or to try to sell you Fake AntiVirus software. The URL can do and host whatever the "bot master" specifies it to be .Frequently cyber-criminals collect a database of personal information and sell it to the highest bidder or anyone who will pay

5.   These "Flirt Bots", were first reported as a proof of concept(Evidence that demonstrates that a business model or idea is feasible.) by PC Tools in 2007.Thanks http://www.pctools.com

SYMANTEC SPOTS ONE INTERESTING E-MAIL CAMPAIGN

1. A fresh spam outbreak has been detected online that's drawing attention widely and effects users with e-mails laced with malicious software. Reportedly, there's one web-link embedded in the spam messages supposedly providing details, while the same messages try to pull down a .zip file attachment.The interesting aspect regarding the new spam mail relates to the inclusion of a password that the recipient earlier used.Now if I see a passowrd which at one point of my cyber surfing I had used it is bound to stirr up doubts of it being actually genuine.Once i donwload this zip file ,the eventual aim is achieved ie downloading the inevitably malware.

2. Reportedly, the malware as mentioned above has been identified as Trojan.Zbot or Zeus a Trojan which tries to grab secret data after compromising an end-user's PC. Further, it may take down updates and configuration files online, according to Symantec.

3. Additionally the e-mail ids and their corresponding passwords within the above unsolicited electronic mails, arrive from one prominent social gaming website, known internationally and currently being most widespread inside Asia.

4. Hence, Symantec advises all those who think they've fallen prey to compromised accounts to scan their PCs with an AV program followed with resetting all vital passwords, particularly online banking passwords. Additionally, they must also keep a watch over their accounts should they suspect any fraudulent operation.

5. Thanks http://www.spamfighter.com

BULLET PROOF HOSTING

1. Bulletproof hosting refers to a technique wherein web hosting firms permit their customers appreciable leniency in the kinds of material they may upload and distribute. 

2. Many service providers have "Terms of Service" that do not allow certain materials to be uploaded/distributed, or the service to be used in a particular way, and may suspend a hosting account, after a few complaints, to minimize the risk of their IP subnet being blocked by anti-spam filters using Internet Protocol (IP) based filtering. Additionally, some service providers may have ethical concerns that underpin their service terms and conditions.

3. Bullet Proof Hosting allows people who want to promote their product, service on their web site by sending Commercial and Bulk Emails. As well known, Email Marketing has emerged as one of the most effective and economical marketing tool. It gives you the power to broadcast your message to millions of prospects across the world and it works!

4. This leniency has been taken advantage of by spammers and providers of online gambling or pornography.Case in point is the case of "McColo ISP takedown in November 2008".McColo was one of the leading players in the so-called "bulletproof hosting" market — ISPs that will allow servers to remain online regardless of complaints.

5. Thanks http://bulletproof-server.net/

INSPIRED FROM INDIA : CHINAs ATTEMPT ON TAKING ON CORRUPTION

1.    In recent last few months,a lot has been happening in India in form of anshans,demonstrations,dharna's to bring back the black money freezing in swizz banks and to reduce corruption...so far so good...the spark happened and is now gradually bowing to the Government which ensure and loves STATUS QUO.....atleast thier wasy of working confirms this....instead of supporting the movement...they took the key persons involved head on and now in another about a week or so we will be back to STATUS QUO...

2.    But China's esurient Internet users are taking a leaf from India's anti-corruption drama by opening websites so citizens can confess, sometimes in pitiless detail, to buying off officials.Several Chinese confess-a-bribe websites, including "I Made a Bribe" (www.ibribery.com), have been inspired by an Indian website "I paid a bribe" (ipaidabribe.com)......china ranks 78th in the corruption list whereas we list at the 87th rank...m sure it is much worse.....apna nahee to kisi aur ka to bhala hoga........jai ho INDIAAAAAAAAAA

3.     Thanks http://www.reuters.com

McMurdo station & more DATA CENTRE Locations

1.    We all keep reading on issues like heating when we discuss data centres......now with the problems that datacenters have with cooling, the Antarctic is perhaps the ideal site for such a facility....i thought that was a joke before i first read about this and saw the pics on site at here

2.     The station's datacentre is dedicated to supporting scientific work and running the station - with 64 servers and more than 2PB of storage connected to hundreds of desktops by a gigabit Ethernet network.McMurdo Station is the telecoms hub for science projects, field camps and operations in western Antarctica funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).To provide these services, it has a central telephone exchange and a wide spectrum of network, radio-frequency and satellite-communication systems.At the South Pole, every day up to 100GB of science data is transferred from the station to the US via satellite-communication links in support of multiple NSF-funded science projects.

3.    Thanks DIGIT.

HOW DO U FIND IF YOUR PC IS HACKED?- PART 6

FIND COMMAND

1.   Most of the commands I have discussed so far spew a lot of output on the screen, which could be hard for a human to look through to find a specific item of interest. But, Windows comes to the rescue. Users can search through the output of a command using the built-in find and findstr commands in Windows. The find command looks for simple strings, while findstr supports regular expressions, a more complex way to specify search patterns. Because the regular expressions supported by findstr go beyond the scope of this tip article, let's focus on the find command. By default, find is case sensitive - use the /i option to make it case insensitive.

2.    The find command also has the ability to count. Invoked with the /c command,it'll count the number of lines of its output that include a given string.Users often want to count the number of lines in the output of a command to determine how many processes are running, how many startup items are present  or a variety of other interesting tidbits on a machine. To count the lines of output, users could simply pipe their output through find /c /v "". This command will count (/c) the number of lines that do not have (/v) a blank line ("") in them. By counting the number of non-blank lines, the command is,in effect, counting the number of lines.

3.  Now, with the find command, users can look through the output of each of the commands I've discussed so far to find interesting tidbits. For example , to look at information every second about cmd.exe processes running on a machine, type:

C:\> wmic process list brief /every:1 | find "cmd.exe"

Or, to see which autostart programs are associated with the registry hive H KLM, run:

C:\> wmic startup list brief | find /i "hklm"

To count the number of files open on a machine on which openfiles accounting is activated, type:

C:\> openfiles /query /v | find /c /v ""

Whenever counting items in this way, remember to subtract the number of lines associated with column headers. And, as a final example, to see with one-second accuracy when TCP port 2222 starts being used on a machine, along with the process ID using the port, run:

C:\> netstat -nao 1 | find "2222"

THANKS www.amazingit.blogspot.com

HOW DO U FIND IF YOUR PC IS HACKED?- PART 5

NETSTAT COMMAND

1.  The Windows netstat command shows network activity, focusing on TCP and UDP by default. Because malware often communicates across the network, users can look for unusual and unexpected connections in the output of netstat, run as follows:

C:\> netstat –nao

2.  The -n option tells netstat to display numbers in its output, not the names of machines and protocols, and instead shows IP addresses and TCP or UDP port numbers. The -a indicates to display all connections and listening ports. The -o option tells netstat to show the processID number of each program interacting with a TCP or UDP port. If, instead of TCP and UDP, you are in interested in ICMP, netstat can be run as follows:

C:\> netstat -s -p icmp

3.   This indicates that the command will return statistics (-s) of the ICMP protocol. Although not as detailed as the TCP and UDP output, users can see if a machine is sending frequent and unexpected ICMP traffic on the network. Some backdoors and other malware communicate using the payload of ICMP Echo messages, the familiar and innocuous-looking ping packets seen on most networks periodically.

4.  Like WMIC, the netstat command also lets us run it every N seconds. But, instead of using the WMIC syntax of "/every:[N]", users simply follow their netstat invocation with a space and an integer. Thus, to list the TCP and UDP ports in use on a machine every 2 seconds, users can run:

C:\> netstat -na 2

HOW DO U FIND IF YOUR PC IS HACKED?- PART 4

OPENFILES COMMAND

1.  Many Windows administrators are unfamiliar with the powerful openfiles command built into Windows. As its name implies, this command shows all files that are opened on the box, indicating the process name interacting with each file. It's built into modern versions of Windows, from XP Pro to Vista. Like the popular ls of command for Linux and Unix, it'll show administrators all open files on the machine, giving the process name and full path for each file. Unlike lsof, however, it doesn't provide many more details, such as process ID number, user number and other information.

2.  Considering the volume of information it gathers, it's no surprise that the openfiles command is a performance hog. Thus, the accounting associated with

openfiles is off by default, meaning users can't pull any data from this command until it is turned on. This function can be activated by running:

C:\> openfiles /local on

3.  Users will need to reboot, and when the system comes back, they will be able to run the openfiles command as follows:

C:\> openfiles /query /v

4.  This command will show verbose output, which includes the user account that each process with an open file is running under. To get an idea of what malware has been installed, or what an attacker may be doing on a machine,users should look for unusual or unexpected files, especially those associated with unexpected local users on the machine.

5.   When finished with the openfiles command, its accounting functionality can be shut off and the system returned to normal performance by running the following command and rebooting:

C:\> openfiles /local off

HOW DO U FIND IF YOUR PC IS HACKED?- PART 3

1.  While WMIC is a relatively new command, let's not lose site of some useful older commands. One of my favourites is the venerable "net" command. Administrators can use this to display all kinds of useful information. For example, the "net user" command shows all user accounts defined locally on the machine. The "net localgroup" command shows groups, "net localgroup administrators" shows membership of the administrators group and the "net start" command shows running services.

2.  Attackers frequently add users to a system or put their own accounts in the administrators groups, so it's always a good idea to check the output of these commands to see if an attacker has manipulated the accounts on a machine. Also, some attackers create their own evil services on a machine, so users should be on the lookout for them.

More here.....

HOW DO U FIND IF YOUR PC IS HACKED?- PART 2

1.    WMIC stands for Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line It lets administrative users access all kinds of detailed information about a Windows machine, including detailed attributes of thousands of settings and objects. WMIC is built into Windows XP Professional, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista.

C:\> wmic process

2.    When you run this command, the output may not be an easy to understand format but the same can be formatted in several different ways, but two of the most useful for analysing a system for compromise are the "list full" option, which shows a huge amount of detail for each area of the machine a user is interested in, and the "list brief" output, which provides one line of output per report item in the list of entities, such as running processes, autostart programs and available shares. For example, we can look at a summary of every running process on a machine by running:

C:\> wmic process list brief

3.   That command will show the name, process ID and priority of each running process, as well as other less-interesting attributes.

C:\> wmic process list full

4.   This command shows all kinds of details, including the full path of the executable associated with the process and its command-line invocation. When

investigating a machine for infection, an administrator should look at each process to determine whether it has a legitimate use on the machine, researching unexpected or unknown processes using a search engine.

5.   Beyond the process alias, users could substitute startup to get a list of all auto-start programs on a machine, including programs that start when the system boots up or a user logs on, which could be defined by an auto-start registry key or folder:

C:\> wmic startup list full

6.   A lot of malware automatically runs on a machine by adding an auto-start entry alongside the legitimate ones which may belong to antivirus tools and various system tray programs. Users can look at other settings on a machine with WMIC by replacing "startup" with "QFE" (an abbreviation which stands for Quick Fix Engineering) to see the patch level of a system, with "share" to see a list of Windows file shares made available on the machine and with "useraccount" to see detailed user account settings.

7.   A handy option within WMIC is the ability to run an information-gathering command on a repeated basis by using the syntax "/every:[N]" after the rest of the WMIC command. The [N] here is an integer, indicating that WMIC should run the given command every [N] seconds. That way, users can look for changes in the settings of the system over time, allowing careful scrutiny of the output. Using this function to pull a process summary every 5 seconds, users could run:

C:\> wmic process list brief /every:1

Hitting CTRL+C will stop the cycle.

More good examples here