:-)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7784908.stm

09:20 GMT, Tuesday, 16 December 2008

Serious security flaw found in IE

Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

The flaw in Microsoft's Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people's computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say.

Microsoft urged people to be vigilant while it investigated and prepared an emergency patch to resolve it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7787445.stm

Microsoft plans quick fix for IE

Microsoft is due to issue a patch to fix a security flaw believed to have affected as many as 10,000 websites.

The emergency patch should be available from 1800 GMT on 17 December, Microsoft has said.

I heard those reports on the BBC but could find nothing on the Microsoft site.

Has anyone seen any other references to this problem that are not attributable to the BBC?

Microsoft plans emergency Internet Explorer patch

Nearly 2 million PCs infected by bug
December 17, 2008

Microsoft is releasing an emergency security fix for Internet Explorer that will patch a bug that's plaguing the browser.

It's thought that nearly two million computers have been infected by the bug, which allows hackers to steal personal data including passwords if the browser is used to navigate a compromised website. It's been estimated that nearly 10,000 compromised websites currently exist on the web.

10,000 websites??? Sounds like a specific problem attributable to a tiny percentage of the global number of websites.

My OE 'Deleted Items' folder is full of links to them:

Even CEOs consult us (obtain a fully verifiable University Degree)
Nationwide Online Banking Security Upgrade
Msg me when ya get a second (pharmacy at unbelievable savings)
Perfect for men and women (miracle weight loss)
The ultimate in prestige and luxury (luxury designer brand timepieces from $49)
Name Brand remedy for cheap (Number 1 online pharmacy)
lowest price name brand remedy (Exclusive Internet pharmacy)

I have not given any of the links, which accompany them.

Shouldn't your spam filter prevent you from receiving these via OE? Your ISP should filter them out & allow you to see them by directly accessing your ISP e-mail account.

Exec's link points to an article by someone at PC World so it must be true ;)

My ISP is BTInternet.com.

As regards to spam being filitered out by them - Not so!

Not a lot of it, but some of it doesn't even have anything like my e-mail address so I cannot see, for the life of me, why that is the case. However, there are only about 2 or 3 of the latter per two or three days and I simply cannot be bothered to telephone BT and sit on the line pressing '1 for this' and '2 for that', etc.

In total, I would say I get about 6 to 10 spam e-mails per day. So they are easily and highly manageable just yet.

I've never used OE so I might be missing a point.

I use NPOw to see what is in my compuserve mailbox and simply delete anything that smells of spam. My wife was getting up to 40 a day last week - but they have died away now.

Only when the mailbox contain safe messages do I download them with my Virtual Access.

I'd have thought it highly dangerous to have any software downloading everything it finds at your ISP - but I do think I must be missing the point somehow.

TP

Our company eliminated 95% of Spam by adding a resend delay to mail coming from unknown sources. Put simply, our mail system says to such mail "hang on, I'm a bit busy, please try again soon" and adds the name to a Greylist. If the remote sender tries again (the recommended interval for mail systems is 10 minutes or so), we accept the mail next time adding something like

X-Greylist: delayed for 00:13:45 at (istgate.ist.co.uk [192.35.198.250])

to the header (which means that the mail was delayed by 13 mins and 45 secs)..

This works because most bulk mail systems don't bother trying again (too busy sending huge amounts of junk). But it can only be implemented by people that have their own server hosting their own domain.

Find out what is really running on your computer!

Hit the red 'Help' button in the box. Then let the analysis begin. This will tell you if there's anything untoward running or present on your machine.

And also from the same site, SuperAntiSpyware is brilliant. The 'Professional' version of the same program is even better.

Details of the Interbet Explorer vulnerability can be found at Security Advisory 961051.

Also, the Technet blog is here http://blogs.technet.com/swi/archive/2008/12/12/Clarification-on-the-various
-workarounds-from-the-recent-IE-advisory.aspx and a list of some infected sites.

Edit link should now work.

ExecLine - Likewise, I used to have a @btinternet.com account, but the spam I received was relentless, even with a spam filter which you have to set by going to your account via the BTInternet web page. The amount of Viagra spam I received started to make me think I was underperforming! Then I discovered the girlfriend was receiving the same thing, so then I knew I was!!!
Am now with Orange & their spam filter is absolutely 100% (so far).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/microsoft/3812567/Internet-Explorer-security-alert-how-to-protect-your-computer.html

Anyhow, I've done my Security Update from the above Telegraph link.

Not looked in here for a while.
Funny, I was just saying to a girliefriend today, I very rarely get any kind of spam even in my spambox in my hottie account (never in the inbox) - but btinternet is just out of control, with an increasing number landing in my inbox. Her private one is Yahoo, which is even worse, so she's resorted to using her business account for friends, which is spam-free.

Same old questions, I'm afraid:
Vista machine - how can I tell if I'm defragging?
Tried it a few times, and there is absolutely nothing to tell me if it's working.

Windows updates - they always get me sooner or later.
And then I have the same old relentless problem - always with a new twist - to re-activate my 2nd screen. I never know what I've done to achieve activation - always just relieved until the next time :S

Chocolat

In Vista, Startbutton, type defrag in the searc h box and select Disk Defragmenter. The window that pops up allows you to schedule a regular defrag, manually run and also gives the time of the last run. When it is running, the bottom portion shows the status but not a percentage bar.

To enable your second monitor, right click the desktop background and select Personalize then select Display Settings. Click the 2nd monitor and check Extend the desktop onto this monitor.

Lately, searching on Google seems to bring up a lot of fake results. For example, go to google.com, type "Gann techniques" and you will see the first result shows a link to "freescan.microsoft.com/gann.html" and that link has NOTHING to do with Gann techniques! Click the "Search" button again and this time it shows far more legitimate links. Is anyone else experiencing a similar problem?