ELM Bulletin - March 31, 2009
Miscellaneous Affairs
This month's ELM Bulletin will be a just a brief discussion of some issues that I have been dealing with over the past few weeks.
1st – The Conficker Worm– By now you have most likely heard of the Conficker Worm that has had so much attention in the media lately; but your question might well be "Why?" The Conficker worm is the most recent variant in a chain of worms that first appeared late last year. This version has been programmed to check with its creators on April 1st for instructions on what it should be doing. The major security companies are not sure what it will be told to do at that time, nor are they entirely sure on the extent of its capabilities. All agree, however, that the Conficker Worm is a very sophisticated piece of work. That, in a nutshell, is the cause for concern.
What shouldn't people be doing? People shouldn't be doing what they shouldn't have been doing all along:
1. Opening suspicious email.
2. Downloading items (music, applications, pictures & etc.) from unknown or disreputable websites.
3. Responding "Yes" to every warning message without first reading it.
4. Giving account information to anyone who asks.
All of these are things that shouldn't be done.
What people should be doing is to:
1. Ensure that adequate protection is in place.
2. Appropriate precautions are being taken.
3. Ensuring that computer systems are up to date. (When updates are available for your Windows computer a notice will appear in the System Tray. These updates should be installed as they close many of Windows' vulnerabilities and can prevent worms such as Conficker from gaining a foothold in your system in the first place.)
2nd – Internet Explorer 8 & Spybot Search & Destroy– Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 last week. Having worked with it for several days now I can confirm that it is a great improvement over Internet Explorer 7; both in terms of security and performance. One problem that I ran into, however, was that it at first didn't seem to be as fast as promised. Researching this problem, I discovered that the Immunize feature of Spybot Search & Destroy could affect the performance of Internet Explorer 8. Once I reversed Spybot's immunization I found Internet Explorer 8 to work quite nicely.
If you are having the same problem, you can reverse Spybot's immunization by following these simple steps:
1. Start Spybot Search & Destroy
2. Click on the "Immunize" icon in the navigation panel at the left of the Spybot's window
3. Click on "Undo" at the top of Spybot's main panel
4. Spybot should now proceed through the immunization list and remove all immunizations
If you have an Internet security package installed the above changes will in no way impair your security when browsing and may actually speed up your Internet experience. The primary value of Spybot, beyond its immunization feature, is in its use as a secondary spyware scanner when you suspect your primary spyware scanner may have allowed something to slip by.
3rd – Installing "Rebellious" Updates– Something that has been bothering me since the last time I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled Windows was that I could not seem to get all the Windows Updates to install on my computer, particularly Vista Service Pack 1. This weekend I was able to resolve this problem without having to completely reinstall Windows from scratch. The problem was that updates were not being installed, and in some cases not even listed as being available, due to hardware conflicts between the update and my computer. Once I disabled all unnecessary hardware on my computer, and in some cases the supporting software, I was able to completely update my system with no trouble.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about this or any other issue.
Past issues of the ELM Bulletin are available from our website, feel free to forward them to anyone you wish.
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Peter Rhebergen Telephone |
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