Sub note. The program does "cause" some problems. It interfeared with Juno, My IP, and seemed to slug the computer a little. I have 1Gb ram.
It still has it uses, And i may use it occationally, and then delete it.
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MS Anti-Spyware Free Beta
This is where you can discuss your homework, family, just about anything, make strange sounds and otherwise discuss things which are really not related to the Lancer-series. Yes that means you can discuss other games.
59 posts
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Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:49 pm
Clears your trails? Bah! You should know by now that when it comes from them, 'clear' or 'delete' really means 'permanently save in a fashion that's next to impossible to delete, and easy for them to use to find your personal information.' A good friend of my brother's had a problem with this. As a web designer he made, of course, thousands of keystrokes per day more than average, which (alledgedly) are recorded on your computer. I haven't affirmed this, but what I have really seen about your internet history, cache, and cookies when you use IE is seen here:
Really Hidden Files
Hope that opens a few eyes...
Edited by - J Dawg on 1/7/2005 7:49:26 PM
Really Hidden Files
Hope that opens a few eyes...
Edited by - J Dawg on 1/7/2005 7:49:26 PM
Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:50 am
Mozilla Foundation browser users have been warned to be on the look-out for two new flaws in their browsers. SecurityFocus has released a security warning covering a series of problems affecting the browsers on a variety of platforms.
The first could allow the source of downloads to be spoofed. It affects the latest versions of both Firefox and Mozilla and is explained in detail on Bugzilla. The problem relates to the way the downloads dialog box displays long filenames - by default, sticking in some unusual characters can prevent part of a download URL from being displayed. This could make a file appear to be coming from a genuine source when it's actually on a completely different server. Users are warned to not follow links from untrusted sources.
Users face a second problem connected to the way the browsers handle news:// links to newsgroups. Hackers could create malicious links to news servers which cause a buffer overflow, allowing them to inject hostile code into systems. It's understood to affect versions of Mozilla before 1.7.5; Firefox users were also warned to ensure they were running v1.0 to minimise the risks.
Finally, a third problem affects the Firefox/Thunderbird combination. It's said to be a bit less serious than the first two, but involves temporary files being stored in a way which means anyone could look at files people have been downloading on the same machine.
Article from Neowin
Seems IE isn't the only vulnerable browser out there.
As for MS tracking your every movement on your keyboard, c'mon! Like they have time or care what you're doing. They obviously will investigate and tap into possible threats such as known hackers and virus/trojan writers, but thinking MS cares about your every move is being somewhat paranoid, eh? How many computers are running Windows in the world? A billion maybe? I'm not exactly concerned about it, and they'd need an army of about a million people to accurately monitor all systems running windows in the world. If they really want to know what web sites I visit, go for it. The person watching me will be quite bored. I think you way overestimate MS's abilities and intentions.
Sat Jan 08, 2005 5:43 am
Final - I haven't proved that MS have made a good program at all. After all, if it had found some spyware or a trojan on my PC that had eluded my precautions, I may have been (slightly) impressed. As it is, it picked up nothing... I might as well have never installed it! 
Dawg - Very interesting, and a lot of that is still relevant today. For example, if you are running XP, check under "Documents and Settings" -> "Local Service" -> "Temporary Internet Files" you will see the "Content.IE5" folder with all of those "MK3PH01S" sort of sub-directories. They're still up to their old tricks
. May I just say that, although that article is a bit dated, *why* are some of you still using IE? Change to Mozilla or Firefox now. Don't make me *thwack* you! *looks in the direction of IE-using posters like Nickless* 
Chips - It didn't pick up anything? Hmm, maybe you and I are doing something wrong .
Boscoe - Indeed. Flaws have been discovered in both Mozilla, Firefox, and Thunderbird. Still, consider how many are being discovered in IE every week. That being the case, I know which broweser *I* trust (comparatively speaking)
.
sw - Does that *really* surprise you considering the authentication that is required to update Windows?
Dawg - Very interesting, and a lot of that is still relevant today. For example, if you are running XP, check under "Documents and Settings" -> "Local Service" -> "Temporary Internet Files" you will see the "Content.IE5" folder with all of those "MK3PH01S" sort of sub-directories. They're still up to their old tricks
. May I just say that, although that article is a bit dated, *why* are some of you still using IE? Change to Mozilla or Firefox now. Don't make me *thwack* you! *looks in the direction of IE-using posters like Nickless*
Chips - It didn't pick up anything? Hmm, maybe you and I are doing something wrong
.
Boscoe - Indeed. Flaws have been discovered in both Mozilla, Firefox, and Thunderbird. Still, consider how many are being discovered in IE every week. That being the case, I know which broweser *I* trust (comparatively speaking)
.
sw - Does that *really* surprise you considering the authentication that is required to update Windows?
Sat Jan 08, 2005 8:50 am
IE only exsists on my computer for my parent's usage now. I've been using Firefox and Opera for about a year now... things have improved infinately. Interesting to see that MS is so frequently one step behind the third party software companies who make a simpler, more effective product thats.... free. My point about every one of your actions being recorded is not that they are monitoring everything in real time, but that they (or a deviant employee) have the ability to go in and see all your personal histories, credit card numbers etc. No matter how careful you are, computer security should only be trusted half as far as you can throw it. Or less.
Sat Jan 08, 2005 10:39 am
Actually I'm typing this on my old Compaq POS laptop as my wife and daughter have hijacked my computer. The "y" key is missing so I have to go real slow, but that's fine since this laptop is 5 years old and as slow as mollasses going uphill on a cold day.
However, if I held it like a discus, spun around a few times, I could probably heave this thing most of the way down a football field. So, I guess I should trust the laptop then? (j/k)
@sw, that IS funny! I guess that's why this is a beta. However, it has worked for all three of my computers quite nicely, especially the laptop. Even though each one is firewalled, and WEP encrypted on the wireless LAN, spyware seems to get to the laptop more than the two desktops I have. No idea why, all are running XP SP2 with firewall's activated and the network will only allow the three comps to detect it.
Edit: All three are running NAV 2005 as well with autoupdate.
Edited by - Boscoe on 1/8/2005 10:41:15 AM
However, if I held it like a discus, spun around a few times, I could probably heave this thing most of the way down a football field. So, I guess I should trust the laptop then? (j/k)
@sw, that IS funny! I guess that's why this is a beta. However, it has worked for all three of my computers quite nicely, especially the laptop. Even though each one is firewalled, and WEP encrypted on the wireless LAN, spyware seems to get to the laptop more than the two desktops I have. No idea why, all are running XP SP2 with firewall's activated and the network will only allow the three comps to detect it.
Edit: All three are running NAV 2005 as well with autoupdate.
Edited by - Boscoe on 1/8/2005 10:41:15 AM
Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:39 pm
This article was published in my local paper today... a review of the anti-spy software you folks might find interesting:
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Microsoft's AntiSpyware falls short of security goals
Microsoft, whose Windows operating system has been plagued by viruses, spyware and other security problems in recent years, last week began rolling out some free software to help users cope with those threats.
The software giant introduced a beta, or preliminary, version of a free product designed to block, detect and remove spyware.
Unfortunately, the company's first free security program has some serious flaws and lapses. I've been testing Microsoft AntiSpyware, and I can't recommend it in its present form over the leading third-party antispyware program I have favored, Webroot's Spy Sweeper.
To be sure, the new antispyware program is not a finished product. It was acquired just last month when Microsoft bought a small software company, and engineers had only a few weeks to tweak it before releasing the beta. Company officials insist they intend to fix the program's problems based on feedback from beta users, and I take them at their word. But some of the flaws in this first release are especially disturbing.
Before getting into the details, let me say a word about Microsoft's role in protecting consumers against malicious software and other invasions of their computers. I have never believed it was inherently wrong for Microsoft to add core functions to Windows, even if they competed with add-ons sold by other companies. And I regard security as a core function. To me, the need to protect Windows users, especially consumers and small businesses without Internet technology staffs, trumps any antitrust considerations.
Microsoft AntiSpyware, which can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/spyware, has a clean, clear user interface. Like Spy Sweeper, it runs in the background on your computer, blocking various invasions. It can also automatically scan your PC to root out spyware.
I found the program easy to use, though downloading it was a bit of a hassle because Microsoft tries to get you to verify that your copy of Windows isn't pirated, which can force you to dig up your Windows serial number. You can avoid this step, but you have to pay careful attention to the download options.
The software offers two kinds of scans: a quick, five-minute version, and a longer version that took about half an hour on my test machine. But the scans missed some spyware found by Spy Sweeper. In particular, Microsoft missed "tracking cookies," small files deposited by Web companies that track your online activities. The Microsoft program deliberately doesn't look for these. Microsoft officials say they are concerned that legitimate cookies such as those that store Web-site login information, could be unfairly labeled as spyware. They promise to add tracking-cookie detection in the future.
Even worse is the way the program handles another spyware problem, the hijacking of Web-browser home pages and search pages. This is a spyware technique in which the home and search pages in a Web browser are replaced by pages selected by a spyware company, and it's nearly impossible for a user to restore his or her own selections.
The usual way of handling this, with programs such as Spy Sweeper, is to detect the page changes and to restore the user's original choices. But the Microsoft program tries to replace the spyware pages with home and search pages from MSN, Microsoft's own online service. This smacks of the same kind of coercion the spyware authors are using.
Microsoft insists it isn't trying to drive people to MSN. It says it can't tell if a user's own choice of a home or search page was "secure," so it defaults to setting the home and search pages to a site it knows is secure, its own MSN site. But the user's choice should rule here, not Microsoft's.
Not only that, but Microsoft AntiSpyware does nothing at all to protect users of the rival Firefox Web browser from home- and search-page hijacking. It detects and corrects such hijacking only in its own Internet Explorer Web browser. The company says it is trying to focus on things that affect "the largest number of customers," and it notes that the vast majority of users rely on its browser. But this, too, smacks of favoritism toward Microsoft products.
Microsoft notes that the home-page restoration feature eventually learns your preferences and stops trying to insert the MSN pages. And it says it is considering changing the program's behavior in future releases to handle hijackings differently, and possibly to include Firefox.
It's good that Microsoft is finally offering users tools to protect their Windows computers. But it's going to have to do much better, and it's going to have to avoid the perception that it's promoting its own products.
Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for The Wall Street Journal.
You can find this article at :
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/01/ ... erg001.cfm
Published: Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Microsoft's AntiSpyware falls short of security goals
Microsoft, whose Windows operating system has been plagued by viruses, spyware and other security problems in recent years, last week began rolling out some free software to help users cope with those threats.
The software giant introduced a beta, or preliminary, version of a free product designed to block, detect and remove spyware.
Unfortunately, the company's first free security program has some serious flaws and lapses. I've been testing Microsoft AntiSpyware, and I can't recommend it in its present form over the leading third-party antispyware program I have favored, Webroot's Spy Sweeper.
To be sure, the new antispyware program is not a finished product. It was acquired just last month when Microsoft bought a small software company, and engineers had only a few weeks to tweak it before releasing the beta. Company officials insist they intend to fix the program's problems based on feedback from beta users, and I take them at their word. But some of the flaws in this first release are especially disturbing.
Before getting into the details, let me say a word about Microsoft's role in protecting consumers against malicious software and other invasions of their computers. I have never believed it was inherently wrong for Microsoft to add core functions to Windows, even if they competed with add-ons sold by other companies. And I regard security as a core function. To me, the need to protect Windows users, especially consumers and small businesses without Internet technology staffs, trumps any antitrust considerations.
Microsoft AntiSpyware, which can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/spyware, has a clean, clear user interface. Like Spy Sweeper, it runs in the background on your computer, blocking various invasions. It can also automatically scan your PC to root out spyware.
I found the program easy to use, though downloading it was a bit of a hassle because Microsoft tries to get you to verify that your copy of Windows isn't pirated, which can force you to dig up your Windows serial number. You can avoid this step, but you have to pay careful attention to the download options.
The software offers two kinds of scans: a quick, five-minute version, and a longer version that took about half an hour on my test machine. But the scans missed some spyware found by Spy Sweeper. In particular, Microsoft missed "tracking cookies," small files deposited by Web companies that track your online activities. The Microsoft program deliberately doesn't look for these. Microsoft officials say they are concerned that legitimate cookies such as those that store Web-site login information, could be unfairly labeled as spyware. They promise to add tracking-cookie detection in the future.
Even worse is the way the program handles another spyware problem, the hijacking of Web-browser home pages and search pages. This is a spyware technique in which the home and search pages in a Web browser are replaced by pages selected by a spyware company, and it's nearly impossible for a user to restore his or her own selections.
The usual way of handling this, with programs such as Spy Sweeper, is to detect the page changes and to restore the user's original choices. But the Microsoft program tries to replace the spyware pages with home and search pages from MSN, Microsoft's own online service. This smacks of the same kind of coercion the spyware authors are using.
Microsoft insists it isn't trying to drive people to MSN. It says it can't tell if a user's own choice of a home or search page was "secure," so it defaults to setting the home and search pages to a site it knows is secure, its own MSN site. But the user's choice should rule here, not Microsoft's.
Not only that, but Microsoft AntiSpyware does nothing at all to protect users of the rival Firefox Web browser from home- and search-page hijacking. It detects and corrects such hijacking only in its own Internet Explorer Web browser. The company says it is trying to focus on things that affect "the largest number of customers," and it notes that the vast majority of users rely on its browser. But this, too, smacks of favoritism toward Microsoft products.
Microsoft notes that the home-page restoration feature eventually learns your preferences and stops trying to insert the MSN pages. And it says it is considering changing the program's behavior in future releases to handle hijackings differently, and possibly to include Firefox.
It's good that Microsoft is finally offering users tools to protect their Windows computers. But it's going to have to do much better, and it's going to have to avoid the perception that it's promoting its own products.
Walter Mossberg writes about personal technology for The Wall Street Journal.
You can find this article at :
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/05/01/ ... erg001.cfm
Tue Jan 18, 2005 3:09 pm
Yeah, Dawg. I had that article in mine too. We've had various articles about that thanks to my favorite section (CONNECT! Which is the only section I read.)
It was a dark, damp night. A lone man wandered into the cemetary carrying a shovel. He began to dig a grave. A thread long dead, a thread long shot through, a thread that had ended for a reason. This lone gravedigger had good intentions, but it still annoyed the crap out of his forum-mates.
Edited by - Eh_Steve on 1/18/2005 3:09:33 PM
It was a dark, damp night. A lone man wandered into the cemetary carrying a shovel. He began to dig a grave. A thread long dead, a thread long shot through, a thread that had ended for a reason. This lone gravedigger had good intentions, but it still annoyed the crap out of his forum-mates.
Edited by - Eh_Steve on 1/18/2005 3:09:33 PM
59 posts
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