Latest news and stories from BleepingComputer.com

In memory of Donna Buenaventura

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:43:38 EST

I learned today that Donna Buenaventura passed away unexpectedly on December 13, 2011. Donna was the site owner of Calendar of Updates, a long time security blogger, a Microsoft MVP, and someone who stood by me as I started BleepingComputer.

We have all lost someone important to computer security and she will be sorely missed.

Rest in peace Donna!

Lawrence

Sock Puppet campaign under way to defame Rkill and BleepingComputer

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:17:44 EST

A while back, Rogue anti-spyware programs started terminating executables when you attempted to run them in order to protect themselves and take your computer hostage. Due to this, I created the program called Rkill that can be used to end these malware processes so you can properly run your security programs. From the responses I have received since creating this program, I know its doing a good job and is a lot of help to those who use it.

Lately, I have discovered that its popularity and usefulness have become a threat to certain groups of individuals. This has become evident as sockpuppets have invaded CNET's RKill page where the reviewers attempt to defame Rkill, BleepingComputer.com, and myself. I am a big boy, so I don't really care what they say about me. I put a lot of time into BleepingComputer.com and Rkill, though, and won't sit back without making a response. The reviewers, or sockpuppets, in question are Charles_Buckland, AshleyFrost, and Johnny_Sokko. AshleyFrost and Johnny_Sokko both posted one day from each other and repeated the same things. Whether this person or people are the malware developers themselves or someone with a personal grievance against BC is unknown at this time. What we do know is that they are attempting to spread lies about Rkill and the site.

The nonsense that they write includes:

Disables your anti-virus protection.
Downloads and installs trojans and other malware onto your computer.
Allows a backdoor to be created into your computer.
Home-made software written by an anonymous author, not an actual company.
Identified as being malware by most all major anti-virus programs.

I am not going to even address the first three comments, as they are completely false. As for being anonymous, I use my real name to every one of my posts at BleepingComputer, am a Microsoft MVP in Consumer Security, and have a real address and phone number in the Whois records for BleepingComputer.com. We are also a real company named Bleeping Computer, LLC. As you can see, I am far from anonymous.

For the second comment, I think it deserves some mention. At times Rkill is indeed detected as malware by various anti-virus companies. These detections are false positives and are typically fixed within a few days of contacting them. The reason these false positives occur is due to the fact that Rkill utilizes programs that may be packed, terminate processes, etc. These actions are common characteristics of malware and thus Rkill gets lumped into the same group as them. Unfortunately, this is just the way it is and no matter how legitimate and safe Rkill is, AV vendors will sometimes flag it as malware. The sockpuppets also claim that Rkill is detected by most major anti-virus vendors. I think these Jotti and virustotal reports speak for themselves:

http://virusscan.jotti.org/en/scanresult/9bbb8893e6c2dc623553ef88275d4f5b9717bc4b
https://www.virustotal.com/file/b7fc473eb8029ea559315300f953995b126b0e1942762cafca96b80e8d1a4207/analysis/

Do we have some false positive detections, yes, but it's definitely not all the major antivirus companies.

So for those who may have read these reviews and were concerned, do not be. Rkill is a perfectly safe program and you have nothing to fear from it. As for the CNET sockpuppets, I am done with them. They are just wasting too much of my time that I can better use to develop more tools, apps, and content that our visitors can benefit from. I also think the other reviews on CNET far outshine any lies that these people may spread.

Thanks to everyone who supports us!

Lawrence

Giveaway of the Day - XYplorer 10.80

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:58:49 EST

XYplorer is a tabbed file manager for Windows. It features a powerful file search, a versatile preview, a highly customizable interface, optional dual pane, and a large array of unique ways to efficiently automate frequently recurring tasks.

I've used XYplorer in the past (before I decided to go with Directory Opus) and I highly recommend it as a replacement for Windows Explorer. Once installed you can use it instead of Windows Explorer or as a once in a while replacement - the original Windows Explorer will always be available to you if you prefer it.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Key Internet operator VeriSign hit by hackers

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:25:14 EST

VeriSign Inc, the company in charge of delivering people safely to more than half the world's websites, has been hacked repeatedly by outsiders who stole undisclosed information from the leading Internet infrastructure company.

Full Story Here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46238729/ns/technology_and_science-security/

Google Overhauls (almost) All Their Privacy Policies

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:33:39 EST

Google announced today that they will consolidate the privacy policies of 60 services and products to just one, uniform policy. They also have stated that their goal is to "trim" the policy so that it's easier to read and understand.

In a related initiative, Google also plans to consolidate and simplify a smaller number of Terms of Service

The changes will go into effect March 1.

Feds Shutdown Megaupload

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:29:47 EST

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/19/feds-shut-down-file-sharing-website/

McLEAN, Va. � Federal prosecutors have shut down one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, on charges of violating piracy laws -- a day after a 24-hour blackout of popular websites such as Wikipedia drew national attention to the issue.

"This action is among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States," the Justice department said in a statement about the indictment.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/19/feds-shut-down-file-sharing-website/#ixzz1jwT4jLNm

Giveaway of the Day - Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 09:09:56 EST

Paragon Backup and Recovery 11 Compact is a simple and powerful backup and recovery solution to secure stand-alone Windows desktops and laptops. It quickly backs up your files and folders, operating system or even your entire hard disk to any storage you choose.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Giveaway of the Day - EaseUS Partition Master Professional 9.1

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:58:16 EST

EaseUS Partition Master Professional Edition is an all-in-one partition solution and disk management utility. It allows you to extend partition, especially for system drive, settle low disk space problem, manage disk space easily on MBR and GUID partition table (GPT) disk

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/

Mozilla readies to pull support plug on Firefox 3.6

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 12:39:24 EST

Quote

Mozilla has announced a date for the end of support for Firefox 3.6. April 24, 2012. Mark it in your�calendar, Firefox 3.6 users!

Why is this date significant? Because after this date there will be no more new releases to fix security patches. The browser will get real old (and real dangerous to use) real fast. Using Firefox 3.6 beyond the end of life date is NOT RECOMMENDED.

Full article here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/mozilla-readies-to-pull-support-plug-on-firefox-36/17567

Mozilla Firefox 9.0 released

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 07:57:40 EST

Mozilla Firefox 9.0 released

Changelog:
• Added Type Inference, significantly improving JavaScript performance (20~30%)
• Improved theme integration for Mac OS X Lion
• Added two finger swipe navigation for Mac OS X Lion
• Added support for querying Do Not Track status via JavaScript
• Added support for font-stretch
• Improved support for text-overflow
• Improved standards support for HTML5, MathML, and CSS
• Fixed several stability issues

Download Firefox 9.0 for Windows:
http://goo.gl/0fnnc
Download Firefox 9.0 for Linux:
http://goo.gl/GaI8S
Download Firefox 9.0 for MacOS:
http://goo.gl/Zjqgk