Security

Infopackets Reader Tina D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I am greatly anticipating the release of your Windows XP Service Pack 2 installation guide. According to my Automatic Updates, Service Pack 2 has already been downloaded onto my machine but not yet ... installed. I am iffy about installing SP2 largely because I have heard that it may not be compatible with some programs. Have you released the guide yet? Did I miss the announcement? I've checked your newsletter archive page but don't see anything pertaining to the release. " My response: As of this moment, the guide is 85% complete. I ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Doug L. writes: " Dear Dennis, After reading your wonderful acticle on GuruNet , I downloaded and installed it on my machine. To my surprise, my Spyware detection utility (SpyDoctor) reported GuruNet as a malware BHO (Browser ... Helper Object). Can you comment on this? " Side note: a Browser Helper Object is a 'plug-in' for Internet Explorer which allows software developers to customize and control browsing sessions. BHO's are typically instantiated [initialized] by .DLL files which are located in the Windows System / System32 folder. My response: Unfortunately, your ... (view more)

Yesterday, I came across a very interesting article posted by p2pnet.net which details a recent exploit in MS Windows, called "jpeg of death.c v.05". In summary: on September 17th, 2004, a proof-of-concept exploit was discovered that could ... potentially execute malicious code on the victim's computer when viewing a JPG file image file using Internet Explorer; at the time, however, the exploit only crashed Internet Explorer. On September 24th, a new variant of the exploit appeared, responsible for running potentially malicious code if an infected .jpeg file was downloaded from the ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Steve 'notjourney' writes: " Dear Dennis, I have Windows XP Professional and Office 2003. There are 3 people who use the machine. All 3 need to be able to modify Excel and Access files. I have put these files in the shared folder ... and yet only I can modify them. The other 2 users can only read them. I have tried everything I can find including making them both administrators. Nothing has worked. What do you suggest? By the way, thanks for all the help you have given me in other areas. " My response: It sounds to me like your share privileges are not set properly. ... (view more)

Last Thursday , I wrote an article on how to disable Windows Messenger using a System Registryhack. To date, this Registry Hack is the *only* known way to disable Windows Messenger v4.7 permanently from Windows XP. Most of the folks who are ... interested in disabling Windows Messenger v4.7 do so because they don't want it using up extra CPU or Memory, or because it's a service which isn't needed. From a security standpoint: the less unneeded services running on your system, the less chance of having a security exploit. Disabling Windows Messenger v4.7 isn't as easy as modifying the program ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Lei F. writes: " Dear Dennis, I have scoured the Internet and tried everything I could come up with, but I just can't seem to get stop (MSN Messenger) from the running processes. Even when I end the process using Task Manager, ... within minutes, msmgs.exe appears again. No one in our family even uses Windows Messenger, those that do use MSN Messenger v6. I have tried EVERYTHING, Dennis -- how do I get rid of it? I've tried searching Google for the answer, but was unable to come up with anything. I'm sure a significant proportion of infopackets subscribers have the same ... (view more)

I spent much of this weekend going over the emails that I've received from Readers concerning a new eBook that I'm working on, a Windows XP Service Pack 2 'failsafe' installation Guide. The consensus from the majority of Readers is that XP Service ... Pack 2 has caused some confusion (with respect to new security features), problems connecting to the Internet (related to the new Windows Firewall) and in some cases, failed to install properly (requiring the user to erase the C drive and reinstall Windows). As I mentioned earlier, the pros of Service Pack 2 outweigh the cons (in my opinion), even ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Jospeh D. writes: " Dear Dennis, Your newsletters are the greatest! I've installed Windows XP Service Pack 2 *twice* on my machine, and both times, it told me that I didn't have a virus program installed. I've tried Grisoft ... AntiVirus and also tried AVAST32. Still, Windows XP is not recognizing them. Every time I start my computer there is a reminder for me to install a virus program. Am I protected or not? " My response: This one had me stumped, too. If your antivirus program is sitting in the tray (next to the clock), then chances are that it's working. It's a ... (view more)

This feature article is a step away from our normal discussions, as I am currently out of town visiting a friend in Toronto, Ontario for the next few days. RE: My encounter with the Backdoor.Agent.B Trojan I arrived at Frank's place in Toronto this ... past Sunday, and was unable to access the Internet until Wednesday. Unfortunately, Frank's computer was host to 35 virus-infected files, 7 Spyware variants, 4 Trojans, and 2 Internet worms (including MyDoom and SoBig) -- and he didn't even know it. I spent much of Monday and Tuesday "undoing" the damage caused by the malware. I have to ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Doug D. writes: " Dear Dennis, I get a lot out of your newsletter, and hope you can help me. I recently read that I can control the number of programs that 'autostart' themselves when I start my computer, thereby speeding up my ... boot time dramatically. I've used the built-in Microsoft utility for editing Startup programs, called MSConfig, but there are so many things listed, I don't know what is legitimate and what is not. Some programs that are listed in my Startup have been uninstalled and no longer exist on my computer -- but the names still appears on this startup ... (view more)