Would You Like to Have Office 2007 Look “Normal”- Like 2003?

Here’s a link on how:  http://sniptools.com/windows/customize-microsoft-office-2007-blue-ribbon-ui-to-office-2003

Yet Another Way Malware Gets On Your Computer

The Fake Conficker.B Infection Alert

(from blogs.zdnet.net)

An ongoing spam campaign is once again attempting to impersonate Microsoft’s security team — the same campaign was first seen in April — by mass mailing Conficker.B Infection Alerts (install.zip), which upon execution drop a sample of the Antivirus Pro 2010 scareware.

Whereas the theme remains the same, the botnet masters have slightly modified the message:

“Dear Microsoft Customer,

Starting 18/10/2009 the ‘Conficker’ worm began infecting Microsoft customers unusually rapidly. Microsoft has been advised by your Internet provider that your network is infected. To counteract further spread we advise removing the infection using an antispyware program. We are supplying all effected Windows Users with a free system scan in order to clean any files infected by the virus.

Please install attached file to start the scan. The process takes under a minute and will prevent your files from being compromised. We appreciate your  prompt cooperation.

Regards,
Microsoft Windows Agent #2 (Hollis)
Microsoft Windows Computer Safety Division”

The use of email as propagation vector for scareware campaigns (The ultimate guide to scareware protection), and in particular the use of email attachments is an uncommon practice, compared to the single most effective way of hijacking traffic through blackhat search engine optimization where the cybercriminals rely on real-time news events.

The campaign is an example of a — thankfully - badly executed one in the sense that with Microsoft’s Security Essentials recently gained momentum, even the average Internet user would notice the suspicious timing of the offered “antispyware program”.

A dangerous, yet interesting Trojan

I discovered the trojan called Win32/Jpgiframe.A on my computer. This is despite all the protection I have. This trojan infects a graphics component; thus the name jpg.

The description says many people can't tell they have the trojan. However, my wife said she couldn't print to my networked printer. That was suspicious. So I ran the new Windows Security Essentials virus software and it found the trojan.

Details about this trojan and how to detect and avoid it are found here.

I should note that the trojan was on my backup pocket drive. So... I'm checking ALL my computers. I'll let you know if I find anything.

What this means is that if you "save" a web page, you're at risk of loading the trojan. What will they think of next?

What is an email Client?

Client means any email program you use on your computer.  A client talks to an email server.  The details on how to do this are communicated to the client by your "connections." 

Popular Microsoft email clients include Outlook, Outlook Express, Microsoft Mail (The replacement to Outlook Express), and Thunderbird. 

The alternative is a browser email interface.  Examples are the att.yahoo.com and the aol email interfaces, where you have to bring up a browser and go “on-line” to look at the mail. 

AT&T Puts Your Good eMail in SPAM!

Everyone is having this problem right now. Apparently, with the "new and improved" Yahoo! facility, the SPAM rules changed. Many people are surprised to discover tens, if not hundreds, of email messages in the SPAM folder up on their ATT email site; that is, using your browser to look at your email.

Well, there's no really good solution to this. I got the official word. Here are the three that are offered:
1. Turn off the SPAM filter entirely. Use the SPAM function in your email client.
2. Upload your entire contacts list to the ATT web email site. emails from addresses in your contacts list will not be put in the SPAM folder.
3. Go to the web email SPAM folder, check all the email that is not spam, and click the Not Spam button at the top of the page. This will move the emails you checked into the Inbox, where they will download to your email client.

As a corollary to the above, you can add individual senders to your contacts list on the web mail site by opening an email and clicking on the + next to the sender's email address. You will be given the option to add that sender to your list of contacts. This will stop email from that sender landing in the SPAM folder.

This is all BAD news for me. What a hassle! I turned the SPAM filter off and I filter the spam using my email client.

In future posts I will provide illustrated directions on how to do 1-3 plus the corollary.

MyBillingServices, Inc Scam On Your ATT Invoice

I discovered a charge of $8.43 on my most recent ATT invoice.  I called the number listed as part of the invoice entry: 800.215.1961.  They said someone with my number clicked on an web site and, as part of the clicking, the phone number was signed up for this service.  It is not clear how this happened. 

I use Firefox, so I have a history of every single page I visit.  I looked at the bill entry and it has a date of 9-03.  There was nothing in the list on 9-03 or 9-02 that would indicate I’d visited a page where I could sign up for something.  So I don’t know what the page looks like. 

However, I googled “MyBillingServices problems” and got a lot of hits.  You can see some of the examples of web pages where they have signed up.  The pages certainly don’t look like you are signing up for something. 

I filed a report on ComplaintsBoard.com. 

I assume there was small print somewhere on the gotcha web page indicating the signup.  It would be in very small print and at the bottom of the page- who scrolls all the way to the bottom of each page they visit?- or otherwise partly hidden.  It got by whomever it was in my household or acquaintances who was browsing the internet.  The result was this entry. 

I asked the person at MyBillingServices, to remove me from their roles and remove the charge from my invoice.  They said they would.  I called ATT and they said they had no control.  They said that the charge would be removed.  Automatically. 

So there’s some kind of a scam going on here.  Beware.  Carefully watch your ATT invoices.