Threat Alert: Instant Messaging Attacks

Worms disguised as harmless links or attachments wriggle through chat software.
Erik Larkin

By now you know to be leery of e-mail attachments, even when they seem to come from a friend or colleague. These days, however, you also have to be careful of IM attachments and links--because the virus writers are already there, too. "We've done a much better job of locking down e-mail," says Francis Costello, chief technical officer at San Diego-based Akonix, which helps clients secure instant messaging and peer-to-peer software. "People are turning to instant messaging as the new attack vector."

In the first quarter of this year, Costello says, Akonix saw more than double the 17 IM threats it found in all of 2004. And in the second quarter, there were four times as many threats as in the first quarter. IM worms hijack IM clients by first reading a user's buddy list of contacts. Then the worm sends a message along the lines of "hehe :) i found this funny movie" to the people on that list, with a link that downloads the worm. Or the message might be "hey, check out this picture" and have the worm attached.

Some hybrid worms split the attack by going after instant messaging and peer-to-peer networks at the same time. One version of the Bropia worm sends out instant messages and drops itself into the shared directory of popular P-to-P apps.

Another worm, Win32.VB, can also spread itself via IM and P-to-P, but adds a new twist. It forces its host to open up to the Internet and help spread the worm; when the worm sends out an instant message with a link, the link goes to the computer hosting the worm.

Although some IM attacks are becoming more innovative, most worms of this type are "kind of crude to date," Costello says, "but crude is working very effectively. Unfortunately, the one thing I've learned in this business is that [virus writers] will innovate."

Protect Yourself
Enable real-time virus protection: Antivirus programs include protections against any IM worm attachments that sneak by you.

Be wary of any message: Take special care if it comes by itself with a link or an attachment, even if it looks to be from someone on your buddy list. Before clicking, ask your friend if they sent it. No response, no click.

Filter IM traffic: Companies should consider updating their networks to separate their internal IM traffic from Internet-based IM traffic, or preventing all Internet-bound messaging.

If GM Were run like Microsoft:

IF GM WERE RUN LIKE MICROSOFT
1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have tobuy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only ten percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would allbe replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed an Illegal Operation" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you outand refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the doorhandle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Great Freeware Squeezes More Out of Windows

Ten free programs put Windows on its best behavior and teach the old OS useful new file and interface tricks.

From the November 2005 issue of PC World

The best thing about Windows is the amazing programs that developers outside of Microsoft create to make the OS better. Here's my list--in no particular order--of the ten best Windows freebies of 2005.

Shrink Your Files
If your Web site needs some speed or your photo collection takes up too much disk space, try Nuetools' StripFile. find.pcworld.com/48992). -->The program can shrink HTML and common Web image files (GIF, JPEG, and PNG) not by altering the content but by removing nonessential information such as color profiles and comments. Adjust the utility's Settings options to specify the kind of data it should remove. Or just point the program to a file or folder and click Compress. Another alternative is to right-click a folder or file in Explorer and choose Strip to remove extra information. StripFile creates a backup folder for your originals in case you run into problems.

Results vary depending on the type of file being compressed, but the application promises reductions of up to 50 percent. In my own tests, StripFile reduced the size of HTML files by 7 percent and that of JPEG files by 6.3 percent. Such slimming may not seem a huge difference, but over a large number of files it can add up to significant savings on disk space.

A+ Picture Manager
There are many ways to manage your digital images, but few are as well designed as the Picasa image service from Google. Picasa organizes the images and movies on your hard drive into a library. From there, you can copy, move, delete, and perform other file-management chores. Picasa's image editing features let you crop, rotate, perform tonal adjustments, and apply special effects to your images (see FIGURE 1).

Although you'll see the results of your editing appear in Picasa's various views of your photos, none of your changes directly alter your original picture, which Picasa preserves as a kind of digital negative. To make your changes permanent, you must export a copy of the edited image to another folder.

One of my favorite features (and one sorely missing from Windows) is Picasa's group renaming. With this feature I can automatically add the date and/or image resolution to a file's name. Other options allow me to group my photos into albums bearing custom labels without having to make copies that take up additional disk space. Picasa's built-in slide-show features can create great gift CDs, and I can even back up my images to CD or DVD. Other features let me generate image galleries for the Web, e-mail photos, and order prints from online services. Picasa is no Photoshop; but it's easy to use, and it provides just about all the image editing tools that many of us will ever need.

Lean, Clean File Tool
For Windows 2000, XP: Keeping the various folders and program windows you have open at any given time arranged properly as you move among them can be a hellish task. But window disarray becomes a thing of the past when you install Nikolay Avrionov's ExplorerXP. The program lets you tile or otherwise arrange your open folder windows inside its parent window. ExplorerXP offers a customizable toolbar, multiple file renaming, and the ability to drag and drop files out of and into Explorer windows and its own windows. Limitations? The program can't show thumbnails or any file views other than Details. Nor is there any simple way to browse network drives, though you can enter UNC network paths (such as "\\server\share" to access remote shares). All the same, for basic file management ExplorerXP is a fast and elegant utility.

PDFs in a Jiffy
For Windows 2000, XP: You can convert nearly any document to Adobe's convenient Portable Document Format without slapping down a cent. Though some free PDF utilities insert advertising or a watermark in the resulting PDF file, Acro Software's CutePDF Writer does not.
The application adds a CutePDF printer icon to your system. Point your prints to this virtual printer instead of to your regular printer to get a PDF version of the files. CutePDF Writer requires you to download and install a separate PostScript print language interpreter, such as Ghostscript (available from the same Web page). You won't find anything like Adobe Acrobat's security features, font selections, or optimizing options; in fact, CutePDF's configuration choices are pretty close to nil. But for most of your PDF-creation needs, CutePDF Writer fits the bill very well.

Mac Icons for Windows
There's hope for Mac mavens who have been forced into the body of a Windows user--as well as for anyone else who wants an alternative to Windows' boring taskbar and Start menu. Stardock's ObjectDock utility launches and switches between applications and uses Mac-like zooming and animation whenever you hover your mouse pointer over an icon (see FIGURE 2). I have to admit that I never managed to get the program's weather-reporting icon to work, but I had much better luck with ObjectDock's clock and pop-up Google search box. (For $20, you can upgrade from the free version to one that supports multiple monitors, tabbed docks, and many other features.) If you're ready for a new way to launch and manage your applications, give the program a try.

After-Hours Cleanup
If you leave your system on all the time, you can use Windows' Scheduled Tasks tool to automate virus and spyware scans, backups, and other maintenance chores while you're away from your PC; see my June 2004 column find.pcworld.com/48982) -->for more on creating these shortcuts. But what if you prefer to shut off your computer at the end of the day? Use the simple controls included in FileWare's LastChance find.pcworld.com/49268) -->to add the applications and commands you want to run prior to shutdown. When you exit Windows, LastChance interrupts the shutdown process, runs the commands you specified, and finishes shutting down Windows when they are complete. You can set the utility to run commands when a particular resource (such as a network drive) becomes available. You can also schedule your shutdown for a preset time.

Keep Your Icons in Line
One day you start up Windows and notice that suddenly your desktop icons are in disarray. Lots of things can bump icons out of place. For an instant fix, give Tim Taylor's Icon Restore a try. find.pcworld.com/48984). -->The utility installs two new commands on the right-click context menu of My Computer, as well as on most other system icons. Set your icons the way you like them, right-click My Computer, and choose Save Desktop Icon Layout. Thereafter, anytime your desktop gets cluttered, just right-click My Computer again and choose Restore Desktop Icon Layout. If you've hidden your system icons, you can see the same commands by right-clicking Recycle Bin. The utility has no built-in uninstall capability, so be sure to download the companion UnInstall Icon Restore program just in case you want to remove this freeware in the future.

A Tidy Taskbar
In these days of madcap multitasking, nobody runs only one or two applications at any given time. For example, my system's taskbar is filled with an appalling number of buttons, each of them corresponding to a program that is currently open on my machine. Under these circumstances, even using the - keys to switch between open windows soon becomes a chore.

Elias Fotinis's TaskArrange program find.pcworld.com/48986) -->lets you drag and drop all of your taskbar buttons into a single window to order them the way you want; alternatively you can arrange the icons using the program's own convenient controls (see FIGURE 3). If you have Windows XP's taskbar grouping feature turned on (right-click the taskbar and choose Properties to find this option), TaskArrange can reorder items in the grouped item pop-up menu.

Just remember to exit TaskArrange once you have achieved your desired order. That way the program will take up no more memory for itself, nor will it require a pesky tray icon of its own.

Hide Tray Trash
Icons representing your many (but vital) always-on utilities can clutter your system tray. Make more room with Two Pilots' Tray Pilot Lite, find.pcworld.com/48988), -->which adds a button near the system tray for toggling the tray--including the clock--into and out of view (see FIGURE 4). Click to see your system tray icons, and click again to clean out unnecessary ones. For a little under $16, you can upgrade to a version that hides the system tray but not the clock (to use a different clock, see the next item).

A Better Clock
Windows' own clock (in the taskbar tray) is small and plain. It doesn't display seconds, and it has no alarm. Replace it with ClocX, find.pcworld.com/48990), -->a freebie that lets you set alarms to go off once or on a regular schedule. The alarms can play a sound, display a message, launch an application, or even exit Windows. You can display a pop-up calendar for a quick check of the date, or see both the date and time on your clock face (see FIGURE 5). Use the program's antialiasing, its transparency levels, or one of its downloadable faces or "skins" to improve the clock's readability. Set ClocX to stay on top of open windows, or activate its "click-through" to place it beneath windows.

The Search for Cheaper Ink

Third-party inkjet cartridges may have a poor reputation, but one retailer is promising high quality for half the price.

Eric Butterfield, PC World
Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Gripes over high-priced ink cartridges have spawned an entire cottage industry of fly-by-night refill companies, do-it-yourself cartridge refill kits, and dozens of Web sites that sell no-name-brand cartridges.

More recently, big names like Office Depot and Staples have gotten into the act, putting their own discounted brands on store shelves. These cartridges generally cost 10 to 15 percent less than printer manufacturers' cartridges. But a retail outlet selling even cheaper refilled cartridges may be coming soon to a strip mall near you.

In contrast to the many Web sites that hock refilled cartridges, Caboodle Cartridges operates retail outlets. Thirty-five franchises have opened thus far, most of them in the San Francisco Bay Area, though stores are operating in at least eight other states.

In an effort to undersell the big retailers, Caboodle Cartridges sells its remanufactured cartridges for roughly half their original cost. You can lower the price even more by exchanging spent cartridges for a credit of $2 to $4.

This all sounds great, but I have a few concerns. What if the cartridge damages my printer? How good is the ink? Also, I'll have to run a special errand just to get ink cartridges, instead of being able to pick them up while I'm shopping at Costco or an electronics store.

The Lure of the Storefront
I've never entrusted my old inkjet printer to refilled cartridges from an online outlet; I'm too afraid of damaging it. When the only recourse is sending an e-mail or pinging a Web site for help, I pass. Office Depot and Staples are well-known brands, and they earn credibility because they have retail outlets. Following that logic, I'm inclined to trust Caboodle Cartridges.

Caboodle Cartridges President Daniel Wencel said that his company's cartridges deliver print quality and page yields comparable to the original manufacturers', and that the company will replace a customer's printer if it's damaged by a malfunctioning cartridge.

The company's ink has not been tested for fade resistance by a third party such as Wilhelm Imaging Research, which conducted testing for our September 2003 story, "Cheap Ink Probed." In tests for that story, we found that third-party ink cartridges could make high-quality prints on glossy photo paper, but that their fade resistance was substandard: Photos printed with inks from Amazon Imaging, Carrot Ink, and others averaged a dismal 2.2 years of fade resistance. These inks may save you some bucks, but they won't save your memories.

If you mostly print documents on plain paper, you may not care that your glossy photos could fade quickly. But if you do, I'd await independent fade test results before buying from Caboodle Cartridges.

Take Note
Coupons for Cartridges: Staples announced on September 19 a recycling program that rewards customers with a $3 coupon for each ink or toner cartridge they recycle at a store location. The company either remanufactures the cartridges as Staples brand items, or recycles them. The coupon can be used for any in-store or Web site purchase through Staples.

Binary Code

Binary code is the language of computers. As you may or may not know, the PC you're on right now, as well as the Super Computers at NASA 'talk' in 1's & 0's, or, more specifically, simply 'On' & 'Off'.

Okay, enough of that, now click the link, read, & see it in a form we can see, then marvel that this simple communication is how computers work.

Enjoy.

The Most Beautiful Machine