Ars Technica has posted an article about a discovery that future versions of Mac operating systems may run Windows applications along with Mac applications without any additional things to download or install.

A man named Steven Edwards notes in a mailing list message that Leopard contains a loader for portable executables. The loader was undocumented. He added that the loader tries to find Windows DLL files when loading a Windows binary.

If Apple plans to use this function one day, then it means that people no longer have to buy additional software such as Boot Camp to run a Windows program that they want on their Apple computer.

Source: Ars Technica

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Sophos has posted a blog entry recently about a spam which talks about Britney Spears.

The spam contains the following phrases, “New Britney naked video” and ‘Check zip file in attachment’.

It was detected as Troj/Pushdo-Gen according to Sophos’ report in the blog.

Sophos notes that malware writers began to use her popularity since February 2002. Spam and malware were used by the attackers to lure people on clicking or downloading malicious files.

Mark Harris is the one who wrote the blog and he thinks that people fall for this spam.

Source: Sophos

A few days ago, there was a report that there is a new QuickTime flaw that has been discovered. It was confirmed that it can be exploited on Windows XP and Vista operating systems.

Earlier today, The Register has posted an article about the flaw which tell the readers that it can also be exploited on Mac operating systems, particularly on Tiger and Leopard versions. The exploit works on both Intel processors and PowerPC chips according to a researcher named Lorenzo Hernandez.

There is a belief that Internet Explorer and Opera browsers are more resistant to this attack.

Source: The Register

As a computer technician, my clients frequently ask me “Why do people create computer viruses?”, especially after I have been called out to remove a virus from their computer. This is what I tell them.
Read the rest of this entry »

A new Quicktime flaw has been discovered and many tech sites started on reporting about this flaw.

The attackers are taking advantage of this flaw by sending emails with .qtl attachments. A user’s computer can be exploited if he or she opens up the file. They can also install more spyware and malware once they have successfully exploited a computer.

The report from product-reviews.net noted that this flaw can be exploited on computers with Windows XP and Vista operating systems. There is no confirmation whether the Mac OS X operating system can also be exploited using the flaw.

Source: Product-Reviews

Since Microsoft shut down Autopatcher, there hasnt been an easy way for technicians to install Microsoft Windows patches on a clients computer. Sure, they can go to the Windows Update site but sometimes an internet connection isnt always available, or it may just be painfully slow.
Enter “Offline Update”, a freeware tool that downloads all of the existing patches for the operating system you specify (choice of Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003) and creates an ISO file, for which you can later burn to a CD or DVD. Best of all, one you load the created disk into a computer, It will autorun the application. All you have to do is press Start and it will begin the patching process.
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As a computer technician, I often get clients asking what software I recommend to do a certain task or to fix a certain problem. There are plenty of freeware applications available to do such tasks, however, much of it is badly made or too difficult for the client to use.
Because of this, I have compiled a list of good freeware applications that I recommend after having used them in the field, and if your client asks you what software will help them, you have something to respond with.
Read the rest of this entry »

There is a new serious vulnerability that was discovered recently which affects every version of Windows including the latest one, Vista.

Symantec’s DeepSight notification service announced that the bug is located in a feature called Web Proxy Autodiscovery (WPAD). It is a continuation of a previous bug that Microsoft fixed seven years ago.

It can “intercept web sessions, direct browsers to malicious proxies, and effectively gain control over unsuspecting users’ web traffic,” according to Symantec.

The general manager of product security for Microsoft said, “Now that we understand the issue we’re researching comprehensive mitigations and workarounds to protect customers.”

Source: The Register

Computerworld has posted an article that the Windows XP SP3 makes the operating system much faster than exptected.

“We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Windows XP SP3 delivers a measurable performance boost to this aging desktop OS,” said Devil Mountain’s chief technology officer, Craig Barth, in a blog post.

“Since SP3 was supposed to be mostly a bug-fix/patch consolidation release, the unexpected speed boost comes as a nice bonus. In fact, XP SP3 is shaping up to be a ‘must-have’ update for the majority of users who are still running Redmond’s not-so-latest and greatest desktop OS,” he added.

The company’s test include how Office 2007 runs. The specification of the laptop where they tested its performance has a 1 GB RAM and a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

Source: COMPUTERWORLD