A brief blog here about the release of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

You can find several articles online about this, however our resident blogger Corrine has an article crammed with info at her blog Security Garden:

• Windows XP SP3 Released - article by Security Garden

You can also find several posts about this from around the world which we feed into our NewsBot Centre:

• Windows XP Service Pack 3 and IE
• Microsoft Releases Windows XP Service Pack 3

Incidently we have had several reports from our forum members of some troubles. They’ll be researched and passed on to the relevant bodies. In the meantime if you have had trouble with SP 3 for XP or IE sniggers, then go and discuss it in our forum here.

It has been almost a month since we turned two years old. And during that time various games and challenges were set-up in order to celebrate and enjoy the fact we turned two. What we also added was a chance to win full licences of programs.

As it’s towards the end of the period, which has gone over it’s planned slot, we still have some licences to give away! They are copies of Sunbelts’ Counterspy and Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware.

To enter on your choice of raffle, click on the links below:

• Enter the raffle that is giving away full licences of Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware
• Enter the raffle that is giving away full copies of Sunbelts’ CounterSpy

And all you have to do is register and post you want to win! Then a number is allocated to your post and in a weeks time (depending on the amount of entries) we will put all numbers in a hat and draw the numbers!

Simple ‘eh? Go and get your copy!

Bill Pytlovany released a new version of WinPatrol which includes a great new security feature. On increasingly frequent occasions we hear of “zero-day” or unpatched vulnerabilities affecting programs with ActiveX components. In fact, the majority of all browser plug-in vulnerabilities can be attributed to Active X. With WinPatrol 2008, you can monitor and control Active X components. Aside from the Microsoft plug-ins, popular programs including ActiveX are Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime, RealPlayer and SunMicrosystems Java.

There are several options available for viewing the ActiveX controls on your computer with WinPatrol 2008 and they can easily be changed by toggling the check box combinations. The example below illustrates a selection of non-Microsoft ActiveX Controls used with IE.

(Click to Enlarge)

The combination of options for viewing ActiveX controls includes:

• List all ActiveX controls including those not used by Internet Explorer
• Only view ActiveX controls used by Internet Explorer
• Toggle non-Microsoft ActiveX controls on/off.

If there is an unpatched vulnerability, without any fancy tricks, merely select the appropriate ActiveX control with WinPatrol, click disable and “Yes” to the prompt:

(Click to Enlarge)

After the vulnerability has been patched, reverse the process to enable the ActiveX control.

WinPatrol will also monitor your system and let you know when new ActiveX components try to make their home on your system. If it’s not something you wanted WinPatrol will kill the new component before it can do any damage.

Get Scotty! Free - Install WinPatrol 2008

Get Scotty Plus! Upgrade to WinPatrol PLUS today

See WinPatrol 2008 introduced in its 10th year

Need help with WinPatrol? Visit the Security Cadets WinPatrol Support Forum.

Remember - “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”
May the wind sing to you and the sun rise in your heart…

Yet another lame attempt from the IE Defender crew. This time they’ve gone back to the old look which first kicked it all off with IE Defender.

IE AntiVirus

(Click for the original size - Please upload to your server if used)

These idiots, or your own choice of word, first started with IE Defender, tried their hands at comedy and then disputed the fact we classified it as a rogue. However since then, they have released:

• AntiSpy Pro
• Files Secure
• Malware Bell

That tells you a thousand words. So what is the URL for this latest rogue? It’s the following:

www(dot)ieantivirus(dot)com

Do not visit the above site unless you know what you are doing. Doing so without the knowledge and experience may result in malware being downloaded.

The obvious signs are there and Estdomains Inc are not far behind as the whois states.

There is a removal guide for you to follow should you not wish to seek step by step help from our experts;

How To Remove IE AntiVirus (removal instructions)

If you do wish to get hands on assistance, then navigate to our support forum for malware removal or chat about this here.

FYI. If you fancy keeping yourself updated with the latest Zlob and associated malware then bookmark this usefull blog;

Bharath’s Security Blog

We don’t tend to blog enough about all the details behind this type of malware when we blog about rogues. We like to simplify things in order to give a better understanding to those who may not directly understand what it’s all about.

We’ll certainly be adding the above blog to our links pages.

Link: http://bharath-m-narayan.blogspot.com/

This is the sole reason Terminal 5 sucks! Courtesy of PaperGhost:

It’s weird that such a costly terminal, run by British Airways Plc, has such poor research. Oh well….

It wasn’t going to take long before I would bring you yet another rogue application. Certainly nothing new when I include that the following is a clone of IE Defender and File Secure.

What it also tries to do is make sure several aspects of it’s website looks and feels like Microsoft. Their favicon is the same as Microsoft and the way they try and present the product in a similar case image is similar. Not at all surprising, but could become confusing and unknown for regular internet users.

Let’s take a look;-

Malware Bell

(Click for the original size - Please upload to your server if used)

Web site;-

www(dot)malwarebell(dot)com

And Estdomains Inc is it’s ICANN Registrar. Like we didn’t know! So, what are we doing about this? To put it simple, offering you help for free as these organisations try to take your money. We already have a free removal guide set up for this rogue and will, as always, be offering free assistance with our experts in the correct forum.

Get help of you have has the unfortunate chance to be infected with this. And if in doubt, ask in our forum.

Links;-

How to remove Malware Bell (removal instructions)

Yes, it really is that long!. Securitycadets.com is now two years old! Amazing isn’t it? I am pleased we have reached this milestone for many reasons. I won’t go into them as they are obvious to many of you. But to those who have supported us, helped assiting users on our forum and just been there for advice, thank you!

If you are a regular of this forum, you may remember last years fun! Where we gave away licences to security and protection goods for your computer! Even from then, we have gained more than a 1000 members and assisted in over 800 hjt log/malware removal based topics. Not to mention the self-help guides we produced! But for us mostly it’s not about figures, it’s about being there to provide support and spread the word!

History

I remember well on how we got to this stage in our short but sweat history. I started a blog on Blogger, bought a domain a few months later and moved all those posts to a Wordpress install. Shortly after that a forum was purchased and the fun began.

Am I happy I begun this two years ago? Too right I am! When I began in this community I always wanted to choose this route. Of course there would be skeptics and those with doubt. But then in life when doesn’t that occur?

New features

Anyway, that’s a brief history. But I want to concentrate on the future and what we have in the pipework. Well, for a start, we already rolled out our new feature, dubbed “NewsBot”. NewsBot imports blog feeds from all around the globe to computer related ones. We created this so we could add more coverage of other news we may not cover, or we failed to cover. We researched and found that this was a good move to do. Go check it out here. Any regular member can reply, just not post a new topic.

The next feature is a big one. One that will still remain private. A sneak peak would suggest we are spreading our wings in a joint venture. You’ll just have to wait as to what they could be.

We’re also looking at adding the chat room back and also possible audio streaming features and more. Basically brand new stuff to blow your head away. Just so that more news can get to you in every way we possibly can cater for.

Celebrations

Celebrations during the next few weeks and month will of course be going on. Just head to our main celebration forum and read the pinned.

Sponsors

During this period the following companies are sponsoring our celebrations and birthday. They have also kindly donated some goodies.

• Sunbelt Software
• Malwarebytes.org

For details about this and what has been donated, visit the pinned here.

So, how do we see the next year go? Well the same really, but with new features and a fresh approach. We plan to be here for a long time and those bad guys will know about it.

From everyone who works on this site, Happy Birthday and see you on our forum!

Links:

http://forum.securitycadets.com/index.php?showforum=86