Ok after the totally random name you are probably wondering what the heck I am babbling about, right? Thought you would be. This is were I go GLOBAL…Muwahahaha!

Ok, hold your seats, grab your popcorn from last nights movie. And hide your kids and stuff! This is in no way security related.

For the next 13 weeks or so I will be volunteering at a radio station, a charity registerd one. You know, where you have loads of buttons to press, and me who can’t even speed type. Great that!

I won’t be presenting a show as such. But I will be their sound technician.

Why you wonder? Well I have always had sound/audio in my life as an interest. I always wanted to play at nightclubs and own some mega-busting equipment. Like CD recorders/burners and the sort you need!

Once I started to earn some bucks I started to buy everything I wanted. Started to mix some records, yes the 12 inch variety. And also attempted to make songs. From trialed software and such.

From then on in I sent hundreds of CD’s to nightclubs, radio stations to see what they thought. From that I had a few DJ sets. All non-payed. But experience was my main goal here.

To cut a long story short I have recently applied for jobs in this field. Most have written back to me and even offered me a day at their place. But sadly insisted I needed more experience as I am not a qualified sound tech. Which is fair enough!

So I kind of got a chance to volunteer at a previous station I volunteerd at some years ago. Then this station only did short projects that went on for two weeks. However since then they have gained an official licence for 5 years.

And me, your number one security reporter. Will be there helping for the next few months. The station in question is Seasideradio.Org, have a gander around. Ok after pimping their site, here is a brief description:-

“Seaside Radio’s roots lie way back in Easter 2001. Our first broadcast went out live on air from Keyingham, being picked up in both Withernsea and the borders of Hull. After the broadcast, a small number of presenters decided that Seaside Radio could develop and become bigger and better. A number of other small broadcasts took place until 2003 when Seaside Radio Ltd was formed, and eventually in November 2005 Ofcom awarded us a full time license for five years and full time broadcast will start in summer 2006 In April 2005 we took up a permanant residence at 27 Seaside Road in Withernsea.” Read more here

I’ll be starting tomorrow. This shouldn’t effect my time on this site and forum though. I will still be kicking ass and assiting users. I wouldn’t want it any other way.

But be prepared to hear random jingles and even dancing banana’s live. Oh Noes.

Yeah, i know … it’s getting confusing.

But this is NOT VirusBurst and it’s NOT VirusBurster
It’s VirusBursters!

Yes, there is a brand new variant on the old VirusBurst-theme … and they call it VirusBusters

And it has absolutely no new surprizes! They just renamed VirusBurst (aka VirusBurster), changed the ol’ virusburst-UI here and there (not to much, offcourse!) and put it in another program Files-folder named VirusBursters.

Why? Simple! To try and elude the anti-malware scanners and tools … and that’s all …
I know. This is a small blog, for my standard. But just look at the pictures and you’ll get the idea ;-)

As always to seek help with this rogue. Visit our HJT Forum for free help. Or discuss it with us here in more detail.

*DISCLAIMER*
Security Cadets and myself, jahewi (the author of the article), write these blogs to warn people about fake malware-scanners, like VirusBursters, and other fake, malware-installing programs, like the fake Codecs.
Let me be absolutely and perfectly clear about them;
Those programs are wicked and must be considered dangerous!

We are not responsible for those fake scanners and we are certainly not the owners.

Please, read these blogs with this statement in mind and never ever install or buy VirusBursters or any other program, wich we are warning you about.

My eyes allmost popped out of their sockets, while i was reading this blog from Temerc.

It says, that repairing Windows XP, while IE 7 is installed, is not possible … at least if you want to keep using Internet Explorer.

Another goof-up by Microsoft? It certainly seems that way.

In this support-article, Microsoft says:

Before you perform a repair installation of Microsoft Windows XP, you must uninstall Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 from the Windows XP-based computer. If you perform a repair installation of Windows XP when Internet Explorer 7 is still installed, Internet Explorer will not work after the repair is completed.

To resolve this issue, uninstall Internet Explorer 7 from the computer, and then install Internet Explorer 6. After Windows XP is repaired, you can reinstall Internet Explorer 7.

… and why all that trouble? Quite simply because the new IE7-files aren’t compatible with the old IE6-files, wich are installed in the system32-folder of Windows.

So, basically, after repairing Windows, you have 2 partly installed IE versions, wich both fail to work!

Keep it in mind, IE7-users!

And yes you guessed it. MyPornMagPass is basiclly the same as X Password Generator and PornPass Manager.

And like its twins it comes with rogues such as VirusBurst(er), SafetyAlerter and Internet Explorer Security Plugin. The complete package of utter rubbish you can do without.

Again the website used for this is ESTDOMAINS INC:-

Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Domain Name: MYPORNMAGPASS.COM
Registrant: PMB inc. (Eklo Olaf) Creation Date: 19-sep-2006

This one is older than PornPass Manager it seems. But nevertheless important to mention so the word gets out. The hijacked homepage doesn’t look different either. Still the same layout:

So be warned. These installs come with rogue malware scanners asking you to install their software. When infact it will cause you much more problems in the long run.

Just pop into our forum to receive free help with special fixes for programs mentioned in this article.

*Images brought to you by Jahewi – Please don’t use these images without his permission*

Remember my blog about X Password Generator, little over a month ago?

If you remember it or not, just read it one more time, but replace ‘X Password Generator’ with ‘PornPass Manager’.

Yep, it’s true. XPG has a twin, which they called PornPass Manager and it has nothing new to show for … it installs the same infections, the same rogue malware-scanner and annoys you with the same popups.

The PornPass Manager itself even looks the same as the X Password Generator.

So, is there really nothing new about the PornPass Manager?

Yes, they actually have a new site to which the IE-Homepage hijack is pointing to. But that’s about it, because even the new site is simular to the old one.

This all maybe sounds a bit boring and not very dangerous, but don’t be fooled. If PornPass Manager successfully installs on your computer, you’re in as much trouble as with the X Password Generator!

You’re welcome to talk about PornPass Manager in our forum

If you think PornPass Manager has been installed on your computer, we will gladly help you to get rid of it in our forum

Just days after Internet Explorer 7 got released for public download. Firefox will be releasing their latest upgrade of the well known and respected browser. It is some two years since their major upgrade. Compared to Microsoft’s gap of five years!

“Firefox 2.0, the foremost rival to Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer browser, is set for release Tuesday afternoon, said its producer, the not-for-profit Mozilla Corp.

The free 5-megabyte browser, available in 39 languages for Windows, Mac and Linux computers, will be downloadable from getfirefox.com, the Mountain View, Calif., company said.

The new release of the two-year-old product includes new features but strives to retain its simplicity of design and operation, Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering, said earlier this week.”

Read more about it at Seattlepi.com. You can also discuss it here.

Update – There is a link floating around to the download. However due to a high demand and Mozilla’s request I will not post to the live link untill it is “officially” released.

Official release is up and running on the official Mozilla download page. Release Notes.

As a direct download. Not yet part of the automatic updates. But it is available. So much I am using it right now!

It looks pretty funky really. This from someone who never installed the beta versions of IE7. This is pretty much my first hand-on experience with it.

This new version as you know is the first version update for years. So using IE 6 for so long. Then using the new version is a bit mind blowing as it looks totallly different!

What features does it have?

• Tabbed Browsing

• Quick Tabs which loads all current tabbed windows into one screen so you can navigate to a site quick.

(Click to Enlarge)

• Pop-Up blocker
• Phishing Filter which allows you to also report any websites

(Click to Enlarge)

And much more. You can customize it so that it looks similar to your old version. By that I mean the Menu Bar.

I will take some time to get use to it. There is a guide you can follow on how to install it with ease.
Links of interest:

• Installation Guide
• Internet Explorer Home-Page

I am hopefull of making a guide of my own soo. You can also bookmark a topic from our forum if you wish. I will keep all news regarding this version in there. Click here.

And suprise suprise (I wish that show was back on our screens….NOT) this rogue is from russia and ESTDOMAINS INC:-

Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS INC
Contact: +1.3027224217
Website: http://www.estdomains.com

Domain Name: ANTIVERMINS.COM

Registrant:
N/A
Alex Konchekov (alex.konchekov@gmail.com)
Russia, 119334, Vernadskogo pr, 16-67
Moscow
Moskovskaya oblast,119334
RU
Tel. +007.3100240

Creation Date: 02-May-2006
Expiration Date: 02-May-2007

Domain servers in listed order:
ns2.antivermins.com
ns1.antivermins.com

After being given a crap name this rogue shows all the hallmarks of similar rogues. And their spelling on their web-page is far from accurate!

If you have had this rogue on your system and want it removed please visit our forums (navigate to the designated area) for free help in removing it all. Or you can discuss anything related to this rogue here.

Update – Removal guide now here. And this rogue also goes by the name of AntiVerminser.

I all recommend you go read this article over at Ben Edelman‘s site! Oh and Digg it here!

“As the fifth-biggest search engine, Ask faces a clear problem: How to get users to leave their favored search engines, to conduct their searches at Ask instead? One Ask strategy is to buys ads on TV and in other media, claiming to offer a better product. But Ask also drives traffic to its search engine by enticing users to install its toolbars. This article looks at Ask’s current and recent toolbar practices, including:

• Promoting its toolbars on sites targeted to kids. Details.
• Promoting its toolbars through ads that appear to be part of other companies’ sites. Details.
• Promoting its toolbars through other companies’ spyware. Details.
• Installing without any disclosure whatsoever and without any consent whatsoever. Details.
• Soliciting installations via “deceptive door openers” that do not accurately describe the offer; failing to affirmatively show a license agreement; linking to a EULA via an off-screen link. Details.
• Making confusing changes to users’ browsers — increasing Ask’s revenues while taking users to pages they didn’t intend to visit. Details.
  

Throughout, I compare these practices to the statements of Ask’s staff, and I compare these practices with applicable legal and ethical duties.

I use the term “Ask toolbars” to refer to the IAC products at issue. Details on why I chose this name.”

Click here for more details! Or discuss it in our forum.

Earlier this month it was believed that Internet Explorer 7 would have been released with the 10 October 2006 updates. Microsoft denied it would be released on that date! However they did say it was planned to be released for sometime this month!

All confusing and what not…huh? Well it is a sunday, so it’s ok!

It’s scheduled to be released on the 18th of October. And will be available with Automatic Updates.

Offcourse if you feel that it’s a big step for you. Or you are somewhat confused on how to be prepared and actually install it! We have a guide available. I say we…..Corrine has over at Security Garden! I would read it!

So please be prepared if you have automatic updates on. That is if you don’t wish to install IE7.

If you are still somewhat confused on what to do. Please say so and ask in our forum. We welcome your comments!