Spyware Sucks
“There is no magic fairy dust protecting Macs" – Dai Zovi, author of “The Mac Hacker’s Handbook"

The danger you face if you don’t patch your systems – there is more to this than just Microsoft software

November 30th 2006

I subscribe to a well known patch management listserv where various system administrators and savy computer users share experiences and problems particular to patch management.  The list covers not just Microsoft software, but many other software providers. A recent email to the list highlights the fact that danger can lurk with any software on your […]

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WA Daylight Savings changes and how it will affect computers.

November 29th 2006

Microsoft have released a tool for the Western Australian Daylight Savings changes that affected home users should install:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c6a2c8fe-abda-4051-a24f-3ec933089747&DisplayLang=en But, what about the corporate environment?  As many of you know, I am based in Western Australia and have had to deal with these changes – yay for the politicians who did not look any further than […]

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New KB article – links do not open in IE6 on XP SP2 or Server 2003 SP1

November 29th 2006

A link does not open in Internet Explorer 6 on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;926134 This issue is a result of automatic download blocking, a feature whereby downloads that are hosted on a Web site are not opened automatically. If a Web site […]

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WA Daylight Savings Changes for Microsoft Windows for the Year 2006/2007

November 25th 2006

The Western Australian Government, in its infinite wisdom, and despite WA residents rejecting Daylight Savings via multiple Referendums, have decided to introduce Daylight Savings on a trial basis. Of course, the fact that this is going to affect who knows how many millions of computers didn’t occur to our learned politicians.  Also, the fact that they […]

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Fix for Spanish IE7 problem (WSUS)

November 22nd 2006

Bobbie Harder has posted to microsoft.public.windows.server.update_services advising that MS have confirmed the problem and have a fix, and advice for those affected.  You will need to access Bobbie’s post using NNTP to access the batch file. If you want to create one of your own, the text is: net stop wuauserv taskkill /F /IM IESETUP.EXE […]

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Do you want to run IE7 and IE6 side by side for testing purposes?

November 22nd 2006

Basically, you can’t run IE6 and IE7 on the same partition (although there are people out there publicising various hacks and workarounds that I promise you don’t really work).  MS has heard your pain and is working on a VPC image that will be freely available for download to make it easier to test your […]

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4th Circuit rules against Anti-Spam Plaintiff

November 22nd 2006

Discussed on spamnotes.com:http://spamnotes.com/2006/11/19/4th-circuit-beats-back-antispam-plaintiff.aspx Also discussed here – easier for the layperson to understand:http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2006/11/fourth_circuit_1.htm and here:http://womblencappellate.blogspot.com/2006/11/fourth-circuit-spam-anyone.html I haven’t had a chance to sit down and ponder the end result of the ruling for spam’s victim-in-the-street but a quick scan of the articles cited above doesn’t reveal anything that jumps out at me as a questionable assessment of effect.

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WSUS downloading IE7 Spanish?

November 22nd 2006

There are several reports of the Spanish version of IE7 being downloaded instead of the English version.  We have also seen one report of the Spanish version of IE7 being offered for install on client machines despite IE7 apparently being blocked (unconfirmed). More information as it comes to hand will be on the WSUS blog:http://blogs.technet.com/wsus/default.aspx Update: […]

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Password vulnerability in Firefox 2

November 22nd 2006

The vulnerability is caused due to the Password Manager not properly checking the URL before automatically filling in saved user credentials into forms. This may be exploited to steal user credentials via malicious forms in the same domain. No patch – workaround is to turn off “Remember passwords for sites” Once again, myspace is apparently […]

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McAfee forced to back down in argument with 3Sharp over phishing report results

November 22nd 2006

McAfee, which originally disputed SiteAdvisor’s inclusion in the 3Sharp phishing filter tests back in September have quietly changed the FAQ on their Web site, and have had to back down on their claims that they should not have been included in the phishing tests according to Computerworld:http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;838657419http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/90CBF5D2D2CA176ACC25722E000FACA2 When the 3Sharp test results were first released, […]

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