I’m very excited about the news this evening!

VIPRE 4.0 has been released to customers. While that is interesting, the best part is: current customers of VIPRE have the ability to upgrade to 4.0 for FREE!

If you are a customer, or visitor, that has purchased VIPRE and you missed the prompts to upgrade the program, you can simply visit http://shop.sunbelt-software.com/upgrade/ to obtain the latest antivirus technology. Make sure to have your license key handy!

If you have any questions, please let us know!
Justin

Microsoft has come out with a security announcement for those on Windows XP.

While most of us barely use the “F” keys at the top of the keyboard, they do certain things. For instance, the F1 key typically allows you to bring up the Help menu for the application you’re in.

This week, Microsoft stated that XP and Server 2003 users should stay away from the F1 key due to a vulnerability found that can cause security problems for your system. Microsoft is working on a patch for the Bug, but no notice on when it’ll be released. For now, keep away from the F1 key!

On a lighter note, other neat buttons are:

• F3: Shortcut for CTRL-F, otherwise known as “Find”.
• F4: The address bar. If you know what web address you’re going to type, why use the mouse?
• F5: Refreshes your screen, great for working on websites or refreshing that PowerBall page while waiting for the numbers to change.
• The magical F11 key. This key, in Internet Explorer or Firefox, makes the webpage go full screen. This is neat, but it can confuse people since the start bar goes away – so be careful when you test it (F11 again to get out of full screen mode).

So, again, stay away from the F1 key in Internet Explorer while using Windows XP, and make sure to install the updates when your computer wants.
Justin

A Unique Take on Infections - Image From SunBelt Software (VIPRE Antivirus)

While on calls in Beaverton or elsewhere, I always get the dreaded “How’d I get infected?” question. Unfortunately, it’s too broad of a question to answer the right way.

The reason I say this is that there could be hundreds of programs installed, each with their own security problems, windows updates missing, Antivirus and anti-spyware programs missing or not updated, firewalls turned off, etc.

Then, we have the “Adobe Affect”. I call it this as a lot of security researchers feel that the majority of attacks will come from Adobe this year. On top of this, there is a huge amount of vulnerabilities in the Adobe Software already. Unfortunately, the software company is typically slow to release security patches as well, so Zero-day flaws, are slow to be fixed.

Today, Sunbelt Software, the writers of VIPRE Antivirus, notified their followers, via their blog, of a flaw that allows attackers to get into your computer after the Adobe Updater Runs. That’s right ladies and gents, the simple fact of updating Adobe to patch security issues can now infect your computer. How to stop this issue? First, reboot if you see that Abode has updated.

It’s sad to see such software cause infections. Adobe Flash and Reader are some of the most popular programs installed on computers today. Well, it’s not sad – I should say that it’s disheartening. Adobe has a huge target on their back, just like Microsoft. Sadly, Adobe doesn’t really seem to be taking the issues head on, like Microsoft does with their anti-spyware, IE page blocking, etc.

So, the moral of the story is – don’t trust any software to be perfect. The more software that is installed, the bigger the target you have on your back. Keep your computer updated and for peets sake – STOP running in Admin mode with UAC turned off!
Justin

This week, while hundreds of people throughout Beaverton, Portland and elsewhere restarted their computers and got a Blue Screen of Death, Microsoft quickly back peddled on the update they released. They started researching the issue, yanked the update, and now have stated that malware crashed thousands of computers across the world.

Microsoft stated that removing the offending malware caused the computer to be able to boot. This means that if your computer rebooted, blue screened then rebooted again (rinse and repeat), you had a malware infection you didn’t know about.

Read more about this issue on PCWorld.

The affected file is the atapi.sys file, which a lot of computer repair places have seen infected and causing problems recently, but a lot of people just didn’t notice. If you’re still having problems with this isuse, give Protocol16 a call and we’ll be more than happy to help out.
Justin

Ever wonder how in the world you get one of those emails that says that a long lost relative left millions of dollars in the bank, in some country, and if you reply, you could get all that money?

Well, today, a customer passed along a nice link that was a 3-part interview with a “419″ scammer. You’re not the only person out there that receives these emails – even Protocol16 receives them…

We always recommend that our customers educate themselves, and this is some very good reading to see why you should just delete these emails as quickly as you can.
Justin

This week has been a heavy-hitter in the computer world.

It appears that one of the most recent Microsoft Updates is causing computers all over to have problems with Blue Screens. Attempting to get into safemode results in the same issue.

This update seems to mainly affect Windows XP, but according to the patch that is causing most of the problems, it can affect 2000 through Server 2008. But again, we’re mainly seeing this with Windows XP.

If you haven’t already applied these patches, don’t do so.

If you have applied these patches, please feel free to give us a call.
Justin

UPDATE: Microsoft has publicly commented on this situation, on their blog.

Over the last few weeks, Microsoft has been researching reports that state that Windows 7 has been ruining batteries. Well, two days ago, they came out with an update stating that Windows 7 is not ruining the batteries, this is all part of the plan.

If you want a heafty read, look over this long post by Microsoft on their blog. It basically states that Windows 7 uses internal reporting in the batteries to determine when your battery has started going downhill. They set this alert up when 60% of the battery has effectively failed. This means that when you charge your battery, you only get 40% of the original charge, even though the battery says it’s 100% charged. This situation ends up with a 100% charged battery lasting only 45 minutes when it use to last almost 3 hours when it was new.

So, it’s not Windows, but your battery that you need to consider replacing. Most batteries retail for approximately $99. This is one reason I buy an extra battery every time I purchase a new laptop.
Justin

So, with the advent of all the video floating around the web, there is a new scam floating around as well. It specifically attempts to attack Flash, which is installed on roughly 90% of all the home computers online. As the screen shot points out, the attacking website may get you to “Fix” or install a plugin to get the video to work. Sneaky stuff.

Why am I hitting on the whole Spyware/Virus issue lately? Because this is the number one thing we’re seeing right now. More specifically: Fake Antivirus software that attempts to get your credit card information, shows you Pornography, etc.

As always, if you have questions, please let us know.
Justin

There is a new type of infection happening that even has some of the best anti-virus companies stumped. Recently, it was found that Virus and Malware writers are getting more sneaky on how they infect you.

They are specifically targeting Google users. Recently, it was found that you could get infected simply by looking through Google Images. On top of this, other sites only infect you if you come from Google. This means, if you type the web address directly, you don’t get infected.

Very sneaky stuff indeed. This makes it harder to clean the infection, as the website owner usually goes directly to the website to check the problem directly.

Be careful out there, it’s getting more dangerous.
Justin

If you haven’t done so, this is a second reminder that Microsoft released an “out of band” update for Internet Explorer. Yesterday, it appeared that it was for Internet Explorer 6 only, but it turned into an update for Internet Explorer 6 through 8 by yesterday evening.

If you are receiving a notification to update Windows this morning, do so to plug a nasty little security hole.

Out of band updates are done when security holes are so “large”, but Microsoft feels that an update needs to be release ASAP, instead of their normal Tuesday release cycle.