With regard to: http://www.vernology-south.com/blog/40-blog/102-latest-security-reports-from-microsoft-a-mcafee

We've been on the receiving end of just these types of Phish'ing tactics. Email Example:
______________________________________

Subject: Facebook Password Reset Confirmation
Body: "Hey (yourname)
Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients, your password has been changed.
You can find your new password in the attached document.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team"
Attachement: Facebook_Password_(misc number here).zip
_____________________________________

_____________________________________

Subject: new Facebook account agreement
Body: Dear Facebook user,
Due to Facebook policy changes, all Facebook users must submit a new, updated account agreement, regardless of their original account start date.
Accounts that do not submit the updated account agreement by the deadline will have restricted.
Please unzip the attached file and run "agreement.exe" by double-clicking it.
Thanks,
The Facebook Team
Confirmation Code #: 84584635618090
Attachement: agreement.zip

_____________________________________

It's important to note that most membership sites websites will NEVER send you attachments and never a document containing some illusive password or .exe (executable). This is an infected email and should be deleted if received. Just as a side note, we found it particularly comical starting such an email with "Hey"; not going to happen especially from Facebook.

Rule: Unexpected or Unknown attachment = deletion should it get through the virus protection system.

http://securitylabs.websense.com/content/Alerts/3496.aspx

Today, Intel said it is investigating a glitch that prevents an Apple iPhone from synching with certain PCs that use a new Intel chipset.

"Our leading theory is a BIOS or system configuration issue, but we are still investigating," Intel said Monday. The BIOS, or basic input/output system, is the initial code that runs when a PC is powered on. The BIOS identifies and initializes system devices such as the chipset, graphics card, and hard disk drive. Makers of PC circuit boards, aka motherboards, typically offer their own BIOS.

The problem is thought to be tied to the Intel P55 chipset and desktop motherboards from certain manufacturers, according to a report in The Register.

The Intel P55 Express chipset supports the Intel Core i7-800 and Core i5-700 series processors, according to Intel. The chipset is new and has only been available since summer.

As depicted in an "Apple Discussions" thread, on certain PCs or motherboards with the P55 chipset, Apple iTunes 9 for Windows will recognize the iPhone, but when a sync is attempted, an "error 0xE8000065" is generated, indicating an iPhone connection failure. Windows 7 is also cited as a common problem, particularly the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

"Microsoft has not seen this particular question posed in the Microsoft Answers for Windows 7 community forum, nor in any of our call centers," Microsoft told the The Register on Friday. "If we determine this to be a problem specific to Windows 7, we will post an update on the Microsoft Answers site."

The Apple Discussions thread proposes a number of possible solutions.

Apple could not immediately be reached for comment.

Scammers are targeting social networks with phishing scams and relying more heavily on worms and Trojans to attack computers, according to security trend reports released Monday by Microsoft and McAfee.

Phishing attacks saw a big spike in May and June, primarily because of campaigns targeting social-networking sites, according to Microsoft's report covering the first half of 2009. Gaming sites, portals, and Web sites of banks and retailers were also popular targets for phishing attacks, the report said.

URL shorteners may be handy for your tweets on Twitter. But they're also known security holes since they don't display the actual address of your destination. A free tool from security vendor AVG may provide a solution.

AVG has updated its free LinkScanner tool to detect malicious pages hiding behind shortened URLs. The company said the tool checks the actual destination of each URL link to make sure the page is legitimate.

More than a dozen URL-shortening services abound on the Net, including TinyURL and Bitly. With its 140-character limit, Twitter automatically shortens URLs in each tweet via Bitly. Other services like WordPress also include a built-in URL shortener.

But Web browsers don't display the true address of a shortened URL, so you have no idea whether or not the destination page is safe. Hackers have easily been able to use the obscure nature of shortened URLs to conceal hazardous Web pages behind them.

"The problem with shortened links is that they usually don't bear any resemblance to the original URLs, which means that users don't always know what they're clicking," said Roger Thompson, chief research officer at AVG Technologies. "People click with the intention of going to a specific site, but the link can be easily hacked to send people to a site containing Trojans, spyware, rootkits, and other malware instead."

AVG, formerly known as Grisoft, bought LinkScanner in late 2007 as part of a larger acquisition. The tool has already proven helpful to Web surfers by analyzing Web pages behind each link that is either clicked on or typed into the browser.

Other solutions do exist to reveal the truth behind a short URL. The Web site LongURL can display the long version of a short URL. A Firefox plug-in called LongURL Mobile Expander can also translate from short to long.

But according to AVG, LinkScanner is now the only security tool on the market that can find poisoned Web pages behind a short URL. The company says it does not rely on blacklists and instead checks each link in real time.

You just thought of a great iPhone app or maybe you're just curious as to what apps are out there.  Do you get tired of waiting for iTunes or the App Store to load just so you can do a simple app search?  (We may or may not have banged our heads on the monitors in frustration, while chanting "Is it loaded yet?" But I digress.)

Uquery is a simple browser based search engine designed specifically to search for iPhone and iPod apps.  Whether you're at a computer without iTunes installed, you left your iPhone in the car, or you just want a quick & simple app search engine, you may want to check this out.

We’ve been watching an increasing amount of “Stop Spam/Malware” infomercials of late. 99NoSpyware dot com, Malware44Gone dot com, etc etc. Not exactly the actual domain names and I’ve written out the URL so as not to solicit investigation nor give them a free publicity but they're out there and looking for the un-suspecting.

Along these “Anti-Spyware” same tricks & traps, we’ve been recovering and cleaning an above average amount of spyware infected computers. From tracking down the history of clicks, the culprit: a little safe looking pop-up,

“Your Computer is infected with Spyware/Malware/Viruses click here to fix”

STOP! Your computer is more than likely NOT infected! It will be if your knee-jerk reaction is to panic and scan the computer as it suggests. It’s confusing on purpose and specifically designed to illicit that reaction.

Few bullets to mentally note somewhere: 

• A legitimate website WILL ALMOST never tell you computer is infected.  We say almost never because there are always exceptions. It is not really the websites fault in theses exceptions, more so the adware content they’re being delivered.
• A malicious advertisement, site already infected or just a bad website to visit (illegal download sites, some p2p sites, some malicious pornography sites, topsites; the backend of the WWW) will propagate pop-ups of this nature. Judging by the number of infections, they’re doing a decent job of it.
• Phishing emails selling products or supposed social network friend requests.
• Some programs designed to scan for spyware/malware are in fact themselves spyware and malware.
• Don’t click “Scan Now” on pop-ups; don’t send your computer to these, ‘speed up my pc’ or ‘stop spyware’ infomercial sites.

Here is some help and be cautious with your clicks. Understanding, is the best defense against Malware*.

http://www.bitdefender.com/ - FREE, this online scan is reputable and will ask for some browser objects to be installed. They only operate when scanning from BitDefender. Should check out their (paid) Firewall product while you're there.

http://www.safer-networking.org/ - FREE, Home of Spybot Search and Destroy. The piece of the defensive puzzle: I good spyware scanner.

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm - FREE, the host file - increases browser load time, but not anything ridiculous (might be for 4+ year old systems, test it.)

For PopUps (stay away from toolbar software) & ( using 2 or more browsers is ok ) Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox

*Definitions: MALWARE often the group name type of:  | SPYWARE | TROJAN | ADWARE

A little while back I'd read on a few blogs, Twitter was going to charge commercial services some unannounced fee to tweet. Ack!

Seems that report was erroneous at best. What is Twitter? No Chedder for my Twitter for the full article.

One of our clients sent us this. This would greatly enhance our multi-tasking that is for sure. Either that or coffee and movie.

Would this be an indicator that we perhaps drink far to much coffee?

......Oh well pour me a cup!