One in five PCs infected with rootkits?

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an entry from Tom in his Malware Advisor blog with that glaring headline about one in five PCs with rootkit infections.

The Malware Advisor post pointed to an article at PC World which details results from people scanning with the Prevx CSI service. The statistics from the scans indicated a sharp increase in the number of rootkit infections. In my last issue of this newsletter, I wrote a bit about trying out a new scanner I'd found. It was called Prevx CSI. Small world, ain't it?

After reading Tom's post at Malware Advisor, I went to his security forum and I asked him if he thought there was any truth to the statistics. He didn't disagree with the article, but he hadn't seen any sharp increases in the forums. Later on in that forum thread, Lusher, one of the regulars here, posted his opinions as well.

The PC World article may or may not contain the whole story. In any case, rootkits are something you should worry about and I've posted reviews of a few rootkit scanners you might want to try out sometime.

• SophosAntiRootkit
• RootkitRevealer
• AvgAntiRootkit
• BitDefenderRootkitUncover

If you ever have a suspicion that you do have a rootkit or other infections on your PC, be sure to drop by the Temerc forums and post a question for Tom. He'll get back to you lickety-split with just the right advice.

Quote from the website
More than 725,000 PCs were scanned using the Prevx CSI malware scanner over a two-month period. Of the around 291,000 users who scanned their PCs during October 2007, some form of spyware or malware was found on one in six.

Significantly, although rootkits were detected on 15.6% of PCs during October 2007, that figure had risen to 22% by early December.
Read the PC World article here

UltraDefrag - open source Windows defragger

You have quite a few good choices when it comes to free disk defragmenters. Here are a few I've written about in the past.
JkDefrag
AuslogicsDiskDefrag
DirMS
DiskeeperLite
DisKeeper9
PowerDefragmenter

Now I've found a new one called UltraDefrag and it's FOSS (free and open source software). I couldn't really find anything I didn't like about it.

I found 3 versions of it at the download page. I believe the i386 version is the one most of you should use. It looks like there are versions for AMD and 64bit as well.

Quote from the website
UltraDefrag is powerful Open Source defragmentation tool for Windows NT. It is very fast, because the defragmenting is done by kernel-mode driver. They are three interfaces to them: graphical, console and native. The GUI is very useful, because it represents your filesystem visually as a color coded cluster map. The console is another option for those that prefer the command line. It is also allows you to run UltraDefrag from the task scheduler and scripts. Finally, the native executable will run at boot time in a manner similar to chkdsk.

Website: http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

tinySpell - a tiny spell checker for Windows

Recently, I was asked how to spell check pages at PBwiki, my webhost and employer. I answer all kinds of questions there as email tech support. I don't think I answered that one very well because I told them that PBwiki doesn't offer spell check when you are editing pages. What I should have told them about is the free spell-checker called tinySpell.

I'm sure many of you might remind me that Firefox already supports spell checking in text windows and forms. Sure it does, but it doesn't always work in AJAX driven windows such as WYSIWYG editors. The spell check in Firefox doesn't help the crowds of people who still use IE6 and IE7. For those of you who wish to add spell checking in Internet Explorer, you may want to try ieSpell.

I found that tinySpell worked very nicely in the PBwiki WYSIWYG editor once I'd gotten used to stopping whenever it beeped at me to indicate a misspelled word. When I selected a larger area of text, it also beeped to indicate any misspellings and helped me find where they were located.

I would prefer to get a visible indication when I misspelled words, but I can't complain. After all, it's a free application and it works exactly as it was designed. If I wanted more features, I could pay for a license of the tinySpell+ version.

Quote from the website
Occasionally you need to check the spelling of words in an application that does not include a spelling checker and you don't want to launch your word processor just for that. This is when tinySpell becomes handy. It is a small utility that allows you to easily and quickly check the spelling of words in any Windows application.
tinySpell can watch your typing on the fly and alert you whenever it detects a misspelled word. It can also check the spelling of text that you copy to the clipboard.
tinySpell installs itself in the system tray for easy access. It comes with an American-English dictionary containing more than 110,000 words.

Website: http://tinyspell.m6.net/

WOT - plugin helps identify bad websites

How often do you end up at a website and wonder if it's safe to download a program there or to enter in an email address? If you already use SiteAdvisor, TrendProtect, or CallingId, you probably already have a good idea which sites are safe. WOT offers a similar protection to you but uses the power of all of it's users to help identify bad web sites.

I've been using WOT side by side with SiteAdvisor and I've gotten comfortable enough with it that I'm dumping SA in favor of WOT. I like the idea that I'm getting advice from fellow web surfers and not from a security company. We're all out there on the front lines and we need to stick together.

Quote from the website
Keep yourself protected from unreliable online vendors, spam, spyware, viruses, phishing and other scams. Unlike traditional security systems, WOT will warn you already before you interact with any suspicious websites. The color coding is like traffic lights: green to go, yellow to slow down and red to stop.

WOT has information on over 16 million websites.

Each community member can contribute. WOT is a democratic system where everyone can participate. You can share your knowledge to help other users surf safer by giving ratings to sites that you have used. The system processes ratings and calculates the reputation for each web site. Eventual attempts to manipulate the reputation data are eliminated by sophisticated algorithms.

Website: http://www.mywot.com/

My first blog from Flock tools

Here's a neat little graphic from Thunder7, a friend of mine. He likes to play around with fractal images. Pretty cool, eh?

Blogged with Flock

Form Letter Machine Review

While I was on the way home from work one day, I was thinking how I kept typing the same headings and formatting commands over and over again. Maybe I could write a quick and dirty program to help me with that? It needs to show me an interface that would let me paste in text and urls to make a new review with the formatting already done for me. My coding wish was granted when I accidently stumbled into the Form Letter Machine that evening.

The Form Letter Machine was fairly easy for me to figure out after I'd read the help files. Within a few minutes, I had made a template that saved me lots of time. Even though this program is free, the program's author requests that you register the program by signing up at his forum and requesting a key. When I did that, I discovered that the DonationCoder forum was full of people who love software and coders who love to make it. If you visit the Coding Snacks board, they'll even write a small program to grant your wishes.

Download the Form Letter Machine

Join the freeware fanatics at Clif Notes Newsletter today!

Visit Freeware Wiki and Clif Notes Newsletter

Hi all, This blog is just a work area. All the action is at http://freewarewiki.pbwiki.com where I publish freeware reviews, Windows tips, security advice, and show you cool web sites and services. I also publish a free weekly newsletter that is sent out on Sundays. It has all the latest posts from the wiki. Clif Notes Newsletter now has over 1000 email subscribers and many others who view it at MSN Groups or RSS Feeds. You can sign up for it here. I also have an archive with over 600 pages of past reviews. See them at http://clifnotes.mybesthost.com/reviews. http://clifnotes.tk

araneae.com: "You�ve reached the home of Araneae, a simple yet powerful text editor for the web. Araneae (pronounced ah-RAN-ee-ay) is a tool that provides only the features necessary to create stunning websites with all the latest web technologies. Araneae will not seize control of your code, leaving its interface astonishingly uncluttered and easy to use. Simply put, Araneae is just what you need. "

Computer Help Club: "Installing Husband 1.0
Dear Tech Support: Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance - particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0. and NASCAR 4.1. Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply
crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate
Dear Desperate:
First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: 'http: I Thought You Loved Me.htm' and try to download Tears 6.2 and don�t forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. But remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 10 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, Happy Hour 7.0, or Beer 6.1. Beer 6.1 is a very bad program"

Quantum Muse - science fiction and fantasy stories and artwork: "We have the freedom to do just about any damn thing we please. We publish who we like, from countries all over the globe. We just don't care about people's politics. All we want to know is if they can write or not."

SpywareInfo :� Spyware and hijackware Removal Specialists: "Welcome to SpywareInfo, the spyware and hijackware removal specialists
Has some sleazy web site taken over your browser? Are you getting pop up ads even when your browser has been closed for some time? Are you infected with a spyware program that refuses to go away? If so, our message board has dozens of dedicated volunteers ready to give you step-by-step assistance to remove the malicious software and regain control of your PC. "

Miscellaneous Tools: "CopyLock is a small program that allows replacing, moving, renaming or deleting one or many files which are currently in use (e.g. system files like comctl32.dll, or virus/trojan files.)
Add the files to update, click Apply, restart and that's it!
You can also list and edit the pending operations from the system after you ran an installer or view the processes which use the locked files."

Deepnet Explorer - Web + P2P + News Browser

This looks like a nice tabbed browser with lots of other cool features
+popup blocker
+password minder
+form filler
+p2p file sharing
+rss reader

Tutorials for defending against Spyware/Hijacker Software

einfodaily.com SmartFix Security Center Homepage

|MG| Free Download - SmartFix 2.6

To provide the best computer experience available, SmartFix is an all-in-one system and security repair tool that allows you to fix and eliminate the pesky bugs and problems that make slow down your computer through easy one-click menu options. Furthermore, SmartFix adds an extra layer of protection against the security attacks and hazards of the Internet by repairing the security flaws on your system. To make your computer experience even smoother, an intelligent pop-up ad blocker is included to block those annoying spam pop-up and pop-under ads, as well as an easy-to-use system monitor taskbar that allows you to keep track of your computer's health.

Features include:

- Stylish system monitor taskbar that allows you to keep track of your computer's health.
- Quick access to system repair tools through the system tray icon
- Integrated Laptop energy saving mode to keep your laptops running longer
- Quick access to Windows Update to keep to your computer up to date
- Integrated pop-up blocking capabilities to get rid of those annoying pop-up ads

Whats new:

- New improved worm intrusion prevention feature for eliminating deadly worms
- New improved spyware intrusion prevention feature for eliminating intrusive spyware applications
- New Security Alert console for keeping up with the latest security threats

PSPad - HTML editor, PHP editor, JavaScript, ASP, Perl, XHTML, C, MySQL, CSS, Hexa editor

Net Transport - multi-thread download assistant

Download details: Sasser (A-F) Worm Removal Tool (KB841720)

Enabling the Windows XP Internet Firewall - Lockergnome & TechSmith's Video Tip of the Week #1

YourWare Solutions Company Website

FreeRam XP Pro - supposed to help free up ram.
Win 95/98/ME/2000/XP

Disoriented Labs - open-source applications and utilities for Windows

FreeExtractor - Create self extracting zip files

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer V1.2

Looks like a good tool for winnt win2k and xp

TextCalc -- A Calculator/Text Editor Combined
Looks like a useful item for documentation.