Limewire Addicts Have Alternatives

With the recent court ruling on Linewire's lawsuit, Limewire has been ordered to close it doors. This means that the millions of Limewire addicts are out in the cold right? Nope, there are always alternatives. You just have to look for them. Torrents are still hugely popular, and P2P as well, however there are some new file sharing kids on the block that deserve a look.

TV Trigger

TVTrigger is like TV Guide for your computer. TVTrigger keeps you up to date on your favorite shows, and has a built in TV Guide. It can automatically find and downloaded the latest torrent of your favorite TV show as soon as it's released.

Usenet - This is the best source for everything - music, movies, games, ebooks etc. Everything is here, however usenet is not user friendly as Limewire or other P2P programs are. Nor is it free, however the benefits are undeniable. Ever ask a friend if they had a particular song, or movie, only to find out they don't? maybe you really wanted to find that certain album, so you had all your friends ask their friends? Only to come up empty? How about that one friend that seems to have everything. Wonder where or how he does it? My money is on usenet!

Put simply, usenet is a unmoderated service on the internet (it's actually older than the internet) that is completely open and public. It's free for the most part, but not with any of the really good newsgroups.

Usenet is often called newsgroups because it is organized into groups and threads. Newsgroups are the topics we all want - movies, music, software, games, applications, video games, ebooks, pictures and so on. Everything organized into groups. These groups are populated and updated by the public. You and i can comment, upload pictures, movies, games and share them with everyone. We can request anything we want as well. Put simply, of course, there are some requirements to be able to participate in newsgroups.

You will require a newsreader program and a newsgroup server. Once you get started, you'll soon realize what you have available to you. It's highly addictive - because once you know how to look, you can get anything you want! Once you reach this point, you'll likely be thinkign about purchasing a premium newsgroup account.

Facebook Email Scam

Facebook Email Scam

With the recent announcement of facebook adding @facebook.com email to user's accounts, the scammers have started to target users.

Security experts are warning of a new Facebook 'phishing' scam designed to steal your facebook log-in credentials. The facebook phishing scam promises you a '@facebook.com' email address. but is actually a trap to gather log-ins and passwords for the malicious site.

"The first sign of phishing is to get your @facebook.com email address before someone else takes it.
"Then, a bit.ly link redirects you to a Facebook App which contains an iFrame that points to a compromised site that is hosting the phishing page.
"Once you click 'Next', your information is sent to the phishers and your account is hijacked immediately. Then, your facebook status is updated to try to scam friends/family."
 

Prevent this, and other attacks, is to revisit Facebook's settings page and select the option that 'informs users when an attempt to access their account has been made on another computer'

Internet Explorer 9 Goes Live

Internet Explorer 9 Goes Live

No more beta for Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 9. IE9 officially went live this morning and is available from the Internet Explorer 9 Website.

A quick list of features include;

New Tab Page

Internet Explorer 9 displays your top websites a single click away. New Tab page helps get you started browsing quickly, providing meaningful suggestions and information to help you decide what to do next as you browse.

Each site's icon and primary color is used on the New Tab page to help your more easily identify each site, which is helpful when you have many sites to choose from. Also, a site indicator shows if the site is one you visit often or not.You can also reopen closed tabs, reopen your last browser session, or start InPrivate Browsing.

Notification Bar

 Notifications in Internet Explorer 9 allow for faster browsing. Instead of dialog boxes popping up, all notification messages are consolidated in the Notification Bar, located at the bottom of the browser frame.


One Box

With 'One Box', surfing and searching is simple. AutoComplete anticipates what you’re looking for, both in internet searches and addresses.It is compatible with your favorite web search engine, so you're not stuck with BING - unless you want to.

The privacy of information that you enter can be shared with search providers, or Not. You can choose to turn on search suggestions or turn them off. If you choose to turn search suggestions on, the text you type is sent to the search provider as you type it rather than being sent after you hit Enter. 

Pinned Sites

With Pinned Sites, you can get to your favorite sites directly from the Windows taskbar—without having to open Internet Explorer first.

Tab enhancements

Tear-off tabs make interacting with multiple sites fast and intuitive. You can rearrange tabs within Internet Explorer 9. You can open any tab in a new browser window by dragging that tab to your desktop. It’s a great way to show multiple webpages side-by-side on your screen.Tabs are even colour coded to make navigation at a glance easier.

Web-focused browsing

The new IE9 browser frame design is based on what you use most. navigation is easier. The back button is larger, the address bar and search box are combined into one new address bar, and the multiple menus are consolidated into a single menu. 

Windows 7 Integration

Internet Explorer 9 integrates seamlessly with computers running Windows 7 to bring you the best web experience for Windows.

Snap

Snap enables you to view two websites at the same time. Simply drag each one to opposite edges of your screen and the sites will appear side-by-side. 

 

Jump Lists

Jump Lists make it easy to access your favorite sites.A quick and easy to way to get to your favorite websites without having to open Internet Explorer, Jump Lists take you right to the websites you use every day. 

 

Thumbnail Preview Controls

Some websites that are pinned to the taskbar have controls that can be accessed from the taskbar. Point to the icon for a website that's pinned to the taskbar and you'll see the thumbnail preview controls for that website underneath the thumbnail preview. 

 

Icon Overlays

Some pinned sites also have icon overlays, which provide information about the website. For example, the number of new messages are shown on the icon in the taskbar. That way you're kept up-to-date about new information without having to go to the website.

Facebook Pages Get a Makeover

Facebook Pages Get a Makeover

Facebook is rolling out a full redesign of it's Facebook 'Pages'. The changes will make Facebook Pages look and operate more like facebook user profiles. The new Facebook Pages re-design was briefly seen last December. As it stands, Facebook accidentally launched the new pages format and then quickly took it down. The facebook pages update not only removed the popular tabs, but it also granted facebook page administrators the ability to post and comment on other Facebook Pages through a new “Login as Page” feature. The facebook pages prototype features made the grade for today’s new facebook pages launch.


The big difference will notice will be the new layout.
- The left-hand menu for editing pages has been removed in favor of a new navigation menu that replaces the old tabbing system.
- The left-hand “Information” box is gone. Facebook Pages admins can now add info about their brand at the top of the page under the main title.
- The right-hand menu has also been changed. There is now a section that features the facebook page’s admins, as well as a section that shows users how many of their friends have also “liked” that particular page. - Facebook Pages can now feature relevant photos at the top.

New Computer and Cell Phone Attacks

New Computer and Cell Phone Attacks

Not to be forgotten are the newest methods to attack computers and cell phones. These new attacks focus on bluetooth, SMS and even ipods! Not only are there the usual trojans, malware, and phishing attacks, there are not also 'smishing', and 'bluebugging'. To learn more, read the definitions below;

Smishing or "SMS phishing" is a phishing attack that specifically targets cellular phones. Victim receive an SMS message with a hyperlink wherein a malware automatically finds its way to the cellular phone, or leads the victim to a phishing site formatted for cellular phones. The term was brought on by David Rayhawk in a McAfee Avert Labs blog.


Botnet (Zombie PCs) a "Robot" and "Network," a Botnet is any number of internet connected computers that inconspicuously forward e-mails (which include spam, malware, or viruses) to other computers on the internet. These infected computers, also known as "zombies" deliver DoS attacks (Denial of Service) and often rely on thousands of zombie PCs.

BlueBugging: (not to be confused with bluesnarfing) allows a skilled person to illegally access a cellular phone via Bluetooth wireless technology. More often than not, going unnoticed to the phone's owner. A vulnerability such as this allows phone calls, and SMS messages to be read and sent, phonebook contacts to be erased, phone conversations to be tapped, and other malicious activities. Fortunately, widespread impact is minimized because of the range of bluethooth technology. Access is only attainable within a 10 meter range of the phone.

Pod Slurping: Coined by US security expert Abe Usher; is when your iPod or any portable USB storage device begins to surreptitiously copy large amounts of files from your computer to its hard drive. Pod slurping is becoming an increasing security risk to companies and government agencies.

Ransomware makes a computer unusable, then demands payment in order for the user to regain full access. Ransomware is also commonly referred to as a "cryptovirus" or "cryptotrojan." Examples of Ransomware include Gpcode.AK, Krotten, and Archiveus. Ransomware was originally a with a trojan called PC Cyborg, created by a Dr. Joseph Popp.

Scareware is software that tricks computer users into downloading or purchasing it, under the guise of fixing their computer. In reality the faux anti-virus program is the problem itself. Scareware programs often run a fictitious virus and malware scan, and then present the user with a list of malicious programs or problems that must be corrected. The scareware informs the computer user that in order to fix these "problems" it will require the user to pay a fee for a "full" or "registered" version of the software. Examples of scareware include: System Security, Anti-Virus 2010, and Registry Cleaner XP.

Sidejacking: Sidejacking is a hacking technique used to gain access to your website specific accounts. Websites typically encrypt your password so it cannot be stolen, but then send you an unencrypted "session-id". The session-id is either some random data in the URL, or more often, random data in a HTTP cookie. A hacker who finds the session-id can then use it to gain access to the respective account. Thus enabling the hacker ability to read your email, look at what you've bought online, or control your social network account, and so on. Robert Graham, who pulled together a variety of known and new vulnerabilities and packaged them into an automated session snatcher, was responsible for this term.