One of the most surprising cases I’ve worked on was setting up a home network. Quite frankly I’m surprised not because its a one in a million case, but I’m surprised that there are computer users that use it. In my home, for example, we have 5 computers systems at home but never even thought of it. Most computer users (myself included) have overlook the convenience of being in a home network. File and printer sharing, for one. Like I can view pictures on my brother’s laptop without me going over to his room or print documents without physically going over the printer at the family room or wherever the printer is installed.

I must say for this particular case that it’s simple and complex at the same time. What makes it more special is that I have to set it up on a Windows 7 machine (the simple part) and a Windows XP machine (the complex part). Why simple? Windows 7 has a feature of “Homegroup” where setting up a home network was made so easy that you just have to type in an access code to join the network. A “homegroup” link is found in Network and Sharing center, and a wizard that guides you in the process. (ref.http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/12/30/at-home-with-homegroup-in-windows-7.aspx)

And as I’ve mentioned, the complex part is when you would want to add an earlier version of Windows in the network. For this case, my task was to add a Windows XP machine to a Windows 7 homegroup. This is not as simple as the above because “homegroup” only works with Windows 7 computers. In this case, the group’s name on both machines must be the same. (i.e. change the workgroup name to “homegroup” since that cannot be renamed in windows 7) In addition to that, whoever wants access must have a user account on the Windows 7 machine that matches the user name and password on the XP machine.

End result, we had a working home network between 3 computers, 2 on Windows 7 and one in Windows XP. Another happy customer with a working home network.

How can Techie Now help?

There are some some computer related activities that can be complex no matter how simple it sounds. Some may even sound impossible, but not really if you know how to work around it; however that will get you confused in the process. Let Techie Now handle the confusing stuff. We’ll also give you our expert opinion because we care for your computer as if its our own.

www.TechieNow.com

Do you know what are the most riskiest domains in the web ?

McAfee, a security agency, released its annual, “Mapping the Mal Web” report naming the riskiest domains in the web worldwide. Disturbingly, most of the riskiest domains come from Asia-Pacific region.

The following are the top 10 riskiest domains in the web:

1. Cameroon (.cm) – Cameroon from Africa got in the top list for 2009 overthrowing Hong Kong (.hk) as the web’s riskiest domain for 2008. With a risk rating of 1.1%, Hong Kong dropped to the 34th place this year. It is a small African country bordering Nigeria. It’s the first time that Cameroon entered the list getting the top spot with the risk rate of 36.7%. Most of the time, users mistype .com to .cm making it as the common typo for domains. Because of this, many cyber criminals decides to come up with fake typo-squatting sites redirecting users to download malicious downloads, spyware, adware and others.

2. Commercial (.com) – .com is considered as the most common domain, also getting more and more dangerous as of 2009. It has been in the ninth place in 2008 and grabbing the second most dangerous domain for 2009. It is also the most risky generic top level domain (TLD).

3. China (.cn) – The third spot belongs to China with the risk rating of 23.4% while having a 11.8% risk rate in 2008. McAfee’s report shows that websites registered with the .cn are more related spam sites.

4. Samoa (.ws) – Samoa is in fourth place with a 17.8% risk percentage compared to its security risk of 3.8% the other year. It has been reported that Samoan-registered domains are known risky for its activities like phishing and malicious downloading. Together with China, Samoa stayed in the top 5 riskiest domains since 2008.

5. Information (.info) – With 15.8% risk rate for 2009 and 11.7% for 2008, .info is considered as the most spammy domain because its sites generates a lot of junk mail. Its activity is largely spam related.

6. Philippines (.ph) – Philippines marked the sixth spot with the overall risk level of 13.1% as compared to its 2008’s risk rate of 7.7%. Its registered sites are getting more into spam and phishing than the malicious downloads.

7. Network (.net) – The seventh riskiest domain is the Network (.net) having the risk rate of 5.8% compared to its higher security risk in 2008.

8. Former Soviet Union (.su) – Former Soviet Union joined the top list for the first time, with the 5.2% security risk. Reports noted that its domains are mainly used linking phishing and malicious download activity.

9. Russia (.ru) – Russia is in the ninth place getting a risk rate of 4.6%. In 2008, it has a security risk of 6%. Domains from Russia are distributed for phishing, spam and malicious downloads.

10. Singapore (.sg) – Next to the Philippines belonging to the Asia-Pacific country, Singapore had the tenth place with the overall risk of 4.6%, compared to 0.3% last year. .sg domains were distributed evenly for spam and download activity.

The riskiest domain for malicious downloads comes from Romania (.ro). 21% of its domains are offering viruses, spyware and adware. The Government (.gov) domain is the safest domain for having 0% risk. Japan (.jp) domains got a rating of 0.1% proving to be the safest country domain in the web.

The “Mapping the Mal Web” report just shows how smart the cyber criminals are they quickly change their strategies to attract more victims without being caught. Attackers prefer to target places where it will be cheap and convenient for them to register their sites.

How Can Techie Now Help?

McAfee has named the world’s riskiest domains. With the cyber criminals roaming the web, any domain from any country can be affected by these phishing, spam and malicious downloads. It just proved that it’s really not that safe when it comes to browsing the web. The right thing to do is to make sure that you have a security software ready in your computer for protection. If you are looking for services that can protect your computer, you can trust Techie Now with that. Contact us now for any PC support services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

The official website of Spain’s European Union for presidency, www.eu2010es, was hacked where a large picture of Mr. Bean smiling was displayed in the site.

It been a joke in Spain for years now that the British actor, Rowan Atkinson, who played as Mr. Bean, looks really alike to Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. El Pais, Spain’s leading newspaper, has published an article against the government handling the economy with the cartoon image showing Mr. Zapatero as Mr. Bean. The problem of unemployment in Spain has increased twice to about 19 percent.

Mr. Zapatero’s official verified that a security breach caused the hack of the website covering Spain’s 6-month presidency of the European Union. Fortunately, the site information is not affected at all. El Mundo, another newspaper from Spain, showed to the public the screenshot Mr. Bean appearing in the official webpage. During that time, anyone who visited the website will receive a “Hi there!” greeting by Mr. Bean. Thousands of users flooded the site to prove if the spoof is true.

How Can Techie Now Help?

It’s easy for cyber criminals to hack websites like what happened to the Spain’s Official European Union Presidency website. It may not have affected the site that seriously but it just proves that websites are not safe with numerous hackers over the web. Also include the computers and its users. For a start, Techie Now can help you when it comes to computer protection. It also offers other PC support services like: virus and malware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

Alan Claridge of Indiana sued RockYou for data breach after the company admitted that they have lost the personal identification data of their 30 million users because of a hack. The only mistake of RockYou was that they didn’t acknowledge the online attack for almost two weeks after it happened.

How were the personal data of RockYou’s million users lost?

RockYou kept its users’ personal data which are all confidential only in plain-text files or .txt docs. They have failed to protect the personally identifiable information (PII) of their users letting it be accessed by anyone who is capable to hack. No wonder the hacker, “igigi”, didn’t have a hard time exploiting RockYou’s SQL injection vulnerabilities because of its poor coding.

After that attack, RockYou sent a mail to its users, including Claridge, received an e-mail from RockYou saying that their information might have been compromised. But 12 days before that, RockYou already knew its own liabilities and decided to shut down the site. It even published an apology and explanation on the attack that happened on the website.

To prevent this from happening again, RockYou will cooperate with the investigation of the authorities on the illegal breach of its database. They will also encrypt all passwords, evaluate their data security features and upgrade their legacy platform with the standard security protocols. RockYou is sued for nine counts which include negligence, breach of contract, violation of California’s Computer Crime Law, and California’s Security Breach Information Act, among others.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Alan Claridge did the right thing when he sued RockYou for data breach. Regardless of RockYou’s website being hacked, they should still protect customer data and not to have waited for 12 days before informing its users about the hack. You’ll never know but you might be the next victim of these hackers. Protect your PC now! Contact Techie Now for PC support services that you need like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

www.TechieNow.com

If you sent an e-mail in the first few hours of 2010, there’s a possibility that your recipient has not received your e-mail because of the bug hidden in the open source SpamAssassin used by internet service providers (ISP). The rule used to score emails as possibility of being spam was not updated in compiled versions of Apache SpamAssassin 3.2.0 thru 3.2.5.

SpamAssassin is a computer program used for e-mail spam filtering based on content-matching rules. Mike Cardwell found out that a rule named ‘FH_DATE_PAST_20XX’ triggered the program to give a high spam scores to any e-mail, legitimate or not, that has arrived within its header a date beyond a defined point in the future. He searched for the rule in Google and found out that the said issue, #5852, was first identified in November 5, 2008 and was already fixed in June 30, 2009. He is using Debian for his operating system which doesn’t contain the fix needed for that problem.

The rule ‘FH_DATE_PAST_20XX’ was not updated in compiled versions of Apache SpamAssassin 3.2.0 thru 3.2.5 before the New Year started. So any e-mails sent between 2010 and 2099 will automatically have high spam scores. Even though this problem has not directly stopped e-mail, the number of the legitimate e-mails mistakenly marked as spam would have been raised until the service providers detect the problem.

We’ll never know how many e-mails were affected by bug. According to reports, false positives appeared in Sweden, Germany, and The Netherlands. Daniel Axster of CronLab, an open source anti-spam company from Sweden, stated that it would have affected worldwide if it crossed the date line since almost all ISPs use the standard rule set with some modifications.

Axster advised the providers that they should do regular updates for the filters and archive spam monthly or in case of problems. They should also propose a mechanism to end users that will check their filtered emails for false positives. CronLab usually follow these techniques. Customers should store those emails suspected as spam so that the ISP can analyze about it.

SpamAssassin quickly fix the problem and offered a help page on its website as soon as they discover the problem. If you feel that you might have been affected with this bug but doesn’t know how to check it, you just have to press the resend button to send your email again.

How Can Techie Now Help?

The SpamAssassin 2010 bug blocked the emails enabling for other users not to receive emails sent to them. ISP should update their filters regularly. It’s the same as users updating security software for their computers for protection. If you are looking for PC support services like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair, Techie Now is here to help you.

www.TechieNow.com