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I’ve spent the majority of the day watching UFO Files and UFO Hunters on the History Channel.  Do I believe in UFO’s?  Yep!  I sure do.  I think we’d be silly to think we are the only intelligent life forms out there.  Certainly, I don’t believe all sightings are real.  People make mistakes or see what they want to believe they are seeing.  But I sure do think the possibility exists that some of the unexplained sightings are real, and other life forms most likely exist beyond the edges of what we know as the universe. 

How about you? What do you believe?

Well, after just over a year and a half of "classroom" (albeit online) work, I’ve finished my basic malware removal training. Even with the minor setback due to restructuring of the program (and the change away from HJT and shifting to OTL or DDS as the log producing application of choice) I managed to stick it out and finish.  (But to be honest, I questioned my sanity many times along the way.) From what I understand, about 75% of the people who initially go into this training don’t complete it for one reason or another. I will say it was a much bigger time investment than I ever imagined. And, I learned very quickly just how much I didn’t really know!

I’ve learned a lot along the way (and I do me a lot!!) but I still have a lot more to learn that will only come from experience. Right now I’m helping in the forums at WhatTheTech as well as having status to help at GeeksToGo. Of course, right now, everything I do is reviewed by the staff/teachers to ensure what I do is appropriate, but at least I’m helping real live people solve real world problems. Eventually I’ll be turned loose to work on my own, but for now, it’s nice to have the constant mentoring and to know someone is making sure I’m not giving any bad advice.

I know most people don’t consider fighting malware "fun" but I find it tremendously rewarding. It’s like an Easter egg hunt to me. The prize is finding the bad stuff and making it go away. I also know that doing it for free just for the gratification of helping others sounds a bit crazy to some, but for me it makes it all worthwhile. I can’t say enough about the teachers and staff at WhatTheTech (WTT). I owe them all a lot of thanks for the fantastic job they do teaching. 

I have this taped to my computer at work (and it really is so very true!!!)

A word of warning.
Fighting malware can become seriously addictive.
Those who value their sanity, relationships and social life need not apply!!

This one made email rounds recently but it was too cute not to share here:

A little boy goes to his father and asks ‘Daddy, how was I born?’

The father answers, ‘Well, son, I guess one day you will need to find out anyway! Your Mom and I first got together in a chat room on Yahoo. Then I set up a date via e-mail with your Mom and we met at a cyber-cafe.

We sneaked into a secluded room, and googled each other. There your mother agreed to a download from my hard drive. As soon as I was ready to upload, we discovered that neither one of us had used a firewall, and since it was too late to hit the delete button, nine months later a little Pop-Up appeared that said:

‘You got Male!’

I had never really been one to change my desktop wallpaper often. Generally, when I did, it was something obscure (and it usually lived on my desktop for ages at a time). But recently, I saw the NatGeo Wallpaper Downloader and decided to give it a spin. While it’s probably not possible to grab every single wallpaper from the site lock, stock and barrel - this simple application lets you download more than 1000 of the best wallpapers from the National Geographic website with ease.

This is a one shot deal - if you want to grab more of them later (…say for the upcoming year) you’ll have to run it again and filter to the new group you want.  You don’t have any real control over which photos it downloads beyond the year and pixels (on some years).  For the OCD among us, you may find that if you have specific preferences for wallpaper pictures, browsing the site directly and downloading them individually is more to your liking. With the downloader, you won’t know what images you get until you’ve done the download. Truth be told, there are some amazing images in there - but there are some I’m thinking I may prune out as time goes on. There are stunning photos of everything from lightening to hippos…people to space…meh - you get the idea…wide variety of images.

I will warn you the images are good quality and this is not a fast download.  Plan on allowing some background running time for it to complete.  If you are on metered internet usage it might not be your best option. Or, maybe you want to do just a year by year selection when you know you have enough download usage left. While you are alerted to some measure of progress (I believe year by year) as it churns meticulously through it’s task, I’m afraid the overall progress information is limited and somewhat frustrating.  I also don’t like images taking up my entire desktop, so I then resized all of them (batch operation with Photoshop - I’m not quite OCD enough to do them one by one) so they could be centered nicely on my Windows 7 desktop without interfering with my highly symmetrical and OCD arranged desktop icons.

Windows 7 ships with a nice desktop slideshow built in. I can’t remember in Vista (memory loss happens in old age you know), but I know you could do a screensaver slideshow (OK so I saw that in a Google search, I really didn’t actually remember it) and I suspect the desktop one may be there as well. XP however does not have the desktop slideshow built in.  For that you’ll need the XP Only  Microsoft Power Toy - Wallpaper Changer.  It’s a free download from Microsoft. It’s reasonably self explanatory - but Worldstart.com does have a nice write up on it (which includes a download link as well.)

I had quite a few Windows 7 wallpapers I’ve downloaded, as well as a few miscellaneous ones here and there. I’ve put them all into one nice big overstuffed folder (95 MB of background images and counting) and now watch my photos randomly change every 10 minutes or so. I don’t use a screensaver, so the desktop wallpaper is perfect for me.  The NatGeo Downloader was a useful app that did just what it said it would. It’s now provided me with some very nice images upon which to cast my gaze when I’m trying to think up things to blog about.  I do still suggest taking a gander at the National Geographic website when you have time. I just think it’s an amazing sight overall. Of course, I’ve always been a fan of National Geographic so I guess I’m not entirely impartial - but it’s a family friendly site full of useful info and nice pictures - so there!

I’ve really been struggling with my writing these last few months. I just haven’t been motivated. My posts have been…well…lackluster…less than stellar. I was going through some of my old posts, pruning them (as I tend to do at the beginning of the year) and whilst reading over them it hit me! Yup, it was like slamming face first into a brick wall. (Don’t worry, I didn’t virtually hurt myself when I ran into the aforementioned virtual wall.) I’ve become too focused on being geeky. Many of my older posts were random…rambling…fun. Now, I’m focused. I try to provide useful information instead of just nonsensical but amusing writing.

Yes, it’s true. Somebody stole my random. Well, ok - maybe I misplaced it. (And yes, I’m well aware it’s probably randomness - but in this case I’m using random as a noun and that justifies my probable incorrect usage.) So I’m on a quest. I’m out to find my random. I’ve been looking in drawers and closets around the house, but so far I haven’t found it. I have discovered little clues it’s still around, but it seems to be playing games with me. When it’s very quiet in the house (usually in the middle of the night) I hear a little voice calling "…Marco…" to which I respond with a whispered  "…Polo…"  Do you know how hard it is to play Marco-Polo with random? Much less in the dark?!

Granted, I’ve had a lot less time to write lately but it’s no excuse. One of my New Year resolutions is to find my random, and create some of those amusingly odd posts many of you have come to expect from me - the ones that define my writing.  Happy New Year to all!!

HTML is such a finicky little creature. Forget a "quotation mark"  or <an angle bracket> somewhere (worse - include an extra one) or reverse letters in a code, and you are left with gibberish. Yet, I refuse to go with templates or visual editors, insisting instead on the tedious task of (mostly) hand coding with Coffeecup HTML editor.  (I wonder [insert visualization of a little cloud bubble above my head here] am I always so hardheaded? Rhetorical question - don’t answer it.) The HTML editor is good, and it helps, but if you insist on doing it the long way, you do have to have a basic understanding of how everything falls into place. You also need the innate ability to copy and paste well. Copy and paste, after all, is the essence of all good web plagiarism…I mean design.

Today, for some reason, I kept getting my e’s and r’s switched around (uh, maybe because I type too fast?) and none of my links were showing in the right places. Grrrrr…..I hate redoing things……so I’d find the extra " and fix it and test again….WHAT? Still no link? Double GRRRRRR……oh…..silly me…when I re-read letter by letter, my mistake was obvious. Not only had I suffered from missed-apostropheus-sporadicatia but I’d had Dyslexia-HTMLus and mixed up my characters as well.  (Oooooh look! Made up dysfunctions - don’t you just love it?)

42 tries later (42 IS the answer to everything in the universe according to Deep Thought…and if you’re not familiar with the literary reference let me know - it would take too long to explain here…) well maybe 4 tries later, it was all fixed.  After working 25 hours a day - with no food or sleep (yah…yah…not true! You caught me! I really didn’t spend long at all on it - maybe an hour) I completed all the necessary changes to my webpage-that-wants-to-be-an-intranet-site (at work) when it grows up.  Task finally done (but not without some choice words muttered repeatedly under my breath).

It’s one of those questions that just never seems to go away…."Who has blocked me on [insert your favorite instant messenger program here]?" My answer is short and sweet - you can’t know, you’ll never know, and your contacts have their right to privacy. That last bit alone is enough to generate quite a heated debate as I recently found out - but I’ll spare you the details. More importantly - trying to find out who has blocked you can compromise your computer’s security and infect you will all kinds of malware and viruses you never imagined - and it’s not going to yield any accurate information.

For years, I’ve told people to stay away from block-checker websites. Back in November, Christopher Boyd wrote on SpywareGude to beware of a block checker file that you can now download. It’s a new spin on the websites that have stolen credentials for some time. AIf you install MSN Block Checker you will be infecting your machine with Mob.Blockcheck - take a look at it’s behaviors and I’m sure you’ll decide you don’t really want it on your machine.  Also referenced in this detailed post are 3 previous posts about other online sites claiming to tell you who’s blocked you and phishing scams aimed solely at getting you to reveal your login credentials. Just this week, the well known Raymond.cc blog posted on an email that appears to come from one of your contacts and leads to a site asking for your login info to determine who has you blocked. I probably don’t need to tell you the email is a phishing scam. The friend from whom it comes has probably had their login stolen. The Raymond.cc post also includes very good information on what to do if you believe your login credentials have been compromised.

Many users don’t practice good security online - using the same login and/or password for multiple sites and services.  Being compromised may mean there is a lot more at risk in such cases. Phishers and hackers are quite happy to share their payloads with each other. Many people wrongly assume that because they run an antivirus or malware scan and it comes up clean they are not at risk and/or have not been compromised. FALSE!  Until the advent of the "downloadable" file previously mentioned, most of this phishing was done online. It’s true many of these sites also dump malware or crapware on your machine as a bonus - but the real problem is when the credentials are entered online. It’s hook, line and sinker for the phisher. They have what they need.  All those annoying IM’s and emails going out to contacts will most likely be happening from a remote server. All the antivirus and malware scans in the world aren’t going to stop it from happening.  Following the advice on what to do when you’ve become compromised becomes paramount if you want to stop the problem (and I assure you - your contacts would really appreciate it if you do.)

Knowing if you’ve been blocked is obviously tempting (or the phishers wouldn’t be doing so well with it now would they?)  I have never heard of a block checker that works, doesn’t infect your machine or steal your credentials.  Ask yourself this. Why does a site need your login credentials to determine if someone else is online? Doesn’t make a lot of sense does it? You have to ask yourself - is it really worth it to find out? There are options. Email the person and ask if they are not communicating for a reason. While slightly subversive, you could create another identify and see if the person will add you as a new contact. If you can see them online with one identity and not the other, then you are likely blocked.  Of course, that’s only as good as getting the person to accept some unknown new contact on their list (and if they weren’t mad at you before they may be after you do that if they figure it out.) Send them an IM - perhaps they just aren’t showing online, but will actually answer you. Or, you could just be adult about it - accepting that someone is showing offline to you for whatever their own personal reasons may be. Whatever your choice - stay away from the block checkers. They don’t work and the risks are far greater than the reward (or lack thereof).

I’ve written before about the virtues of having Malwarebytes (MBAM) as a tool in your arsenal to combat malware. Before I ramble further, I’d like to reiterate it is not a substitute for good antivirus protection. It is also not a firewall replacement. It is critical you have both antivirus and a firewall running on your computer at all times.  Malwarebytes works alongside these to help keep you clean and running smoothly. Remember, no one program does it all. In fact, I don’t even like security "suites" because you are putting all your faith in one company’s set of definitions.

The free version of MBAM is a tool I’ve used on a regular basis for several years now. Malwarebytes is known for being one of the few programs effectively removing Antivirus 20xx (insert whatever year you like here) infections painlessly. I personally have run the free version of MBAM on a weekly basis to ensure my machine is free of problems. More often than not, my scans come back clean. But, in the rare cases something is found, I trust MBAM to remove it. On my 15-year old male offspring’s computer that I should pay more attention to but don’t because he won’t leave the keyboard long enough for me to do any cleaning, MBAM was the best option for cleaning up a whole host of infections he managed to acquire about a year ago. It detected infections like wallpaper hijackers, of which I’d never even heard before (at the time).

In the free version, you don’t get automation. It is an on-demand scan. This means you have to remember to run it. And when you do, it’s crucial you remember to update the definitions first so you get the best scan possible.  The allure of the paid version is automatic updates, automatic daily quick-scans (which run very quickly), and real-time protection against intruders. The price is a one-time fee of $25.00 (US) for a lifetime consumer license.  Of course, corporate licensing is based upon the number of seats and is an annual fee.  I’d never been convinced enough of the virtues of the real-time protection to shell out the money - until now.

We just purchased MBAM for use on 100 seats at work. (While I’m sure pricing varies from company to company based on specific requirements, I can tell you we found the annual fee was extremely reasonable on a per seat basis.) My experience with their sales and support techs was outstanding - top of the line - with prompt answers and clarifications to all my pre-purchase questions and concerns. I’ve been using it for several days now on my machine at work and while my scans always come back squeaky clean, and my antivirus solution never detects any problems, I was amazed to see MBAM pop up a small notice it had blocked a malicious IP from accessing my computer.  While my machine is clean, the conclusion was ultimately reached somehow on our network is allowing the bad IP addresses to make it through our firewall - and of course it’s now being addressed, but the important thing is MBAM stopped it. Who knows how long such intrusions have been going on quietly without detection!! Perhaps…..just perhaps….this is how my Aol email credentials were compromised recently. We’re doing our wide scale corporate-wide roll-out of Malwarebytes on Monday. I’m sure the next few days will provide me with many panicked calls about what’s been found upon first scan, but I’m sure the weeks and months that follow are going to be much quieter and I’ll have much less time spent cleaning infected machines.

I do want to say no one program - no arsenal of programs -will catch everything. The groups that design malware are always one step ahead and malware removal software developers struggle to keep pace with the growing number of infections being released. Not only do these developers have to find samples and ways of identifying new infections, they have to figure out how to effectively neutralize and remove them. The sheer volume of files, folders and registry entries that can be dumped on a machine in nothing flat is amazing.  If you’ve ever cleaned up a machine with MyWebSearch on it you’ll know what I mean. None of us is ever really totally safe from infections. We arm ourselves to the best of our abilities (both with knowledge and programs to combat the potential problems) and we make the decision to plunge onto the internet. To some extent we must accept the responsibility for what happens next.

My experience with the real-time protection at work gave me reason to rethink getting a license key for home. I love free software, but the companies that generously make such high quality programs available to home users at no charge for personal  use do have real costs associated with the development and maintenance of these programs. I’d been seeing recent Tweets from BestTechie.net about a Holiday Coupon Code for MBAM. It was only a few dollars off (15% OF $25 isn’t really drastic), but I decided to go for it. My grand total was $21.21 (US) and I had my license key in mere moments. I enjoy the BestTechie site and using Jeff Weisbein’s affiliate link for my purchase was a small way to help support him too. If you have any inclination to upgrade to full protection, as I did, you can use his link to purchase. The limited time discount code is listed in his post - but even at the regular price of $25.00 (US) for a lifetime consumer license, it’s a bargain.

And just so no one ever comes a-knocking on my door because I provided a positive review, I was not asked to write this and I was not compensated for it. I’m not an affiliate for MBAM (mostly because I’m too lazy to sign up, but maybe I’ll put it on the to-do list.)  This is just my honest, personal opinion - based on my experience with the free and paid versions of Malwarebytes.