Filter out eBay fraudulent auctions w/ Gumshoo
Submitted on November 30th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Shopping and Services and Security
No. of comments (2)
I tend to do quite a bit of shopping on eBay, and while I’ve never had the misfortune of being scammed, I’ve heard quite a few horror stories. eBay doesn’t offer a way to filter out fraudulent auctions, but you can spot them with a service called Gumshoo. With Gumshoo, you can avoid yourself a lot of hassle, and even find some good deals since the service also searches for misspelled auctions which generally lead to lower priced items. The service is completely free, and probably a good research tool for eBay fans.
[Via Solution Watch]
Testing your antivirus software
Submitted on November 24th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Windows and Security
No. of comments (5)
If you want your computer to work for more than 10 minutes, you have to have anti-virus software installed on your PC. Why 10 minutes? That’s how long it takes for a ‘net-connected PC to become infected (so say some studies)! Want to know if you antivirus is actually working? Right-click on this link, save this file as EICAR.COM (it’s already named that, by the way) and run it. Your antivirus should pop open a notification window, and if it does, it’s working! Don’t worry, the file will not harm your system. You can learn all about it, at the Eicar.com site.
[Via Sniptools]
Stopping junk mail and annoying phone calls
Submitted on November 22nd, 2005 by admin
Filed under Email and Resources and Security
No. of comments (1)
What would you say is the number one problem with new technology? Many people might think that actually learning a new piece of technology is the number one answer, but when you really think about it, it is those that exploit the technology to annoy other users to no end. The internet added spam mail and popups (among other annoyances) to the list, adding to traditional annoyances like junk mail and telemarketing phone calls. Want to get rid of it? Check out this article called the Do-it-yourself: Stop junk mail, email, and phone calls which has some pretty useful tips for getting rid of them. Not the most exhaustive guide, but definitely extremely useful, so go read it!
The robots.txt tutorial
Submitted on November 22nd, 2005 by admin
Filed under Resources and Security
No. of comments (1)
I found this guide yesterday which is a very information tutorial on how to create a robots.txt file for your website. For those of you who don’t know, robots.txt is a text file which you put on the root directory of your website and it will tell each search engine spider what information they are and are not allowed to gather from your website. The guide also offers a few links to other related resources.
Random WPA password generator
Submitted on November 18th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Resources and Networking and Security
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Steve Gibson, of the Security Now podcast and many other things (like appearances of Call for Help on G4 and more, has introduced a new web-based service which automatically generates an extremely secure password you can use to encrypt your WEP, WPA, or VPN networks. The generated passwords are encrypted and completely random strings of characters and there is nothing to do on your part, just browse on over to the Ultra High Security Password Generator page and each time you reload the site, you’ll get new passwords generated. If you’ve been using weak, insecure passwords, you have no excuse anymore not to strengthen your network security. Check it out!
Akismet, killing WordPress blogging spam
Submitted on November 15th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Services and Software and Security
No. of comments (5)
If you have a popular blog, you may be all too familiar with the latest in web evil - comment and trackback spam. I have a pretty extensive list of greylisted and blacklisted words and sites which I keep on my WordPress installation which blocks about 98% of comment spam, but some still leaks through. Trackback spam is another beast which is a little difficult to stop, though not impossible. There is a new WordPress plugin called Akismet which aims to make this all a thing of the past. Akismet uses a collaborative approach to stop all sorts of spam. When one Akismet user blocks a particular piece of spam, other users automatically become protected as well. The plugin has lots of potential and could potentially be the perfect solution to end your spam problem. Akismet is freely available, but you do need a WordPress.com API key to use it.
Google maps of sex offenders
Submitted on November 14th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Services and Security
No. of comments (1)
At TipMonkies, we’re not just about helping you use technology, but also about highlighting cool uses for it. One of the most innovative recently are the dozens of Google Maps mashups which keep popping up every day and the latest is the Google maps of Sex Offenders. Simply type in your address, and you’ll get a map of all sex offenders in your area, along with a picture. Scary, but useful.
[Via digg]
Making files immutable on Linux
Submitted on November 14th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Linux and Security
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Here’s a pretty cool and quick Linux tip. There may come a time when you have some files on your Linux box which you would like not to be able to delete for whatever reason, even by the root user. If so, open a shell window, log in as root and type chattr +i file where file is the name of the file you’d like to make immutable (read: undeletable). If you ever want to reverse this, just follow the same process but replace +i to -i. Please note this only works if you’re using the Ext2 or Ext3 filesystems.
[Via All About Linux]
List of CDs with the Sony rootkits
Submitted on November 11th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Resources and Audio and Security
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The ever helpful Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a list of CDs which contain the Sony/BMG rootkits we have been hearing so much about for the past week or so. The list is not 100% complete by any means but should help you find titles to avoid. They also offer a couple of tips on how to detect whether a CD will install a rootkit on your PC including if the CD says Content Protected on the spine, or if you see a Compatible With label on the back of the CD. Additionally, be sure to disable CD autorun if you are using Windows XP. Mac users beware, the rootkits will infect your computers as well, so be careful!
Ask a Monkey: The evil rootkit
Submitted on November 11th, 2005 by admin
Filed under Ask a Monkey and Security
No. of comments (1)
Dear TipMonkies,
I’ve been hearing quite a bit about rootkits lately thanks to the recent news that Sony CDs were installing them on people’s computers. What exactly is a rootkit, why are they so bad, and how can I get rid of them? Thanks! -Melinda
Dear Melinda,
Rootkits can be bad, but are not necessarily so, though in the case of the Sony/BMG rootkits, they are indeed evil. Basically, a rootkit is a piece of software which a hacker can use to maintain open access to your computer after they hack into it. These rootkits will generally patch certain files (like the kernel) and run without the knowledge of any antivirus or antispyware tool since they remain hidden. Some legitimate applications use rootkits to keep your computer secure (I know there is at least one piece of antivirus software and some rootkit revealers which use rootkits, for example). My first recommendation is not to play Sony CDs on your system because it can cause some harm, like preventing you from playing other CDs. In order to get rid of most rootkits, try a tool like Rootkit Revealer from Systernals which works quite well. -Martin
