12th October 2005 - Microxchange October News Wire

News Wire from Microxchange – Bi-Monthly

October 12th 2005


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Zombie Computers

Ever wondered what a zombie computer is?
A zombie computer (abbreviated zombie) is a computer attached to the Internet that has been compromised by a hacker, a computer virus, or a trojan horse, and performs malicious tasks of one sort of another, under the direction of the hacker. Many owners of zombie computers are unaware that their systems are zombies or that any hacker attack ever occurred.
Infected zombie computers — mostly Windows PCs — are now the major delivery method of spam. 900 000 internet addresses used by customers of Telewest were black listed because of this.
Zombies have been used extensively to send e-mail spam; between 50% to 80% of all spam worldwide is now sent by zombie computers. This allows spammers to avoid detection of the source of spam. For similar reasons, zombies are also used to commit click fraud against sites displaying pay per click advertising.


Company ID’s being stolen

In June’s newsletter we wrote about company ID’s being stolen from Companies House. Since then, the Met have launched a campaign to educate potential victims. The leaflet can be downloaded from http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/fraudalertpage.htm


Wi-Fi

We are all familiar with wireless hotspots around town. The chip maker Intel is now developing ‘Wimax-enabled’ chips. These will allow those of us that use wi-fi to be able to use it over several miles; theoretically turning whole cities into ‘hotspots’…..watch this space!


Phishing Test

Most of us are aware what ‘phishing’ is, but would you really be able to tell the difference between a genuine email from one that tries to get you to reveal personal information, such as your banking details. Below is the link to a quiz of 10 email messages, some genuine, others not- you have to decide which are legit and which are ‘phishing’. Of 25 000 people that did the test within the first 2 weeks from launch, 92% got the wrong answers. http://survey.mailfrontier.com/survey/quiztest.html


Anti Spyware

For those of you out there that our concerned about spyware on your computers; Microsoft are now giving it away, so don’t bother buying a product from a third party. The software is a ‘Beta’ version, which means that the code is still subject to change, but it explains that on the page. You can download the package from here….seems to work OK!
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=321cd7a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en
Wardriving

‘Wardriving’ is the slang term which is used for people that try and ‘hop’ onto other companies unsecured wireless network systems. Before you consider doing this bare one thing in mind; some bloke got fined £500 for doing this, under the 2003 communications act. Make sure that if run wireless systems they are installed correctly and not left unsecured.


Cambridge has singing bins!!

A £100 000 Robotics experiment at the Junction in Cambridge has seen the introduction of benches and rubbish bins, which are fitted with GPS systems, that sing when they are happy and run for cover when it starts raining!! What ever next…..the bins also all line up on rubbish day!