EDIT 4/1/2009:

Conficker Working Group is a “cabal” of security industry companies who came together to battle the Conficker pest.

The Conficker Working Group has an excellent list of free Conficker detect and removal tools: Find it here.

EDIT 3/31/2009:

Great piece from Channel Insider about all the crazy hype of the Conficker worm:

… if you believe the hype [it will ] destroy the Internet as we know it.

Well, at least that’s what the hype machine would have you believe. Security vendors and their PR firms have gone into overdrive, using Conficker as opportunity to hock their wares and services. The level of static and hyperbole has been so high that one vendor, Symantec, even went as far as to state that Web surfers looking for information on Conficker could expose themselves to infection.

Couldn’t agree more! But still it shouldn’t be ignored.

Here are some good apps to check and clean for Conficker or other malware/trojans like it. Simple to run and worth checking out.

F-Secure (download a small app and run from your computer)

BitDefender (Can run pretty slow, needs a browser extension)
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Post from 3/30/3009:

Conficker is a nasty little worm that is going to ‘go live’ on Wednesday, April 1, 2009.

Starting April 1, a PC/workstation infected with Conficker will ‘ask for instructions’ for what to do next.

Experts have differing ideas of the real threat here, but the big thing is to have good, and up to date, anti-virus (and anti-malware) software.

Conficker is built to take advantage of simple passwords; strong passwords will keep the threat of Conficker down. Also, Microsoft put out a patch to fix the major vulnerability for Conficker quite a while ago. Have that installed, and make sure you have a strong password, and you should be in good shape.

Links:

eWeek had this to say, which is echoed by my comments above:

Given that Microsoft issued a patch for the flaw targeted by the Conficker worm and the use of strong passwords can prevent much of the spread, it seems odd that enterprises would be hurt by the worm. But sometimes enterprise security isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Find the eWeek article here.

There is an excellent description of Conficker and what it does, from WWJ in Detroit (it is an AP report) – find it here.

CNet has a great FAQ on Conficker here

CBS’s 60 Minutes had a segment on March 29. See it here

PC Magazine has a good ’7 Most Important Things to Know About Conficker’ article here.

PC World has good info here, about how to easily fix/disable the Conficker worm.

About two years ago, I posted a piece about strong passwords. Find that here.

Trend Micro has some good information on all these “Scan your computer now!” pop-ups that (ahem) pop up all the time when surfing the Internet.

Here is the simple advice: Ignore! Close the pop-up, and move along…nothing to see here…

These sites will often install malware (malicious software), Trojan horses, and viruses on your computer. Yes, it says ‘anti-virus’: they lie. So just close the pop-up and move on. Just be sure to close the pop-up at the “X” in the upper right of the window, and not some button that says “Close”.

Yup…a bit confusing. The Trend article breaks it all down very well.

See the article from Trend here.

Evernote is one of my favorite apps out there. It is just a great place to keep notes and documents of all kinds.

A while back they went to a web-based system which I wasn’t too fond of at first, but I have to say now my reservations were unfounded. The web version is simply a great application, too, and is pretty inexpensive.

If you havent’ checked out Evernote, do it. I highly recommend this product. I use it constantly for everything from web clips to just quick note. Everything can be searched in an instant, whether through tags or just a text search. It’s about all I use these days for bookmarks.

In short: a terrific product.

So check out their birthday message here and find the Evernote homepage here.

This will be really good news: As the price of flash-memory based hard drives continues to drop, we’ll start to see them at larger sizes in regular business laptops.

Known as “SSD”, for Solid-State Drive (meaning no moving parts), flash-memory based hard drives are already pretty common in “netbooks” – very small laptops used for simpler computing, with smaller screens and less power. The good news is that we’re not too far from seeing them going mainstream, where regular business and home user class notebooks will have SSDs in the 100GB-plus storage range.

SSDs are faster, lighter, have no moving parts, and need less power so batteries last longer. All good stuff and an imporovement over traditional mechanical hard drives.

Fast Company magazine has a good rundown of the current state of SSDs here.

The article states:
At some point within the next two years, [Brian Beard, flash marketing manager of Samsung Semiconductors] predicts price parity between an SSD and HDD for the amount of storage the average user needs in a computer. And at that point the speedier-access times, improved ruggedness and lower power demands of solid-state drives will mean they’ll be favored over hard disk storage.

And that’ll be a great improvement. We’ll keep you posted!

For more information, here is a Wikipedia page describing Solid-State Drives.

Here is another reason why you don’t want to use the same password for everything…

There was a document out on scribd.com, a document sharing site, that listed 700 (or 8000, depending on how you read the article) usernames and passwords for Comcast Internet and email accounts. According to the NY Times Technology section, there were real usernames and real passwords just sitting out there.

Imagine the scenario: Your username and password for your ISP (Charter, AT&T, what have you), gets exposed like those on this list. Someone finds it, and just for the heck of it, sees if it works at bankofamerica.com, and whaddya know…you have an account there. And you use that same username and password. Want to keep things simeple, after all. Now that could get ugly, couldn’t it?

So be careful! Use a password program such as KeePass – a nice little freebie – and don’t use the same password everywhere. It just ain’t a good practice.

See the NY Times article here.

Cool or creepy?

I vote for cool…

A Finnish man, Jerry Jalava, lost a finger in a motorcycle accident. Being the computer guy that he is, he fashioned a prosthetic finger into a USB drive.

Yup – he’s got is own 2GB flash drive with him at all times. I mean, really with him. At all times.

Like I say: I vote for cool.

BBC News has the story here.

Hat tip to geek.com

OpenWith.org is a great site that has a list of free programs that will open any type of file.

Need to open an .flv file? Just put that in the search (flv) and it will take you directly to information about flv files: It is flash video, and you can open a flv file with VLC Media Player. There will be a handy link for getting a copy of VLC Media Player. Just like that.

Acutally, there is an application you can load that will do much of this for you. Called the Desktop Tool, you can find it on the OpenWith.org home page. The app isn’t really needed, anyway – just use the search, or the quick search at the top of the home page, and you can do everything you need to.

This site, and the application, is not at all 100% complete. But it can be a very quick way to an answer when needed.

So when Mom calls and says she can’t open some particular file, send her here.

Well, maybe your mom. My mom probably knows that an flv is a Flash video file…she’s like that. So maybe we should just say “when a friend calls”…

A tip of the hat to lifehacker.com …

I have to admit, I have never really done this…taking a truly “tech free” vacation. No Internet, no cell phone, nuttin’.

I’ve gone very light on occaision – no laptop, just my phone – but that probably doesn’t really count. Being as I have BlackBerry, I get a pretty full Internet experience on that if I want. I can keep up on the news, check out all my favorite info sites, everything. Never mind full email capabilities on either my business or personal accounts.

This article by Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine details a cruise he took where he really was tech-free. He discusses some pretty interesting stuff, and I know what he means: standing in line for something and checking his phone for news and all that. The best – maybe worst? – thing about my BlackBerry is that I am never bored. If I get stuck someplace, I don’t care. I just read on my phone. I can waste hours that way if needed. Hmmm…”waste” hours…maybe I just answered my own question…

Anyhow, great article. He titles it “Do any of us remember how to take a real vacation from technology?, which is a really good question, at least for many of us.

Find it here.

In 2009, IT experts predict more malware and other attacks on company networks coming from mobile devices, social networks, and faster Internet connections, among other trends.

IT experts predict a substantial uptick this year in the number of small businesses using smart phones — as well as flash drives, social networks, and faster Internet connections. While that might make employees more productive, it also increases the security risks a small business faces.

• Read more at Inc Technology…

Whether the economy is up or down, no matter what is happening in the world, most small business owner’s work hard anyway. It’s never been easy to start a business, nurture its growth and succeed in any line of business. It’s competitive, more so in some industries than others, but every butcher, baker, candlestick maker or software developer started the same way – small.

There are an astronomical number of variables that are involved in any business success, certainly, but there are also some truisms that seem to apply always and everywhere. The primary ingredient in success, of course, is not genius, creativity, a college education or a lot of working capital. The key is persistence, pure and simple.

• Read more at SB Informer…