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Editorial

I have heard and read more disaster stories than success stories about installing Windows Explorer Service Pack 2, and that includes upgrades and clean installations. In my August Newsletter I recommended not to rush in an upgrade your computer and wait for a settling in period. Well I think it's still settling in.

Problems include inability to access the internet to the inability to your using existing (older) equipment (e.g. printers, scanners, copying equipment etc etc.). The latter resulting from industry's inability (or lack of interest) in producing new drivers for older equipment, and I am talking about equipment only two years old.

I did carry out a Service Pack 2 upgrade on one of my computers and found answers to all but one of the problems encountered. However the time it would take to overcome all the problems far outweighed the time to uninstall Service Pack 2, so I took the easy way out. The problem that I could not find an answer to was being locked out of IIS (Internet Information Services), something most of you would probably not need to use or have installed but essential to me in the web design business.

If I get time over the Christmas period I will give it all another go, but with a clean installation. I will then be in a better position to advise you further. But for now I still recommend that you hold off on SP2, unless you can get expert assistance, it's just not worth the pain.

Engadine Web Services wish our customers and readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year.

The next Engadine Web Services Newsletter will be produced in February 2005...

Bruce Beresford, Manager & Editor

In this Issue:

• Featured Site
• Virus Watch
• Zafi worm purports to be Christmas greeting
• Windows XP SP2 Flaw
• Internet Explorer phishing exploit discovered
• Quotes of the day

Featured Site  

This month's featured site is Tom Byrne Motorcycles .

Tom Byrne Motorcycles has been in the business of selling Motorcycles and supporting Sydney's motorcyclists for over 52 years.

Initially spending many decades in the Avenue, Sydney, the venerable BMW dealer Tom Byrne Motorcycles has now moved to a new motorcycle centre on the Princes Highway at St Peters.

We are a BMW, APRILIA & TRIUMPH dealer, carrying a wide range of new and used motorcycles with an extensive spare parts and accessories range.

Their Service area is second to none, supported by an excellent team of service technicians who care for your bike as if it were their own. Please drop in and meet the team...

Visit the Tom Byrne Motorcycles website and check out their new motorcycles...

Virus Watch  

Latest Threats - from Symantec

19-12-04 W97M.Grurev

18-12-04 W32.Netdepix

Zafi worm purports to be Christmas greeting  

If you don't know and trust the sender of your emails, don't open the attachments...

A new variant of the so-called Zafi worm surfaced Tuesday 14, disguised to appear as a Christmas greeting.

Multiple antivirus researchers reported the emergence of the latest iteration of Zafi, classified as W32/Zafi.D. Security software companies including McAfee and MessageLabs issued warnings detailing that the worm is being hidden in e-mails that advertise themselves as holiday greetings.

According to MessageLabs, Zafi.D is already being attached to bulk e-mails using a variety of file names and extensions. By mid-morning Tuesday, the company said, it had intercepted over 25,000 copies of the virus.

Vincent Gullotto, vice president of McAfee's Anti-virus and Vulnerability Emergency Response Team, or AVERT, said that the worm was likely of greatest threat to home users, as corporate IT managers have been protecting against earlier versions of Zafi. He said that the new version of the virus is not that different from the previous Zafi strains, making it easier for companies to take precautions.

Read on >>>

Windows XP SP2 Flaw  

Security experts have identified a modified exploit that can target computers running Windows XP SP2.

Although the exploit is tricky to perform, it combines two vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer 6 with a series of ActiveX exploits to break security settings in computers running SP2. It runs when a user moves a file or an image from one part of a Web page to another, but in the process the exploit downloads code to machines that circumnavigates Local Computer security settings in SP2.
Read on >>>

Internet Explorer phishing exploit discovered  

Be Very Very careful using your credit card with internet transactions over the Christmas & New Year period.

A vulnerability researcher posted details of a dangerous Internet Explorer (IE) flaw on Thursday that allows phishers to spoof Web sites more realistically than ever before.

According to security company Secunia, Paul from Greyhats -- a research group -- has published details of a vulnerability that can be exploited to spoof the content of any Web site.

Using the exploit, scammers are able to manipulate all versions of IE, including Windows XP SP2 -- the latest and most secure version of the browser -- and spoof the URL and SSL signature padlock located at the bottom of the browser screen.

The vulnerability is caused by a cross-site scripting vulnerability in the DHTML Edit ActiveX control, but because the flaw is within the browser, it can be used against any Web site, Secunia said.
Read on >>>

Quotes of the Day  

Astronomers say the universe is finite, which is a comforting thought for those people who can't remember where they leave things. Unknown

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur. Doug Larson

If the human mind was simple enough to understand, we'd be too simple to understand it. Emerson Pugh

People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news. A. J. Liebling (1904 - 1963)

Brought to you by The Quotations Page

Have any questions relating to the internet or your computer? Let me know and I will research an answer and use this for future entries in our newsletter. Pass on your questions via the Enquiry Form on our Web-Site or send me an email.

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