<< SBS News of the week Nov 29 2004>>

From: Susan Bradley, CPA aka Ebitz - SBS Rocks [MVP] (sbradcpa_at_pacbell.net)
Date: 11/29/04 

Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 00:46:18 -0800

Kevin's song of the week
news://msnews.microsoft.com/OF4crXD1EHA.2804@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl

-----------------
I'd invite you to review and look at Andrew's excellent drafts on
"management" of a network ... comment back... what do YOU think?
news://msnews.microsoft.com/On1WXbD1EHA.1524@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl

news://msnews.microsoft.com/OjVZ#MP1EHA.3452@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl
------------------

It might be 25 shopping days before Christmas..but it's 31 days before
the end of the road for NT4.

For anyone still on SBS 4.5 please advise them that the platform is "not
good enough" anymore.
--------------------
Why you want XP in your networks
http://www.microsoft.com/australia/smallbusiness/issues/running/productivity/home.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/canada/smallbiz/themes/practical/article10.mspx

----------------------

A recent KB points up the "know what you have installed and what ports
you have open"

How to help protect against a WINS security issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/890710

I would hope that we don't have port 42 open at the border perimeter?
While us SBSer's have WINS enable, we don't do that.

Keep in mind also that WINS is needed for Exchange so don't remove it
Exchange 2003 and WINS:
http://weblogs.asp.net/eileen_brown/archive/2004/11/11/255661.aspx

----------------------

Blogs of interest this week

Exchange Best Practice tool has been updated
http://blogs.msdn.com/exchange/archive/2004/11/24/269316.aspx

IPsec front end tool
http://www.leastprivilege.com/PermaLink.aspx?guid=511af9d9-9f31-4c1b-a371-0233b061ed2d

http://www.securitypipeline.com/54200021
Privacy and security are at stake if you use P2P networks or IM apps
that support P2P file sharing.

Hey? Sean? Did you clear this with Kevin? ;-)
http://seanda.blogspot.com/2004/11/happy-thanks-giving-backup-song.html

Sean on a funky backup error
http://seanda.blogspot.com/2004/11/so-what-exactly-is-backup-error.html

SCO hacked.. again...
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=25934&category=main

Jerry's security resource guide
http://msmvps.com/secure/archive/2004/11/24/20647.aspx

Mikko's presentation from AVAR conf
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00000368

- - - - - - - - - -
SCO under attack again
The main SCO Group web site (sco.com) has been
intermittently accessible on Tuesday and Wednesday,
having been down on Monday, displaying characteristic
patterns seen during a protracted Distributed Denial
of Service (DDoS) attack. Several related domains
have also been off - and on-line over the last 72
hours.
http://www.ebcvg.com/articles.php?id=393
- - - - - - - - - -
Windows and Linux exposed by Java flaw
A flaw in Sun's plug-in for running Java on
a variety of browsers and operating systems could
allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows
andLinux PCs. The vulnerability, found by Finnish
security researcher Jouko Pynnonen in June, was
patched last month by Sun, but its details were
not made public until Tuesday. Security information
provider Secunia posted information about the flaw
in an advisory that rated it a "highly critical"
threat.
http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39126099,00.htm

Millions at risk from Java Virtual Machine flaw
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159632
Microsoft emphasises security problems
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/security/0,39020375,39174905,00.htm
- - - - - - - - - -
'Skulls' Virus Disables Smartphone Apps
A malicious code dubbed "Skulls" was launched
from Web sites that offered phone users
downloads of wallpaper, games and ring tones.
The virus targets Nokia model 7610 phones that
run on the Symbian operating system. It replaces
all the phone's icons with skulls and crossbones,
and replaces all the working applications,
rendering the phone useless for anything but
voice calls.
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_title=-Skulls--Virus-Disables-Smartphone-Apps&story_id=28654
- - - - - - - - - -
Poison applet peril affects IE, Opera and Firefox
A vulnerability in a Java plug-in from Sun
Microsystems used by most web browsers poses
a risk for users of IE and alternative browsers
alike. Because of the flaw, malicious applets
can escape the safe confines of a sandbox and
damage vulnerable systems.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/24/java_browser_vuln/
- - - - - - - - - -
Fraudsters recruit phishing middlemen
Fraudsters are trying to recruit phishing mules
with bogus job offers. Email filtering firm
MessageLabs reports more than 20,000 copies
of this scam email have been intercepted to
date, following the emergence of the fraud
over the weekend. The bogus messages pose
as offers for regional representative and
general assistant positions with ICG Commerce.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/24/phishing_mule_spam_campaign/
- - - - - - - - - -
Career database 'wide open' to hijacking
An on-line database containing the career
and contact details of over 22 million business
people can be edited by anyone. The database
- put together by US company Eliyon - is
extracted from information published on the
net (press releases, electronic news services,
SEC filings and other online sources etc.)
and complied into a single searchable archive.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/24/cv_hijack_risk/
- - - - - - - - - -
Microsoft proposes piracy amnesty
Microsoft has announced what it hopes will be
a new attack on piracy. The company has decided
to give away software to those who bought machines
with fake copies pre-installed. Microsoft will be
offering anyone who's "unsure" about whether they've
got dodgy software the chance to have it checked
out by Microsoft, with the promise that if it does
turn out to be counterfeit, they'll replace it.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-5466487.html

Microsoft gets tough with XP pirates
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159640
- - - - - - - - - -
Security officials to spy on chat rooms
The CIA is quietly funding federal research
into surveillance of Internet chat rooms as
part of an effort to identify possible terrorists,
newly released documents reveal. In April 2003,
the CIA agreed to fund a series of research
projects that the documents indicate were
intended to create "new capabilities to combat
terrorism through advanced technology." One
of those projects is research at the Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., devoted
to automated monitoring and profiling of the
behavior of chat-room users.
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5466140.html
- - - - - - - - - -
Home PC users weigh price of protection
Criminals hijack consumers' PCs by the thousands
every day and use them to do their dirty work.
Armies of zombies, for example, are now regularly
used to attack Web sites and extort their owners.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6560512/
- - - - - - - - - -
Tasin worms ate my Windows files
Security experts have issued a warning over the
newly intercepted A, B and C variants of the Tasin
worm, which have begun to spread rapidly by email.
The malicious worms use social engineering tricks
to distract users while they are sent out from
infected computers before deleting large number
of system files.
http://www.vnunet.com/news/1159612
- - - - - - - - - -
New Sober variant spreading
A new version of the Sober e-mail worm started
spreading in Europe last week, according to antivirus
software vendors, which have given the worm a midlevel
threat rating. By the end of the workday in Europe,
the worm had spread to North America and was
propagating there as well, said Marius van Oers,
an Amsterdam-based antivirus research engineer
at McAfee Inc.
http://computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,97818,00.html
- - - - - - - - - -
Year of the global malware epidemic - Top ten lessons
2004 is set to become the worst year on record
for malware variants and their hybrids as
vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows are
exploited within days of being posted on the
internet. Witness the latest and ongoing Bofra
malware episode, which is a hybrid of the MyDoom
family. There is evidence to show that malware
writers are learning from each others' code and
refining carrier vectors continuously based on
live-tests within the internet environment.
http://www.crime-research.org/articles/812/ 

-- 
http://www.sbslinks.com/really.htm
http://www.msmvps.com/bradley
https://www.ecora.com/ecora/jump/pm99.asp

Relevant Pages

  • Re: << SBS News of the week Nov 29 2004>>
    ... > How to help protect against a WINS security issue: ... > allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows ... > worm, which have begun to spread rapidly by email. ...
    (microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz)
  • Re: << SBS News of the week Nov 29 2004>>
    ... > How to help protect against a WINS security issue: ... > allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows ... > worm, which have begun to spread rapidly by email. ...
    (microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz2000)
  • Re: << SBS News of the week Nov 29 2004>>
    ... > How to help protect against a WINS security issue: ... > allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows ... > worm, which have begun to spread rapidly by email. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • << SBS News of the week Nov 29 2004>>
    ... How to help protect against a WINS security issue: ... allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows ... worm, which have begun to spread rapidly by email. ...
    (microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz2000)
  • << SBS News of the week Nov 29 2004>>
    ... How to help protect against a WINS security issue: ... allow a virus to spread through Microsoft Windows ... worm, which have begun to spread rapidly by email. ...
    (microsoft.public.backoffice.smallbiz)
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