News: Lawsuits over Hard Drive Size

By | November 24, 2011
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 Something I’ve often wondered about: why is a 20 gigabyte hard-drive actually only 18.6 GB? Some folk in LA are not only wondering, they’re suing. The Register reports that US PC users have banded together to protest against “deceptive advertising” of hard drive capacity by filling a lawsuit against the world’s biggest computer manufacturers. The lawsuit objects to the notation used in describing the capacity of hard disk drives in manufacturers’ promotional material. For example, a “20 GB” hard drive would only have 18.6 GB usable capacity, the complaint maintains.

Update: The Swen Worm. Yes, It’s Nasty

By | November 24, 2011
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 The Swen Worm is turning out to be a nasty one. It can execute code automatically, it looks like a genuine Microsoft email and it randomizes itself, making it hard to identify. TechNewsWorld reports the worm, also known as “Gibe” or its more technical name of “w32.swen@mm,” takes advantage of a well-known vulnerability in Internet Explorer that was first announced in March 2001. A software patch and removal tools for affected Windows systems are available, but because of its persistence — the worm infects via e-mail or network sharing automatically — it may be difficult to eliminate. Most of those infected are home users.
 
Part of the problem seems to have been that the antivirus underestimated its shock and awe. TechNewsWorld again: MessageLabs chief technology officer Mark Sunner described the worm as highly complex and told TechNewsWorld that although it was first discovered September 14th, it was not seen as a priority, and the threat was not added to updated protection from leading antivirus vendors. “Initially, this went right under the nose of normal desktop antivirus,” Sunner said, endorsing MessageLabs’ intercept-and-scan approach over traditional antivirus methods that he claimed do not work. “It’s almost inexcusable it went through those vendors.”
Another unique feature of Swen is its ability to communicate with a Web site  that keeps track of the number of computers it has successfully infected. As of late Friday afternoon, the counter was up to more than 1.5 million infected computers.

Update: Beware Swen The Virus

By | November 24, 2011
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 MessageLabs, the email security company, are warning of a new virus, called variously Gibe or W32/Swen.A-mm. Initial analysis would suggest that this strain is a mass-emailing virus, and is similar to the earlier Gibe strain of viruses, however, there latterly may be sufficient differences to give rise to a new family and further analysis will be required. 
 
The emails appear to be different, and the attachment name may vary, but has a constant file size (106,496-bytes).
Some file names appear to have random letters in their filename, and others may include the following, in some cases with numbers appended): Install.exe, Patch.exe, Update.exe, upgrade.exe, q433137.exe, q478121.exe, q489667.exe, Q653143.exe, Q734269.exe, q762531.exe, Q818418.exe, Q944661.exe, q963681.exe.
 
Here’s more info on Swen from ZDNet.

Software: An End To Driver Hell?

By | November 24, 2011
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 From the Simple But Useful Dept comes news of software from China that helps you back up drivers — software needed to run hardware — so if something goes wrong, you don’t end up rummaging through old CDs, cardboard boxes or floppy piles to find the right driver. Driver Magician can also back up and restore more items such as My Documents folder, Desktop, Registry, Internet Explorer favorite folder, Outlook Express mail files, Outlook Express mail rule, Outlook Express mail accounts and Outlook Express address book. Full version costs $25.