A new type of attack on Internet Explorer has been discovered this week, and this attack works even if IE is closed! The way that it works is that a user visits an infected site, is given a pop-up window asking them to install an applet from Integrated Search Technologies, and if they agree, the applet downloads and installs a ton of spyware, which in turn opens up Internet Explorer and starts doing its thing.
According to Christopher Boyd of VitalSecurity.org, the attack works regardless of whether Internet Explorer is open or closed, and regardless of IE’s security settings.
Read the rest of this article Here
Had a commenter leave a link to a poem that made me smile as only a blogger fighting comment spam can smile. I asked for permission to post it here and my request was granted. Enjoy!
Comment Spammers Eulogy
To battle comment spammers
One must be quite adept.
One time it took up my whole night
And in the morn, I wept.
They see your blog as empty space
For them to leave their ads.
They are a selfish, nasty race
With their advertising fads.
Sometimes it’s viagra;
Phentermine, C-allis too.
It takes vigilance to beat them
And that’s why I’m so blue.
Just think if we had comments here
Where ads could then butt in
It would be less enjoyable?
And soon on us wear thin.
I’d like to take them one by one
And dunk them in some stench
But all I do is block IP’s*
Put ads back on the bench.
It’s tragic and annoying
The net has come to this
But in my journals are no ads
From me they get
BUPKISS!
by Timebot
More of her poetry can be found here
What a pain in my feeble little brain it is to upgrade my blogs style to WordPress 1.5. The actual upgrade is easy but my style/design is complicated and making it a theme is difficult, at least it has been difficult up to this point. I have a test blog setup just to implement the style into a theme, of which I was able to do for a friends blog. But it’s not working too well for my style, even with these instructions. I can get the images to show up and everything is in the right place except for my right menu which is everywhere except where it’s supposed to be. UGH! I suspect it’s all the plugins I’ve implemented. After removing the php plugin references from my menu it does not line up correctly. I’m pretty sure it’s my CSS or perhaps I’ve removed something from my index.php that I should not have removed and I just can’t see it. I guess I’ve been looking at it for too long and need a break.
I think I’m just going to try to incorporate my design into the Kubrick theme and see if I can make it work that way. Some of my plugins do not appear to be compatible with WP 1.5 so I need to see if they have been upgraded also. I’d hate to not have the ability to use them with the upgrade. So much to do with so little time to do it in.
I also need to research how to stop anyone from downloading my whole site. I saw a way using htaccess but didn’t think I needed it at the time. Since then I had several complete downloads, causing my bandwidth usage double my normal months usage in one day. That is not acceptable. I don’t mind legitimate usage but I suspect these downloads were from potential spammers. Yes, I have their IPs and I’m watching my logs. One has already tried to comment spam this blog and the other tried with referral spamming. The comment spam didn’t get through the front door but the referral spam did because I didn’t block it. I still haven’t blocked it, just to see if it continues.
What has me intrigued about the referral spammer is that they used their own IP to spam me with instead of an open proxy or spoofed IP. That and the referral domain is one I reviewed for placement into the JoeAnt directory. I declined the site because some of the content was not appropriate for a family orientated directory. So I guess their revenge was to spam my referral logs. How stupid was that? Sheesh! The domain is shitsite.co.uk, owned by Stuart Brown and Alex Murray. The domain is actually registered to Alex Murry and the IP is 212.227.109.250.
I looked up the IP and there are 3261 domains under that IP. I checked random domains and only one was functional. My guess is that it is a shared server and these guys are probably not prolific spammers. They haven’t spammed my referral logs for several days now so they must have gotten tired of not getting any return on their efforts. Maybe this post will give them a little buzz. 
Just for fun take the quiz What Dog Are You I found this on a friends blog and thought it was a fun thing to do. Plus, the test is entertaining with dials and buttons that blink and an old-fashion type machine typing out each question. The sounds could become annoying if you had to listen for too long but the test is quick enough and fun.
It turns out that I’m a Swedish Vallhund, a cattle herder and/or a general farm dog. Now, I do like farms and love to visit them but I can’t see myself living on one for too long. However, this breed does have some good traits that I will own for myself. Here is a history of the breed and general information. I think it’s a cute dog, small but not too small and friendly. I want one!
