October 2007

Mac OS X Leopard, released Friday, Oct. 26 has a Login & Keychain Update available.

It addresses issues you may encounter when:

• Logging in with an account originally created in Mac OS X 10.1 or earlier that has a password of 8 or more characters.

• Connecting to some 802.11b/g wireless networks.

• Changing the password of a FileVault-protected account.

Apple Downloads

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One of the biggest supermarket chains in the USA fell victim to online fraudsters.

Evidently, no one at Minnesota-based Supervalu bothered to confirm the authenticity of emails sent in late February. Purporting to come from two of the company’s suppliers, the messages instructed Supervalu to wire all future payments to new bank accounts.

Supervalu wired $10m into the fraudulent accounts. Sheesh.

The Register article.

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2.3.1 fixes over twenty bugs.
WordPress 2.3.1 in detail.

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Scotty is growling.

Available today, WinPatrol 12.2.2007 will now alert you if changes are made to your Automatic Update settings. Like most features, the intention is to protect users from changes made by malicious programs.

There are other goodies also, which you can read about here at ‘Bits from Bill’. Download

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The Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC)

This week we became aware of publicly disclosed exploit code being used in limited attacks on customers. This change in the threat landscape has prompted us to update last week’s Security Advisory 943521 and triggered our Software Security Incident Response Plan (SSIRP).

Third party applications are currently being used as the vector for attack and customers who have applied the security updates available from these vendors are currently protected. However, because the vulnerability mentioned in this advisory is in the Microsoft Windows ShellExecute function, these third party updates do not resolve the vulnerability – they just close an attack vector.

Article: October 25th Update.

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Posted on its home page and giving no reason for the sudden closure.

Best Offers and Direct Revenue have ceased operations. To service legacy consumers we are maintaining this page of uninstall instructions, an uninstall software tool, and an email based support service.

By most accounts DirectRevenue made a lot of money off unsuspecting users.

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TechCrunch reported today that Zango has purchased Smart Shopper Networks, a browser based comparison shopping engine previously owned by New York based HotBar Inc.

Alex Eckelberry: So what’s the motivation behind Zango’s acquistion of SmartShopper?

It’s worth noting that Zango is primarily gaining new users through Seekmo, its porn branch. In other words, new user acquisition occurs from users downloading porn in exchange for free ads, not for funny videos of a cat jumping up and down. They need everything they can to gain legitimacy.

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From the Webpage portal:

The Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) provides an in-depth perspective on the changing threat landscape including software vulnerability disclosures and exploits, malicious software (malware), and potentially unwanted software. Each individual report focuses on data and trends observed in either the first or second half of each calendar year and uses historical data to provide context. The purpose of the SIR is to keep Microsoft’s customers informed of the major trends in the threat landscape and to provide valuable insights and security guidance designed to help customers improve their security posture in the face of these threats.

Download details.

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Mozilla Developer News

The 2.0.0.8 release fixed some 200 issues, but accidentally regressed a few things. Most users won’t see any difference or experience any problems, and those 200 fixes make the 2.0.0.8 update very valuable, but you should never have to choose functionality over security. So we’re working fast to understand and fix these problems, and will shortly be issuing a 2.0.0.9 update to address them.

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