This week we learned how to help prevent drive-by viruses using ActiveX filtering in IE9, reorganize the All Programs section on the Windows 7 start menu, store private files securely using a portable file encryption tool, auto mount partitions at Linux startup the easy way, enjoyed looking through a roundup of the best Windows Home Server apps, and more.
Photo by leg0fenris.
Weekly News Links
- Mozilla gets tough after digital certificates hack
Firefox browser distributor Mozilla today gave companies that sell digital certificates a week to take actions to improve their security after a certificate authority (CA) was hacked and Gmail users in Iran were targeted in a recent attack. - DigiNotar certificate fraud addressed with Snow Leopard and Lion updates
Apple has released a security update for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and OS X 10.7 Lion that addresses an issue in which the use of fraudulent certificates could allow an attacker to steal user credentials and other private information through a network connection. - XP Update to Remove Spoofed DigiNotar Certificates Coming Soon, Workaround Available
Because the mechanism for Windows XP is different from that of Vista and Windows 7, an update for the spoofed DigiNotar Certificates issue is not available yet. In the meantime there is a work-around available to deal with the problem. - Microsoft Confirms Spoofed Certificates for Microsoft.com and Windowsupdate.com from DigiNotar
Spoofed certificates for microsoft.com and windowsupdate.com are among those issued by Dutch-based DigiNotar, which has been at the center of a scandal involved fraudulent certificates used to attack users of Google.com sites. - Comodo hacker: I hacked DigiNotar too; other CAs breached
The hack of Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar already bore many similarities to the break-in earlier this year that occurred at a reseller for CA Comodo. Another similarity has since emerged: the perpetrator of the earlier attacks is claiming responsibility for the DigiNotar break-in. - Sites of UPS, Acer, others redirected in DNS attack
A U.K. domain name registrar confirmed today that an attack on its system redirected traffic for some of its customers’ sites to a Web page controlled by hackers. - Windows Phone Marketplace boots AVG app
Microsoft has pulled a new AVG antivirus app from the Windows Phone Marketplace. Brandon Watson, Microsoft’s director of developer experience for Windows Phone, confirmed this past Thursday in a tweet that the app had been removed based on research done by two external experts and that the company had started its own investigation. - Stock pump-and-dump spam makes comeback
News of the global debt crisis is driving pump-and-dump stock scams in volatile markets, enabling spammers to make profits by artificially “pumping” up stock prices so as to sell cheaply purchased stocks, note a new report by Symantec. - Search results hijack wrong, abuses user trust
Hijacking of search traffic by Internet service providers (ISPs) for monetary benefits may constitute violation of laws by taking advantage of users, according to industry insiders, but users can take steps to prevent such practices from happening to them. - Korean trustbusters raid Google offices
The Korean Fair Trade Commission, that country’s antitrust agency, raided Google’s offices in Seoul on Tuesday, ZDNet Asia’s sister site CNET has learned. - Ubuntu technical board member proposes monthly Ubuntu release cycle
Ubuntu Technical Board member Scott James Remnant has outlined a theoretical proposal for transitioning the popular Linux distribution to a rolling release model in which new stable versions would be issued every month. - Mozilla and W3C get to work on Tracking Protection
The W3C has created a Tracking Protection Working Group as part of its work to create standards for ways to allow users to say that they do not want to be tracked. Meanwhile, Mozilla are pushing forward with their Do Not Track (DNT) efforts with the publication of the first edition of “The Do Not Track Field Guide”. - Don’t like Windows 8’s ribbon? Sorry, Sinofsky says
Microsoft’s choice to add the ribbon interface to Windows 8’s Explorer has triggered some complaints, but the company is sticking by its decision. - Office 365, Google Docs go down again, could give pause to the cloud-wary
Outages are becoming a distressing fact of life for Microsoft’s cloud e-mail customers, and users of other cloud services such as Google Apps. - Yahoo’s Bartz out as chief executive
The Carol Bartz era at Yahoo has ended. Bartz, named Yahoo chief executive in January 2009, is no longer in the job. In a note sent to Yahoo employees this past Monday, Bartz noted that the board fired her.
Random TinyHacker Links
- Got Problems with Blurry Text in Windows?
A perfect example of a “feature” gone wrong in AMD video drivers. It is causing problems with rendering text and images in lots of apps, such as: internet browsers with GPU acceleration or the tools included in Windows Live Essentials. - Previewing the Incredibly Slick Windows 8 [Video]
Windows 8 looks visually stunning and will likely be Microsoft’s next, best chance to take a bite out of Apple. Regardless, it looks like a quite promising multi platform OS. - Copy Paste Improved in Windows 8
Windows 8 will have better copy paste functions that allow multiple file copy pasting and better memory usage. - Get a QR Code For Your Business Card
Nice business card QR code generator.
Super User Questions
Get the answers you need for pesky computer questions at Super User.
- Where is the temporary directory in Linux?
- How to install Linux and not break Windows?
- Using non-proprietary document format
- Why should I install hardware drivers if my computer is working fine?
- How can I change the language of Windows 7 to English?
How-To Geek Weekly Article Recap
Had a busy week and behind on your weekly reading? Then get caught up with our hottest HTG Main articles of the week.
- What File System Should I Use for My USB Drive?
- How To Thoroughly Clean Your Dirty Desktop Computer
- Learn How to Use Windows 7’s Advanced Search Operators
- What You Said: How Do You Repurpose Old Hardware?
- Ask the Readers: How Do You Repurpose Old Hardware?
Geeky Goodness from the ETC Side
Put the fun back into your weekend with our most popular ETC posts of the week.
- Here’s Why Windows 8 Will Boot Much Faster than Windows 7
- Windows can not Shut Down Yet [Humorous Image]
- Windows XP – Then and Now [Image]
- Starfleet Security Screen [Wallpaper]
- Enjoy a Unique Looking Desktop with the Illusions Theme for Windows 7
- ShouldIChangeMyPassword Tells If Your Password Has Been Compromised
- Android vs. iOS in Lightsaber Fight [Wallpaper]
- When Tetris Turns Evil [Image]
- 18 Things You May not have Known about Firefly [Infographic]
- NASA Releases High Resolution Photos of Moon Landing Sites [Astronomy]
One Year Ago on How-To Geek
Work up some Linux magic on your computer this weekend with these great articles from one year ago.
- How to Backup Your Linux PC with Simple Backup
- Upgrade to the Latest Versions of Your Favorite Ubuntu Software with PPAs
- Safely Remove PPAs and Roll Back to Stable Versions in Ubuntu
- How to Free Up a Lot of Disk Space on Ubuntu Linux by Deleting Cached Package Files
- 3 Easy Ways to Connect to Windows Shared Folders from Linux
How-To Geek Comics Weekly Roundup
- Calling a Geek for Backup
- That does not Count as a Business Loss
- The Latest in Dating Technology
- Not Jedi Enough
- Her Sign was Stop