“The overall detection by anti-virus software in January was disappointing — only 70.62 percent. For February it is even worse — only 64.77 percent was detected. And in March the average detection was 73.56 percent. That might not sound too bad but it means that 29 percent, 35 percent and 26 percent was not detected,” the company’s report read.
Category Archives: PC Issues
Why the display server doesn’t matter
The result of this is the display server doesn’t matter much to applications because we have pretty good toolkits that already hide all this information from us. And it doesn’t matter much to drivers as they’re providing much the same operations to anything that uses them (i.e. buffer management and passing shaders around).
via Bob’s development blog: Why the display server doesn’t matter.
Pwn2Own 2014 Claims IE, Chrome, Safari and More Firefox Zero-Days
In terms of why Firefox was the most exploited browser at the 2014 Pw2Own event, money likely plays a key role.
“Pwn2Own offers very large financial incentives to researchers to expose vulnerabilities, and that may have contributed in part to the researchers’ decision to wait until now to share their work and help protect Firefox users,” Stamm said. “Mozilla also offers financial rewards in our bug bounty program, and this program’s success has inspired other companies to follow suit.” –
via Pwn2Own 2014 Claims IE, Chrome, Safari and More Firefox Zero-Days.
CVE-2014-0497 – a 0-day vulnerability – Securelist
All of the exploits exploit the same vulnerability and all are unpacked SWF files. All have identical actionscript code, which performs an operating system version check. The exploits only work under the following Windows versions: XP, Vista, 2003 R2, 2003, 7, 7×64, 2008 R2, 2008, 8, 8×64. Some of the samples also have a check in place which makes the exploits terminate under Windows 8.1 and 8.1 x64.
Open source desktop lowers TCO by 40%
In 2011, the Gendarmerie added 20,000 Ubuntu desktops, and in 2012 added another 10,000. This year, it added 2000 so far. Between March and June of 2013, the police force also performed an update of Ubuntu, upgrading to version 12.04 from 10.04, over its network. “This January, the last constraints will disappear, and we will replace the last proprietary desktop PCs by Ubuntu.”
via French Gendarmerie: “Open source desktop lowers TCO by 40%” | Joinup.
The Best CPU Coolers: 10-Way Roundup
With the recent arrival of Ivy Bridge-E (see our Core i7-4960X review), I felt it was a good time to check out the latest aftermarket coolers. The new chip is fully compatible with Sandy Bridge-E/EP’s LGA2011 socket. We contacted all the major players and received 10 heatsinks to test including units from Noctua, Thermalright, Xigmatek, Silverstone and Thermaltake.
Hybrid Drives Don’t Need More Than 8GB Of NAND
The study essentially proves that, at least in the workplace, any amount of NAND memory larger than 10GB would have a limited impact on performance. Of course, data-intensive tasks like analytics or video rendering, where fresh data is being accessed all the time, would benefit from larger amounts of faster memory, but an average user is unlikely to notice the difference between SSD and SSHD.
via Seagate: Hybrid Drives Don’t Need More Than 8GB Of NAND.
US agency baffled by modern technology, destroys mice to get rid of viruses
EDA’s CIO, fearing that the agency was under attack from a nation-state, insisted instead on a policy of physical destruction. The EDA destroyed not only (uninfected) desktop computers but also printers, cameras, keyboards, and even mice. The destruction only stopped—sparing $3 million of equipment—because the agency had run out of money to pay for destroying the hardware.
via US agency baffled by modern technology, destroys mice to get rid of viruses | Ars Technica.
And you want these people in charge of economic development?
New Skype malware spreading at 2,000 clicks per hour makes money by using victims’ machines to mine Bitcoins
To avoid this threat and others like it, don’t click on random links you receive on Skype. You’ll be doing yourself a favor, helping stop the spread of malware, and ensuring criminals get a smaller pay day.
At least it’s just bitcoin mining and not stealing credentials. This is why I always have three performance monitors on my dashboard; CPU usage, bandwidth, and memory. With this piece of malware you would immediately see a problem because the CPU monitor shouldn’t be full of color. Then simply take the PC offline and do some investigation or bring it to someone. On Windows machines there’s Perfmon to look at these performance monitors. Just like a car has its fuel and temperature guages, computer users would be far more secure getting used to performance monitor guages. I often wonder why distributors don’t display these somewhere as a default option much like they have for the clock.
Microsoft: Uninstall Faulty Patch Tuesday Security Update
Microsoft patchMicrosoft announced last night that it has stopped pushing a security update originally released on Patch Tuesday because the fix is causing some PCs to blue screen. Microsoft recommends users uninstall the patch, which is also causing compatibility with some endpoint security software.
via Microsoft: Uninstall Faulty Patch Tuesday Security Update | threatpost.
This is why I always turn automatic updates off on all PCs and update on my own terms and on my own schedule.