Crimeware software drains your bank account while you are online, logged into your banks website. See Michael's blog posting on crimeware: Crimeware gets worse - How to avoid being robbed by your PC. Michael argues that Firefox under Linux is the safest way to do online banking here: Consider Linux for Secure Online Banking. One way you can get infected with crimeware is the current wave of spam that appears to be from the IRS. These emails can install the Zeus Trojan if you open the attachment or click on a link in them.

There is a new release of iTunes, 9.0.1, that fixes some minor bugs and a major security bug. Windows Vista has a serious networking bug for which there is not yet a fix from Microsoft. The Fix-it page for the zap that disables the buggy component of Vista and Windows 2008 Server is support.microsoft.com/kb/975497.

Alfred discussed watching TV on his Vista computer using the Hauppauge WinTV card. This is something that requires a high end computer, no netbooks. He discussed using both Windows Media Center which is included in the high end home versions of Vista and software from Hauppauge. For TV listings he uses titantv.com and from the web site you can click a button to record a show. We also discussed TV on websites such as Hulu and Joost.

Michael will speak Oct 15th at the NYPC General Meeting about Wi-Fi security. We were pre-empted last week. Listener phone calls.

From todays New York Times: Two-Thirds of Americans Object to Online Tracking. Michael wrote a couple articles on tracking cookies: Defending Firefox from Interest-based Ad Cookies and Avoiding third party cookies in Firefox 3.5.3. Then too, there are Flash cookies. See Flash cookies: What's new with online privacy.

 

WBAI pre-empted the show this week.

 

Dell will pay $4 million dollars as a fine for defrauding New York State consumers. See The Dell Settlement from the New York State Attorney General has information about filing a Claim for Compensation related to the Dell Settlement. A simple URL for this is www.nyagdell.com. You can also call 800-771-7755 for more information.

There is a new scam that asks for your Yahoo username, password and other personal information. Sears used to install tracking software so they could monitor your actions not only on their web site but on other web sites too. The upcoming census will ask many personal questions and the government sells your responses. Apple released a ton of bug fixes for the iPhone and the Mac. Microsoft is being sued - their Windows Genuine Advantage software, which Microsoft says prevents privacy, is said to be spyware. Joe griped that WGA is not 100% accurate.

System Mechanic comes in multiple versions, Joe discussed the Pro version which includes antivirus software a firewall and many other utilities. Issues testing a firewall at Shields Up! at grc.com.

Our webmaster, Michael Horowitz, will be speaking at the NYPC General Meeting about Wi-Fi security. He was going to speak at the September meeting, but it has been postponed. Michael's Wi-Fi lecture will instead be October 15th.

 

The show was pre-empted so that WBAI could carry a speech by the President about healtcare.

 

eBay sold 65% of Skype to private investors. Gmail was offline for over an hour. Twitter can be a great ally for burglars as people advertise when they won't be home. Apple just released Snow Leopard and there have been driver incompatibility problems. Also, for the first time, there is some anti-malware software included as part of the Mac operating system. There was a new flaw discovered in WPA PSK encryption, but it's not serious. Online backups. Alfred suggested not relying on any single form of backup. Hank reviewed System Mechanic version 9.

Microsoft has a 90 day free trial of the Enterprise version of Windows 7 available at their Technet website. See a Computerworld article for more.

Listener phone calls. We may be pre-empted next week due to a speech by the President. If we are on, our guest will be David Perry of Trend Micro discussing testing antivirus programs.