Thailand is the No. 2 maker of hard drives, used in laptops, servers and TV set-top boxes, and damage caused by flooding across the region could keep factories closed or hobbled for months, analysts and executives say.

World output of hard drives could fall as much as 30 percent in the final three months of 2011 and manufacturers that need them are now scrambling to snap up existing inventories, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.

Leading chipmaker Intel said on Friday it was keeping an eye on a “dynamic” situation but expects existing stores of drives and unaffected sources to help keep the PC industry supplied. If manufacturers build fewer PCs, Intel sells fewer processors.

“The PC supply chain has proven to be very resilient, as most recently demonstrated in the response to the earthquake in Japan,” Intel spokesman Jon Carvill said.

Top hard drive makers Western Digital (WDC.N) and Seagate (STX.O) both have factories in Thailand, where flooding has killed at least 320 people since July and devastated industrialized areas in the center of the country.

Western Digital’s factories are closed and Seagate, while its plants are running, warns it could face parts shortages.

Apple chief executive Steve Cook this week told analysts on a conference call he expects an industry shortage of disk drives.

PC PRODUCTION MAY BE IN JEOPARDY

Intel on Tuesday said the flooding would not affect the PC market in the fourth quarter.

Since then, details about the damage to Western Digital’s factories in Thailand have caused some analysts to believe a shortage of hard drives could start interfering with PC production in December.

“There’s a major disconnect here. We don’t see how they can not be affected and we’re recommending investors avoid Intel at these levels,” said Brad Gastwirth, co-founder of ABR Investment Strategy, an independent research firm.

Western Digital said Thailand accounts for 60 percent of drive production. Its customers have about two weeks of inventory on hand and distributors have around four weeks of supplies.

As those inventories get used up, the supply of hard drives may be about 10 percent less than demand for the December quarter, estimated Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar.

With production in Thailand likely to be constrained for several weeks, customers will face larger shortages in early 2012, IHS iSuppli analyst Fang Zhang said.

No. 2 PC maker Dell said the flood would have little impact on its quarter ending this month but did not say how it expected to be impacted beyond then.

A Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) spokesman declined to comment.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich, additional reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in New York; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

Source: Reuters

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Dropbox: I keep all of my most important documents in my dropbox. All of my job quotes, business documents, notes and even QuickBooks data are backed up automatically to my secure online portal by this little application. Once you sign up (for free) and install dropbox, you will find a new folder named “My Dropbox” within your My Documents folder. Simply start saving files there and they are instantly backed up! You can view your files online by visiting drobox.com, or even install an application on your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android phone. I have dropbox installed on my personal laptop and work PC which allows me to place a file in the work PC’s dropbox and have it automatically show up on the laptop. You get 2GB for free, which is plenty for a lot of people, but if you’d like to place pictures & music in there you may want to upgrade to there 50GB or 100GB plan for $9.99 and 19.99 per month respectively. I highly recommend taking 2 minutes to watch the video below which will explain it much better than I can.

So follow this link (or visit http://db.tt/1VoTrUS) to sign up! You’ll be glad you did.

Acronis True Image: This $50 application (for the home version) will probably save your butt one day. It can be configured to backup your entire PC on a schedule to an external hard drive or network resource. It can even e-mail you a report letting you know if it succeeded or not. I have it configured on my company server to backup every day at midnight. In the event of a hard drive failure, I could restore the full backup to a new hard drive and be up and running from the point of my latest backup in less than an hour. Without Acronis, I would be stuck re-installing the operating system, software, doing windows updates and restoring data and could be down for more than half the day. I really don’t worry about a crash because of this software. It’s great for home use, and highly recommended for businesses users. The latest version offers a non-stop backup feature and a paid online backup method worth looking into. Here is a youtube video reviewing it:

Check it out over at http://www.acronis.com

Windows 7 Backup: The built in backup feature of Windows 7 is pretty awesome. It’s similar to Acronis, but lacks a few features. It does create full system images that can save you a ton of time after hard drive failure. You can also choose to just backup your most crucial files and folders. The biggest complaint I have with the Windows 7 backup is the inability to e-mail a log after completion. This means that you’d have to manually check the status of your last backup by opening the application. Having a message waiting for me in my inbox saying “Successfully Backed Up” or “Backup Failure” is a very nice feature of Acronis and I hope Windows Backup incorporates it in the future. You also can’t backup to a network location unless you have Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate. If you have Windows 7 and want to give it a shot, then open it up and give it a whirl! The quickest way to find it is to click on your start menu and type “Backup” in the text field at the bottom labeled “Search programs and files”. An application named “Backup and Restore” should appear at the top of the start menu, give it a click. Once opened it will walk you through the backup process.

These are just a few examples of free/low cost solutions for keeping your data safe. The best thing you can do is keep duplicates of your most important files. I find that a lot of people will move (instead of copy) all of their files to an external hard drive only to have that drive fail one day. The smart thing would be to keep those files on your PC and a duplicate of them on the external. This can be done manually, or with an application like Windows 7 Backup and Acronis. Using dropbox will automatically place the duplicate file on the internet and on another PC if you want. We hate telling people that their data is gone forever. Please take the time to help yourself and one day when you’re computer breaks you can rest assured that you didn’t lose those important files.

A computer virus or “malware” can act in many ways, but it simply is a software program capable of reproducing itself with the intent to destroy, steal data or just disrupt your ability to use your computer. According to Kaspersky Security Network, a leading security company, 73,619,767 computer attacks were identified in 2009. In comparison, an actual health pandemic, Swine Flu, had 25,584,595 reported cases worldwide.

While you’re trying to accomplish a computer task, nothing is more annoying than having a pop-up window tell you how to enjoy more pleasures, or having it dismantle your ability to search the web to find information about your infection and find a remedy.

But worse still is that some of these viruses can cause serious damage. It’s estimated that the “I Love You” virus, which stole passwords and emailed them to hacker sites, caused $10 billion in damages. Computer worms, which replicate themselves through networks and Trojan horses, can allow backdoor access into your system, causing such damage that sometimes people can’t even retrieve their personal documents or photos, and some must rebuild their computers from scratch.

And new threats come out daily. As most of you know, the first line of defense is to install a reliable virus protection program on your computer. But it’s just as important that you setup the automatic update configuration, so that the software stays current. So is running regularly scheduled scans.

The best way overall to prevent viruses from attacking your system and wreaking havoc, however, is to pay attention while you work. A little common sense goes a long way in prevention. Here are some simple ways to protect your system from infection.

• Don’t open any email or attachments from people you don’t know. If you do know the sender but the subject seems unusual or misleading, stay away from opening any attachments or selecting any links. Send the person a separate email asking him or her if they actually sent you the questionable email. You wouldn’t open your door without verifying who is on the other side, so do the same with emails. And definitely don’t select the link or attachment. Verify it or delete it.

• Know what antivirus software is on your system. You’d be surprised how many viruses are spread because a pop-up appears on the screen “notifying” you that a virus had been found and tells you to select “OK” to clean it. This can be a trick and the announcement is actually the virus. A good line of defense is to familiarizing yourself with your software so that you know how it acts when it really finds a virus.

• Stay away from pornography websites, sharing sites known as peer-to-peers, crack key generation sites, and other red light cyber districts. These neighborhoods are filled with pesky vermin looking to embed themselves in your system. These type of sites frequently present problems because they offer illegal content or are setup specifically to deliver some form of malware.

• Don’t hit “cancel” on a pop-up that looks suspicious. Instead, Windows users should right click on the taskbar, select “Task Manager” and then end the browser program. Many times the virus engineers make both the “cancel” and “OK” buttons launch the virus. Sneaky guys!

• If your system is infected, run your virus protection program first, if you’re able, to see what it finds. Then check the websites of some of the major virus companies, such as Trend, BitDefender, or Kaspersky, for information about your infection. There are many tools from the major companies that you can run to clean your system. Two great independent free tools I recommend are Malwarebytes and Spybot. But there are many more available and usually a combination of them works to do the job.

• If all else fails, you can try and restore your computer system to a previous date. But that is the subject of a whole other article.

Finally, a quick search on Google can guide you and offer some additional prevention and cleaning methods. Just keep in mind that if it looks fishy, it probably is, and stay away from the bad side of cyber town. Prevention goes a long way.

Source: http://longbeach.patch.com

Although the retail desktop version of Office 2010 is probably more robust and feature-rich, the online equivalents of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote do the job of manipulating Office-based files rather well. The main Office menu lists your recent-most documents while providing buttons to create a Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote document to the right. There’s one single advert in the bottom right corner, however it’s not loaded with heavy Flash or floats around like an annoying fly.

The only drawback is that the online suite saves the files using *.docx, *.xlsx etc. as seen with Office 2007 and the upcoming 2010 suite. Many consumers and businesses who are still using older versions of Office (2003) are accustomed to the *.doc format. Why are they using the old software? Hardware compatibility issues possibility, maybe a resistance to change. Nevertheless there’s a tool to convert *.docx to *.doc, however it’s somewhat of a hassle.

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According to the company in this security advisory, researcher Evgeny Legerov of Intevydis reported that the WOFF decoder contains an integer overflow in a font decompression routine. The flaw could result in too small a memory buffer being allocated to store downloadable font. A hacker could use this new-found vulnerability to crash the browser and allow remote code execution.

In addition to the critical update, the patch also addresses several other security and stability issues. “We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release,” Mozilla said. “If you already have Firefox 3.6 you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu. ”

It was also suggested that Firefox 3.0 and 3.5 users upgrade to the latest version.

Source: www.tomshardware.com

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Despite all the advertising from Jobs’ Mob which says otherwise, Miller told One IT Security that Windows 7 is slightly more difficult because it has full address space layout randomization. It also has a smaller attack surface with no Java or Flash installed by default.

Even before Windows 7, Microsoft’s stuff was harder to crack than OS-X because it had a data execution prevention. Recently however it is easy to get around these protections in a browser in Windows.

Linux is just as easy to hack because the vulnerabilities are in the browsers.

Generally most of the problems for both Windows and OS-X are based around Adobe Flash. He agrees with Steve Jobs that you have to be barking to run Flash on any operating system.

Miller has made his name hacking OS-X and the iPhone. He said most of his hacks can be found in fairly common Mac hacking books.

Source: techeye.net

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Bogusware, scareware or rogueware – whatever you prefer to call them, are all different names given to describe roughly the same thing: rogue security products that masquerade as the real thing.

According to numbers published by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), more than 485,000 rogue security samples were detected for 2009 – an astoundingly large figure, when you consider that is more than double the statistical total for 2008.

More so, June was a watershed month for malware: 152,197 examples of anti-malware products were analysed overall.

The APWG estimates more than 200 gangs throughout the world are responsible for the bulk of rogue security software applications floating around the internet, although only 10 of these gangs are responsible for more than 77% of the rogue malware infections.

How they work

Generally, web surfers are prompted to download rogue security software via an advertisement that pretends to offer authentic anti-virus or spyware scanning tools.

Other methods also include drive-by-downloads via infected websites and fake BitTorrent downloads carried over popular P2P networks.

In some cases, the extent of infection only extends to credit card fraud: users are asked to register for a lifetime product licence by entering their credit card details.

But in other more sinister cases, fake malware products can install hidden Trojans onto the user’s computer unsuspectingly and then log email actions, bank account passwords and other personal data by sending it covertly back to the gang operating the scam. This data is often used in numerous identity and banking fraud schemes.

Where will you most likely come across rogue security software?

At first, it was assumed that most of the software applications were only showing up on porn, P2P and warez sites. Now that’s changing. In recent months, mainsteam websites such The New York Times came under attack for hosting an advertisement on its site that redirected readers to a fake anti-virus package.

Google plays a key part in the dissemination of not-so-honest links. Fake anti-virus applications still routinely show up in the pretext of Google adwords and in search results when you are searching out new anti-virus suites to download.

Downloading antivirus products over Bittorrent or P2P can be just as dangerous – many so called genuine products (such as Norton 2009 for example) can contain Trojan horses that work in the same way to infect machines.

A quick Wikipedia search will often tell you plenty of things about your program of choice. It comes down to a great deal of common sense, including downloading from trusted sites, reading reviews and taking some time to consider why a flashing ad is prompting you to install a mysterious antivirus scanner. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.

Removing and cleaning rogue invaders

Not all mainstream software security packages will pick up and detect the latest scareware. This has much to do with the concept of polymorphic malware, a type of viral threat that constantly changes its own binary structure to evade detection, making it extremely difficult to be picked up by traditional signature based scanning.

As most rogue security titles are polymorphic by nature, their malware signatures are often dynamic, which makes it very hard for some antivirus software to detect.

To keep one step ahead of the security companies, malware programmers regularly change their name and logo to keep up with the latest signature scanners. As a result, many of the same rogue software titles compete under different titles, names that sound much like the real thing including “MS Antivirus”.

Smaller spyware scanners tend to do a good job specialising in removing the fakes and these include programs such as Malwarebytes Anti Malware and Spyware Doctor. Combo-fix is a bare-bones piece of freeware used for catching spyware and malware and is a effective free alternative to cleaning vulnerable machines. HijackThis can sometimes be used to delete registery information if spyware scanners cannot clean all aspects of an infection.

5 rogue security software titles to avoid:

1) SpySherrif

How it works: This piece of malware does it best work by informing computers of false threats to their system. It’s mostly found via web typo’s (Toggle) and via infected software downloaded over P2P networks.

Threat value: SpySherrif is extremely difficult to remove by traditional security scanners. In additional to credit card fraud, this piece of crafty spyware can block internet connections, create multiple administration accounts, stop critical programs from responding and block access to several useful websites that might be used to clean any malware infection.

Also known as: System Security, SpywareStrike, SpyShredder and Spybot – just to name a few.

2) WinFixer

How it works: Frequently launches pop-ups that offer trial versions of anti-virus suites that can scan machines for non-existent infections. To remove the fake Trojan, users must purchase the program.

Threat value: Used mainly to extort users through credit card fraud.

Also Known as: WinFixer goes by many names, titles that sound much like genuine security suites. These include WinAntiSpyware, AVSystemCare, WinAntiSpy and Windows Police Pro. There are among 20 other given names for WinFixer.

3) MacSweeper

How it works: Known as one of the first rogue security applications to target the Mac Operating systems. It’s easy to catch too: web typos, drive-by downloads and piggyback downloads hidden in other applications.

Threat value: This one has been busted by the big security firms already and there are instructions for removal available online. The usual credit card fraud aspect applies and encourages users to pay for a full trial version.

Also known as: KiVVi Software, Cleanator.

4) Green Antivirus 2009

How it works: Green Antivirus is unique because it places a spin on the traditional fake anti-virus suite, by adding a moral incentive to users. The fake program often promotes to donate $2 of each downloaded software title to a particular charity in need. This is done to make the software appear more legitimate.

Threat value: Credit card fraud warning.

Also know as: Green AV.

5) MS Antivirus 2009

How it works: With a name bearing the false credentials of the biggest software company in the world, this particular rogue security suite is particularly well positioned to take advantage of number one branding. Works in same manner of other rogue security suites by offering to scan computer for free.

Threat value: It’s Microsoft OS dependent, so you’ll need to be on a Windows machine to be a viable target. However, once downloaded, the malware can disable genuine virus scanners and make it difficult to remove.

Also known as: Extremely popular and ever changing its name, it’s also known as Windows Antivirus, Win Antivirus, Antivirus Pro and Antivirus Pro 2009 – among many many others.

Source: http://www.pcauthority.com.au