Another Day With My PC

Don’t you just love the “undo” function or feature in some programs?

We’ve all been careless at some point when we were writing a report, filling the cells in a spreadsheet application, or writing a C or Visual Basic program. Committing a mistake or making a simple typographical error in Microsoft Word won’t spell disaster to your article. Just press Ctrl+Z to get your word processor do that back-to-the-future thing.

Committing a mistake in writing a news or feature article is not devastating. All you have to do is make the necessary changes. However, committing an error while editing or modifying a critical system file, such as the Windows registry, could have a drastic and irreversible consequence on your system.

Some people want to do things by themselves. For example, programmers would rather debug program themselves than delegate this task to an application that is specially made for that purpose. While a hands-on approach to PC problems is commendable, it is sometimes undesirable. Take, for example, the need to clean up the system registry. Those who know a lot about registries could do this with their eyes closed. However, as many PC users are not that knowledgeable or familiar with the intricacies of an OS or of the hardware itself, it is imperative that they leave these tasks to programs that are designed to handle these problems.

If you’re not that well-versed in PC operations or applications, don’t tinker with system files, especially with the Windows registry. Invest in system utilities, such as a registry cleaner. This would prevent you from causing havoc to your unit.

The hackers are at it again, and this time they’re exploiting on something that’s catching cyberspace by storm – blogs.

The “viral storm,” as the BBC article has put it, has infected many accounts at Google’s Blogger. Weblinks were reported to have suddenly appeared on hundreds of Blogger pages. These links point to Web sites which could cause malicious applications to be downloaded on to the user’s PC.

How Was It Done?

Google was caught off guard by the attacks. It would seem that the hackers did not directly target Blogger’s servers. Security experts said that what the authors of the unauthorized acts might have done in order to infiltrate hundreds of blogger accounts was to simply use a feature of the Web service which allows users to e-mail their articles to their blogs.

Another theory espoused by security analysts is that the infected blogs are actually spurious ones, meaning that the hackers themselves were the ones who created and maintained them. This angle does not seem to far-fetched as many malware authors have resorted into masking their creations or schemes with legitimate programs or services.

Asking for It

Blogs are definitely easy targets for hackers, especially those that are hosted by unsecured servers. Users are also partly to blame for the exploitation of blogs by malware authors. Many bloggers are too careless in maintaining their accounts. They often make public, through their posts, certain information which would enable a stranger to open their account. Take note that if an account holder forgets his password, all that he has to do is provide certain personal information to the host in order for the latter to release a new password to the owner. Surprisingly, these personal data are often readily available at the profile page of the account holder. It’s simply an effortless task for any hacker to open up existing accounts and throw in spurious or malicious Web links on existing posts.

Possessed PCs

Infected and unprotected PCs are also aggravating the problem. Google lamented that the spam e-mails are being generated by systems which are enslaved by worms and viruses that instruct the unit to disseminate files or e-mails without the knowledge of the computer’s owner. This can be easily observed in infected Instant Messengers. Compromised IMs often send out messages containing spurious links to all of the account holder’s friends. Of course, this is done without the knowledge and consent of the user. By the time he discovers the infection, many of his contacts may have already clicked on the link and have inadvertently made their PCs into new hosts to the malicious program.

Link to Disaster

Some of the weblinks are not that damaging to the user, as when the user is merely directed to a Web site which sells products and services. Ad links are annoying, but at least they’re not destructive. Unfortunately, some of the links contain spyware or other forms of malware which wreak havoc on system registries and other critical files and databases. A compromised registry could easily convert a system to a very accommodating host to various types of viruses and spyware. The infected unit virtually becomes a beehive of malicious programs. Worse, it will also become a launch pad for attacks on other units. Users should be responsible enough to secure their units, as well as their blogger accounts, in order to prevent virus or worm infections.