Computer Support Network

The first version of the Conficker computer worm was released in late 2008 but experts expect that the infection will spread on April 1st. It is believed that the worm has already infected over 5 million machines. The infected computers act as a carrier for the worm, remaining dormant but capable of reactivation if the original author switches them on. According to the director of CA, a New York threat assessment company, Conflicker carriers will be reactivated on April 1st.

The Conflicker Worm causes many internal computer problems but does not attack data directly. Instead the Worm cancels the auto update functionality of windows and virus scanners and acts as a backdoor access point. Virus and Worm writers have largely moved away from purely destructive code. It is now much more common that Worms are used as backdoors into a system as a data miner or to infect a computer with advertisements. What makes the Conflicker Worm especially dangerous is that is has been created to evolve overtime and the author continues to make improvements to ensure that it survives against deletion.

The easiest way that you can check for possible infection is to check your Windows Auto Updater. If you run a Windows XP system open “My Computer”, click on “Control Panel” and then navigate to “Security Center”. Make sure that you have received Windows updates for the month of March. If you haven’t either contact you IT department and/or make sure that a virus scan is run on your computer as soon as possible.

Without knowing how the Worm will evolve it cannot be known exactly what will happen on April 1st. The best thing you can do is ensure that the Worm is not already on your system and patch your servers to prevent further infection.

- Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department

Yesterday Microsoft released the final build of Internet Explorer 8 for public download. Since part of my job is to ensure that our websites are compatible against all I decided to be the company guinea. Let’s see how IE8 stacks up against the other top browsers today.

After installing the new browser IE8 complied in true Microsoft fashion and crashed immediately. An auspicious start but I reopened the program and started the setup process. The first thing you will notice is that IE8 offers a number of new services.

Suggested Sites: This feature monitors your browsing history to recommend websites you might like. I would prefer to find websites on my own so I turned this off.

Accelerators: The Accelerators feature lets keywords in website connect to other services such as automated maps, translation tools, or even blog services.

SmartScreen Filter: SmartScreen Filter does just what you might expect. It blocks certain websites and online phishing scams to protect your system. This should be left on.

Compatibility Views: This one has had me interested for awhile. This feature is intended to make websites for older browsers look better in the new platform.

Once finished setting up I browsed to our website and was happy to see everything in its place. Moving onto the contact us page I decided to see if the Accelerators work as intended and selected our address. The result? Pretty impressive.

A new feature that many people will appreciate is Tab Groups. All modern web browsers use tabs but this feature makes searches more intuitive. If you open Google, or any Search Engine, you probably open more than one result. Internet Explorer places all these results into a single color coded tab. You can flip through them normally but when you finish you can close the entire tab at once.

The address bar sees an improvement directly from Firefox. The new address bar remembers previous results to assist you when you wish to return to a site. IE8 offers additional usability improvements and allows you to remove old addresses that you no longer want.

Finally let’s look at performance. Speed has always been an issue for Microsoft Browsers and IE8 doesn’t seem to break the mold. In test with popular individual websites and websites that contain multiple news articles IE8 came in dead last in load speed against all other browsers. In most cases this was a difference on only a few seconds but after the claims by Microsoft of a major improvement this is a definite letdown. During the early testing phases some high profile websites such as facebook.com, bbc.co.uk, and cnn.com were having difficulties with the new browser. In the final build these websites are displaying fine but some other high profile sites such as the NY Times and Dell Support have been less successful. Microsoft promises to improve performance as time goes on but until then you may experience some oddities with your favorite websites.

Overall and despite a few compatibility hitches IE8 is still a step in the right direction from ie7. For security reasons I would suggest waiting a couple weeks for any patches but if you still use Internet Explorer as your primary browser than I would say it’s a worthwhile upgrade. Just don’t expect it to surpass Firefox in performance.

- Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department

For years Google has used its search engine and custom applications to match products and services to keyword content. Up until now this has consisted largely of simple keyword advertisements. Type “shoes” in Google, for example, and you will get advertisements from shoe company partners. Last week Google proposed to change all this with their plan to make ads “more interesting.”

The idea behind the content shift is that keyword advertising is not always relevant to the interest of the user. A person who conducts research on houses in Africa probably still doesn’t want to own one. The same applies to all keyword searches. The new behavior ad program intends to change this by compiling interest instead of keyword searches. Through the use of monitor based algorithms Google will be able to tell how many times you go to a website, what parts you visit most often and custom tailor ads based on this information.

Now most people who read that are likely to do so with a look of horror. The idea that all of your web interactions will be monitored in an effort to sell you more goods is one that scares a lot of people. The fact is though that whether or not it was used almost all of this information has been tracked for a long time. Everything from time spent on a webpage to your browser version number (all you readers with IE6; please update) is easily recorded. The only difference between those stats, and the ones now utilized by Google, is that the before mentioned are privately held by which ever website they are taken from. With the new system Google will instead blanket this sort of information to all of their advertising partners.

From my perspective I suspect that this change over will result in a lot of hot air which will quickly dissipate. No one likes their personal information revealed but in the long run a few more ads are unlikely to change your life. But because privacy is a hot topic subject I am interested to learn what others think. If you have an opinion on this subject, post it, and let’s get a global perspective on the issue.

- Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department

With the uncertain economy it’s no surprise that many businesses have decided to cut back on new hardware expenses. Cost reduction in an economic crisis is prudent but if a business cuts hardware upgrades entirely the result will be catastrophic. Hardware is the backbone of your business; without it your workers will be unable to complete their jobs and work will come to a standstill.

Remember, that just because the economy is on a break doesn’t mean your hardware is. Over time storage devices, computers and even monitor displays will wear out. If you find yourself with a downed storage server because the hardware wore out you will not only have to deal with the immediate cost of replacement but also with the cost of business downtime. Business critical devices should be kept on a strict upgrade and repair cycle.

A mistake that many businesses make is to think that old hardware can be brought back into use in an emergency. While it’s nice to think that that 10 year old computer from storage can be used in a crisis for most cases it’s just not viable. A decade old computer simply does not have the capabilities to run many of today’s hardware intensive programs. The same applies tenfold for the use of outdated storage devices.

Just because the economy is down doesn’t mean that competition has ended. If your competitors suffer more than you because of the economy you should use this opportunity to gain a competitive advantage. Likewise if you do the bare minimum they might take advantage of your weakness and pull ahead. Leverage an advantage now and it will carry you to the top when the economy improves.

Efficient hardware goes hand and hand with job satisfaction. A good employee is the most valuable asset your company has but a poor work environment will cause discouragement. If your hardware is in disrepair or in a state that makes work difficult it increases the likelihood that and employee will become discouraged and leave. Position replacement causes downtime, inefficiency and will cost your business far more than the replacement of aged equipment.

When economic times are tough efficiency is paramount to success. Hardware neglect is the one thing you can’t afford.

- Richard Keene
IT Computer Support of New York
Design and Optimization Department