travis’s brain dump

  

So, I open up my email this morning to see what appears to be a nice new approach to getting people to willingly install malware on their computer. A word to the wise people. If you get an email concerning a Microsoft Update, it IS an attempt to install something on your computer which is most definitely not an update. DO NOT EVER INSTALL AN UPDATE FOR YOUR OPERATING SYSTEM THAT YOU DO NOT GET THROUGH WINDOWS UPDATE OR DOWNLOAD YOURSELF FROM MICROSOFT.COM! Can I make that any more clear?

Supporting Links:

http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=5159

http://www.scmagazineus.com/Fake-Microsoft-email-contains-backdoor-virus/article/119306/

The message is obviously a fake as it came from the computer of some chinese punk using his/her hotmail account. The following message is as followed (headers included):

Received: from 254-190.78-83.cust.bluewin.ch (254-190.78-83.cust.bluewin.ch [83.78.190.254]) by progressive.ginetx.net (8.13.7/8.13.7) with ESMTP id m9B9EgDM092724 for <*************>; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 09:14:45 GMT (envelope-from QWGMBD@hotmail.com)

 Received: from [83.78.190.254] by mx1.hotmail.com; Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:14:45 +0100
Message-ID: <01c92b8a$2ef41880$febe4e53@QWGMBD>

From: “Microsoft Update” <customerservice@microsoft.com>
To: <*************>
subject: *** SPAM ***Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:14:45 +0100

MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
      boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_0006_01C92B8A.2EF41880″

X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2741.2600
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.4325
Return-Path: <QWGMBD@hotmail.com>

 —–Original Message—–
From: Microsoft Update [mailto:customerservice@microsoft.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 11, 2008 3:15 AM
To: ********************
Subject: *** SPAM ***Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows

Dear Microsoft Customer,

Please notice that Microsoft company has recently issued a Security Update for OS Microsoft Windows. The update applies to the following OS versions: Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Millenium, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista.

Please notice, that present update applies to high-priority updates category. In order to help protect your computer against security threats and performance problems, we strongly recommend you to install this update.

Since public distribution of this Update through the official website http://www.microsoft.com would have result in efficient creation of a malicious software, we made a decision to issue an experimental private version of an update for all Microsoft Windows OS users.

As your computer is set to receive notifications when new updates are available, you have received this notice.

In order to start the update, please follow the step-by-step instruction:

1. Run the file, that you have received along with this message.
2. Carefully follow all the instructions you see on the screen.

 If nothing changes after you have run the file, probably in the settings of your OS you have an indication to run all the updates at a background routine. In that case, at this point the upgrade of your OS will be finished.

We apologize for any inconvenience this back order may be causing you.

Thank you,

Steve Lipner
Director of Security Assurance
Microsoft Corp.

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“World leaders are trying to calm anxious investors…”

That’s a the words I read this morning on cnn… did it make me feel any better? No. Why? Well, as the market shows, it doesn’t matter what the governments are saying, investors (not to mention people in general) don’t trust them any more.

You say things will get better, but yet instead of stepping in and directly regulating failing banks, you simply produce a bailout plan that pays these companies billions of dollars to recoupe their failures. Why? Don’t you understand the biggest problem is not the fact they are in debt, it’s how they got there.

Between million dollar payouts to high ranking executives to poor spending habits (see AIG’s 500k retreat for their execs after an 85 billion dollar loan) these companies will continue to downward spiral until the money that us taxpayers are footing the bill for in some way or another is all gone yet again. You might as well sit out front on the steps of the Capitol and burn money and throw it to the wind.

Someone asked me why I was a bit cranky this week. Wouldn’t you be if you were watching as the key points of your 401k were just burning out? Now, keep in mind I am optimistic as to my investments and have faith in the particular ones I’ve chosen only because I trust the people who directly influence them and know that somehow those investments will recover once the bottom of this pit has been reached. Those investments don’t depend soley on the health of the stock market to continue doing business and that is why I chose them. One day, they can recover. But do I trust things will get better when government officials who allowed this to happen says they’re doing everything they can? *NO*

As I made pretty clear yesterday, I’m unhappy with the political and economic health of this nation. While being a nation of unparalleled freedoms it has also become a nation of greedy politicians and businessmen. While not all are blatent liars and thieves, the vast majority of them which directly affects us are. While at this point in time, my family is doing ok, who’s to say tomorrow says the same tale if things continue the way they are.

We’ve tolerated too much as a nation by putting our trust people who do not have our best interests in mind. They don’t care about their neighbors, just themselves. You see them with multiple houses (*cough*McCain*cough*) that they don’t need while families are losing their homes. Now, don’t get me wrong here… just because many of the leaders (both business and government)  are crooked doesn’t mean some of the American people aren’t to blame either.

The mortgage crisis, is in part the people’s fault for allowing it to happen. Wether through ignorance or plain stupidity, a lot of people fell for these shady offers that lenders put out there. I’m sorry, but a subprime loan that has an ajustable rate… use your noggins. If your payment was 1200/mo at the time of signing and you could barely afford it, you had two options… a) have a solid plan to refinance on a fixed rate within 2 yrs or b) make enough money to handle the hike in price. A huge chunk of the failed mortgages were due to the fact that when those loans adjusted up, people couldn’t afford their payments anymore. I blame both parties there. The lenders for allowing people to put themselves into that position without properly educating them and the borrowers for not having the sense to walk away if it was something they couldn’t do.

Regardless, the nation, the world is in turmoil and bleeding out due to many factors and instead of actually addressing and fixing those things, we’re trying to apply bandages where stitches and sometimes amputation is necessary.  I wouldn’t be too surprised if we dropped under 8,000 today. *shrug*

who knows…

  

yes, the rumors of my demise are false…  after a brief little vacation from technology, with the exception of some copious amounts of video gaming and movie watching when not being all consumed by work related projects, I am back with more material…

so, politics… *rolls eyes* wth!? I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m voting Myke Reinhold this year. (i’ll post the explainatory link attached to his name once his website issues are resolved) So. In looking at the candidates what do we have? Obama and McCain, but lets not forget their shadows, Biden and Palin.

Between one that constantly puts his foot in his mouth and the other who couldn’t answer a question with a straight answer if her own life depended on it, I think we’re in trouble either way on the VP front. I’m not saying we’re doing better on the actual Presidential side either. We’ve got Bush’s BFF and a man who I think intends well but I’m unsure on how well he can deliver without plowing over the American people in the process of fixing things. Let’s face it, we’re all done for. I guess the moral of the story here is, if you want the same thing that’s been going on for 8 years to continue, you know which way to go. If you’re the gambling type you have a choice there as well.

To each and all who vote:

Forget about your party of preference, forget about what your friends or family tell you about a specific candidate. Ignore commercial spots and emails as their sole intention is to use the lowest tactics possible to tempt your vote. Educate yourself. Learn about the individual and how they will govern andc hoose the person, not the party that will best handle what you feel is important. If you simply vote Republican or Democrat or follow the advice of others, you’re acting out of ignorance and might as well have not even showed up to the polls as an ignorant vote can be more devistating than a missing vote.

Now… onto the economy… So, where’s my t-shirt that says “I told you so” about the bailout? When the first bill failed, the market dropped a little shy of 700 points… when the second attempt passed the market dropped almost 1000 points. Take a hint!

I think government bailouts are just another method of prolonging the inevitable. I mean, let’s face it. One of the first bailouts with AIG was not only dumb but it proved that nothing would change. There is a reason why AIG was in trouble and it wasn’t because they were the victim. It comes from being poorly operated and making bad business decisions. I look at CNN this morning and see a headline “Three weeks after an $85 billion bailout, AIG is turning to the New York Fed for additional funding,” and I think to myself why do they need more money? Then I read about how they spent $440,000.00 on a retreat for executives that included spa treatments, banquets and golf tournaments!? uhhh… that’s taxpayer money you just spent! I personally am sick of these CEO’s and other executives who get retarded amounts of money and boards who willingly allow these stuck up rich bastards to negotiate contracts which allow for them to take in ridiculous amounts of money no matter if the business flops or succeeds then pass along those costs to the consumers at the other end labeling it as needed due to increase in costs to produce products.

Hey, instead of giving someone a golden parachute or lining their pockets with enough money in one month to pay the salaries of 200-300+ employees, how about use that money to HELP the American economy rather than kill it!? Instead of taking some reductions at the top, these companies lay off workers at the bottom and then go begging for money from the government, which is our tax money by the way, in order to keep their billionaire lifestyles and sit behind their desk signing off on ridiculous expenses, talking about their golf game with their cronies and giving themselves raises.

I say let the banks fail. The FDIC insures the deposits up to a limit so the working class doesn’t lose their money because the banks are stupid and when the bank rolls over and dies the pieces get picked up by another bank. I saw it happen with WAMU and everything seems to be running okay there and Chase bank is now bigger and stronger because of it. Yes, the world economy is going to feel it and things will get bad before they get better, but this bailout business is just prolonging an even bigger collapse. It teaches nothing to these folks except that it’s okay to continue acting the way they are.

But… what do I know? I’m just a server administrator for a natural gas company. I’m not a political or economical expert nor do I pretend to be. I’m just an angry American citizen who is fed up with the way things have been allowed to get. I worry for my family, our freedoms and our financial future and where the world will be tomorrow.