Alexander’s Blog

Some visitors to the Google Italy site are getting an unwelcome surprise this week, as a look-alike site hijacks their browsers and installs malware on their machines.

Researchers at IT security vendor SurfControl plc ’s Global Threat Expert center reported today that they have discovered an “evil twin” Web site that looks almost exactly like the Google Italy site. In an exploit known as “typosquatting,” attackers have built the evil twin under a URL that is spelled slightly differently, duping users who might make an errant keystroke or click on a bad link.

When users enter, the fake site automatically attempts to install ActiveX controls on their PCs. If the installation is successful, the site drops a Trojan horse that redirects the homepage to a site filled with adult content.

In addition, the site installs a package of malware on the user’s PC, including adware and a keylogger that can be used to monitor the user’s keystrokes and send the information to a remote location. Some users have also experienced attempts to send spam through the infected machines, including spam with malware attached, SurfControl said. Click here for more information.

Since Google has acquired YouTube, Microsoft plans to counter it’s rival by launching it’s own video site called Soapbox, which is currently in it’s beta. Soapbox will allow Vloggers to upload videos in various formats, assign categories and share them with others, just like YouTube.

As some wise-guy philosopher once said, it’s best not to make predictions, especially about the future. Microsoft is not predicting Soapbox’s success so only time will tell whether it will give YouTube a run for the money or not.

You can refresh the homepage to view a different video.

Just like people have always wanted to travel to the moon (and finally made it), people seem to have a fascination with running Windows XP on a Macintosh. The human race has finally conquered this challenge. Dave Taylor has written an article on How do I install Windows XP on my Mac using Boot Camp?.

With the release of Intel-based Macs, now it is possible to dual-boot your Mac with Mac OS X and Windows XP. Apple released a free download called Boot Camp, which lets you repartition your Intel-based Mac. This gives you the ability to install Windows XP as a second operating system in a dual-boot configuration. Of course, you can also install additional operating systems if you want, such as Linux, to triple-boot.

Dave has also written another article on How do I install Windows XP on my Mac with Parallels Desktop?. Parallels Desktop is a Windows-capable virtualization package from Parallels, similar to Virtual PC from Microsoft.

Although I’ve used Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac to run Windows XP on my Mac, I usually use Windows XP’s Remote Desktop Connection to operate my Mac from Windows XP computer and the FREE Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac to control my Windows XP from my Mac.

Microsoft also bent to demands from security vendors and the EU’s antitrust agency that it change its Vista plans for Windows Security Center, the operating system’s security dashboard. It will not entirely disable the dashboard, as it allowed third-party vendors to do with the same-named feature in Windows XP but will let security rivals program their wares to eliminate alerts from Security Center that duplicate ones issued by the vendor’s own console.

Microsoft has compromised with security vendors who’ve been demanding access to the kernel of the upcoming Vista operating system so that they can update their security offerings, two analysts confirmed Friday.

Following conversations with the European Union, Microsoft will make two security-related changes to Vista. First, it will create a new set of APIs, which will let third-party security vendors access information from the kernel. Microsoft will also build additional APIs to make sure Vista’s security status dashboard — Windows Security Center — doesn’t send duplicate alerts to users who have installed a rival dashboard.

Both issues had been raised by long-time Microsoft partners Symantec and McAfee, which went public with their concerns last month.