Reasons why people leave Network Solutions

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Stephen Pate

The technical support is on life support and non-responsive

As reported in Hackers access Network Solutions mail accounts, the mail server at Network Solutions is set up to allow re-directs. Some hacker has figured that out. They are relaying emails using made up account names.

Faced with a customer request, most companies try to find a way to make it happen. At Network Solutions they want more forms filled out.

Network Solutions’ response to this obvious “security alert – high risk” is to ask me to fill out forms. I don’t mind doing that except that’s how I reported the hack in the first place.

Being a ‘boy-scout’, I ventured back into their labyrinth system only to find their instructions impossible to execute.

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Avatar Blu-Ray won’t play on all players

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Studios continue to harass paying customers with DRM that locks Blu-ray players

Avatar was last weekend’s most popular DVD. The disk has become a nightmare for some buyers. The Blu-Ray disks won’t play because Fox Studios has put a new DRM scheme on the disks.

When you pop the disk in the player it warns you of disk compatibilities. Users are advised to check with their manufacturer for assistance with a firmware upgrade.

One owner of an expensive Denon Blu-Ray player found out the hard way that firmware upgrades are not automatic.

“How about not playing on a 4500 buck Denon which when the company was contacted said “we’ll make a note of it” I guess it’ll play on a PS3 but everything else will be a crap shoot. Owners of older machines that are no longer getting firmware support will be SOL.” Amazon.com Continue reading →

Hackers access Network Solutions mail accounts

Posted on April 28, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Open SMTP ports allow hackers to relay phishing emails

US hosting and domain registrar Network Solutions has been hacked again. This time someone has gained access to email accounts on Network Solutions servers.

They are sending phishing emails that can reveal your real email accounts. Accounts that have email on Network Solutions servers should move to secure them. Network Solutions are not doing enough to protect their user base from hackers.

After more than two weeks of hacks using the ‘grep’ virus, Network Solutions began to run security audits on its hosted accounts with Nessus software.

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McAfee promises to pay for XP glitch

Posted on April 26, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Well respected anti-virus company McAfee promises to reimburse repair expenses

Last week McAfee shipped the latest update of their anti-virus software and the update started to remove Windows XP operating system files. Users faced the blue screen of death or an endless series of re-booting routines going no where. Ironically, Network Solutions lack of security took down 5% of their hosted sites over the past two weeks without any apology or compensation.

McAfee have posted a promise on their website to not only help customers fix their bug but reimburse them for the damage. Continue reading →

Grep hack attacks Network Solutions GoDaddy

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Grep hack of Network Solutions takes NJN Network and other sites offline

Google redirect from hacked sites

(Update – this story was lost and restored) Sunday our site, along with hundreds of other WordPress sites hosted by GoDaddy and Network Solutions was hacked by the “grep” virus. The hack re-directed users without virus protection on their computers to sites that attempted to infect them. Widespread hacks like this one prove the value of keeping your virus protection up to date.

At 5 AM Sunday the site was clean. At 8:30 AM, we found the hack and immediately took NJN Network offline. The site was cleaned by Sunday night. Google continued to give notice that the page was hacked until Monday afternoon until their experts had verified it. Continue reading →

Whew! we’re live again

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Major virus attack on multiple Network Solutions / WordPress sites hits NJN Network hard

Whew!

Update Monday April 12th, 2001 -the only consolation after a weekend of hard work cleaning up our site is that Network Solutions had more than 100 WordPress sites hacked. Some say GoDaddy sites were hit with the same hack.

The developers from WordPress and Network Solutions engineers say they have tracked down the rogue and locked it out. We are working today to harden our site. What a crazy week that was! Back to the stories after more system admin.

Sorry again for any inconvenience to our readers.

—-

So I’m working on stories Thursday morning, feeling like the top of the world.

Then SLAM BAM SCHZAMM down goes the website. I bring it back up but the dirty little coward is trying to infect my computer with a Greb virus.

Imagine infected by your own website!

I called Network Solutions and they pretended it was my fault. Yeah right I posted my passwords on Kijiji as a joke.

Two emails from friends and I knew I had to act so I took the whole shebang down, went private, put up the “Under Construction” sign.

The “greb” virus was all over the main page in the source code. Continue reading →

BitDefender update hobbles PCs

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Windows 64 users have their files quarantined and computers shut down

The latest update to BitDefender, the respected anti-virus program, is flagging legitimate files as infected. Then it quarantines them.

The problem is those files are system files and BitDefender itself. The company acknowledged the problem after users flooded its website with complaints.
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New Facebook and advertising virus threats

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Cars have keys, doors have locks and computers need to be protected

The latest virus threats to your computer are real. They can and do attempt to hack your computer regularly. Unlike the early prank virus programs, the new threats are criminal. They are attempting to steal your id or to infect your computer with a trojan. Infected computers can silently be used to infect other computers without the owner noticing.

The only way to keep them from stealing your identity is to have up-to-date virus software. Here are the latest threats.

Display advertising on websites – yes, it sounds too fantastic to be true but a new bot virus can infect your computer even if you don’t click on the ad. Two media outlets in the US were infecting their readers computers last month.The virus is called JS:Prontexi. This threat was discovered in February and Avast has detected and blocked it. Norton advised us as of yesterday they had blocked it as well although they said at first they hadn’t heard of it. Continue reading →

Internet Explorer not safe no matter what you do

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Researcher reveals how IE flaw can turn your PC into a public file server

By By Ellen Messmer, Computer World

Network World – In a live demonstration Wednesday at the Black Hat DC conference, a security consultant showed how it’s possible to exploit a flaw in the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser to remotely read files on the victim’s local drive, prompting a security advisory from Microsoft.

The flaw, said to extend across all versions of Internet Explorer, is not subject to a patching fix, according to Jorge Luis Alvarez Medina, the Argentina-based security consultant with Core Security Technologies who elaborated on the attack technique during his demo. Indeed, Microsoft advised anyone concerned about the potential for this type of attack to run IE in "protected mode," a workaround that Medina also advised.

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Facebook Requires McAfee Scan If There’s A Security Breach?

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Byline

Is This Security Or A Marketing Program?

By TechDirt

sinsi was the first of a few to send in the news that Facebook has new rules if your account is suspended due to a security breach. You will now be required to use McAfee’s security software to scan your computer. Have perfectly good security software from Symantec? Too bad. Use Linux? Not sure what you do. While McAfee is offering a free tool for scanning, it’s only free for six months and then you have to pay — meaning that this is really an upsell plan. Facebook claims it chose McAfee after a “competitive review process,” but that makes no sense. Why not offer up a list of ways that you can prove your computer is safe that is vendor neutral?

Most anti-virus emails and reviews are scams – here are some you can trust updated

Posted on January 15, 2010 by Stephen Pate

Spyware promotions are in the same category – however you must use good anti-virus, malware and rootware software

Updated January 15th, 2009 see end note.

More than 50 million people have been tricked into paying for virus software that doesn’t work or they don’t need. We all need virus software on our computers as more people try to hack into them. However, the fear of viruses and malware is an industry in itself.

Scam artists are using every trick in book and a few new ones to trap unsuspecting people. There are phony sites called “Free Download Virus Software”, “Best Virus Softare”, “TopTenREVIEWS”. There are so many bogus sites it’s hard to keep up with them.

So for the record, here are the top virus software programs that work and are not a waste of money.

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