Dec 2007

Dear Client,

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We did especially since things continue to run well.

One interesting item coming out of last month’s news was the realization that a lot of machines that have been infected with spyware were reporting what they found back to the same place—an ISP in Russia. The result was that many ISPs across the United States and other countries then blocked all access to this Russian ISP. Days later, they packed it in. Unfortunately, now it appears that similar spyware is now reporting results to several places in China as well as other locations. Still, this will put a sizeable dent in the spyware business until they can recover.

On a related note, the FBI reports that they estimate there are several million machines that have been infected with what are known as ‘botnets’—a program that was installed on a person’s machine that allows the hacker to control that computer at will. They have made some progress tracking down who’s benefiting from these and have arrested and charged a handful with computer crimes.

This (by the way) is why we like the firewall called ZoneAlarm so much. All firewalls protect against outside intruders coming in. But if one sneaks in by tricking you into installing it, ZoneAlarm also reports on internal applications wanting to get to the Internet. While it’s not perfect, it goes a long way to letting you know what is really happening on your machine.

Another firewall that works along the same line is made by the company Comodo. Some folks have problems with ZoneAlarm, so you can pick up a copy of Comodo’s personal firewall at http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/ .

This month we will be taking off Dec 24 th, 25 th, 31 st and January 1 st. Please leave a message and we will return it as soon as possible.

On a personal note, this last couple of month has been rather difficult. Shirley badly sprained her right knee and tore the meniscus in it. She is in physical therapy now trying to get better. I had to help her with most of her activities for about 1 ½ weeks…and then about 2 weeks ago my right shoulder shut down, probably from the additional strain from helping her. We’re both recovering but it sure messed up the holiday project plans. At least now I can type with both hands. J

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Best wishes!

Sincerely,

Ben Conner