Experts are warning of a bogus Microsoft security bulletin that contains malware designed to take control of the user’s PC.

The emails contain the header ‘Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-0065’ and come with Microsoft logos and a layout very similar to the Microsoft web page.

Recipients are told that a zero-day flaw in Outlook has already been exploited to infect over 100,000 machines, and the email contains a link to the ‘patch’ for the problem.

“Security bulletins from Microsoft describing vulnerabilities in its software are a common occurrence, so it comes as no surprise to see hackers adopting this kind of disguise in their attempt to infect Windows PCs,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.

“The irony is that, as awareness of computer security issues and the need for patching against vulnerabilities have risen, social engineering tricks which pose as critical software fixes are likely to succeed in conning the public.”

The link in fact downloads the Behav-112 Trojan, which allows the computer to be operated remotely to send spam or take part in distributed denial-of-service attacks.

The emails have been widely spammed out over the past few days. (more…)

Bindex media manager is software for indexing your DVD,CD and MP3 disc collection. A cool feature is the ability (at least in theory) to scan the barcodes of your dvds, also known as UPC codes. This is done by using your webcam!

This unique feature didn’t work for me even after a while of trying, but they explain that you need very good lighting and a very good web cam, so I was a little disappointed. When I entered my movie manually, I was again disappointed that the dvd cover picture appears so small and where’s all the cool details I was hoping to see about the dvd?

There are none apart from only the most basic…Year, Widescreen, etc.

To sum it up, apart from the novelty value of scanning with a webcam, this software is a little disappointing, at least where dvds are concerned ( i didn’t test MP3 discs or CDs). It has a lot of potential but right now i’ll pass! Although maybe it’s suitable for those who require less detail and have a huge collection to index,but thats my opinion anyway.

As for the webcam thing, you better have a good one or it’ll be more like Blindex!

Check it out for yourself.

Got multiple projects and finding it difficult to keep track of them and get all of them done accordingly? You need to check out Multi Project Planner. Built for Multiple projects competing for shared resources, Multi Project Planner helps you to get a lot done in a little time. The project activities are booked on a schedule, common to all work teams.

Using the project planner you get a far superior overview, as both resource allocation and the interrelationships between the activities of all projects are handled in one and the same view. You also have total control of the planning process. This one thing that may scare you away from this software is its price, $148 has to leave your wallet for it to be yours. But before you run away because of the price take time to consider the benefit to you on the long term.

Here are some highlights from the feature list:

• Hot potatoes are unresolved resource conflicts, kept by the program until you are ready to deal with them;
• Manipulation is performed with the look and feel of a planning board;
• Predefined projects (templates) can be dragged onto the schedule, and the program will try to make a best fit;
• Otherwise it will create hot potatoes;
• Just in Time means scheduling the project as close to the delivery date as possible, thereby minimizing your inventory – and maximizing your instant maneuverability;
• Brute force handling of resource conflicts, but only if you command it;
• Future resource conflicts that are not solved now are turned into hot potatoes, for later treatment;
• Decision points attached to project activities, and launching a warning when the decisions are due;
• Progress can be calculated automatically from employee reports or manually stated;
• Interoperability, i.e. integration with other software.

Check out http://www.adaptive-planning.com/multiprojectplanner.php for more info and trail download before you make up your mind

Here is a free tool that is actually worth a lot! HostsMan is a freeware application that lets you manage your Hosts file with ease.

With this application, you will enjoy online update of hosts file; and be able to enable/disable usage of hosts file. You will also be able to open Hosts file with one click; merge two hosts files; and use built-in hosts editor.

That’s not all HostsMan will help you prevent other programs of writing to the hosts; scan hosts for errors, duplicates and possible hijacks; easily install newly downloaded hosts file; create encrypted backups of your hosts file; resolve host names; keep log of latest blocked sites; exclusion list and more.

HostsMan 3.0.42 is the latest new updated version and it has these latest changes:

• Changed: GetVolumeInformation is now used to determine file system;
• Fixed: HostsMan doesn’t save settings when configuration file does not exist;
• Fixed: some settings are hidden when configuration file does not exist;
• Fixed: behavior of HostsServer window on Vista;
• Fixed: checking for Peter Lowe’s hosts update fails;
• Fixed: minor bugs

If you are interested in this software, it’s free, check it out at http://hostsman.abelhadigital.com/  

Klipfolio is a pretty useful utility for anyone who regularly checks a lot of different websites. Its main feature is similar to RSS feeds in that it brings the updated content to you instead of you having to go to your favorite websites one by one to check for updates (It also includes the ability to add regular RSS feeds).

You add “Klips” from the Klipfolio websites which enable you to have updated content/links, weather, or system info such as memory usage, etc. I like how a lot of information such as a summary appears when you hover over the “headlines”, this saves a lot of time (or distracts you from getting anything productive done, depending on your point of view really!)

You can place it anywhere you want such as on the top/bottom or sides of the screen and it allows auto-hiding, which saves space. There’s a lot of “Klips” available for it at the Klipfolio website.

My only complaint is that it sometimes crashes (maybe thats just on my system) but i look forward to more stable releases. Apart from that, this is a potentially time saving and pretty customizable, easy to use, useful program.

Go here for more info …and its free!

If you’ve been searching for a good private file swapping software, you are going to love this. Here is free software worth checking out.

Swapper lets you privately share photos, videos and files with friends and family. In addition, with Swapper you can also upload selected content to your personal profile in just a few clicks, for anyone to enjoy.

Swapper is free software for private file swapping. The beautiful thing about this software is that it automatically compresses your media when sending and securely caches the files.

So what does this translates into? Your transfers become 100 times faster – or just instantaneous when resending something that’s already been swapped.

Want to check out this software? It’s free! Go to http://www.wambo.com/ for more info and download!

Growler Guncam is a utility that enables you to record the action of your computer games as a video.

Now you can finally show off to your friends about how good you are, show them an interesting part you reached or cool thing you’ve done in a game, your high score, etc.

It can save the video as an avi file, an animated GIF, or simply make screen captures (JPEG format). This latest version includes a forum signature maker, a new movie editor, and new capture methods to support even more games. You can also add basic effects and adjust picture brightness, contrast, etc as well as playback speed.

So if you’re a big time gamer who likes to show off your style you’re sure to like.

Check it out at the homepage

You always need to always know what’s up with your PC, right? Well, Fresh Diagnose can help you with that.

Fresh Diagnose is a utility designed to analyze and benchmark your computer system. This application can analyze and benchmark many kinds of hardware, such as CPU performance, hard disk performance, video system information, mainboard information, and many more. So you can know how well your hardware is doing always.

The latest version which just released recently is Fresh Diagnose 7.60 and the major change in this version is the Network Adapters module.

The great thing about this software is that you can use it to learn more about your computer and its components, detect / diagnose problems or errors in your computer, and increase your computer’s overall performance.

Looks like what you need? Check it out at http://www.freshdevices.com/freshdiag.html IT’S FREE!

Spacetime is a program that presents Web pages and search results as floating slabs that can be flipped through, organized, and navigated in 3-D.

SpaceTime users can “fly” through search results such as Web pages, pictures, and eBay auction items. By turning your view to the left, right, up, or down, you can see all the Web pages you’ve previously called up and zoom in on the one you want.

When you launch SpaceTime, you’ll see a Web page address bar at the top of the screen as well as a bar for entering search terms. As with Firefox and Internet Explorer 7, a user can select different search engines; SpaceTime’s search bar includes Yahoo and Google (and their respective image-search functions), Flickr, and eBay. Web pages and search results are shown in the center of the screen and float against a light-blue background with clouds. At the bottom of the SpaceTime screen, there is also a two-dimensional timeline that shows a thumbnail view of each search you’ve made or page you’ve called up.

The lasting value of programs like this is usually questionable,as the novelty value soon wears off,. But I guess maybe in the future as computers continue to become more powerful, we might be seeing more things like this.

Check it out here to download it or see the demo presentation.

Two ‘extremely critical’ vulnerabilities have been discovered in Yahoo Messenger that could be exploited by malicious users to compromise a system.

The boundary errors have been confirmed in version 8.1.0.249 of the messaging software, but other versions may also be affected.

Both flaws are based around the Yahoo Webcam facilities within the software. The problems occur in the ‘ywcupl.dll’ file that deals with the Webcam Upload, and the ‘ywcvwr.dll’ file which handles the Webcam Viewer.

Both ActiveX controls can be exploited to cause a stack-based buffer overflow by assigning an overly long string to the Server property and then using the ‘Send()’ or ‘Receive()’ actions.

A successful execution of the exploits could allow arbitrary code to be run on the affected machine.

Security firm Secunia rated the flaws at its highest ‘extremely critical’ level, and said that the problems can be blocked by changing the kill-bit settings for the affected ActiveX controls. (more…)