As noted in a recent MSNBC article:

Authorities free cialis investigating the 2008 crash of Spanair flight 5022 have discovered a central computer system used to monitor technical problems in the aircraft was infected with malware.

An internal report issued by the airline revealed the infected computer failed to detect three technical problems with the aircraft, which if detected, may have prevented the plane from taking off, according to reports in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais.

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Flight 5022 crashed just after takeoff from Madrid-Barajas International Airport two years ago today, killing 154 and leaving only 18 survivors.

Out of the box, Windows defaults to hiding the file extension in folder listings, instead relying on the file’s icon to convey the file type to the user. The “bad guys” have taken advantage of this, by making you think the file is of one type, when it’s really an executable program designed to infect your system.

Is this “report” a document you can view,
or a trojan designed to infect your system?

Fortunately, it’s an easy fix.

Display any folder in Windows (for example, click the “start” button and then select “My documents”, or “Documents”, depending on your Windows version), select “Tools” and then “Folder options” from the menu. A dialog box will appear, with several tabs at the top. Select the “View” tab.

From the list of “advanced settings”, make sure that “hide extensions for known file types” is unchecked.

Now, why is this important? Consider the recent flood of spam I’ve been getting lately, which consists of an e-mail supposedly telling me that the “updated report” is attached. By default, the file will look something like this:

It looks pretty much like a document of some sort, called “report”. Double-click it to “look at the report” and instead, you will run a program which try to infect your system. (Hopefully, it won’t succeed, as you should have all your protections in place. But, why chance it?)

However, with that item unchecked, it will look like this:

Note the “.exe” at the end of the name.  That tells you that it’s a Windows executable, and you shouldn’t click it unless you know it’s legit.

To make things cialis no rx worse, the “bad guys” sometimes give the filename what looks like two extensions. For example, they may call the file “naked_lady.jpg.exe”, knowing that it will appear as “naked_lady.jpg” if extensions are hidden, making it appear even more like a picture instead of an executable.

For example, placing an infected USB stick into the computer on Windows 7 will, by default, ask you what you want to do.  Being a smart person, you know to avoid the “autorun” option, and instead opt for “open folder” choice, to see what sort of files are on it. That act alone will trigger the worm. Same thing with “My computer” and then double-clicking the USB stick, or navigating to any folder with the infection in it.

According to an article from Microsoft:

What is unique about Stuxnet is that it utilizes a new method of propagation. Specifically, it takes advantage of specially-crafted shortcut files (also known as .lnk files) placed on USB drives to automatically execute malware as soon as the .lnk file is read by the operating system.

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In other words, simply browsing to the removable media drive using an application that displays shortcut icons (like Windows Explorer) runs the malware without any additional user interaction.

The scary part is that it targets industrial control systems. According to a recent article in Security Technology News:

Stuxnet is a virus that has been designed to specifically attack software programs running Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, which monitor automated industrial control systems such as chemical factories, power generators and food processing plants.

The threat carried by Stuxnet worm is that once it infects a computer, it begins to communicate with a remote server that will be able to take control of the computer.

Finally, here’s a best price cialis target=”_blank”>link to an article on the ESET blog with further details, and you can get a list of numerous ESET articles on Stuxnet by clicking here.

a conference for information security.  You pass the IBM booth where they’re giving out free USB thumb drives with some marketing material, and you pick one up.  Think you’re safe?  Think again.

Even IBM can make mistakes.

At the recent Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT) 2010 conference, IBM handed out USB thumb free cialis drives with a keylogger virus attached to the setup program.

Now, probably all the major anti-virus/anti-malware programs out there have known about this particular infection for years, so you would probably be “safe” in the sense that your up-to-date anti-virus program would warn you about the infection, but it just points out further the need to keep your programs up to date.

There are numerous articles on the ‘net with further details.  You can read SC Magazine’s article, ESET’s article, or search Google News for other links.