The Howard College
Hawk Bits
April 2009
Conficker Worm:
Not Finished Yet
Ian Paul ‐ PC World April 1 has come and gone, and the Internet has not disintegrated and no major cyber‐attacks were reported. But Conficker still remains a threat. Now don't panic, this doesn't mean cyber‐Armageddon could strike at any minute, it just means you need to make sure your computer is fully updated if it isn't already. Feel better? Good, then let's take a look at what's going on. Continued on page 5
50 Ways to mess
with people in a
computer lab!!!
See page 7 How to improve the Speed
of your computer!
Sometimes your computer just starts to slow down. Though there can be a lot of reasons for this, like viruses and malware, sometimes it helps to tune things up a bit. Like your car, your computer needs to have some regular maintenance to keep it running in tip top shape. Here’s some of the ways that you can do that and keep things running smoothly. Continued on page 2
How to improve the Speed of your computer Continued from page 1 1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Your Access to Data One of the factors that slow down your computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer has to search the hard drive when the file is opened to put it back together. To speed up your computers response time, you should run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates disconnected files for faster computer response time… * Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter * Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze * Click Defragment 2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors Over time, your hard drive develops bad sectors. Bad sectors will slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built‐in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance. * Follow Start > My Computer * In My Computer right‐click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties * Click the Tools tab * Click Check Now * Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box * Click Start 3. Disable Indexing Services Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often. * Go to Start * Click Settings * Click Control Panel * Double‐click Add/Remove Programs * Click the Add/Remove Window Components * Uncheck the Indexing services * Click Next 4. Optimize Display Settings Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following: * Show shadows under menus * Show shadows under mouse pointer * Show translucent selection rectangle * Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop * Use visual styles on windows and buttons How to improve the Speed of your computer Continued from page 2 5. Speedup Folder Browsing You may have noticed that every time you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers every time you open Windows explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers” option. 6. Disable Performance Counters Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea. * Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List(http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst‐o.asp) * Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below 7. Optimize Your Pagefile You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile. * Right click on My Computer and select Properties * Select the Advanced tab * Under Performance choose the Settings button * Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change * Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file. Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size. 8. Remove Fonts for Speed Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require. * Open Control Panel * Open Fonts folder * Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain. How to improve the Speed of your computer Continued from page 3 9. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com). eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance. The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops. 10. Perform a Boot Defragment There’s a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster. On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled: * Run the Registry Editor * Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction * Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. * Exit the Registry * Reboot Hope you find these 10 tips useful. Have a nice day! Conficker Worm: Not Finished Yet
Continued from page 1 Why It Ain't Over Yet
The Conficker Working Group -- which is made up of 27 tech companies and agencies including AOL, F-Secure,
Facebook, ICANN, Kaspersky, McAffee, Microsoft, Symantec -- says that Conficker, also known as Downup,
Downadup, and Kido, is the largest worldwide computer infection since the SQL Slammer in 2003. The CWG
estimates anywhere from 3 to 15 million computers are infected worldwide, and says 30 percent of Windows
computers across the globe are not updated with the latest patches to protect against Conficker. The virus authors
are also still at large and able to communicate with Conficker, although that capability has been significantly
reduced.
Problem Spots
As you can see from this map provided by the CWG, Conficker infections in the United States are happening pretty
much everywhere you can find an Internet connection. However, despite all that ominous-looking red, only 6 percent
of Conficker infections are in North America. The biggest problem areas are actually concentrated in Asia and South
America including Vietnam, Brazil, the Philippines, and Indonesia, as well as Algeria.
The hardest hit areas may also have a correlation to the number of unpatched Windows computers since Asia,
Eastern Europe, and South America are areas known to have widespread use of pirated Windows software.
Since most Windows users with pirated software have automatic updates turned off to avoid Microsoft's piracy
detection, those users typically remain vulnerable to Conficker. So the risk from Conficker continues, even though
Microsoft allows critical updates for pirated copies of Windows.
What Conficker is Doing
Yesterday, Conficker began its daily exercise of contacting 500 Web sites from a randomly generated list of 50,000
sites. Conficker will continue to do this every day until it receives instructions to do something else. Further
instructions could be a simple software update or the infected computers could work as a botnet to commit theft or
attack other computer networks. The problem is that while security and IT professionals are working to block
Conficker from getting further instructions, they haven't been able to block all Conficker traffic. So some infected
machines have gotten through, but luckily further instructions haven't been issued, yet. Conficker's authors may be
laying low until publicity surrounding Conficker dies down before contacting their creation.
If Conficker is updated or receives further instructions, that capability could pass between infected machines without
further need of a server or Web site, because Conficker uses a peer-to-peer (p2p) protocol to communicate with
other infected machines. That's right, Conficker is file-sharing. With p2p, the worm can distribute software updates
much faster than if every infected machine had to communicate with a main server.
The Final Countdown?
Does this mean the world could still end? Probably not, and that was never the concern with Conficker despite the
doomsday scenarios you may have read. The fact is that most security experts believe that Conficker is just a
typical botnet worm that can be used for identity theft or to commit other forms of cybercrime. Conficker is most
likely controlled by an organized crime syndicate in Asia, Eastern Europe, or South America, and the group may
even rent out Conficker's capabilities if the botnet every becomes active.
Conficker is a threat only if your computer does not have the latest security patches from Microsoft and an up-todate antivirus program.
50 Ways to Mess with People in a Computer Lab!!! 1. Log on, wait a sec, then get a frightened look on your face and scream "Oh my God! They've found me!" and bolt. 2. Laugh uncontrollably for about 3 minutes & then suddenly stop and look suspiciously at everyone who looks at you. 3. When your computer is turned off, complain to the monitor on duty that you can't get the damn thing to work. After he/she's turned it on, wait 5 minutes, turn it off again, & repeat the process for a good half hour. 4. Type frantically, often stopping to look at the person next to you evilly. 5. Before anyone else is in the lab, connect each computer to different screen than the one it's set up with. 6. Write a program that plays the "Smurfs" theme song and play it at the highest volume possible over & over again. 7. Work normally for a while. Suddenly look amazingly startled by something on the screen and crawl underneath the desk. 8. Ask the person next to you if they know how to tap into top‐secret Pentagon files. 9. Use Interactive Send to make passes at people you don't know. 10. Make a small ritual sacrifice to the computer before you turn it on. 11. Bring a chainsaw, but don't use it. If anyone asks why you have it, say "Just in case..." mysteriously. 12. Type on VAX for a while. Suddenly start cursing for 3 minutes at everything bad about your life. Then stop and continue typing. 13. Enter the lab, undress, and start staring at other people as if they're crazy while typing. 14. Light candles in a pentagram around your terminal before starting. 15. Ask around for a spare disk. Offer $2. Keep asking until someone agrees. Then, pull a disk out of your fly and say "Oops, I forgot." 16. Every time you press Return and there is processing time required, pray "Ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease," and scream "YES!" when it finishes. 17. "DISK FIGHT!!!" 18. Start making out with the person at the terminal next to you (It helps if you know them, but this is also a great way to make new friends). 19. Put a straw in your mouth and put your hands in your pockets. Type by hitting the keys with the straw. 20. If you're sitting in a swivel chair, spin around singing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" whenever there is processing time required. 21. Draw a picture of a woman (or man) on a piece of paper, tape it to your monitor. Try to seduce it. Act like it hates you and then complain loudly that women (men) are worthless. 22. Try to stick a Nintendo cartridge into the 3 disc drive, when it doesn't work, get the supervisor. 23. When you are on an IBM, and when you turn it on, ask loudly where the smiling Apple face is when you turn on one of those. 24. Print out the complete works of Shakespeare, and then when it’s all done (two days later) say that all you wanted was one line. 25. Sit and stare at the screen, biting your nails noisily. After doing this for a while, spit them out at the feet of the person next to you. 26. Stare at the screen, grind your teeth, stop, and look at the person next to grinding. Repeat procedure, making sure you never provoke the person enough to let them blow up, as this releases tension, and it is far more effective to let them linger. 27. If you have long hair, take a typing break, look for split ends, cut them and deposit them on your neighbor's keyboard as you leave. 28. Put a large, gold‐framed portrait of the British Royal Family on your desk and loudly proclaim that it inspires you. 29. Come to the lab wearing several layers of socks. Remove shoes and place them of top of the monitor. Remove socks layer by layer and drape them around the monitor. Exclaim sudden haiku about the aesthetic beauty of cotton on plastic. 30. Take the keyboard and sit under the computer. Type up your paper like this. Then go to the lab supervisor and complain about the bad working conditions. 31. Laugh hysterically, shout "You will all perish in flames!!!" and continue working. 32. Bring some dry ice & make it look like your computer is smoking. 33. Assign a musical note to every key (ie. the Delete key is A Flat, the B key is F sharp, etc.). Whenever you hit a key, hum its note loudly. Write an entire paper this way. 34. Attempt to eat your computer's mouse. 35. Borrow someone else's keyboard by reaching over, saying "Excuse me, mind if I borrow this for a sec?", unplugging the keyboard & taking it. 36. Bring in a bunch of magnets and have fun. 37. When doing calculations, pull out an abacus and say that sometimes the old ways are best. 38. Play Pong for hours on the most powerful computer in the lab. 39. Make a loud noise of hitting the same key over and over again until you see that your neighbor is noticing (You can hit the space bar so your fill isn't affected). Then look at your neighbor's keyboard. Hit his/her delete key several times, erasing an entire word. While you do this, ask: "Does *your* delete key work?" Shake your head, and resume hitting the space bar on your keyboard. Keep doing this until you've deleted about a page of your neighbor's document. Then, suddenly exclaim: "Well, whaddya know? I've been hitting the space bar this whole time. No wonder it wasn't deleting! Ha!" Print out your document and leave. 40. Remove your disk from the drive and hide it. Go to the lab monitor and complain that your computer ate your disk. (For special effects, put some Elmer's Glue on or around the disk drive. Claim that the computer is drooling.) 41. Stare at the person's screen next to yours, look really puzzled, burst out laughing, and say "You did that?" loudly. Keep laughing; grab your stuff and leave, howling as you go. 42. Point at the screen. Chant in a made up language while making elaborate hand gestures for a minute or two. Press return or the mouse, then leap back and yell "COVEEEEERRRRRR!" peek up from under the table, walk back to the computer and say. "Oh, good. It worked this time," and calmly start to type again. 43. Keep looking at invisible bugs and trying to swat them. 44. See who's online. Send a total stranger a talk request. Talk to them like you've known them all your lives. Hang up before they get a chance to figure out you're a total stranger. 45. Bring an small tape player with a tape of really absurd sound effects. Pretend it's the computer and look really lost. 46. Pull out a pencil. Start writing on the screen. Complain that the lead doesn't work. 47. Come into the computer lab wearing several endangered species of flowers in your hair. Smile incessantly. Type a sentence, then laugh happily, exclaim "You're such a marvel!!", and kiss the screen. Repeat this after every sentence. As your ecstasy mounts, also hug the keyboard. Finally, hug your neighbor, then the computer assistant, and walk out. 48. Run into the computer lab, shout "Armageddon is here!!!!!", then calmly sit down and begin to type. 49. Quietly walk into the computer lab with a Black and Decker chainsaw, rev that baby up, and then walk up to the nearest person and say "Give me that computer or you'll be feeding my pet crocodile for the next week". 50. Two words: Tesla Coil.