The question, though, is how they pull it off. How exactly is malware proliferated?

How do cyber criminals ply their craft and infect as many systems as possible? There isn’t one simple means of delivery after all. Multiple avenues of infection exist and any of them could feasibly bring a system down.

Today’s infographic is titled “Malware Networks: The Big 5 Points of Entry,”  and examines the means by which malicious software can enter the system of a user.

“A malware delivery network,” it reads, “gathers unsuspecting users, usually when they are visiting trusted sites, and routes them to malware, via relay, exploit, and payload servers that continually shift to new domains and locations.” The infographic then details the five largest malware networks in the world, then details the most common means by which a system might become infected – and five things businesses and users should concern themselves with where malware enters the equation.

Infographic is below – click to enlarge.

What do you think? Are you routinely doing any of these things which allow malware into your system?

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Where does your Malware Come From? [Infographic]

It was nothing to do with the application itself, curiously enough – the IM platform still worked like a charm, and I was able to chat with my contacts pretty much flawlessly. The issue actually had to do with another user, known only as IMPORTANT SYSTEM NOTIFICATION.

See, they decided they’d start to call me incessantly; at least once a day. Apparently, there was something rather vital that they needed to discuss with me. Blocking them didn’t really do any good, and was a temporary solution, at best. Eventually, they’d just call me back from a different ‘number.’

Eventually, I got fed up and decided to do away with such spam altogether.

It’s actually quite a simple process: all you need to do is navigate to your “tools” context menu. Once you’re there, click down to “Options” and select “Privacy” from the menu that pops up. There, you’ll see a number of options related to who can contact you, and in what way. Set everything to either “people in my contacts “or “no one.”

With any luck, that should deep six your spam problem. Like I said, quite simple, but nevertheless a fairly important step.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Avoid Skype Spam

Developed by a fine fellow named Anatoly Zenkov; the application works by actively tracking your mouse movements. It translates mouse motion into lines, and creates a circle of ever-increasing size when you hold your mouse still.

It’s fairly simple to use – all you do is launch it, then click to start tracking. The app actually shows the image on its main screen, and you can choose to save or upload it whenever you like.  Clicking the window again will pause the recording, and you can press the refresh button next to the timer to restart the tracking image.

Above, you can see a mousepath image that I created while writing articles. Pretty bland, right? Apparently, I don’t move my mouse all that much. If you’re doing a lot of writing over the course of a day, you might not wind up with anything particularly complex. If, however, you’er doing something like playing a game or browsing the Internet; you’ll end up with something more like the image shown below.

Anyway, here’s an FAQ for those of you who are interested in learning more about the app, as well as the developer website and download page. There’s a version for both Mac and PC. Sorry, nothing for Linux quite yet.

via Flowing Data

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Create Modern Art With Your Mouse Cursor with IOGraph

Essentially, this is when an otherwise legitimate application attempts to force a bunch of bloatware, spyware, and possibly even malware on its users, hiding unnecessary toolkits and addons with every download, every installation; every update.

It’s something we’ve been seeing happen a lot online lately.

But why worry, right? After all, it’s just lower-level developers pulling these underhanded, deceptive stunts, isn’t it? Surely larger devs and organizations would be more accountable to their customers. Surely larger application distributors wouldn’t attempt it?

You wish. Believe it or not, trying to force bloatware onto users is a disturbingly common trend, particularly among larger developers. Adobe once did it with virtually every product. Microsoft used to do it with Skype. Apple does it with iTunes. And Java does it with Oracle – to a degree that makes the other two look like absolute saints.

It’s so bad, in fact; that ZDnet on Tuesday crowned Java “the new king of foistware.” Of course, they also noted that, in addition; its security features are about as effective as a screen door on a tank.

As if Oracle didn’t have enough bad publicity already.

One of the worst pieces of crapware piggybacking on the Java installation is the Ask toolbar. Pretty much everything about it screams adware – and it even takes a number of unethical measures which honestly border on malicious.

For one, if you install it by accident, the installer hangs for ten minutes before dropping its payload on the system – it does basically everything in its power to make the installation difficult to prevent.

The uninstall process is a similarly tiresome affair.  It hijacks address bar search, takes over default search, and seizes control of address bar handling. Whenever you carry out a search with this piece of trash installs, it takes you to IAC Mywebsearch: a website which features poor results, ads that don’t fit with industry standards and a great deal of additional adware installations.

Oh, it also installs a browser toolbar – and those are always bad news.

Why does Oracle try to dump such a terrible abomination of an app on its users? Basically, they’re in it for the money – they get paid royalties for each toolbar that’s installed.

The whole process stinks: it’s underhanded, and unethical, and you’re probably better off skipping Java’s automatic update process and going straight to Ninite.

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Why You Should Keep an Eye on Java Updates – or Just Use Ninite

And jump scares- people love using them for jump scares.

Anyone who’s come across enough of these images has probably glimpsed at least one which they feel would make a perfect profile picture or desktop background. Others might want to scan through the frames of a particular image to find out if there’s a scare at any point – all the better to avoid a loss of sleep.

Unfortunately, nabbing the image at the precise moment of ‘perfection’ was often more of a chore than it was worth: often, it was easier to simply go elsewhere to see if someone had already managed it.

The other day, I came across an online tool which turned out to be just the ticket for both camps. It’s called Gif Explode.

All you have to do is enter the URL of an animated .gif (or upload one from your computer), and it’ll do the rest, crunching out a frame-by-frame of the animation. It’s a pretty niche tool, true; likely as not most people probably don’t have much use for something like this. Still, it’s a nifty way to pass a few minutes or so, or nab a few cool pictures out of an animation.

You can find the website here. Enjoy!

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Extract Animated Gifs Frame by Frame with Gif Explode

Sure, I do “offline” things with my computer. But, let’s face it. Probably at least 90% of the activity I do on my computer is done via my web browser.

We’re heading back into the client-server days, in a way. It is because of this fact that some people are actually able to complete many of their typical computing tasks with little more than an iPad, or why a Google Chromebook is actually even remotely attractive.

But, I’m curious…

When it comes to your OWN internet activities, what are YOUR own personal top 5 most commonly visited websites?

In other words, what are the 5 sites that you’re going to more than any other site on the Internet?

Post them in the comments below.

My Own Personal Top 5

#1 – Google

Well, of course. I’m a straight up Google whore. I’m not exactly proud of it, but the nature of the Internet now is such that it is hard to do very much without using Google. At least conveniently.

This includes the search engine, but also Gmail, Calendar, Google Plus and the other Google-integrated properties which I use.

#2 – Facebook

It is the world’s largest social network. I’m there. I personally think social networking is a pretty valuable activity, not only in terms of a form of social insurance (the more people you know, the most people you can access when you need something)… but also business.

#3 – Drudge Report

I’m not exactly proud of this one, but there it is. I don’t watch the news at all, but I do make a habit of quickly scanning the headlines so I get the jist of what’s going on out there. And, Drudge Report is the easiest and simplest place to do that that I’ve found. It is literally nothing more than links. No flashy stuff to get in the way, so it makes scanning easy.

The site does have a conservative slant to it, so if you’re politically sensitive and lean to the left, be aware.

#4 – Misc Business Apps

A bit of a general category, but I’m listing it because it most definitely ranks for me. See, being that I run an internet-based business, that means I use web apps that many wouldn’t need.

For example, I am a user of Aweber and Office AutoPilot for my business CRM and email marketing needs. I visit the sites pretty regularly.

#5 – Online Banking

I use a credit union for both personal and business banking – and most of my dealings with those accounts is via the web. Plus, I also use Paypal quite a bit.

So, what about you?

What are your top 5 most visited websites?

Hint: If you’re a Chrome user, you can open a new tab and then look at the “Most Visited” screen. The browser will show you 8 screenshots of the sites you visit most often.

Post a comment below and let us know.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Top 5 Websites We Visit The Most

Some spots seem to have a nice strong signal while others are spotty. So, you end up picking up and moving around, looking for more “bars” on your wifi icon so you can hopefully plop your butt down and get some work done.

Or you’re setting up a new wifi hotspot for your home and you want to figure out EXACTLY where you should put the router to give you the strongest signal throughout your home.

Well, if you happen to have a Mac running OS X 10.6 or later, check out the free utility called NetSpot 2.

You can easily map out your network and find where the signals are weak and where they are strong. Plus, you don’t have to be a networking whiz to use it. You upload a space plan to the program, then use your Macbook to walk around and map the wifi coverage throughout that space.

If you’re not on a Mac, you’re SOL. However, there are other options for Windows, such as the HeatMapper tool from Ekuhau (also free).

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How To Find The Strongest Wifi Signal In Your Location [Wifi Site Surveys]

The social network has, by this point, become one of the primary means by which we communicate online, and even if it is declining, it’s still integral in the lives of many men and women.

But there’s a darker side to Facebook. The social network, and the organization behind it, has had its fair share of run-ins with the law over privacy concerns. The terms of service have historically been more than a little one-sided, and Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, isn’t exactly the most trustworthy chap out there.  Indeed, there are a number of very, very good reasons to drop your Facebook account like a bad habit and delete all of the data associated with it.

But very few people are actually going to go through with it.

There are a number of reasons why. Maybe they simply don’t care about the use and misuse of their personal information. Maybe it’s rationalized as part of the price of using the platform. Maybe they’re aware of all the unscrupulous things

Reason One: Your Personal Information isn’t “Personal” 

At this point, there’s a quote I’d like to call to mind: “Nothing in the world is free. If you’re not the customer, you’re the product.” That’s the reality of using Facebook. Any information you choose to share is there for marketers to target, for applications to comb through, for friends (and, depending on your privacy settings, strangers) to see.

Facebook “privacy” is something of a hoax. Sure, other users can’t see your data, but that doesn’t mean marketers and content providers won’t have access to it. The fact is; when you’re on Facebook, your personal data isn’t yours - it’s theirs. This includes personally identifiable information, photos, usage statistics, friends and connections, what pages you’ve liked; it can even track you once you’ve logged out.

They’re not doing anything illegal, either, because you agreed to let them do this when you signed up.

But You Won’t Delete Your Account Because…

Facebook’s not the only organization that does this – it’s only the most notorious organization. There are many who argue that online privacy is more or less dead, anyway, so what does it matter if your information is being used by marketers, or your photos are being taken and used to sell something? Plus, Facebook at least takes steps to protect you from criminals while you’re online, right?  There was a time, not so long ago, when people were discouraged from even giving out their real name on the Internet.

Now it’s possible to determine where somebody ate lunch last Tuesday just by checking their page.

Reason Two: It Sends Productivity Through the Floor

This one’s self explanatory. What’s going on on your Facebook page? People spend so many countless hours mindlessly browsing through images, or playing social ‘games,’ it’s a wonder we get anything done anymore. Have you checked Facebook yet? It’s a staggering waste of time, and the worst part is, we’re almost compelled to go online at least once a day.

By the way, have you checked Facebook yet?

But That Doesn’t Matter Because….

Basically, we’re addicted. Sort of. Many of us can’t – or won’t – delete our Facebook pages because the social network has such an ironclad hold on us. It’s such a vital part of our life that we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves if we deleted it. We’ve got too many friends that we connect with over Facebook. It’s become far too integrated in our daily routine.

After all, what if we miss an important event of a friend’s? Or fail to care for our crops in Farmville? Or someone wants to reach us or invite us to something? What if a business partner needs to get in touch with us?

Ask yourself this, and answer honestly: could you really live without Facebook?

Reason Three: It’s Killing Communication

To be fair, Facebook’s not the only guilty party here. The Internet, in general, is changing the way we communicate as human beings – and not in a good way.  It’s something known as deferred communication. We’re chatting, yes, but we’re not really talking – we aren’t really communicating or connecting.

“Social media is cheap communication,” writes Aaron Biebert of 8 Pm Warrior, “how can you truly know someone or build a lasting bond without seeing their smile, hearing their tone changes, or getting instant feedback during your discussion? Social media channels make it easy to feel like we’re communicating with others. We’re not.”

I’ve written about this before.

Haven’t you ever wondered how people can be so callous; say such horrific things online? It’s because, when a computer screen is introduced into the equation, there’s a disconnect. It’s incredibly easy to fool ourselves into thinking that the person on the other end isn’t a person, so its OK to say things that no one would say to another’s face. Why?

Because we can’t see the person on the other end. We can’t see what impact – if any – our words have on them.

But That Doesn’t Matter Because…

Facebook still connects us with people, even if those connections are shallow – and in our technologically connected, personally disconnected world, we crave any contact we can get. Plus, people can chat over Facebook to set up face-to-face discussions too, right? And again, it’s not just Facebook. Smartphones. Instant Messaging Clients. Email.  If it weren’t Facebook, it’d be something else, anyway.

Plus, there’s the matter of the potential for connectivity – with a bit of effort, one can turn a shallow Facebook friendship into a real one. Plus, you might well find out -through Facebook – that your seventh-grade sweetheart has a high-paying executive position at a company you desperately want to work for; meaning they’ve the power to get you the job.

Reason Four: It Encourages Severe Narcissism

Take thirteen minutes out of your life and watch this video. It describes pretty much everything I want to say here quite thoroughly. Facebook has become the mouthpiece for the “me” generation – it’s a physical (or digital, if you want to nit-pick) representation of self-centeredness, a website that encourages an unhealthy degree of obsession and self-absorption. You want to brag about your latest accomplishment to your friends. You want your contacts to validate what a jackass your boss is. You want everybody to see how much progress you’ve made in your workout routine; to compliment you on the shape you’re in.

“Facebook is the ultimate expression of Narcissism,” says TruthNeverTold. “Where else can you go and expose everything about yourself like a prancing peacock? You get your fifteen minutes of fame every minute. Facebook is, when you boil it down, one big ‘look-at-me-fest.’ Look at my pictures, look at my car, look at where I am, look at my wife, look at my life. The ultimate irony in this social network is that no one really cares.”

But That Doesn’t Matter Because…

Basically, because many of us have gotten so wrapped up in that narcissism that we’ve fallen in love with it.  We need to share. We need to consume content. Voyeurism is satisfying;  having a huge network of friends and connections makes a person feel important,  and lurking the Facebook page of someone you knew in High School to see that they’re worse off than you are, well…some people find a perverse sort of comfort in that. It’s always satisfying to know someone has it worse than we do.

Reason Five: It Distracts us From What’s Really Important

Liking a page doesn’t make a difference. Sharing a photo doesn’t help anyone, and babbling about how unjust a particular piece of legislation is won’t make the people trying to force it through reconsider. You’re not acting, you’re just reacting.

Not only that, while we’re wasting our time sharing and conversing on Facebook, the world’s moving on around us. People are making real progress in their lives, netting themselves tangible achievements, making real connections with others. They’re not wasting time online. Facebook is, at the end of the day, little more than a distraction from the real world, an imitation with none of the charm and allure of the original.

But That Doesn’t Matter Because…

It takes too much effort to care. Facebook intentionally makes the process of disentangling yourself from its web of likes as obtuse as possible, in order to discourage people from leaving.

“Just deactivate your account,” it croons, “and it will be waiting for you – along with all your information – if you ever want to come back.” Plus, there’s the occasional movement that actually does make a difference over Facebook – so it’s not all bad.

Image Credits: [Socialnomics][Telegraph][Social Media Today][Soshable][Jezebel][Uniter]

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

5 Very Good Reasons to Delete your Facebook Account (And 5 Reasons Why You Never Will)

The sound in my browser completely dies. For all intents and purposes, I might as well be browsing with my system on mute. I decided I’d look into this glitch more closely – both to find a solution to the problem and to find out exactly why it exists in the first place.

Why Does It Happen?

Near as I can tell, the issue is related to Chrome’s flash player software. It doesn’t quite understand what to do with the HDMI connection if it’s introduced while the browser’s already running. As a result, the browser behaves as though the new device doesn’t exist at all and enters into a weird sort of limbo.

I’m not entirely certain of the technical details involved here. All I know is that, much like certain full-screen programs will crash if you plug in an HDMI cable while running them, Chrome’s sound borks itself if you add an HDMI connection while the browser’s open.

How Do I Fix It?

The easiest solution is to simply restart Chrome. Close your browser down completely, then start it up again and you should be fine. Everything should work swimmingly.

Unfortunately, this is a bit of a pain to do every time you plug in an HDMI port. Plus, sometimes closing the browser might not necessarily be an option.

If that’s the case, you’ll want to disable Chrome’s Pepperflash player(Credit to Craig Long for the solution). First, type “about:plugins” into the address bar, and hit Enter. You should find yourself presented by a long list of the applications and plugins that make up Chrome’s backend. The one you’ll want to find is Adobe Flash Player. It should be right at the top of the page. Click on details and you should see two separate files: pepflashplayer.dll and NPSWF32.dll. Disable the first one and your sound should start working – no restart required. As an added bonus, it shouldn’t crash on you the next time you plug in an HDMI cable.

Even if it does, at least you’ve an easy fix, right?

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Getting Google Chrome to Play Nice with PC-to-TV HDMI Connections

Unfortunately, due to the open nature of crowd-funding, there’s always a chance that a particular product or service might not get off the ground: or worse; that it might end up being a scam.

Earlier this year, there was a pretty awesome looking project on Kickstarter. It was called Mythic: The Story of Gods and Men. It billed itself as an incredible, revolutionary game developed by a team of twelve industry veterans; designed by gamers with gamers in mind. Everything about the title sounded absolutely perfect; almost too good to be true.

As it turned out, it was.

It had raised nearly $5,000 before a few enterprising folks on Reddit and Rock,Paper,Shotgun (among others) discovered that the whole thing was bogus and managed to get it shut down by Kickstarter. As it turned out, the whole thing was a massive, elaborate scam which made use of the creative drain in many AAA titles to separate people from their hard-earned money. The guy wasn’t even a game developer. The worst part about all of this isn’t the fact that Mythic managed to raise $5,000: it’s the fact that the whole snafu could have been avoided, if only more people had known what to look for: many of the same signs that you’d look for to determine an employment scam can also be found in crowdfunding scams.

Listen to What They’re Promising

The easiest way to figure out if a Kickstarter campaign is bogus is by listening – I mean really listening – to what the campaign founder is promising. Are they making a bunch of grandiose claims, with little evidence to back them up? Are they overusing buzzwords? Does it seem like they’re making a bunch of empty promises?

Right from the get-go, Mythic seemed like it was too good to be true. Not only that, the fellow behind the project didn’t actually go into intimate detail about what he was planning; nor did he describe exactly what he wanted to do: it was all vague generalities. Even when he was asked direct questions, he returned with non-answers: why, for example, did he fail to name specific developers or staff members? Why did he give such a short, tight release schedule?

That should always raise a few red flags: even if it’s not a scam,  it’s probably poorly organized or realized. There’s a good chance that things might not get off the ground due to poor planning.

Look Carefully At The Assets

What sort of creative assets have they offered up as an example of their work? One of the first red flags that alerted people to the fact that Mythic was a scam was the fact that most of the screenshots and images were lifted from other games and websites – none of it was actually original work. If you’ve got Tineye or another, similar tool, it couldn’t hurt to do a search on some of the images provided by the project founder. If they’ve included any videos – particularly interviews/testimonials – watch them carefully, and trust your gut. Chances are good that if someone appears as though they cannot be trusted, they shouldn’t be.

Use Your Better Judgement

To wield the old adage once again: if something seems too good to be true, it more than likely is. Ask yourself if the project you’re looking at is realistic, feasible, or even a good idea in the first place. Ask yourself if it’s something you – or anyone – actually needs.  Also ask: Do you know who’s behind the project? Who do they claim is involved? Figuring out their history can go a long way toward preventing yourself from getting burned. A brief Google search is usually all it takes to turn up a bit of dirty laundry on whoever’s looking to receive funding.

Any other tips for avoiding bogus or poorly planned crowdfunding projects? Let us know in the comments below!

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

How to Tell if a Kickstarter Campaign is Bogus