Summertime, And The Livin’ Is Easy. Or Is It?
Summertime, and the living is supposed to be easy — unless you happen to be an IT worker employed in any kind of security-related capacity. In that case, it was just new kinds of trouble this past week, as worms, hacker attacks and other threats made life miserable.
The biggest of the headaches was last Tuesday’s attack against Web infrastructure company Akamai, which knocked Yahoo, Google, and various Microsoft and Apple Computer sites offline.
Akamai executives said the denial-of-service attacks initially targeted four large Akamai customers, rendering their sites inaccessible. But the effects quickly rippled across the company’s network, causing a failure in its domain name server (DNS) system, which translates word-based website addresses into numeric Web addresses to link surfers to websites.

Are security companies ahead of hackers?

Akamai later determined that the attack was launched by a herd of zombies — computers infected with a Trojan horse that programmes the machines to launch Web attacks at specified times.
Sleep tight, knowing that there are potentially millions of zombies out there, programmed to wreak mischief ranging from spam spewing to attacks such as the Akamai caper.
Those more concerned with old-style threats pondered Microsoft’s potential entry into the antivirus market. Representatives from the software giant said it’ll happen, but details on when and how are still being worked out.
Updating Your ZoneAlarm Firewall
ZoneLabs releases an update to their firewall product

As mentioned in a previous Tech Tuesday column, ZoneLabs — the company which produces the ZoneAlarm firewall product — was recently purchased by an Israeli company. The company, upon purchase of ZoneLabs, made a new version of ZoneAlarm available, and required of owners of the Pro version that they either re-register their ZoneAlarm product, or purchase the new ZoneAlarm v.5.0.590.015 iteration.
Today, ZoneLabs released a necessary update to the initial version of ZoneAlarm v5, which resolves a number of problems that were occurring with the first iteration of ZoneAlarm 5 …
As ZoneLabs points out, the new ZoneAlarm Pro version v 5.0.590.043 …

• fixes conflict issues with Norton AntiVirus, particularly as it affects scanning of incoming e-mail for Trojans, worms, viruses, malware, etc.
• fixes issues with SSH timeouts, which may have compromised the integrity of your online communications protocol
• fixes installation issues with the McAfee Security Center, and conflicts with the McAfee AntiVirus programme
• fixes stability issues on your computer associated with the ZoneAlarm product
• resolves routine maintenance items associated with the ZoneAlarm product

Most software on your computer is a work in progress (this is particularly true of your operating system, be it Windows, MAC OS or Linux). Computer users must be aware that most of the software programmes on their computers are updated periodically, and that it is necessary (and often imperative) to download and install the updates.
If you have the ZoneAlarm firewall installed on your computer, in order to avoid all of the re-register, re-license rigamarole entailed in updating your ZoneAlarm, simply click on this link, and follow these directions. And remember: slow and easy does it.
Question of the Week

Hi, I have Norton Internet Security 2003, valid until October 2004, set on my Windows 98SE desktop. Do I need any other spyware or adware, such as Spybot Search and Destroy or Ad-aware 6.0? Do I need to upgrade to Norton Internet Security 2004 now or wait until October 2004?
— Submitted by: David C., Edmonton, Alta.

Norton Internet Security 2003 did not contain anti-spyware software, so you will need an anti-spyware app, such as Spybot: Search and Destroy. You should also download Ad-Aware, and McAfee Stinger.
As for Norton Internet Security renewal, you can re-subscribe in October 2004 for another year. Symantec offers updates for two years after the release of a product. So, in October 2005, you will need to upgrade to the company’s latest offering.
All efforts on your part to make your surfing life secure will likely go for naught, though, as a consequence of the fact that you’re running an unsupported, insecure operating system. As of January (and, actually much earlier than that) Microsoft discontinued support for Windows 98.
You may want to read Fred Langa’s article, Microsoft’s ‘Product Lifecycle’ Plans for more information on why you should consider upgrading your computer’s operating system to Windows XP (or, for a challenge, Linux).
And, by the way, just in case you’re considering ‘borrowing’ a copy of Windows XP from a friend to install on your computer — you could, but an unregistered copy of Windows XP will almost immediately be identified as being pirated, and you run the risk of having your machine ‘locked’ by Microsoft, and enjoying an impromptu visit from the local constabulary.
Even if the above Windows XP issue is of no concern to you, pirated copies of Windows XP will not allow you to download Windows Service Pack 1 or 2 — and without those 100, or so, critical operating system security ‘patches’ you might as well be running Windows 95 / 98 / ME for all the security support you’ll be afforded by Microsoft … which is to say, none.
For more information on related Windows XP issues, have a look at Fred Langa’s article on Windows Product Activation.

Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

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