Mono to Stereo w/ Audacity...

September 2009

When you find yourself with a mono audio file and you need stereo, here is a way to change the file. First figure out if the file is a stereo file with only one track active or if is truly a mono track.

Open the file with Audacity. If you see two track but only one of the tracks have waveforms in it then you know its stereo. Use Audacity w/LAME or Quicktime Pro to convert the file completely to mono. Open the new mono file in Audacity.

Select all (Ctrl +A) (Cmd +A) Click Edit and Duplicate now you have two tracks showing and they are both mono.

On the left hand side of the track info it will show that the file is mono. Click the drop down button (up side down black triangle) Click make stereo track. Save. Export as WAV or MP3.

Make sure you have LAME and you know where its located on your system.

Apple's App Store Monopoly...

September 2009

"Listen up, friend. We take care of the community. We all protect each other. You wanna set up shop in this neighborhood, you're gonna need some protection, you know what I'm sayin'? I mean, you got a real nice business here, nice store, nice people. It'd be a shame if something were to happen to it. Fire, robbery, these things happen all the time, but we can make sure they don't - at least to you. Let's say 30 per cent of your daily take? It's not in your best interest to say no to guys like us. It's bad for your health."

Does this shakedown sound familiar? If you're an iPhone developer, it should. When a developer sells an application through the iPhone Application Store, they only see 70 per cent of the revenue. The rest goes to Apple for “system upkeep.” There's no other way to sell iPhone apps. Apple's distribution channel is the only one. Users can't buy your program from their computer then load it onto an iPhone without jailbreaking the device, which is a gamble. Read more from T. Dziuba @ http://search.theregister.co.uk Thanks T.D.

Apple

VXers. FakeAV-ZJTrojan, Jahlav-C...BeWare

Koobface Fraud Malware...

September 2009

New Koobface variant drops scareware and click fraud malware.

A new Koobface variant has been detected spreading in the wild and has been analyzed by security researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The analysis revealed that illegal money schemes used by its creators include scareware distribution and click fraud via rogue affiliate advertising programs. Koobface is a social networking worm that spreads on websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, hi5, Tagged, Netlog or Twitter by posting malicious messages from hijacked accounts. Computers infected with this malware join together to form a botnet, which is currently estimated to be one of the largest in the world, comprising over 2.9 million compromised computers in the U.S. alone. This new Koobface variant does not differ much from its past versions, at least as far as the social engineering component is concerned, suggesting that it is still a successful technique and that users are not educated enough. Spam messages posted on social networking sites from compromised accounts have links to pages allegedly containing videos. These fake pages ask unwary visitors to install a Flash Player update in order to view

the video, which is actually the worm’s installer. In order to make money using Koobface, its creators employ it as an installation platform for other malware, such as rogue security applications. These programs, also known as scareware or rogueware display bogus security alerts that inform the computer owner that his machine is infected, and in order to clean it, they have to acquire a license for the fake antivirus. One interesting aspect is that all these redirects occur through a list of predefined IP addresses and host names, including fire[expletive]eye.com and [expletive]briankrebs.com. These two domain names are direct references to a Washington Post journalist, who maintains the Security Fix blog, and the security research company FireEye. A message hidden inside a July variant of the worm ironically read “We express our high gratitude to a security consultant for the help in bug fixing, researches and documentation for our software.” This individual is an independent security consultant who plays an active role in tracking and shutting down botnets and other illegal operations.

Worm-Deborn...Watch Out!!!

September 2009

Is Worm.Deborm hiding in your LAN?

Computer worms, viruses, Trojans and other threats are increasingly looking for ways to exploit systems. Some of them actively try to break into a user’s PC and others just patiently wait till the user provides the way to the system. But no matter how a threat finds its way into a PC; the most important thing is that as soon as one enters the system, the machine is at risk of being destroyed or otherwise negatively affected. That is the case with Deborm, a worm spreading itself without any user intervention. Deborm has the ability to propagate itself via networks. In other words, Worm.Deborm spreads itself over a local area network (LAN) to any computers that have writable file shares. Once executed, Worm.Deborm will copy itself to a startup folder; as a result, it will automatically run upon reboot. This parasite has the ability to break simple passwords that are used either on the machine or when surfing the web. It is also important to note that Deborm worm will install a backdoor that will then allow a remote attacker access to a user’s computer system. Through this backdoor cyber criminals will be able to download additional malware, execute suspicious and often malicious programs, as well as steal confidential personal and financial information. Worm.Deborm is known to be related to a file called malware.exe. It has many distinct variants with different MD5 signatures.

Hack a Mac!!!

September 2009

Hackers serve up pre-release malware to Mac fanboys.

Virus slingers are taking advantage of the release of Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system by offering malware from sites touting operating system upgrades. Dodgy sites supposedly offering Snow Leopard were rigged to push an Apple-specific DNS changer Trojan, detected by Trend Micro as JAHLAV-K. The malware is a MAC OS X mountable Disk Image file (.DMG) that comes contaminated with various malicious scripts, as explained here. Users infected with the Apple specific malware would find their internet connections redirected to phishing sites and other fraudulent endeavours. Some of these bogus sites hosted scareware (fake anti-virus) packages. Fake sites offering the Mac malware were in operation in the run-up to the release of Snow Leopard on August 28. There are more details in a blog on Trend Micro’s website. A similar attack, detected earlier the week of August 24, offered malware in the guise of Foxit PDF Reader software for Apple Macs. The pirated version “Foxit Reader for Mac” comes loaded with the Jahlav Trojan horse, anti-virus firm Sophos warns. Foxit Reader is not yet officially available for Apple Macs. When it does come out, prospective users ought to use the official Foxit website, Foxit advises.