I’m seeing what appears to be a new round of spam email from the “Storm Worm” gang. The messages are very short, wtih a subject related to Valentines’ Day, and a short message with a link to a web site. An example: a subject of “Blind Love”, and a message of “Rockin’ Valentine” along with a link to a web site.

Clicking on the web link (or even typing it in manually) will get you an attempt to download some malware automatically. Current anti-virus may protect you against the download attempt, depending on the web page payload. Current patches will be another protection layer.

Note that Microsoft has released 12 patches today, many of them critical. Of course, all of ourusers are following Safe Computing Practices, and have their computer set up for automatic updates. And they have updated Adobe, Apple Quicktime, Firefox, and Linux kernal updates…

More info about the ‘lovely’ Storm Worm spam is here: http://isc.sans.org/diary.html?storyid=3976

A light commute today…was able to go the “speed limit” the whole trip in, thanks to all the CA State workers who get a holiday today. But I was running late, so didn’t get to IHOP for “Free Pancake Day”.

Some more forensic programming today is on the list. Although the list could change at any minute. I need to write a program that checks whether Group Policy has been done on a list of computers. I’m sure that somebody has written one that does that, so I’ll do a bit of searching to see if there is some available code I can borrow.

On tap today: some mail server problems with undelivered mail that should have been allowed through via an exception (that was a 90 minute call with tech support). Some bad coding for forms found on the company web pages (no form field checking, so SQL and mail injection possibilities). Some other undeliverable mail problems (the usual, usually on the other end, not our servers).

And some thought about firewalls. Off we go!

I understand there was some sort of sporting event this past weekend. Don’t know much about it. Anyone hear anything about this?

I found the story about the failed undersea Internet cables in the Middle East more interesting. The fact that there were two of them caught my eye. (Was there a third?)

There were some false reports about connectivity to Iran being lost; but that was incorrect.

Brings to mind whether one is prepared for Internet connectivity loss. Sort of like my “Digital Choke” story (which was written several years ago). Could it happen?

Back in the real world, some more forensics is on tap today, with a bit of web browsing analysis thrown in. Should be interesting.

Work has been interesting. There’s been an investigation of some inappropriate surfing by a user. Some external attacks against a web page submittal form that didn’t do validation checking on form fields. Some analysis of web browsing activity by staff, and the lost productivity resulting from same. And working on a VBS program that moves old files into an archive directory.

And the weather has been a mixed bag. Rainy and cold (hovering around 50F) most days, although today is sunny and cold (still hovering around 50F). Yeah, not cold compared to some in the frozen north (Hi, John D) or east (that would be you, Brian B.) But cold enough that I have to wear gloves while driving until the heater warms up.

No big plans for the weekend. I’ve heard rumors of some big sporting event, but don’t know the details, so not sure that it affects me.

Maybe some NCIS and Dirty Jobs reruns could be on the weekend list. Or perhaps work on the computer.

Or both. At the same time.

Been working on my forensics skills for a couple of issues at work. I’ve had to analyze a laptop for inappropriate content, dig up web usage for users, and figure out why an announcement page on our public web server had an inappropriate message.

So have been digging into IIS logs, web application source code, backups (when available ), IE history files, and more.

I used several tools from NirSoft (www.nirsoft.net) for some of those tasks. Good, free tools that work quickly and efficiently.

A lot of inside work, which is good since it’s raining outside (and has been off and on for the past week). Rain (and snow in the mountains) is good around here.

I think of strange things while driving. The topic for the last couple of days was economic recovery. That is strange, because I am not really an economic expert.

In our family, Pam takes care of the finances. I usually have a few dollars in my pocket. Like most guys, I’m not a “go out and go shopping” guy. I usually bring my lunch to work. I don’t drink coffee, so I don’t have to make any trips to get overpriced hot beverages. I rarely drink sodas, so don’t even go to the office soda machine. And the office doesn’t have a snack machine.

So a few dollars in my pocket will last quite a while. In fact, the old joke around here, since Pam handles the finances is that I get to have one check and three deposit slips. When I use up all the deposit slips, I can get another check.

Anyway, what to do to help the nation’s economy?

The solution should be one that stimulates small businesses, since they provide a lot of the economic growth in the country. And it should help people of all all economic strata.

So, I figure that everyone should get $1000 to spend on e-Bay.

eBay sellers should get free listings. Buyers should not pay any extra charges for an item. No commission for e-payments.

Sellers will make more products available, increasing the amount of stuff that they resell. Sellers have to buy things from someone, so that increases sales of businesses.

Buyers get to get something they want, but otherwise wouldn’t have bought. They might even resell things, becoming a seller.

And eBay? They will win also. New sellers and buyers, new traffic for advertising clicks. And probably increased sales, because buyers will probably spend more than their $1000.

The $1000 will be limited to buyers in the US. That’s easy to figure out for the majority of surfers; just check their ISP’s location. Yeah, there will be a few non-US hackers that try to get around the limitation. But there will be non-US buyers looking (and buying) things, and they will have to pay the usual eBay premiums.

And there are a lot of people that don’t have computer access, so some access for those will be needed.

I like the idea. More people buying more things that others are selling that have been made by more people making things.

But I’m no economic expert.