I hope it”s just coincidence, but I have just suffered my second hard drive failure with Window XP SP2 — in two months. Fortunately, I can avoid the cost of a hard drive recovery service, since I back up my data nightly across my network to my Linux box.

The worrysome thing is that these were not the same machine. Not the same brand hard drive. Not even the same size drive — one is a desktop 3.5″ drive while the other was the 2.5″ drive in my notebook.

I don”t know anything that could make this happen, but the problem was first visible as Windows hanging as it tried to access pretty-much anything in the Windows directory or Documents and Settings directory. Click on the Start button — system hangs for a minute or two. Open Explorer — system hangs for a mintue or two. Right-click the Desktop — Windows hangs for a minute or two.

All the time, the hard drive light stays burning bright!

The first time with the desktop hard drive (a Western Digital), the troubles crept up across a month or so. When I finally realized what was happening, Spinrite 6.0 (www.grc.com) got me out of trouble for a couple months. Then, the drive cratered again a month later. Fortunately, this had given me ample opportunity to back up everything routinely.

With the notebook”s IBM Travelstar 7200RPM 60GB drive, the start of troubles rapidly worsened. After 3 or 4 days, the hangs had become so frequent as to make working on the notebook a pain. Today, booting took 15 minutes, before I called Dell (while it was still rebooting).

My Dell Inspiron 8600 is still under warranty, so I”ve got a replacement drive on the way. Then, I have the joy of another Windows XP installation and reinstallation of all my programs.

I used to use Drive Image to do image backups of my computer. This may be just the thing to force me over to one of the alternatives like Acronis True Image 9.0
, which is designed for complete PC backup and restore.

ZDNet reports that an unpatched security bug in Internet Explorer is already being exploited to install malicious software. The quote Ken Dunham of VeriSign”s iDefense saying that fully patched versions of IE are vulnerable.

The ZDNet article also reports that Microsoft plans to fix the hole in its October 10th “Patch Tuesday,” its once-a-month release of patches for MS products.

Eric Sites of Sunbelt Software, makers of the CounterSpy anti-spyware / anti-adware program that I use and recommend, says in his blog entry that this is a flaw with the VML routine in IE and can be “mitigated by turning off Javascripting” (in IE).

How to turn off JavaScript/ActiveScript in IE

Of course, this isn”t a very useful solution as many web sites use JavaScript for navigation and other necessary functions.

Much easier, use Firefox as your web browser. Yes, you can have IE and Firefox both installed and even both open at the same time.

Have you received an email directing you to visit a familiar web site where you are being asked to update your personal information? Who hasn’t?

The email says that the website needs you to verify or update your passwords, credit card numbers, social security number, or even your bank account number. You recognize the business name as one that you’ve conducted business with in the past.

So, you click on the convenient “take me there” link and proceed to provide all the information they have requested.

Unfortunately, you find out much later that the website is bogus. It was created with the sole intent to steal your personal information. You, my friend, have just been “phished”.

Phishing (pronounced as “fishing”) is the new term for the act of sending an email to a recipient falsely claiming to have an established, legitimate business. The intent of the phisher is to scam the recipient into surrendering their private information, and ultimately steal your identity.

It is not at easy as you think to spot an email phishing for information. At first glance, the email may look like it is from a legitimate company. The “From” field of the e-mail may have the .com address of the company mentioned in the e-mail. The clickable link even appears to take you to the company”s website, when in fact, it is a fake website built to replicate the legitimate site.

Many of these people are professional criminals. They have spent a lot of time in creating emails that look authentic.

We all need to carefully review any emails that request our personal information. When reviewing your email remember that the “From Field” can be easily changed by the sender. While it may look like it is coming from a .com you do business with, looks can be deceiving.

Continue reading “Phishing For Your Identity”

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My web design blog is now available online.

Drawing on the Web runs in on WordPress, installed in my account at Powweb.

There are four new articles:

• Serendipity vs WordPress, day 1
• Search Engine Friendly Pages
• Improve Usability of Your Website
• Drawing on the Web

I decided to branch the PC Security stuff into a separate blog.

I haven”t reposted any of those articles from here to there, though. It”s all new stuff.

At this point, posts include the topics of firewalls, spam, and spyware.

Read them at PC Repair Site .info — PC Problem Prevention and Resolution

Current articles include:

• How many spyware items are infecting your computer?
• Fighting Spam
• XP Repair Pro 2006
• Defending Your Computer with WinPatrol (well, an extended version of that one was in my last email computer tips newsletter)