The Construct

As an advocate of eLearning, I’ve been trying to maximize the use of technology for teaching. Since, I’m not that active in the academic circle recently, as a service, I decided to put up an online forum for us in the business of language studies and research and that was the English Studies Forum.

Despite the meager membership (mostly BAES seniors from our department), it served its purpose of idea and resource sharing. Too bad, even such an innocent effort can be knocked out by web baddies. The site suffered from a hidden iframe injection attack three days ago and Google and Firefox decided to flag the site as a malware site.

It was my first time to encounter such a problem and since I’m only have a wee bit of savvy when it comes to these things, I had to research about the matter. Found out that quite a lot of SMF, WordPress and Joomla sites have been affected by this malware and most “expert” opinion say that this is primarily a hosting problem.

(more…)

It’s good to be concerned with personal security at times. Things like encrypting sensitive computer files (like bank details, account details, personal information, and porn, as you’d never know when you misplace that data drive), installing deadbolt locks, and lugging around pepper spray. With what’s mucking about these days, you’d never know.

However, it’s irritating when other people try to do it for you. Just last week, I visited a bank and they were locked down like the Armageddon is coming. The security guards were frisking everyone like virgin teens raring to go to third base. They had to open the door and lift security shutters before letting anyone in. I asked the manong why he was trying to cop a feel and he said “Bomb scare kasi, ser.”

Oh yeah. The recent bomb scares in Quezon City and the bombings down south. Any jaded Filipino would dismiss these threats as propaganda leaving one to wonder whether the guards are just doing their jobs or plain manyak.
(more…)

Yesterday, our good friend benj, warned us about this ultimate stalker guide to all registered voters of NCR. Lo and behold, what he said was true. It is something that identity thieves and god-knows-who sick-minded personalities could use just against anybody or for themselves.

As of this afternoon COMELEC got some sense to take down all the files. But thanks to our beloved stalking tool Google, some of the files are now cached in the Google server. So the info are still available online! (Message me if you want to know how it’s done. If you know how to work the Google cache, then just go ahead. Just make sure you’re no identity thief).

Tsk, if COMELEC can’t handle something as simple as access management, how the heck could we trust them with a computerized elections?

Hard and fast rule, if you’re not doing anything wrong, there’s no need to fear.

Somehow, it’s not as hard and as fast as before given that our justice system sucks.

But sometimes, carelessness can get the better of us all. In today’s digital world, it’s really hard to get a sense of self. And even your “self” can be stolen by those damn identity thieves preying on some newbie to divulge too much information about him/herself online.

We all know that Google has (intentionally or unintentionally) been profiling us through our searches and our accounts. Hence some conspiracy theorist brought up the concern of using search engines for pre-crime a la Minority Report. Yeah, some sicko you might be putting “how to kill my professor” in your Google search.

Anyway, I just finished writing my takes on search engine security on Lifespy and it sure has raised my paranoia just a little bit more.

Then all the what-ifs race through your mind.

I’ve seen some computers affected by this “virus” and sadly, I think it’s not detected by Norton or AVG.

Here’s a guide on how to remove it. Kudos to SHENGTON of the PCX Forums.

1. Run Task Manager
Windows XP(Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc)
or CTRL + ALT + DEL then look for the “processes” tab, hanapin nyo un process na may name na “Wscript” end process nyo LAHAT.
2. On windows Explorer
Select TOOLS -> Folder Options tapos sa VIEW tab under “hidden files and folders” select nyo show hidden files and folders
next, uncheck hide protected operating system files
3. Browse nyo lahat nang disk drives or flashdrives nyo
( wag double click kasi magrun ulit un “wscript”) look for
“autorun.inf” and “FS6519.dll.vbs”
tapos delete nyo un 2 files, select nyo both files and press shift+delete be sure na lahat ng wscript sa task manager nka-end task.
4. Lastly, (sa wakas huling step)click start and select run, type nyo “regedit” press ctrl+F search nyo un “taga lipa are” i think 3 beses nyo sya makita, duouble click nyo un then replace it
with “Microsoft Internet Explorer” (pwede rin name nyo.. hehe..) 3 un mapapalitan nyo jan.. then exit nyo na..thats it!! restart ur PC and then OK na ulit..

Great tip, I just hate his use of “un.” “Un” is “hun” without the “H” (Kapapangan? :p) “Jan” is the abbreviation of “January.”