Phishing Attack Fixes

There is a phishing attack that affects Google Chrome, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox. Trusted sites are spoofed to make malicious domains look like the real ones. Check this website for more technical info. A phishing attack happens when an attacker/hacker sends you a link in an email that directs you to a malicious website. Just visiting the website might infect your computer with malware or it may trick you into typing in using your credentials or other personal info like credit card number or email passwords. With everything typed in, the attacker now has your information.

How can we prevent this?

1a. Update Google Chrome. Google has released an update to Chrome to address this issue. Your Chrome version should be 58.0.3029.81. On your Chrome browser, click the three dots found on the upper right corner and select Settings. In the Settings page, click About and Chrome will start updating itself. If the browser cannot update, use Firefox instead and apply the fix described in 1b.

1b. Apply fix for Firefox. Open a new tab in Firefox and type in about:config. Click the “I accept the risk!” button. In the search box, type in the word punycode. A result that shows network.IDN_show_punycode should appear. Double click it to change the last value from False to True.

2. If you receive links in emails, do not click them immediately. Make sure that you know the person who sent you the email or you’re expecting an email from that person. Check also the sender’s email address in the From field. It’s expected that the email address should be something like username@gmail.com or username@yahoo.com. Compare the username too. If it looks like a3nguillo@gmail.com or something like that, delete the email immediately.

3. Check the status bar of your browser as you hover the link. Make sure you did 1a and 1b. Place your mouse on the link but don’t click. Then check your browser’s status bar on the lower left portion of the screen. If the format of the site address looks different from other websites’ site address, don’t click the link.

4. Make sure your antivirus and anti-malware are updated. If you’ve accidentally clicked the link, they will intercept or prevent any malware that could enter your system.

There’s no fix yet for the Opera browser. Apply the suggested fixes and practices and help spread the word.

Friday is Free Day – Windows Media Player Browser Plugin

When a streaming audio/video links to .asf or .asx files (Windows media), chances are you won’t be prompted to download the plugin if you’re a Firefox or Google Chrome user. To be able to play these streaming media files, you’ll either need to use Internet Explorer as your browser or install the Windows Media Player plugin for your browser.

You may download the plugin from the Interoperability Bridges and Labs Center website. Download and run the installer and start your browser. This plugin works on Firefox (even up to FF5 Beta) and Google Chrome.

Firefox 4 Beta 1 Is Already Out

Firefox 4 Beta 1 on Windows XP

Mozilla has released the beta 1 version of Firefox 4. I’ve already downloaded and installed the browser on my Intel P4 machine. It worked great. It loads sites faster compared to its previous versions. It has an almost similar look to Google’s Chrome except for the title bar that was retained. And it doesn’t freeze that much anymore. However, it’s now on top of my Task Manager’s processes list as it eats up more resources compared to the 3.6.x versions. I’ll further test the beta version for updates.

It also has a feedback button at the right side beside the search pane where you can send your feedback to make it better. And since it’s in beta stage, most of your add-ons won’t work.

Update:

I already installed the beta version on a Windows 7 machine. It also has the title bar but the menu bar is automatically hidden. Just press the ALT key to unhide it. It’s still on top of my processes list. well, it’s still fast. Here’s how it looks like:

Firefox 4 Beta 1 on Windows 7