Vol. 12, #12 - Mar 26, 2007 - Issue #618 New Trends In Hacker Attacks Editor's Corner New Trends In Hacker Attacks Live Web Demo Of New Ninja V2.1 Could I Ask For Your Vote? Quotes Of The Week Admin ToolBox Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without Tech Briefing More On Outlook 2007 Slowness Vista Data Loss Report With Canon Digital SLR New Server Virtualization Blog 32-bit To 64-bit SQL Server Migrations Remote Desktop Gets A Bit More Secure The Downside Of Windows Application Server Consolidation Fast Guide: DNS Environments Hardware Considerations For New Servers Windows Server News Microsoft Unveils Phone System for Small Businesses Yearly Growth for Worldwide Storage Software Still Going Strong Compute Cluster Pack SP1 Arrives Vista 90 day Vulnerability Report; Pretty Good WServer Third Party News Live Web Demo Of New Ninja V2.1 WServerNews Fave Links This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff. WServerNews - Product of the Week MARCH MADNESS - "End-Of-First-Quarter-Blowout!" MARCH MADNESS - "End-Of-First-Quarter-Blowout!" OK, here is the Q1 special. Check this out. It's only valid until the end of this month. A 50-pack of Ninja with AV and 50 pack of CounterSpy Enterprise, regular list is $2,029 but now for $1,495. Ninja now -INCLUDES- Disclaimers. Call for even -better- competitive upgrade pricing if you have an existing solution in place! CounterSpy Enterprise http://www.wservernews.com/070326-CounterSpy-Enterprise Sunbelt Messaging Ninja http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Sunbelt-Messaging-Ninja Editor's Corner New Trends In Hacker Attacks This week reports from four different sources all pointed to something our own spyware researchers also noticed. Hackers are getting more personal. The potential financial gain from "owning" PCs is getting more and more interesting, and attackers are concentrating on bots and backdoor Trojans. These two are the most active categories at the moment. And how do they infect users? With increasingly sophisticated code. The cyber-mob uses personalization techniques to more effectively attack those who visit compromised websites. In the last 12 months, the number of sites that use this new approach has skyrocketed. They look at the browser you are using, your IP address, and then kick off code that exploits known vulnerabilities for those environments. In other words, personalized multiple exploits and payloads that sit on malicious websites. And recently, often the payload gets delivered in two steps. First, a system is infected with a so-called dropper. This code is then activated later and downloads the actual malicious payload. Other still popular vectors that spread malware are email and P2P networks. It is interesting to note that rootkit attacks against Windows PCs have gone down during the last six months. Companies are being attacked with the goal of data theft, and hackers now create malicious code that targets specific organizations for data that can be used for financial gain. They use blended phishing, spam, bot nets, Trojans, and zero-day threats, using global networks that execute coordinated attacks. PCs infected with bots increased by 11% and there are now over 6 million PC zombies. According to Symantec, in the first six months of last year there were on average 6,110 DDoS attacks a day, close to 40% of which targeted ISPs, and CERT says the number is not dropping. Obviously you can expect new exploits for Vista, not just the OS but also the third party apps running on it, and since virtualization has taken flight, you can count on those being targeted for penetration too. So, layer your defenses, stay alert, and keep 'Best Practices' IN, IN, IN! Live Web Demo Of New Ninja V2.1 Join us for a preview of Next-Generation Email Security from Sunbelt Messaging Ninja with Alex Eckelberry, President and Greg Kras, VP of Product Management for Sunbelt Software on Tuesday March 27th at 2:00pm EDT for a live web demo introducing the new Version 2.1 of Sunbelt Messaging Ninja for Microsoft Exchange. Learn about the features of this robust email security product including: Policy-based plug-in management for antispam, AV, and attachment filtering New policy-based and global disclaimers Fast deployment in Exchange environments Superior spam detection using two antispam engines Aggressive virus detection and elimination using two AV engines Custom rules for content inspection and attachment filtering Powerful reporting options for all plug-ins And more... When: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 2:00 PM (EDT) To join the day of the event please visit: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Ninja-Web-Demo Meeting ID: 92SSQC Attendee Meeting Key: XR*mw9Z Audio: Toll free: +1 (800) 416-4956 Toll: +1 (978) 964-0050 Participant code: 104764 Could I Ask For Your Vote? Please Vote for CounterSpy Enterprise and Ninja in the Info Security Product Excellence Awards. Would you mind taking a minute to cast your vote? Thank you! CSE is in the fifth category. Ninja sits in Email Security, but you can just Ctrl-F and search for Ninja. Thanks a million! ;-) http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Vote-CSE Quotes Of The Week "I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people." -- Sir Isaac Newton "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok PS, Thank you all for filling out the recent Exchange survey, Brian Edwards at Big Dog Motorcycles in Wichita won the iPod Photo! Hope you enjoy this issue of WServerNews! Warm regards, Stu  |   Email me: feedback@wservernews.com Admin ToolBox Admin Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without Must Have FREEWARE. Self Service Password + Web Active Directory. Download now! http://www.wservernews.com/070326-NameScape Top 5 Cool Vista Tricks. Even if you never have to use these, it's good just to know they're there. http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Vista-Tricks Zubair walks you through one of the most useful new security features in Vista: BitLocker Drive Encryption. You need to know this: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Zubair Tech Briefing More On Outlook 2007 Slowness Jeremy Moskowitz from GPanswers.com wrote me. "The Outlook 2007 slowness is insane. How they let a product out the door like this is beyond me. I only use a POP3 server (no Exchange here). Something that's worked for me is... running "Outlook /safe" to get open safe mode.. then I download my email. Then, I close Outlook, and reopen it to then manage the mail that came in. Hope that helps your readers!" Vista Data Loss Report With Canon Digital SLR Canon have issued a warning about possible data loss when using Vista . "...We have discovered that the original image data of TIFF (RAW) images shot with an EOS-1D or EOS-1Ds Digital SLR Camera, and rotated or edited using Windows Explorer or Windows Gallery on a computer running Windows Vista, will disappear from the computer's memory...". MS KB Item is here: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Vista-Data-Loss New Server Virtualization Blog Visit the recently launched blog page on SearchServerVirtualization.com, and stay up-to-date on all the latest server virtualization news and your peers' views. On the blog, the editors relay and offer their opinions about breaking news, vendor and user interviews and blogs, and roundups of the Web community's views on a single topic. Even better, readers can sound off and offer advice in their comments. Check it out today! http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Virtualization-Blog 32-bit To 64-bit SQL Server Migrations Migrating from 32-bit to a 64-bit SQL Server installation isn't a trivial operation. You have to contend with a number of factors when you move from one platform to the next. Some of the concerns specifically relate to 32/64-bit platform issues and, in this article, learn about three of the most important ones: data source providers, compiled user-defined functions and components and Data Transformation Services (DTS) packages. (registration required) http://www.wservernews.com/070326-SQL-Server-Migration Remote Desktop Gets A Bit More Secure Windows Vista adds another level of security to its remote desktop feature, hoping to make an admin's life a bit easier. Read all about it in this exclusive SearchWindowsSecurity.com excerpt from chapter one of Mark Minasi's book, Administering Windows Vista Security: The Big Surprises. http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Remote-Desktop The Downside Of Windows Application Server Consolidation While server consolidation certainly has its benefits, it is not without its shortcomings. Expert Christa Anderson walks through the cost, memory and redundancy issues IT managers should be aware of when consolidating app servers. http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Server-Consolidation Fast Guide: DNS Environments Your Active Directory relies heavily on DNS to function, whether you're using Windows Server 2000 or 2003. This guide breaks down the basics of DNS, and provides some helpful tips on how to assess, manage and protect your environment. (registration required) http://www.wservernews.com/070326-DNS-Basics Hardware Considerations For New Servers How many processors? How much memory? Windows compatibility. Recommended hardware specs. These are just some of the hardware factors to consider when purchasing a new server. Find out more in this tip! http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Hardware Windows Server News Microsoft Unveils Phone System for Small Businesses PC World reported this week that Redmond finally did it. The new product is called Response Point PBX and includes software, handsets with VoIP option. It's a speech recognition-enabled phone system designed to give small biz a flexible alternative to a public branch exchange (PBX) Microsoft will take the wraps off the product at its second-annual Small Business Summit, which is being held both online and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. PC World has the story and the specs: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Microsoft-PBX Yearly Growth for Worldwide Storage Software Still Going Strong According to IDC, the worldwide storage software market experienced its 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in the fourth quarter of 2006 with revenues of $2.6 billion, a 3.1% increase over the same quarter one year ago. For the full year 2006, storage software revenues totaled $9.8 billion, growing 8.3% year over year. According to IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Storage Software Tracker, storage replication was once again a major factor driving the sector's growth. "Storage software continues to show good year-over-year performance, fueled by growth in the archiving, replication and file system software markets as well as an increase in demand for storage management software," said Laura DuBois, research director for Storage Software at IDC. "Over the last 18 months, we have seen firms adopt solutions that can improve availability, recovery and information access across heterogeneous environments, which has contributed to the growth in storage software." Storage replication, (like Double-Take) one of the largest storage software markets, demonstrated year-over-year growth of 14.4% in 4Q06. Meanwhile, the smaller but fast-growing Archive and HSM (Hierarchical Storage Management) market posted a 25.5% year-over-year growth rate. Compute Cluster Pack SP1 Arrives Redmond reported it is shipping the first SP for its Compute Cluster Pack. Microsoft Compute Cluster Pack Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides improved reliability and performance for Windows compute clusters. This service pack provides support for W2K3 with SP2 and Windows Deployment Services. In addition, this service pack supports the Compute Cluster Pack client utilities on computers running Vista. While Compute Cluster Pack SP1 can be installed on x64-based versions of Windows Server 2003 that have not been upgraded with SP2, they recommend that you upgrade to Windows Server 2003 with SP2 to take advantage of the improvements that Compute Cluster Pack SP1 provides. Here is where to get more info and the Service Pack: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Compute-Cluster-Pack-SP1 Vista 90 day Vulnerability Report; Pretty Good Jeff Jones writes a blog for CSO. He came up with this interesting chart. "February 28th marked 90 days that Windows Vista had been available to business customers. December brought the first public disclosure of a vulnerability and February brought the first Security Bulletin affecting Windows Vista. Has it been a good or a bad 90 days for security vulnerabilities? I have analyzed the vulnerability disclosures and fixes for Windows Vista and examined the results in the context of its predecessor, Windows XP, along with several other modern workstation operating systems including Red Hat, Ubuntu, Novell and Apple products to try and answer that question. Here is the chart: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Vista-Vulnerability WServer Third Party News Live Web Demo Of New Ninja V2.1 Join us for a preview of Next-Generation Email Security from Sunbelt Messaging Ninja with Alex Eckelberry, President and Greg Kras, VP of Product Management for Sunbelt Software on Tuesday March 27th at 2:00pm EDT for a live web demo introducing the new Version 2.1 of Sunbelt Messaging Ninja for Microsoft Exchange. Learn about the features of this robust email security product including: Policy-based plug-in management for antispam, AV, and attachment filtering New policy-based and global disclaimers Fast deployment in Exchange environments Superior spam detection using two antispam engines Aggressive virus detection and elimination using two AV engines Custom rules for content inspection and attachment filtering Powerful reporting options for all plug-ins And more... When: Tuesday, March 27, 2007 2:00 PM (EDT) To join the day of the event please visit: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Ninja-Web-Demo Meeting ID: 92SSQC Attendee Meeting Key: XR*mw9Z Audio: Toll free: +1 (800) 416-4956 Toll: +1 (978) 964-0050 Participant code: 104764 WServerNews Fave Links This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff. Stuck in traffic a lot and wish you could communicate to your fellow drivers? The next three links allow you to do that in a high-tech way! Drivemocion is a remote controlled car message sign. Watch the video: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Drivemocion Motion LEDs range from $150 to $600 and can be purchased from http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Motion-LED Digital license plates from Roadmaster run $60 at http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Digital-Plates A funny commercial John Cleese did for Compaq Computer Corporation in the mid to late '80s. A very rare find - this was shown only in England: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Compaq This is one of the best Rube Goldberg videos available. Just think about all the time that went into this: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Rube-Goldberg In April 2000, brothers Juan and Pedro Sanchez were drilling a new tunnel when they made a truly spectacular discovery: giant crystals! http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Crystals Introducing the Laptop Dome Outdoor Office, the Pet Love-O-Meter, the Funky Hula Massager, the Step-N-Swing Body Bat Exerciser, the Nose-Warmer, the Sock Cop and the Mechanical Horse Trainer. Hee hee: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Inventions What a difference 50 years makes. You should read this. It's a revealing commentary on our society, and what direction it goes: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-50-Years IT Crowd - a British tech sitcom, 23 minutes, but fun for a lunch break: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-IT-Break A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great French chef, setting into motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the culinary world of Paris upside down. Great little preview: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Culinary-Chef Voted best commercial in Europe... I had to admit I really liked it too: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Best-Commercial Work in cubeland? Then the "cubenews1" site is for you. This gal is funny. So, before you go postal, take a break and watch an episode. http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Cubeland Jerry Seinfeld's Brilliant Response to a Telemarketer: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Telemarketing The top 10 funniest tech videos on YouTube http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Top-Tech-Videos Where are the best online Documentaries...free? Here! Check them out: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Documentaries A Perfect Husband. (Don't forget your cellphone!): http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Cell-Phone Fun comic. My next 'Windows Inspired' Halloween costume: http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Halloween WServerNews - Product of the Week MARCH MADNESS - "End-Of-First-Quarter-Blowout!" OK, here is the Q1 special. Check this out. It's only valid until the end of this month. A 50-pack of Ninja with AV and 50 pack of CounterSpy Enterprise, regular list is $2,029 but now for $1,495. Call for even -better- competitive upgrade pricing if you have an existing solution in place! CounterSpy Enterprise http://www.wservernews.com/070326-CounterSpy-Enterprise Sunbelt Messaging Ninja http://www.wservernews.com/070326-Sunbelt-Messaging-Ninja