Three million hit by Windows worm

A worm that spreads through low security networks, memory sticks, and PCs without the latest security updates is posing a growing threat to users, BBC reports.

The malicious program, known as Conficker, Downadup, or Kido was first discovered in October 2008.

Although Microsoft released a patch, it has gone on to infect 3.5m machines.

Experts warn this figure could be far higher and say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch.

According to Microsoft, the worm works by searching for a Windows executable file called "services.exe" and then becomes part of that code.

It then copies itself into the Windows system folder as a random file of a type known as a "dll". It gives itself a 5-8 character name, such as piftoc.dll, and then modifies the Registry, which lists key Windows settings, to run the infected dll file as a service.

Once the worm is up and running, it creates an HTTP server, resets a machine's System Restore point (making it far harder to recover the infected system) and then downloads files from the hacker's web site.

Most malware uses one of a handful of sites to download files from, making them fairly easy to locate, target, and shut down.

But Conficker does things differently.

Anti-virus firm F-Secure says that the worm uses a complicated algorithm to generate hundreds of different domain names every day, such as mphtfrxs.net, imctaef.cc, and hcweu.org. Only one of these will actually be the site used to download the hackers' files. On the face of it, tracing this one site is almost impossible.

Speaking to the BBC, Kaspersky Lab's security analyst, Eddy Willems, said that a new strain of the worm was complicating matters.

"There was a new variant released less than two weeks ago and that's the one causing most of the problems," said Mr Willems

"The replication methods are quite good. It's using multiple mechanisms, including USB sticks, so if someone got an infection from one company and then takes his USB stick to another firm, it could infect that network too. It also downloads lots of content and creating new variants though this mechanism."

"Of course, the real problem is that people haven't patched their software. If people do patch their software, they should have little to worry about," he added.

Technicians have reverse engineered the worm so they can predict one of the possible domain names. This does not help them pinpoint those who created Downadup, but it does give them the ability to see how many machines are infected.

"Right now, we're seeing hundreds of thousands of unique IP addresses connecting to the domains we've registered," F-Secure's Toni Kovunen said in a statement.

"We can see them, but we can't disinfect them - that would be seen as unauthorised use."

Microsoft says that the malware has infected computers in many different parts of the world, with machines in China, Brazil, Russia, and India having the highest number of victims.

New blog for Warakamb Adventist Elite and Clergymen's Association

Greetings Brothers, Sisters and Friends,
We have had lot of requests about photos and stories about Warakam Adventist Elite and Clergymen’s Association (WAECA) and Warakamb, PNG.
Putting all photos on our web site has been time consuming and sending photos one by one to people has been too much,  so we have opened a new blog for Warakamb with stories and lot of pictures..
Please follow the URL and see photos and stories about Warakamb and the 2008 WAECA convention.
 Blog: http://warakambpng.blogspot.com/
Web site: http://waeca.com
Contact: info@waeca.com or eungil2@hotmail.com

Belated happy new year and God bless.
 
Eric Ungil
WAECA Secretary

Is Port Moresby a 'murder capital' of the world?

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ 

SOMETIME ago, a fellow-Filipino posted a message on the email service of the Pinoy community here in Port Moresby asking about the law and order situation in Papua New Guinea.
Signing his post with an alias, he said he was expecting to come to PNG as a contractual worker in a national government agency and was very concerned over the state of personal security in the city. He further said he read some news items on PNG crime situation and would like to know if the stories were true.
I understood his worries, something that I felt for the first time when I first set foot on PNG soil more than 15 years ago.
The man who fetched me at the Jackson International Airport outside of Port Moresby in the early morning of December 5, 1993 said casually that I was now "an expatriate" and should take precaution for my personal safety.
"You're now an expatriate and "raskols" would be after you," the man said, referring to thugs or hoodlums that infested the city during those days (and even up to now) like bedbugs with almost impunity to the chagrin of police authorities.
During the first four years of my stay here, I was hit three times and each encounter with the criminals was traumatic. Friends who learned of my experience jokingly said that three (hits) in four years was good enough, and considering also that the culprits let me live.
Replying to the email-sender, I did not answer his query directly. But instead told him about my father who lived in PNG for almost 10 years while earning his keep as a mechanic.
Dad, who based himself in Lae, the country's center of industries during the 70s located on the northern coast of PNG, had no trouble with "raskols".
From Lae, he drove cargo haulers up to the Highlands to deliver goods and came back to the city in one piece.
As a colony of Australia, the country was peaceful -- everyone could move freely in and out of the urban centers without having to bother much about safety.
Raskols then were almost unheard of as everybody was busy earning a living. There were no reasons for anybody to steal from, or rob, other people. And killing for reasons of the stomach was something unheard of. And houses then were not fenced in with steel structures like they are nowadays.
In short, life in PNG during those days was peaceful and quite sufficient economically for everybody to enjoy a modest living.
Of course, I also told the email-poster that for us present-day Filipino expatriates here in POM (short for Port Moresby), personal security is of great concern; that we go about our daily lives day in day out, without forgetting that the world outside our homes is not that safe for everyone, whether you're Papua New Guinean or otherwise.
So, in our survival kit, safety precaution is the No. 1 item.
"Is it true there's a lot of people being killed by raskols?" was the email-writer's parting, worrying question.
I was unable to answer this for I did not have the statistics to show. But it is a common perception among city residents that crime takes place everyday -- from hold-up to mugging and outright armed robbery -- victimizing helpless people, which sometimes led to their death. It is in fact, the order of the day.
BUT TODAY, I have big news for the email-writer.
Because on Wednesday, January 7, his query was answered squarely by news report carried by the country's leading daily The National on the front page, screaming in bold headline fonts.

Murder capital

Port Moresby listed among world's worst

The report said: "Port Moresby has been placed among the top five murder capitals of the world, a ranking by a foreign publication that has got Police Commissioner Gari Baki fuming.
"The Washington DC-based Foreign Policy publication, in its edition last September, lists Port Moresby alongside Caracas (Venezuela), Cape Town (South Africa), New Orleans (USA) and Moscow (Russia) as cities where you have a very good chance of getting murdered.
"The Foreign Policy website (www.foreignpolicy.com)  on which the listing is still available (http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4480),  says when it comes to brutal, homicidal violence, these five cities stand in a class of their own.
"The publication said Caracas, which has a population of 3.2 million, had a murder rate of 130 per 100,000 residents; Cape Town had 2.5 million people and a murder rate of 62 per 100,000 residents; New Orleans had 220,000 people and a murder rate of 67 per 100,000 residents; Moscow had 10.4 million people and a murder rate of 9.6 per 100,000 residents; while Port Moresby had a population of 254,000 (2000 population census) and a murder rate of 54 per 100,000 people.
The website www.foreignpolicy.com noted that "Port Moresby might seem like a surprising addition to this list. But its high violent crime rates, along with high levels of police corruption and gang activity, helped earn the city the dubious title of 'worst city' in a 2004 Economist Intelligence Unit survey.
"With gangs called "raskols" controlling the city centers and unemployment rates hovering around 80 per cent, it's easy to see how Port Moresby beat out the 130 other survey contenders.
"Port Moresby's police don't seem to be helping the crime situation -- last November, five officers were charged with offenses ranging from murder to rape.
"And in August, the city's police barracks were put on a three-month curfew due to a recent slew of bank heists reportedly planned inside the stations by officers and their co-conspirators.
"Rising tensions between Chinese migrants and Papua New Guineans are also cause for alarm, as are reports of increased activity of organized Chinese crime syndicates."
Shocked over the report, the Police Commissioner questioned the validity of the website's listing of the world murder capitals. He said: "As commissioner of Papua New Guinea police, I was shocked and upset over Foreign Policy's listing because it is simply not true." He expressed his disgust in a letter distributed widely for publication.
"I have been a law enforcement officer for more than 35 years and I know for a fact that we have not had 54 murders in Port Moresby at any one time over the last 10 years," Mr Baki stressed.
Just a few days before Christmas Day, one of the nation's respected citizens and a businessman-investor, Sir George Constantinou, 78, was murdered by a group of young hoodlums near the Tete settlement located on the outskirts of the city. He was driving home from his timber company compound nearby when he was attacked.
Tete is notorious for being home to all types of criminals who preyed on city residents and these young thugs who were just after Sir George's wallet and cell phone had to kill him to get them.
And on New Year's Day, Timothy Houji, 26, a pilot of Air Niugini, was also attacked and killed by a group of thugs just outside a premier hotel in downtown Port Moresby.
OBVIOUSLY, the PNG government hierarchy is totally upset, especially now that the country is posting some impressive gains in vital sectors of its economy -- from job generation to investment and development of the nation's natural resources like gold and copper, oil and gas, timber and tuna, mostly funded by foreign capitals.
And negative news like this is the last thing it wanted to read in the news because it could easily drive away potential investors wanting to come in and become a major player in the country's economic agenda.
It is expected that the news on Port Moresby being a murder capital has already been picked up by news agencies especially those based in Australia, and distributed to client-newspapers around the world.
When Powes Parkop, governor of the National Capital District (NCD), led the demolition of Tete settlement just a few days before Christmas, he got his mind focused on one thing: To rid the city of criminals who are holding out in some 63 settlements around the city.
For him, the settlements continuously supply the city with its raskols year-round. If not, how come they continue to operate in the city despite the police's drive to round up and lock them up?
And the burning down of Tete, which has been supported by the general public, by the Prime Minister, Sir Michael Somare, and by the city business chamber, would be a good start, it being the most notorious among the 63.
In just one day operation, Parkop's demolition team with backing from the police had almost annihilated all shanties -- torching and bulldozing them except for the remaining small block that had been spared due to incessant rains in the area.
But a surprise court restraining order on the second day of the shanty assault has stalled Parkop's campaign for the meantime. With this, he has to await court ruling on the legality of destroying the shanties and sending the illegal settlers home to their original provinces.
OVER THE YEARS, the influx of rural people -- most of them jobless -- into the city has remained unabated, with almost all of them ending up in these settlements, shacking up with their extended relatives.
It is estimated now that NCD's 63 settlements involve around 50,000 households, home to close to 300,000 with most of them jobless while the rest just depending on the city for menial jobs as source of livelihood. NCD's settlements are just part of the 657 scattered on the outskirts of urban centers across PNG.
With most of them having no employable skills, they could not land a sustainable paid job until such a time when they are forced to hook up with criminals to steal or rob people just to survive, and sometimes to kill their victims when they could not help it. To avoid police arrest, they would hide away deep into the settlements while sympathetic settlers kept the pursuers at bay.
With demolition being untimely halted by court, thus giving the criminals continuous "accommodation" at the settlements, Parkop has stepped up his on-going campaign against betel nut (buai) selling in the city. One obvious reason is that buai chewers are messing up the city with their betel nut husks and dark-brown spittle.
Just a few days before Christmas, I happened by at the Boroko shopping center, supposed to be the city's premier place to shop at, and my eyes were immediately assaulted by wind-blown plastic bags as they rolled across the parking lots and walkways and betel nut husks and brownish spittle strewn all around the place.
Selling of betel nut is the major source of income of settlement residents; it is a thriving business because the addiction to buai is deeply embedded in the psyche of almost all Papua New Guineans. It is a national pastime, to say the least.
Of late, may city residents had argued that this traditional village habit handed down from generations has no more place in a growing and modernizing city like Port Moresby and therefore should no longer be tolerated by city authorities.
Betel nut chewing, they said, belongs just to the village now and not Port Moresby which is trying its best to be more relevant to the outside world.
But selling the nut is the only available means for most of the settlement dwellers to eke out a living in the city. Or else, they would grow hungry.
Therefore, preventing them from plying their trade as they do now, or relocating them outside the city so that the rubbish they produce from betel nut husks and spittle would not create an unsightly scene all over the city for foreign tourists to photograph and post on the Internet, is tantamount to killing them softly.
As it is now, the city government, much less the national government, has yet to come up with an a lasting solution to the exploding number of settlement dwellers; while it can force them to pack up and go home to their villages using the muscle of the police, it has nothing to offer them in terms of jobs and services right in their home villages that would improve their lots.
This is one reason why they continue to move away from their home villages into the urban areas like NCD where there are relatively good roads and service facilities like health centers and schools, fertile farmlands and accessible markets for whatever food they could produce.
As Parkop's betel nut offensive progressed, settlers have warned the city government and the police that the problems with the city raskols would escalate. This is because what they (authorities) are doing to their immediate families is depriving them of an honest source of income.
Translating this, the settlement dwellers are actually saying: "Take away our source of livelihood and we will take away whatever is available to us ..."
With this threat, the city and police authorities are in quandary. "What to do?" remains the biggest question the city government and police have to deal with and for which they have to come up with the right solution.
Suffice it to say that the stakes for both the peace-loving city residents and the settlement dwellers are great; both sides demand a workable ending to the burning issue at hand so that they could co-exist peacefully and move about productively.
Meanwhile, we, the Port Moresby expatriates, are holding our breath. We badly need a safe and peaceful city like Port Moresby because, for all intents and purposes, it is home to all of us.
***
For feedback, email the writer: 
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
jarahdz500@gmail.com
alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg  

Man rapes dog

Police on Tuesday arrested an Indonesian refugee residing in Kiunga, Western province, for allegedly having unnatural sex with a female dog, The National reports.

North Fly provincial police commander Chief Insp Tobby Hamago said the suspect was arrested for committing an act of unnatural sex by sexually penetrating a female dog between 9am and 10am on Sunday last week at Kumbit Corner, Kiunga.

According to police reports, the suspect, 25, from Timka village in Merauke district of Indonesia’s Irian Jaya, was arrested after a formal complaint was received from the owner of the female dog.

“The suspect is now detained at Kiunga police cells awaiting a court appearance,” Chief Insp Hamago told The National yesterday when contacted about the incident.

He said the dog was a local breed.

Police said the suspect was caught in the act red-handed by four Kumbit Corner residents, who reported the matter to police, Insp Hamago said.

Police said the suspect was seen naked with his trousers down to his ankles while he sexually penetrated the animal from the rear.

They said the suspect covered the dog’s mouth with his T-shirt.

“People have come in and given their versions of the story, which are similar to this,” Chief Insp Hamago said.

It was reported that this was not the first time the suspect had been sighted sexually penetrating female dogs.

Police said he would be charged with committing unnatural sex under section 210 (1) (b) of the Criminal Code.

Opposition demands action on Taiwan scandal

The Opposition yesterday called on the Somare Government to come clean on the Taiwan US$30 million (K85 million) cash for recognition scandal, The National newspaper reports.

Opposition leader Sir Mekere Morauta made the call after Taiwan’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Control Yuan, decided this week to press corruption charges against former National Security Council general secretary Chiou I-jen and former foreign affairs minister Huang Chi-fang in relation to the secret deal.

The two were high-profile and influential figures in the last government of Taiwan, and met on different occasions with PNG politicians, including Public Accounts Committee chairman Timothy Bonga, Planning Minister Paul Tiensten and Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare.

Sir Mekere said Taiwan prosecutors had determined that there was sufficient evidence of corruption for them to go ahead with the charges.

“The Taiwanese clearly treat this case very seriously. Their officials were party to this dirty deal, and are now facing the consequences. Those in PNG, who are party to this deal, should be dealt with similar action.

“We cannot keep quiet and hope that this issue will go away, and people will forget. It must not be allowed to be swept under the carpet, as has been the case with other corruption issues the Government has failed to provide answers to.

“The Prime Minister promised a high level of transparency in Government when he took office. He promised to fight corruption at all levels of government. Sadly, he has done very little to live up to this promise to the people of Papua New Guinea.

“It is incumbent on the Prime Minister to launch an official investigation. People who are allegedly involved in this scandal must be investigated and given the opportunity to clear their names or face the full force of the law. If we do not act, we will lose the respect of the international community.

“If we do not act, our own people will lose even more respect for Government and for the rule of law,” Sir Mekere said.

 

Comeback for Winnie the Pooh after 80 years

 The late AA Milne's beloved children's character Winnie the Pooh is set to return to bookshelves, 80 years on from his first literary appearance, BBC reports.
The Bear of Very Little Brain will make his comeback in Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, the first authorised sequel to Milne's original 1920s stories.
The book - written by David Benedictus with illustrations by Mark Burgess – was out in the UK and US last October 5.
The new book has the blessing of the A A Milne and E H Shepard Estates.
Shepard, who died in 1976, drew the famous illustrations for Milne's 1926 book Winnie-the-Pooh and its 1928 follow-up, The House at Pooh Corner.
In December a collection of his original drawings fetched £1.26m at auction in London.
"We have been hoping for a good many years that we might one day be able to offer the world a sequel which would do justice to the original Winnie-the-Pooh stories," said Michael Brown of the Trustees of the Pooh Properties.
"The original books were one of the greatest celebrations of childhood in any language, but we believe that David Benedictus and Mark Burgess have captured the spirit and quality of those original books.
"We hope that the many millions of Pooh enthusiasts and readers around the world will embrace and cherish these new stories as if they had just emerged from the pen of A A Milne himself."
Benedictus, who adapted and produced audio adaptations of Winnie-the-Pooh starring Dame Judi Dench, Stephen Fry and Jane Horrocks, said it was an "honour" to have his sequel approved.
"I hope that the new book will both complement and maintain Milne's idea that whatever happens, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing."
Return to the Hundred Acre Wood will be published by Egmont Publishing in the UK and by Dutton Children's Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group, in the US.
Alan Alexander Milne, who died in 1956, based the Christopher Robin character on his own son.

Symptoms of computer viruses

By PANU KASAR of THE PC Clinic, Port Moresby

I was typing this article on my PC when I saw a notification on my taskbar indicating Norton Internet Security on my computer has just caught a virus treat using its auto protect feature.

 I recently noticed strange frequent pop ups on my computer and installed Norton Internet Security 2009.

 Like biological viruses computer viruses also have symptoms that a user can notice.

Symptoms tell users of the type of antivirus to use on an infected computer.

It is very important that all users must know the symptoms so they can act quickly once an obvious symptom is noticed.

Usually a symptom is an unusual system behavior noticed by the user.  

Many Windows OS Viruses these days have become resistant to anti viruses.

The fact is that some software detect only one particular group of viruses.

Therefore you need at least install two anti viruses on your PC, so one will kills the viruses the other did not detect.

 Up to you to choose the best combination.

If you cannot remove the virus then that is the whole reason why we have ‘The PC Clinic’.

We kill them all. 

Some virus writers try their best to write viruses that do not show any symptoms.

These types of viruses run very low in the system with system processes of the computer.

They can be seen using the task manager function.

Other symptoms are simply to cause frustration to the user.

Some viruses allow you to use applications such as media players to become active without you knowing of the infection.

When you click an infected document it launches Windows Media Player and at the same time activates itself without you knowing.

 Viruses are in most cases written to show obvious symptoms because most people want to challenge their rivals to see if they could create an anti virus to counter attack the virus.

 In fact in most hacker communities in the Western World it is a hobby where teams compete to see who can make the most dangerous virus.

They infect themselves and try to find solutions when their rivals infect them.

 It may be a tough and interesting challenge to the hackers as they find new ways in research which helps them become more skilled in programming but a dangerous treat to a normal computer user.

In fact most of these malicious ware in which they create are sent out onto the internet which finally ends up in our computers.

Some symptoms are clearly seen; others modify a part of the system in which you need to check for yourself to verify the infection.

Modifications such as your internet homepage are changed when you are infected with a spyware.

Obvious symptoms include: computer functions become unusually slow - this is caused by a virus using up memory space.

Unexplained missing files and folders - this is very dangerous as many people have lost important files.

Pop up messages keep popping up on your desktop; the start menu pops up by itself, mouse curser moves by itself,  applications or folders open by themselves more frustrating is when your computer freezes .

 Some viruses log off your computer even when you are working.

The W32.PitinB virus logs off your computer once you log on, locking you out.

 File viruses change your documents from their extensions to .exe.

In the USB drive you see such files as autorun.inf, runauto.

 The manOblack virus creates an executable file called skripsina_ani.exe.

The common removable drive symptom is when all your folders become invisible.

Most users become frustrated they format their drives destroying everything.

 Most USB drives become unusable because boot viruses destroy their boot sectors.  

The most common symptom that most people fear is the blue screen.

Your computer just goes blank displaying a blue screen with technical details.

 This usually happens when Windows is loading or when you try to open a programme.

This is nothing serious but a self defense mechanism for the Windows OS.

 Most dangerous viruses are the W32 family of viruses that infect the windows system32 folder.

Usually the symptoms are: command prompt, task manager, registry editor and control panel components are disabled.

 Folders display the folder navigation tree once you open them.

 Others do not show the open command when you right click.

This family is also responsible for most of the symptoms stated above.

The most common W32 virus is the W32/Rontokbro@mm.

 This virus has become so popular in PNG because it has many variants and clones.

Statistics from The PC Clinic shows that it is widespread in Port Moresby.

Symptoms of spyware are mostly unnoticed but a common clue apart from your homepage being changed is when your computer tries to connect to the internet by itself.  

Spyware are in fact spies and they try as much as possible to run undercover.

They do this because they cannot achieve their mission if they are discovered.

 If you notice such suspicious behaviors don’t panic, follow proper preventive measures of computer maintenance to remove treats.

These are just indications telling you that your computer needs attention.

Paying attention to your computer is important as it avoids complications that may lead to system crash.

There is also a possibility that some of the symptoms can be a result of hardware failure.

Slow applications of can be a result of memory failure.

 If your computer loads slowly you must verify with an anti virus software to see if an unknown process is using the memory otherwise it is memory failure.

 Blue screens and boot failure can be a result of improper cable connection or hard disk failure.

 In many ways hardware can contribute to some of these symptoms.

Since viruses are software they cause or affect the software more than the hardware.

 Therefore most of the symptoms mentioned in this article deals with unusual software behavior.

 It is now evident that some viruses can affect not only behavior of hardware but to some extent damage hardware.

 Viruses can now be able to reprogram the Basic Input Output System (BIOS) of a computer to increase power voltage to different parts of the computer destroying hardware.

All these symptoms are signs which must not cause fear in a user but stir up alertness for careful analysis for preventive procedures.

Probably in another article we will look at all the preventive measures one need to take to fully remove virus treats.

Until then be alert.

For feedback email: pkasar@mail.com