WordPress hit by massive DDoS attack

 

I love blogging.  Wordpress is one of the world's largest blogging host and it has been attacked not once but twice this last week.  Read on to learn more.  Credit to http://www.h-online.com

On Thursday 3 March WordPress.com, the world's largest blogging host, was subject to a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack, the largest that it has ever experienced. The first notification on the status page for Automatic Inc., the owner of wordpress.com, stated that "WordPress.com is currently being targeted by a extremely large Distributed Denial of Service attack which is affecting connectivity in some cases. The size of the attack is multiple Gigabits per second and tens of millions of packets per second." Just over two hours later, Automatic reported that "Our systems are back to normal. We'll continue to monitor them and post updates here if needed."

Judging by various reports, there is as yet no indication of either the origin or reason for this attack. According to security company TechCrunch, the founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, has informed them that: "This is the largest and most sustained attack we've seen in our 6 year history. We suspect it may have been politically motivated against one of our non-English blogs, but we're still investigating and have no definitive evidence yet."

DDoS attacks, such as those during Operation Payback, are usually mounted from botnets – a number of computers that have been infected by malware that, given certain instructions or at a preset time, flood the target site with excessive amounts of traffic.

WordPress is open source software for the design of blogs and other web services. The manufacturer provides not only the software, but also the necessary space on a web server. About 18 million blogs run on the platform.

This information came from http://www.h-online.com 

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Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866  www.ComputerTutorHelp.Us

Best Free Operating System For Kids

If you read the blog during Feb I was playing with Joli-cloud and new operating system that allows me to use my Facebook login and user information in order to maintain a whole “computer in the clouds”  - if the term ‘cloud computing’ is new to you I suggest you read a few of the older Simply Seniors Computer Tutor Blogs or just google the term. 

Introduction

Keeping young children occupied these days is quite a challenge. Quite naturally they see computers as a source of entertainment and want to enjoy them along with the rest of us. Herein lies the next challenge in that some areas of the internet are not suitable at all for child viewing and can potentially present real life dangers.

Discussion

DoudouLinux aims to achieve an optimum balance by providing an environment aimed at kids 2-12 which is fun, educational and safe to use. This is good thinking because it removes the need to let your kids loose with your own operating system and also prevents the possibility of them bypassing whatever security software you have installed on it. Never underestimate the ability of little minds to work these things out. Instructions for bypassing parental filterscan easily be found via Google or on social networking sites.

The easiest way to run DoudouLinux is from a downloaded CD image. Once you've burned the image to a disk, there is nothing to install, update or configure. Running it from a live CD also means you wont interfere with your normal Windows installation. To run Windows again just pull out the live CD and reboot.

An alternative using a USB key is also provided but this is a lot more complicated and not supported by all systems. The download link and instructions for both options are here.

Although DoudouLinux is designed primarily to run as a live CD, if you like what you see and have a spare computer, it is possible to make a full install.

Access to the installed system on which the CD is running is not possible so your resident files and settings are in no danger of being lost, altered or infected.

The system comes complete with a range of programs which are both fun and educational. Content filtering is included by default so you have no worries about your charges accessing inappropriate material when connected to the internet. Most of the programs don't even require a knowledge of files, folders or menus and can be operated without the ability to read.

Some users may even find DoudouLinux suitable for older people with learning difficulties or other disabilities.

There's no doubt that older kids will soon outgrow this and want the “real thing”, but for younger children, DoudouLinux is an ideal introduction to the world of com

 

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Keep watching for Simply Seniors Computer Tutors reviews on DoudouLinux in up coming blogs!

Simply Seniors Computer Tutor is the premier technical assistant for seniors! Not only do they offer classes at various locations throughout Brevard, they offer one on one in home services, repair, pick up and delivery, new computer set up and specialty projects such as photo recoloring, digital photo archiving and much more. Simply Seniors Computer Tutors are Florida and Brevard County background checked, arrive in identifiable uniform, with company ID, additionally, UNLIKE the 'average guy' posting on CL, our company is licensed, insured and certified to work on your computer. KNOW YOUR COMPUTER TECHNICIAN do not allow just anyone into your very personal data and information or your home! Simply Seniors Computer Tutor understands seniors have unique learning abilities and we have spent the last 10 years researching the BEST methods for computer training and senior citizens. Stop struggling to use your PC or stop your parents constant phone calls asking "how do I..." Call Simply Seniors Computer Tutor today at 321-431-3866

I have Internet security, how can I be infected with Antivirus 2009

First, I want to thank Data Doctors for this great information I will be posting today.

Many people believe "If I have security software in place, I shouldn’t get any infections." And the reality of it is that Nothing could be further from reality.

Anti-virus/anti-spyware programs as well as firewalls are of no protection if the user of the computer decides to click on links that generate malicious code or download and run questionable files. In other words - you infected your own computer and YOU allowed this bug to come into the computer! Your interactions can easily override the installed protection and in some cases, actually disable your protection programs, but make it look like they are still running.

The fake antivirus program scams actually started last year as “Antivirus 2008” and it was so successful that it lives on as many variations including “Antivirus 2009”. You may have also heard of such names as XP Anti Virus, or Vista Anti Virus. There are NO legit products on the market with these names. A clever author of malware discovered a sneaky way to fool folks into installing malicious software into their computers, THEN extract money from them by posing as a legitimate program for removing the malicious software. *If you have paid for one of these FAKE software's I suggest you contact your bank or credit card company IMMEDIATELY and have a 'watch' placed on your account and a charge back placed on the payment.

The reason that this approach has been so successful is that they very closely mimic Windows warning screens and legitimate antivirus programs. Virtually every legitimate antivirus company has a product called (insert company name here) Antivirus 2009, which further confuses the new user.

The most common ways to come in contact with this infection include maliciously coded websites that popup a warning message that you are infected, e-mail messages that trick folks into clicking on a link, websites that claim you need to download software in order to see a posted video and links or downloads that are spread through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook as well as all of the Instant Messaging systems.

At this point in time, any form of popup or error message that refers to Antivirus 2008 or 2009 (including System Antivirus, Ultimate Antivirus, Vista Antivirus, Pro Antivirus or XP Antivirus followed by a number) should be considered extremely suspicious.

If you ever see any reference to a virus that is not specifically from the product that you have installed in your computer for protection, you should consider it to be a fake (Windows, itself won’t ever alert you of a virus infection).

In the same token, any website that claims that you need to download a new video program or “codec” in order to view a video should be considered a threat. This is very important.

Users of file sharing networks are at a high risk of contracting malicious software as it’s often hidden within what appears to be a legitimate program (referred to as a Trojan).
The writers of malicious code count on users that are not really paying attention and at this point, they are fooling people by the millions around the Internet. This type of infection is amongst the worst that I have seen in my 20 years of servicing computers.

Getting rid of the code once it has infected your system can be very involved and is different for the various versions of the infections, so don’t attempt this without help if you are a novice.
Start by identifying the exact version of the malware that you have and placing it in quotation marks followed by the words ‘removal instructions’ in Google (Ex: “Antivirus 2009” removal instructions).

WARNING: There are so many people infected with this family of malware that many new scam programs that claim to specifically clean the code have popped up. Some appear to be free programs that will only scan your system for free, but charge you to remove the code and often they don’t even do that properly.

Since there are so many different variations of this infection, the exact steps are going to be based on the exact version of the malware that you have.
Restore points will not fix your computer.

Depending upon how long and which version of the malware you have, you may also need to run a Windows repair after you remove the code as certain Windows files can become corrupted as a side effect.

This is a big ugly BUG - I suggest you use a reputable computer repair service to fix this issue. If you attempt to do this on your own you run the risk of losing all of your valuable data, pictures and music.

If you are local to the Melbourne area I would like to suggest the Computer Care Clinic you can find them at www.computercareclinic.com - here you'll be offered a FREE diagnoses so you will know where you stand before you ever put money into the PC.

Here at Simply Seniors Computer Tutor - (www.sscomputertutor.com) 321-431-3866 we can also help as we offer a pick up and delivery service for your sick PC. No need for you to remember which wires connect to what way down there under your desk, No need for you to lift the heavy computer - as our technicians will handle all of that for you.

I hope this is helpful!