shanemcdonald.org

If you are getting an email which is from “Facebook Security” with the subject line of “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Message.” – please delete this message as it contains a virus. First off, this has nothing to do with Facebook – the owners and company of Facebook are constantly striving to keep people aware of the latest security issues.

The full body of the email is shown below – my anti-virus system found and quarantined the virus before the payload could be activated but there may be people out there who don’t know this.

Dear user of facebook,

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to  our clients,
your password has been changed.

You can find your new password  in attached document.

Thanks,
Your Facebook.

Viruses found in the attached files.
The file  Facebook_password_Nr4397.zip: Virus found FakeAlert.
The attachment was moved to  the Virus Vault.

Firstly Facebook will never email you with “Dear user of facebook,” – who ever the spammer was who decided to try emailing with “Dear user of facebook,” is thick. The same goes for emails from AIB, Bank of Ireland, PayPal or TSB – they will never email you with”Dear Valued Customer” … if you see this in an email delete it. Secondly the line ”
Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients” – what measures?? If you want to know about Facebook security then visit Facebook’s Security section at http://www.facebook.com/security .

Be careful with this one and ensure you have an anti-virus system on your PC and that it is up to date. This virus is called FakeAlert and is a trojan which displays misleading fake alerts to entice the user into buying a product to “repair” malware problems. FakeAlert can come in other emails – not just Facebook, so always treat attachments from unknown sources with caution.

There are a lot of scams out there and I’m going to put some more info on scams on the blog in the coming weeks.

I am having a serious problem with my TV and Internet. I think its some sort of software or hardware bug!!

I’m not sure if anyone else is seeing the same problem with whats appearing on the TV and also on the Internet.

As I write this blog post – If I tune into ESPN or Sky News it shows the following

Liverpool 4 – Portsmouth 1
That can’t be right …  should it be the other way round?

Liverpool Won – Surely this is some sort of error!!?
Whats happening?

The game Liverpool just played against Wigan was dismal to say the least. Liverpools season now looks to be over after loosing more games this season than the previous 2 seasons combined. It was painful to watch tonights game and Wigan seemed to want to win it more.

It could be a renewed call for Rafa to go after Liverpool lost 1-0 to Wigan ; Wigans first win in 8 games.

Liverpool are a long way from the classic Liverpool of the mid 80′s. I don’t think there is much chance of them getting to the coveted 4th spot. I think it is now Villa who might get that spot, as they are playing well – the only distraction might be the FA Cup for them.

It is just embarrassing for them now!

Continuing with the Christmas links, I found this excellent video greeting and message from Santa.

Simply provide the information and you can amaze your kids or young children (or older people who don’t understand technology) – it is quite well done!

The Portable North Pole system allows Santa to deliver a personalised video with details of what that person asked for.

It is really excellent. To get your personalised video go to http://portablenorthpole.sympatico.msn.ca/home/

This is a great little tracking utility for those who want to show the kids where Santa is at any point in time as tracked by the NORAD Santa Tracker.

I have heard of this last year but did not get a chance to use it.

The Link for the NORAD Santa Tracker is http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

Lets hope the weather doesn’t slow Santa and we might even have clear skies so we can see the IIS and Santa in the same sky.

Happy Christmas !