Zotob, Mytob and you

Hi folks,

news: the police have arrested two men they believe are responsible for the Zotob and Mytob worms which have been wreaking havoc recently. Russian born Farid Essebar (18) was arrested in Morocco, and 21-year-old Turk, Atilla Ekici, was arrested in Turkey. Assuming these are the guys responsible for the worms then this is welcome news.

We could of course have an interesting time discussing why people do such things or how sad it is that the best thing bright young people can find to do is spead chaos. However that really wouldn't help us much.

What's more useful is to ask "what should we do about it?" While these two are being investigated, there are others who spread havoc. We should take this as a reminder that we cannot become complacent about security.

While it was thought the Zotob worm affected only Windows 2000 computers, Microsoft have announced that it could affect Windows XP machines running SP1 with file and printer sharing and the Windows guest user account enabled. This is the sort of configuration which may be found on home PCs. If you're running SP2 you should be fine.

For our words of wisdom on keeping your PC up to date, see CareOfWindowsXP.

On other subjects Mark and I are creating a new site dedicated to Internet Marketers, called OnlineMarketersChoice. It's intended as a resource area, with articles and links of interest to Internet Marketers. If this is something you know about then we've added the ability to add your own articles to the site. Do check it out and tell us what you think.

Gotta go...

Paul.

Paul Quirk's Blog

Hi Folks,

I thought I'd better finally try out this blogging business.

It seems proper to start with an introduction. My name's Paul Quirk, I'm 47 (still) and live in the UK. That's me on the right. About a year ago I started getting interested in the possibility of making my living online. Given I currently work as an IT professional (or geek as some would have it) this may strike some as coming to the party rather late. Maybe, but then it's fashionable in some parts to arrive late...

I've always wanted a family business and this whole area has given me opportunity to work with my brother, Mark. He's also in IT. Between us we work for the two largest software companies in the world, Oracle and Microsoft.

Given the strong IT background we created our first web site, http://www.CareOfWindowsXP.com/ in order to save having to keep telling people how to do stuff that Mark and I tend to do by long exposure the the world of computers. I took a week off work to write the first version and Mark and I have been applying some updates, improving formatting and generally getting to know how to do things on the web.

It's fun.

More later. Gotta go and walk the dog..