PDD Disinfected. Resume blogging.
By Paul Lundgren on Jun 5, 2011 in Creepy Stuff, PDD Shop Talk
Sorry about the little Malware problem earlier today.
I’d tell you what happened, but then I’d have to ask the tech guy and he’d have to explain it to me and, well … it’s a nice day and the problem is solved.
It must’ve been from our enemies over at Imperfect Duluth Day.
GUFFAW!
I’m guessing that someone was unaware of the giant wordpress vulnerability that’s been passed around by ever 14 year old wanna be hacker for the last few weeks?
Have you looked into a possible cyber operation from Duluth, Georgia?
If anyone would like to explain what happened in not-too-complicated terms, I’d be interested. What’s a plug-in? Is there some setting I could change on my computer to make it safer to browse the internets?
Picture something like the Tylenol poisonings in the 1980′s. (this is just used as demonstration, PDD has not resulted in any deaths or anything near as bad).
The company (Tylenol/PDD) manufactures something that is an awesome product and puts it on the market. Some saboteur (poisoner/beginner hacker) decides to do something malicious and sneak a little something extra into the product. The consumer (us) picks up the product expecting nothing to be wrong, but gets unexpected consequences.
Many websites have been used to deploy malware -- it even happened to the Duluth News Tribune a few years ago. That’s why it’s a good idea to surf with anti-virus/malware and keep up to date on your patches.
Is it a problem, Bad CAt, if one is using a Mac?
Well, in general, I’d have to say “yes”, but that’s just my opinion.
But as far as for security reasons, you are still unsafe if you are using a Mac.
Mac users thought they were completely safe and laughed while their Windows brethren got infections. However, that’s not because a Mac is necessarily safer/more secure computer, it’s just that most people are running Windows, therefore most viruses/malware/spyware is written for that system. Now that virus writers have noticed the bump in Mac users, they have started targeting them as well (see Mac Defender malware).
Unlike Microsoft (which immediately works on a patch once a vulnerability is found), Apple doesn’t seem to respond as quickly when security flaws are found (Apple first denied security flaws caused the Mac Defender malware problem, then eventually released a fix for it, which was then busted in a matter of hours). I would advise all computer users keeping their computer safe (such as anti-virus/malware software, and staying up to date on software updates and possibly considering a hardware and/or software firewall as well).
Is it just me, or is the mobile WP version of PDD no longer working?
It’s not just you. PDD Mobile was shut down during the virus investigation and wasn’t reactivated. It’ll be back real quick, though.
PDD Mobile is back online and ready… Touch away!