Symantec, Sunbelt Software and SANS’ Internet Storm Center (ISC) bumped up their warnings yesterday after Microsoft announced that attackers were exploiting a bug in an ActiveX control used by Internet Explorer (IE) to display Excel spreadsheets. There is no patch for the vulnerability, nor will Microsoft release one later today when it issues its July batch of patches.

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by Steve Pavlina

How do you discover your real purpose in life? I’m not talking about your job, your daily responsibilities, or even your long-term goals. I mean the real reason why you’re here at all — the very reason you exist.

Perhaps you’re a rather nihilistic person who doesn’t believe you have a purpose and that life has no meaning. Doesn’t matter. Not believing that you have a purpose won’t prevent you from discovering it, just as a lack of belief in gravity won’t prevent you from tripping. All that a lack of belief will do is make it take longer, so if you’re one of those people, just change the number 20 in the title of this blog entry to 40 (or 60 if you’re really stubborn). Most likely though if you don’t believe you have a purpose, then you probably won’t believe what I’m saying anyway, but even so, what’s the risk of investing an hour just in case?

Read on…

June 3 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits.

“It makes U.S. jobs more expensive,” Ballmer said in an interview. “We’re better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S. as opposed to keeping them inside the U.S.”

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Personal Brain is one of those unique applications that purports to be able to help you organize your life, and in fact actually can. Even more surprisingly, this complex package’s download is merely 3 Megabytes in size. So what the heck is this thing?

Anyone familiar with mind mapping will intuitively understand the user interface of PersonalBrain, although it’s not technically a mind map, in the traditional sense. PersonalBrain’s map can be thought of more as a web of thoughts, interlinked in many different ways. They describe it this way:
“PersonalBrain helps you organize all your Web pages, contacts, documents, e-mails and files in one place so that you can always find them—just like you think of them. This saves you time and makes your life easier! With PersonalBrain you can even find related items—that you worked on—but forgot existed.”

The application is difficult to describe, but becomes very clear with use even over just a short amount of time. The initial setup wizard does a good job of helping you to build a structure with your PersonalBrain that makes sense, and acts as a jumping off point for further entries. The user interface is intuitive and very responsive, allowing you to jump in and out of it seamlessly with your other desktop software.

There is a trial version available, however beware of the overly invasive information-gathering questionnaire that must be filled out to register for access to it. My experience so far with the application is that if this category of software is intriguing to you, then it is worth jumping through the hoops to get your hands on a trial version. The product sells for $79.95.  (There is a free version also)

If you don’t use GOOG-411 when you are away from your computer and need directory assistance, you should. It is free and will give you the address or phone number of any local business. Today, GOOG-411 added an obvious feature it should have had all along: it now tells you the street intersections where a business is located.  Read more…

Excerpt:

The e-mails, which claim to come from news@president.com, have subject lines such as “Obama win preferred in world poll.”

The e-mail prompts users to click on a link to watch his “amazing speech.” If users download Adobe Flash Version 9 as prompted, they are infected with malicious code that allows their systems to be remotely controlled by hackers. The malicious code is a Trojan Horse dubbed Mal/Behav-027 by SophosLabs.

Internet Explorer is target of zero-day attack !

There’s no fix yet for Tuesday’s remote-code-execution exploit, which has already been found circulating in the wild.

Windows users should switch to a browser other than Internet Explorer until Microsoft releases a patch for this IE security hole.

MS08-076 (959807)
Sights and sounds of Christmas may be dangerous…
Windows Media Player versions 6.4, 7.1, 9, 9.5, and 11 are being updated to patch vulnerabilities that may be exploited in attacks coming from malicious Web pages. This time of year, friends and family regularly send humorous links to pages on such video sites as YouTube and Hulu. These media files may also be used by attackers to gain control of your computer.

While it’s enticing to watch the latest funny video link that friends and family send around — as evidenced by our own Katy Abby’s hilarous Wacky Web Week finds — just remember that some of these videos may be used in attacks. That seemingly innocent link to a musical Christmas greeting could be trying to place malware on your system.

Media Player 6.4 will see the update in the form of the patch described in KB article 954600, Media Player 7.1, 9.0, 9.5, and 11 are patched via the update in 952069, and systems running Media Services on Windows Servers will be offered the patch in 952068.

Give these patches a high priority this holiday season.

The Sound Money Tips weblog says that rather than avoiding online shopping for fear of identity theft, shoppers should get used to using virtual credit cards, aka substitute credit cards or controlled payment numbers.  Read more