How to Connect your Laptop/PC/Computer to your TV

I’m writing this post on how to connect your PC or computer to a TV because last week I returned from a trip in India and wanted to show all of my pictures and videos to my family from my laptop onto our HDTV, but unfortunately I did not have the correct cords and so after fumbling around for 30 minutes trying to connect my computer to the TV, I had to tell everyone that they would have to wait till the next weekend! Pretty annoying considering the times we live in, it should be quite easy to connect the two together!

So here’s a quick walk-through of all the methods that I know (if you know any more, please comment) to connect a laptop or PC to your TV:

1. S-Video – This is probably the most common method out there currently because an S-Video cable is cheap as heck and just about every TV under the sun has a S-Video port. You’ll have to make sure you laptop is equipped with this port. Remember, there are two types of S-Video cables: 4-pin and 7-pin. Most laptops and PC’s are equipped with a 7-pin port, so if your TV only has a 4-pin S-Video port, then this method will not work.

2. VGA – If you have a HDTV, then you will be better off connecting using a VGA cable. It gives much better quality than S-Video and as with S-Video, the cable is very cheap. You usually won’t find a VGA port on regular TV’s though, so this option is if you have an HDTV.

3. DVI - DVI stands for Digital Visual Interface with “digital” being the key word there. The digital signal will give a higher quality picture than either S-Video or VGA. Of course, your computer will need to have a DVI connection and your TV will need to be an HDTV. This cord is definitely not cheap, it ranges anywhere from $40 to $80.

4. HDMI – Using HDMI will give you the best quality by far. No computers that I know of yet have HDMI ports, but you can get a DVI to HDMI cable to connect it to your HDTV. HDMI is compatible with DVI.

5. Scan Converter Box – This is the last method that I could think of and it involves using a scan converter box, which takes a VGA signal and converts it into S-Video or component video.

Here’s a graphic I created with some pictures of the various cables:

Hope this helps someone! If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please feel free to comment!!! Thanks!

Why Does Windows Have More Viruses Than Linux and OS X?

I’m writing this post because I recently overheard a conversation between two friends where one recommended that the friend switch from Windows to Mac or Linux because the latter operating systems are virus-proof and never get malware or rootkits. Uhhh, wrong. Totally wrong. Unfortunately, there are many people who believe this and think buying a Mac or installing Ubuntu will protect them somehow.



There is some truth to the fact that Linux is a bit more secure, but OS X and Linux both have their share of viruses. Also, since a lot of people don’t run anti-virus software on their Macs because it’s deemed not necessary, when a virus starts spreading on OS X, it spreads like wildfire and no one even realizes they have a virus. The Flashback virus in 2012 infected over 600,000 machines and took Apple weeks/months to release a proper fix.

In this article, I wanted to go through the reasons why there are more viruses for Windows and explain whether Linux is really more secure than Windows and why.

Malware Comes From Many Places

The first thing that I explain to people is that all operating systems are prince to malware or viruses from the web and from email attachments. It doesn’t matter which OS you are on, if you visit a malware-infecting site, click on unscrupulous links or download and open unknown attachments, your computer can become easily infected.



Unfortunately, this is how most people end up with malware and viruses on their computer. It’s not as common to get  virus or get hacked by someone because of an OS level security flaw. Researchers are always finding security holes in Windows, IE, Office, etc, but the systems normally get patched up before the virus starts to spread or someone can take over your computer
.
Since Windows is by far the most prevalent operating system, just the sheer number of devices ensures that Windows users will end up getting more viruses. Now that Macs are selling pretty well, the number of incidents of viruses and malware has gone up too. OS X is inherently not any more secure than Windows. The same is not true for Linux, which is inherently slightly more secure. I’ll explain that further down. When a Linux user does get a virus, though, it’s almost always related to an Internet-facing application like a mail server or web app.

Linux Users are Technically Savvy

In order to run Linux on a daily basis, you need to know a lot more about computers than a Windows or Mac user, plain and simple. Even though Linux in the consumer arena is quite small, Linux is huge on the back-end like web servers, etc. What’s surprising is that a lot of Linux servers don’t run any anti-virus. Why? Because the people who maintain them know what they are doing and the servers are hardened against potential attacks.

People who install Ubuntu also are less likely to get a virus by visiting a shady website (they’ll visit the site in a virtual machine) or downloading an infected attachment from their email. A lot of people in this category install extensions like NoScript, which prevent any scripts from running while browsing the web. Obviously, if you go to those lengths to ensure your security, you’ll be far less likely to be compromised.

Linux vs Windows Permissions

One huge advantage that Linux has over both OS X and Windows is user privileges. There are lots of annoying issues with Windows like the fact that someone can name a file “CuteGirl.jpg.exe” and when you double-click it to open, the file will be executed and your computer will now be infected. This kind of hack cannot be done in Linux. Why?



In order to execute a file in Linux, you have to make it executable. This means you have to specifically set it permissions in order for it to run. Another reason why Linux is more secure is that you need root level access in order to do anything. Most Linux users use a normal account and only log into the root account when they need to make specific changes to the system.

Windows also has Administrator and normal user accounts, but 99% of Windows users just log into their computer using the Administrator account, thereby losing all security advantages that the normal account would provide. Even if something manages to run in Linux, it can’t do anything unless it can gain access to the root account.

The special permissions needed and the use of non-root accounts in Linux make it a lot harder to create a virus that will actually spread like it can in Windows or OS X.

Linux is Open Source and That Matters

Another big advantage to using Linux is that everything is open source. You can see all the code and therefore it’s really hard to hide a virus in Linux software. If someone does create a proprietary software package for Linux, it’ll automatically be considered untrustworthy unless it’s coming from some huge well-known company.

Most people using Linux install software from the official package repositories of their Linux distribution. There is no official Microsoft repository for Windows software, it exists everywhere and anywhere. Even someone like me who works with computers all the time, I’ve downloaded and installed a piece of software that I thought was legit, but ended up with some spyware hidden. In my case, I only install unknown software in a virtual machine first and if everything runs fine in the VM, then I install it on my main machine.

On OS X, Apple has recently added a feature to the OS that will prevent installation of any software that is not in the Mac App store or a set of identified software developers. You can manually change the setting so that you can install any Mac software, but it’s a safeguard that I recommend Mac users enable as it gives you better security than a Windows machine where anything can be installed.

Other Factors

There are a couple of other factors that dictate why you don’t see as many viruses for Linux:
1. Linux is a heterogenous environment. If you have ever thought about using Linux, the first thing you probably had to do was decide which Linux distribution (flavor) to install. There are literally thousands of Linux distributions out there and they are all different. The Linux Kernel is different and they all come with different packages and configurations. This is not the case with Windows. Having so many different forms of the OS makes it hard to write a virus that will spread through everything.
2. Linux has special command and functions for security purposes. When you learn Linux, you learn a lot about commands that let you perform certain security related tasks like sudo or chroot. These commands make performing special tasks in Linux more secure.
3. Linux Kernel is smaller. This one can probably be debated, but overall the Linux kernel is a lot smaller than the Windows kernel, when talking about the areas of the OS where permissions are checked and enforced. A smaller leaner kernel doesn’t necessarily mean more secure, but it definitely helps to keep things to a minimum.
4. Security-enhanced Linux. There are some Linux distributions that have a feature called SELinux or Security-enhanced Linux. It’s basically a set of kernel modifications that make it more secure. It’s part of Red Hat, CentOS, and even Ubuntu.

Hopefully, these article gives you a few more details as to why Linux is considered safer than Windows. It’s definitely not virus-proof and if one day everyone starts downloading and using Linux, the hackers will find new and innovative ways to get viruses there too! Enjoy!

What’s the Difference Between a Virus, a Trojan, a Worm, and a Rootkit?

Pretty much everyone has heard of the terms spyware, malware, virus, trojan horse, computer worm, rootkit, etc, etc, but do you really know the difference between each of them? I was trying to explain the difference to someone and got a little confused myself. With so many types of threats out there, it’s hard to keep track of all the terms .

In this article, I’ll go through some of the major ones we hear all the time and tell you the differences. Before we get started, though, let’s get two other terms out of the way first: spyware and malware. What’s the difference between spyware and malware?

Spyware, in it’s original meaning, basically meant a program that was installed onto a system either without your permission or clandestinely bundled with a legit program that collected personal information about you and then sent it off to a remote machine. However, spyware eventually went beyond just computer monitoring and the term malware started to be used interchangeably.

Malware is basically any type of malicious software intended to do harm to the computer, gather information, gain access to sensitive data, etc. Malware includes viruses, trojans, root kits, worms, keyloggers, spyware, adware, and pretty much anything else you can think of. Now let’s talk about the difference between a virus, trojan, worm and rootkit.

Viruses

Even though viruses seem like the majority of malware you find these days, it’s actually not. The most common types of malware are trojans and worms. That statement is based off the list of top malware threats published by Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/threat/views.aspx

So what is a virus? It’s basically a program that can spread itself (replicate) from one computer to another. The same is true for a worm also, but the difference is that a virus usually has to inject itself into an executable file in order to run. When the infected executable is run, it can then spread to other executables. In order for a virus to spread, it normally requires some kind of user intervention.

If you have ever downloaded an attachment from your email and it ended up infecting your system, that would be considered a virus because it requires the user to actually open the file. There are lots of ways viruses cleverly insert themselves into executable files. One type of virus, called a cavity virus, can insert itself into used sections of an executable file, thereby not damaging the file nor increasing the size of the file.

The most common type of virus nowadays is the Macro Virus. These are sadly viruses that inject Microsoft products like Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, etc. Since Office is so popular and it’s on the Mac too, it’s obviously the smartest way to spread a virus if that’s what you’re looking to accomplish.

Trojan Horse

A Trojan Horse is a malware program that does not try to replicate itself, but instead get installed onto a users system by pretending to be a legitimate software program. The name obviously comes from Greek mythology since the software presents itself as harmless and thereby tricks the user into installing it on their computer.

Once a Trojan Horse gets installed on a user’s computer, it doesn’t try to inject itself into a file like a virus, but instead allows the hacker to remotely control the computer. One of the most common uses of a computer infected with a Trojan Horse is making it part of a botnet. A botnet is basically a bunch of machines connected over the Internet that can then be used to send spam or perform certain tasks like Denial-of-service attacks, which take down websites.

When I was in college back in 1998, one crazy popular Trojan Horse at the time was Netbus. In our dorms, we used to install it on each other’s computers and play all kinds of pranks on each other. Unfortunately, most Trojan Horses will crash computers, steal financial data, log keystrokes, watch your screen with your permissions and lots more devious stuff.

Computer Worm

A computer worm is just like a virus, except that it can self-replicate. Not only can it replicate on it’s own without needing to a host file to inject itself into, it normally also uses the network to spread itself. This means that a worm can do serious damage to a network as a whole, whereas a virus usually targets files on the computer that is infected.

All worms come with or without a payload. Without a payload, the worm will just replicate itself across the network and eventually slow the network down because of the increase in traffic caused by the worm. A worm with a payload will replicate and try to perform some other task like deleting files, sending emails, or installing a backdoor. A backdoor is just a way for to bypass authentication and get remote access to the computer.

Worms spread primarily because of security vulnerabilities in the operation system. That’s why it’s important to install the latest security updates for your OS.

Rootkit

A rootkit is malware that is extremely hard to detect and that actively tries to hide itself from the user, the OS and any anti-virus/anti-malware programs. The software can get installed in any number of ways including exploiting a vulnerability in the OS or by gaining administrator access to the computer.

After the program has been installed and as long as it has full administrator privileges, the program will then go about hiding itself and altering the currently installed OS and software to prevent detection in the future. Rootkits are what you hear will turn off your anti-virus or install into the OS kernel, whereby your only option sometimes is to reinstall the entire operating system.

Rootkits can also come with payloads whereby they hide other programs like viruses and key loggers. To get rid of a root kit without reinstalling the OS requires users to boot to an alternative operating system first and then try to clean the rootkit or at least copy off critical data.

Hopefully, this short overview gives you a better sense of what the different terminology means and how they relate to each other. If you have something to add that I missed, feel free to post it in the comments. Enjoy!

10 Awesome Windows 8 Registry Hacks You Might Not Know

As Windows 8 gets closer to the final release, I’ve already started seeing a lot of ways to customize or tweak the registry! There are a lot of visual and under-the-hood changes in Windows 8 and not all of them can be changed via the GUI settings.

In this article, I’ll show you 10 cool registry hacks you can use to customize your Windows 8 install. I’m sure there will be a lot more customizations in the coming months, so feel free to post a comment and let us know any that you find.

Disable Charms Bar Hint

The Charms bar in Windows 8 pops up the second you move your mouse to the top right or bottom right corner of the screen. I find it annoying because I do this by accident a lot. There is a registry key that lets you disable the hint so that the bar only opens when you move to the top or bottom right and then slide your mouse down or up along the right edge.

Prevent Charms Bar Keeps Opening by Accident in Windows 8

Desktop Icon Spacing

Thanks Microsoft for getting rid of the options to customize our desktop! What used to be so easy is now a registry hack! In order to change the desktop icon spacing (horizontal and vertical), you have to edit two values in the registry. Check out our previous post below.

Change Desktop Icon Spacing in Windows 8

Change Number of Row Tiles

By default, Windows 8 will try to figure out the number of rows it should show on your Start Screen based on the resolution of your monitor. What if you don’t want the number of rows it determines? Well, you can change it to a different value if you like. As you can see, I decided on only two rows instead of having 5 rows. You can choose a value from 1 to 5. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid

Create a new DWORD value here and name it Layout_MaximumRowCount. Give it a value between 1 and 5. Enjoy!

Disable User Account Control

User Account Control is a different beast in Windows 8 and you can’t even fully disable it via the traditional GUI interface you see above. To actually turn it off, you have to go to the registry. However, there are a few unexpected consequences to disabling UAC in Windows 8, which you can read in full below.

OTT Explains – UAC (User Account Control) in Windows 8

Confirm File Delete Dialog

Another missing feature in Windows 8 is the confirm file delete dialog we were all so familiar with. I never noticed it too much, but when I first deleted a file in Windows 8, I was shocked to see that the file just went straight to the recycle bin. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but if you really want it back, here’s how to get it back. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\

Go ahead and create a new key under Policies called Explorer. Then create a new DWORD value and give it a name of ConfirmFileDelete. Change the value to 1 if you want the delete file dialog and 0 if you don’t want it. Sweet!

Registered Owner

Even though it’s so old and useless, I still like having the ability to change the registered own in Windows to whatever I like. Don’t ask me why, it’s just some weird geek thing from the early days of Windows. Luckily, Microsoft still has the value stored in a registry key which you can change to whatever you like.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion

Under CurrentVersion, just find RegisteredOwner and change it. Also, note there is a RegisteredOrganization, you could could actually put two custom lines in the about Windows dialog. How do you even get to that dialog in Windows 8? Go to the Start Screen and start typing winver.

Paint Desktop Version

If you’re running several copies of Windows 8 on multiple computers and in virtual machines like I am, it’s nice to have the Windows version painted onto the desktop automatically. Windows 8 has a registry key that enables you to add this to your desktop automatically. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Find PaintDesktopVersion under the Desktop key and change the value from 0 to 1. Next time you login, you’ll see the Windows 8 version number and build number.

Border Width

If you don’t like the border size around all your windows while on the desktop, then you can change it by going to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Find the key called BorderWidth and change it to any value between 0 and 50. It’s defaulted to -15, which is some odd numbering scheme employed by Microsoft which I don’t really get. Luckily, you can just use 0 to 50 for this registry setting instead of the crazy negative numbers.

Prevent Users From Uninstalling Apps

By default, you can uninstall any app that you download from the Windows Store. However, it could be useful to create a user account for guests or your kids and then prevent users from uninstalling the apps. As you can see above, when I right-click on a metro app, the Uninstall options is gone! Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

You’re going to have to create the Explorer key under Windows and under Explorer you’re going to need to create a new DWORD value called NoUninstallFromStart. Give that a value of 1 and then sign out and sign back in.

Enable Snap on Low Res Screens

If you’re running Windows 8 at a lower resolution, you may not be able to snap metro apps to the right or left side of the screen. However, using a little registry hack, you can get the benefit even on lower resolutions. Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\

Under the ImmersiveShell key, create a new key called AppPositioner. Under the new key, go ahead and create a new DWORD value called AlwaysEnableLSSnapping. Go ahead and give this a value of 1.

If you’re using Windows 8 and feel comfortable modifying the registry, feel free to play around with the options above and customize Windows 8 to your delight. Enjoy!

FBI Moneypak Scam Still Taking Victims

FBI Moneypak is one of the latest computer infections on the Internet, and it is reported to spread much faster than any other virus that is known. This intruder is more dangerous and cunning than ever and is known to infect computers in the United States. In fact, after the last year, in which computer criminals almost stopped creating fake AV tools and other malicious PC infections, FBI Moneypak is one of the most dangerous and harmful infections which are detected. This RansomWare infections is targeting even well-protected computers and manages to break their firewalls without any problems.

This malicious infection never alarms PC users about its plans and tries to enter their computers together with compromised programs, fake video codecs or infected software updates. It also uses malicious web pages to transfer itself to targeted machines. Once FBI Moneypak has managed to enter a PC, it locks its system and does not allow the user of the compromised PC to access it at all. What is more, it even claims to have done this as a result of the illegal actions of the PC user. He is accused of spreading prohibited content and to unlock his machine he needs to pay $100. Despite the fact that this warning may seem absolutely realistic, it is just a false message created by hackers to take your money.

FBI Moneypak is known as a malware. It locks your system, Desktop, Task Manager and does not allow you to launch even a single application. You can see only the FBI Moneypak payment message on your Desktop, and there are no other options offered but to pay the fee. On computer reboot, the deceitful intruder is launched again and again, and it continues insisting on making you pay the money.

To seem even more realistic, FBI Moneypak uses your own PC camera to scare you into thinking your actions are recorded. The victim can even see himself on the screen, but this, again, is nothing, but a trick.

FBI Moneypak does not only scare its victims, but it also blocks any security programs running on your computer. The user is unable to start any AV tools, which will help him remove the intruder and fix his machine. This was proven even with well-known tools like AVG and Nod32 in computer tests. However, even if this situation seems almost hopeless, there is still a beam of light. There are many removal instructions online that can help you remove FBI Moneypak from your PC and use your computer again without any problems.

Red Hat / CentOS VSFTPD FTP Server Configuration

Vsftpd (Very Secure FTP Daemon) is an FTP server for UNIX-like systems, including CentOS / RHEL / Fedora and other Linux distributions. It supports IPv6, SSL, locking users to their home directories and many other advanced features.

In this guide you will learn:

• Setup vsftpd to Provide FTP Service.
• Configure vsftpd.
• Configure Firewalls to Protect the FTP Server.
• Configure vsftpd with SSL/TLS.
• Setup vsftpd as Download Only Anonymous Internet Server.
• Setup vsftpd With Virtual Users and Much More.

VSFTPD offer security, performance and stability over other servers. A quick list of vsftpd features: 

• Virtual IP configurations
• Virtual users
• Run as standalone or inetd / xinetd operation
• Per-user configuration
• Bandwidth throttling
• Per-source-IP configurability
• Per-source-IP limits
• IPv6 ready
• Encryption support through SSL integration
• And much more.

Install Vsftpd FTP Server

Install the vsftpd package via yum command:

# yum install vsftpd
Vsftpd Defaults
Default port: TCP / UDP - 21 and 20
The main configuration file: /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf
Users that are not allowed to login via ftp: /etc/vsftpd/ftpusers
Configure Vsftpd Server

Open the configuration file, type:

# vi /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

Turn off standard ftpd xferlog log format:xferlog_std_format=NO

Turn on verbose vsftpd log format. The default vsftpd log file is /var/log/vsftpd.log:log_ftp_protocol=YES

Above to directives will enable logging of all FTP transactions. Lock down users to their home directories:chroot_local_user=YES

Create warning banners for all FTP users:banner_file=/etc/vsftpd/issue

Create /etc/vsftpd/issue file with a message compliant with the local site policy or a legal disclaimer:NOTICE TO USERS Use of this system constitutes consent to security monitoring and testing. All activity is logged with your host name and IP address.

Turn On Vsftpd Service

Turn on vsftpd on boot:

# chkconfig vsftpd on

Start the service:

# service vsftpd start
# netstat -tulpn | grep :21

 
Configure Iptables To Protect The FTP Server
Open file /etc/sysconfig/iptables, enter:

# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables

Add the following lines, ensuring that they appear before the final LOG and DROP lines for the RH-Firewall-1-INPUT:-

A RH-Firewall-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -p tcp --dport 21 -j ACCEPT

Open file /etc/sysconfig/iptables-config, enter:

# vi /etc/sysconfig/iptables-config

Ensure that the space-separated list of modules contains the FTP connection tracking module:

IPTABLES_MODULES="ip_conntrack_ftp"


Save and close the file. Restart firewall:

# service iptables restart
Tip: View FTP Log File

Type the following command:

# tail -f /var/log/vsftpd.log

Tip: Restrict Access to Anonymous User Only

Edit the vsftpd configuration file /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf and add the following:local_enable=NO

Tip: Disable FTP Uploads

Edit the vsftpd configuration file /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf and add the following:write_enable=NO

Security Tip: Place the FTP Directory on its Own Partition

Separation of the operating system files from FTP users files may result into a better and secure system. Restrict the growth of certain file systems is possible using various techniques. For e.g., use /ftp partition to store all ftp home directories and mount ftp with nosuid, nodev and noexec options. A sample /etc/fstab enter:/dev/sda5 /ftp ext3 defaults,nosuid,nodev,noexec,usrquota 1 2

Disk quota must be enabled to prevent users from filling a disk used by FTP upload services. Edit the vsftpd configuration file. Add or correct the following configuration options to represents a directory which vsftpd will try to change into after an anonymous login:

anon_root=/ftp/ftp/pub