PC Software Upkeep

Our recent morning QSO on 3740 kHz included some discussion of software maintenance on Windows-based PCs. The most important reason for this task is to avoid software vulnerabilities that can provide opportunities for criminals to take control of your PC, either for extracting your personal information or for using your PC in criminal activities, or both.

We all recognize the need to use and regularly update anti-virus programs. Since no anti-virus program detects every instance of malicious software, you may consider occasionally running supplemental scans with other programs. However, you should avoid installing multiple anti-virus programs as they may conflict with each other. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware has a free version that I've found to be very effective in removing malware on some friends' and relatives' PCs that had other well-known anti-virus programs installed. You may also consider running Spybot Search & Destroy. Note that serious malware infections may require much more aggressive software tools and techniques, up to and including clean installation of the operating system!

Anti-malware programs should not be relied upon for complete protection. Software updates are often issued to patch vulnerabilities that criminals are exploiting to gain access to computers. FileHippo has a very nice free update checker, a small program that you can download and run to check many of the commonly used programs installed on your PC to find out if updated versions are available. If you'd like a more thorough scan of many more programs installed on your PC, specifically for vulnerabilities, try one of the two free consumer products from Secunia.

Many web sites offer free or shareware programs that appeal to PC users' wants and needs. Purveyors of malware can also use their own (or compromised) web sites to push their programs. Here are a few trusted web sites where you can download free or shareware programs:
cnet download.com
FreewareFiles.com
FileHippo.com
One example of a popular utility program available on these sites is CCleaner. I like to use it periodically on my PCs. The publisher's web site encourages you to purchase the program or make a donation, but you can download a free copy from FileHippo or from a separate link on the Piriform web site.

When installing programs that you download, be sure to pay attention to various options presented during the installation. Some programs will have options pre-selected to install extra web browser tool bars or extra software that you probably don't need. Many programs will pre-select an option to run automatically every time Windows starts. You may want to de-select that option to avoid burdening your CPU with too many things starting and running all the time.

News about PC software and security can be found at many web sites. You may consider visiting some of the following to see which ones you might want to check on a regular basis:
Krebs on Security
cnet
Kim Komando
PC World
MakeUseOf
ZDNet
ars technica
There are MANY more to choose from.

Finally, be sure to use caution in your Internet usage to avoid the risks that exploit human carelessness and gullibility. See the following sites for well-written guidance:
OnGuard Online
GetNetWise
These two sites are well-suited for sharing with your family members and friends.

More update sources about Japan's nuclear power plants

Here is an excellent summary provided by the New York Times. Thanks to Jorge for sharing this one!

Lots of detail is available at the web site of the Japan Atomic Industry Forum. New PDF documents are published frequently. Much of this is probably more than you want to know, but you may like the map shown on page 5 of update #43. The map shows the location and status of all nuclear power plants in Japan.

Also, NOVA on PBS will feature a special program, Japan's Killer Quake, on Wednesday, March 30 about the earthquake and tsunami.

NOVA will also investigate the future of alternative and renewable energy, including nuclear, in Power Surge, premiering Wednesday April 20.

Two articles of particular interest to me, from IEEE Spectrum's ongoing coverage:

• Fukushima's Impact on Nuclear Power
  A summary (with many links) of how various countries plan to alter or sustain their nuclear power plans 
• Nuclear Reactor Renaissance
  Seven contenders for new reactor designs

Japan's Nuclear Power Emergency

Some recent discussions among my friends have shown the need for more information about Japan's damaged nuclear power plants and the reasons for the escalating crisis. Some very good sources of more detail than what's presented by the mainstream media include the following: 

• Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation
  Has a good explanation of the reactor design and operation, with multiple update links
• Explainer: What Went Wrong in Japan's Nuclear Reactors
  Thursday's update to an ongoing series by IEEE Spectrum
• Japan Earthquake and Reactors in That Region
  Ongoing information from the Nuclear Energy Institute

The operating reactors were, of course, immediately shut down when the earthquake occurred. A Wikipedia article defining reactor SCRAM explains how a reactor core is very rapidly shut down from operating power levels. Based on my experience aboard U.S. Navy nuclear submarines, this shutdown can be executed automatically, according to certain operating parameters, or manually by the human operators. I believe that commercial nuclear power plants are operated in the same manner.  

After such a shutdown there is continued production of decay heat at a much lower level, but this heat must be removed to prevent core damage. For a reactor operated at steady power for an extended period, the decay heat production is initially as high as 6.5% of the reactor's initial operating power. After one hour the decay heat drops to about 1.5% of the initial operating power. Decay heat decreases with time, as described in the article linked above. After one year the decay heat from spent fuel generates about 10 kW of heat per metric ton (of fuel). 

The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant was intensified by the inability to reestablish full electrical power to operate the cooling systems for decay heat removal. A very concise likely timeline of events is presented in this article. 

I suggest consulting the above referenced sources for further updates as the efforts continue to gain the upper hand in controlling the decay heat following unprecedented forces of nature. 

Let us also focus on the much broader human suffering that is the direct result of the earthquake and tsunami. 

Webmail Address Book Bloat

Users of some webmail programs find that their address books or contact lists may become bloated with many email addresses they did not intentionally add. This is usually the result of an option in the webmail program's settings to automatically add all recipients' email addresses to the sender's address book or contacts list. For a one-time or infrequent original or reply email, a sender may or may not want to add the recipient to his or her address book.

Shown below are screen shot fragments that illustrate where to find the applicable option for the webmail clients of AT&T Yahoo email and AOL/AIM email. Click on each image for a larger view.

AT&T Yahoo Email

AT&T Yahoo webmail inbox showing Options link

Where to pick More Options

Where to find the applicable option

 AOL / AIM Email

Inbox showing link for Settings

Where to find the applicable setting

 
Another source of address book clutter relates to spam filtering. When an email program has identified an email as possible spam by tagging it or placing it in a user's spam folder, a webmail user may designate a desired email as not spam. Some webmail programs will then add the sender's email address to the reader's address book so that future emails from that sender are not treated as spam.

Java now a major malware target

Users of Java should make efforts to keep their Java installations updated on their computers. As noted in the blog posting Java: A Gift to Exploit Pack Makers, it has become a major target of interest for malware writers / exploiters.

A Java update released on 10/10 was reported in the posting Java Update Clobbers 29 Security Flaws. This posting tells you how to update your installed version to the current Java 6 Update 22. Your installation may update automatically if you have it set up to do so. I recommend checking and updating it right away. I also concur with Brian's suggestion to avoid the extras that want to install themselves when updating Java. Don't rush through the installation screens without looking for the optional extras that require you to "opt out".

On Windows PCs Java is not loaded until needed to run a Java applet, such as the popular addonChat used by my ham radio friends. When loaded, you will see a Java icon in the tool tray.


If you want to make sure that Java (and other programs) are updated on a timely manner to avoid security flaws, you can choose one of the following tools that are also mentioned in Brian's first posting mentioned above:

• FileHippo Update Checker
• Secunia Vulnerability Management Tools
• Secunia Personal Software Inspector
• Secunia Online Software Inspector

I use the Secunia Personal Software Inspector continuously, and run the File Hippo tool occasionally.

John

Spam e-mail processing

The transmission and reception of e-mail has become less reliable and more complicated over time as the volume of unsolicited bulk or commercial e-mail (UBE/UCE, aka spam e-mail) increases. According to several published reports, the percentage of spam e-mail is now around 90%.

At the Server
Corporations and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been deploying increasingly aggressive spam filtering to combat this onslaught of junk and malicious e-mail. Today there are as many as five possible dispositions for e-mail arriving at a server owned by the service provider:

1. Discard the e-mail when identified as blatant spam
2. Place the e-mail in a separate spam folder in the user's e-mail account
3. Tag the e-mail as possible spam and place it in the user's e-mail inbox
4. Remove detected malicious software content from the e-mail and place the “disinfected e-mail” in the user's inbox, with notification of the action taken
5. Place the unaltered email in the user's e-mail inbox

Most service providers today offer some degree of customization of the filtering that takes place at the server. This involves one or more of the following actions by the user, depending on what the service provider offers:

1. Designate whether the service provider should place suspected spam in a spam folder
2. Designate e-mails tagged as possible spam as being not spam.
3. Designate e-mails that should be treated as spam, but were not tagged by the server.
4. Add a sender's e-mail address to the recipient's contact list on the server. Many service providers use a recipient's contact list as a “white list” of addresses whose e-mail should not be treated as spam.
5. Select a level of spam filtering sensitivity, possibly with separate thresholds for immediate discard and for spam tagging of e-mails.

At the User's Computer
On the e-mail user's computer, the client software for handling e-mail has gained features to help the user to filter out the spam that remains after the first level of processing by the e-mail server belonging to a corporation or ISP.  In the case using a browser-based e-mail client (i.e. web-mail client), most of the features are those available at the server. A user can typically also create custom filters for handling e-mails according to criteria chosen by the user.

In the case of dedicated e-mail client software running on the user's computer, such as Mozilla Thunderbird or Microsoft Outlook, customization of the built-in spam filtering can be accomplished through one or more of the following actions by the user:

1. Designate what to do with e-mails automatically tagged by the client software or the server as possible spam. Options may include: discard, save in a spam folder, remove tag.
2. Mark additional e-mails as spam that were not previously tagged as spam. This typically trains the client software to recognize possible spam, tailoring the spam recognition profile to the individual user.
3. Un-mark e-mails tagged by the client software as possible spam, in the case where the user considers the e-mail to be not spam.
4. Add a sender's e-mail address to the recipient's contact list in the client software. Many client programs use a recipient's contact list as a “white list” of addresses whose e-mail should not be treated as spam.
5. Set up filters to handle e-mails according to tags, From: addresses, To: addresses, Subject line or body content, etc.

Those who originate spam continue to adapt to the above measures, with the result that some spam gets through to the end recipient and some legitimate e-mail is blocked.

The above observations are based on my own experience with one Internet service provider, one corporate e-mail system, and at least six e-mail client programs. Comments and additional observations are welcome.

Visitor to shack: IC-703

Here is a photo showing the IC-703 that Bill loaned to me for use during my upcoming visit to Baton Rouge. Thanks, Bill!

This morning the IC-703 and my Heathkit SB-104A took turns on the antenna during our morning QSO.