BugBear Virus, Slimline Cameras, and PocketMail

BugBear Virus
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There has been a major outbreak of a new email virus called BugBear. It's likely you've already noticed - it appears as an email with a weird subject line and can sometimes include rubbish characters in the body. It may also have copied part of an email from the infected computer and you'll see that. It can also start massive print jobs on network printers.

The email comes with an attachment with a variable name, but always ending in either exe, .scr, .pif or a combination of those. The size of the attachment is 50,688 bytes.

If you are affected with the virus, it will send itself out to your entire address book. If you have up to date anti-virus software, you will be safe, so now is the time to update!!

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 (without Service Pack 1 installed) and 5.5 are the programs affected.

Does this vulnerability affect IE 6?

No. You can eliminate the vulnerability by upgrading to IE 6. However, if you are running Windows 95, 98, 98SE or ME, you should be aware that you will need to install IE 6 in a certain way. Specifically, you will need to choose either the Full Install or Typical Install option. (The default installation type is Typical Install). If you choose Minimal Install or Custom Install, the files containing the vulnerability might not be upgraded, and your system could remain vulnerable.

Users of Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP do not need to concern themselves with this issue, as IE 6 does not provide either a Minimal or Custom Install option when installing on these systems. Any upgrade to IE 6 on one of these systems would fully eliminate the vulnerability.

More information at :

Symantec
McAfee
Sophos
Vet

Fujifilm SlimShot
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Billed as the world's thinnest camera - it is actually the size of a credit card and just 6mm wide. It has even gained a mention in the Guiness Book of World Records '02! It includes 'Autobrite' technology which makes sure images are never too bright, and are always crisp and clear. The battery power technology gives you enough time to grab between 600-1000 photos (depending on the resolution you choose), with 8Mb of storage space.

$199 from most digital camera retailers, like Ted's and Harvey Norman.

StyleCam Blink
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This camera is square sized, very slim and portable - it hangs around your neck or even off a belt clip and doesn't just take photographs. It also does videos and acts as a webcam. In 'streaming snapshot' mode, you can rapidly capture up to 100 images to make your own AVI video clips for your website.

It comes with 8Mb of memory, requires an AAA battery and photo and video editing software is included.

$129 including postage - available from PI Plus at www.piplus.com.au or call 03 9513 9889.

Pocketmail
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Hand held device for sending and receiving email without a computer. You compose emails on it, then hold it up to a normal phone anywhere around the world to send the data (after you've called the specific pocketmail number!). You can pick up your normail email from it, as well as getting a specific pocketmail email address.

Prices: the device itself costs $ 199 which includes 2 months service costs and its available from Australia Post, Telstra Retail and Strathfield Car Radio stores.

Ongoing services costs: $25 recharge card for 1 month unlimited email and 25 SMS messages or $50 recharge card for 2 months unlimited email and 50 SMS messages.

Cost $349 plus GST available through TravelPA at www.travelpa.com.au

For my fact sheet archive, visit http://www.getmega.com/getmega/todayshow.html