Chinese activist attacks based on Internet Explorer 0day?

Brian Krebs reports that the attacks on Chinese human rights activists that I talked about a couple of days ago – the attack that led Google to finally take a stand in support of basic human dignity over corporate profits – was made possible by my favorite security whipping boy, Internet Explorer.

Microsoft has confirmed the 0day hole in Security Advisory 979352.

It looks like the IE 0day is only part of the story, though. The attacks were made possible by a smorgasbord of 0day holes. Researchers are still looking at all of the problems.

The Washington Post (now without Krebs) says that the Google attack is much larger than originally thought:

Computer attacks on Google that the search giant said originated in China were part of a concerted political and corporate espionage effort that exploited security flaws in e-mail attachments to sneak into the networks of major financial, defense and technology companies and research institutions in the United States… At least 34 companies — including Yahoo, Symantec, Adobe, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical — were attacked, according to congressional and industry sources.

The bottom line for home users is pretty simple: the bad guys aren’t out to get you, and at the moment you don’t have anything to worry about. These are sophisticated, targeted attacks that haven’t yet made it out into the general population.

But remember who’s behind it, and why, OK?

MS-DEFCON 2: Hold off on patching

Sorry. In my haste, I neglected to officially raise the flag and warn everyone to hold off on applying any new patches, including MS10-001.

We’re at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

Spotty coverage for the next couple of days

I’m up to my eyeballs here, and the coverage on this blog is going to suffer because of it. Sorry.

I’m president of the local Rotary Club, and we have a lot of experience with natural disasters – we were the focal point of much tsunami disaster relief. The folks in Haiti need our help. Been up most of the night, and I have to be on a plane to Bangkok in about four hours.

January 2010 Black Tuesday a Real Yawner

So we get one Security Bulletin, MS10-001, and it’s Critical on Windows 2000, barely noticeable on any other version of Windows.

Most of the sentient world can go back to sleep now.

How to Rip, Store and Play Blu-Rays

Pete Stagman has a tremendous, in-depth discussion about how he rips, stores, and plays Blu-Ray discs on his home network. He uses Windows Home Server. I do, too, and I heartily recommend it, if you have to store big media files and share them around the house.

Here’s the software Pete uses:

* SlySoft AnyDVD-HD (Pay)

* SlySoft VirtualCloneDrive (FREE)

* CyberLink PowerDVD 9 Ultra(Download) (Pay)

* MyMovies for Windows Home Server (FREE)

* MyMovies for MediaCenter (FREE)

* MyMovies Collection Management (FREE)

He puts MyMovies on his Windows Home Server machine, and the rest on the other PCs on the network. He uses Windows 7′s Media Center to play ‘em. Piece o’ cake. Well, not really a piece o’ cake, but the process is well within the grasp of almost anybody who’s reading this.

Google starts to get its China, uh, stuff together

As a long-time Tibetan human rights supporter, it pleases me no end that Google seems to be having a change of heart.

Google lawyer David Drummond just posted this on the Official Google Blog:

In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google… we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists… we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers…

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

Maybe I can go back to believing in Google’s original vision.

Mini-patch Tuesday coming

Microsoft just released its advance notification for the patches coming next Tuesday.

There’s just one anticipated security bulletin, and Microsoft describes it as “critical” just for Windows 2000.

So if you’re running Windows 2000, you should anxiously await enlightenment and salvation. For the rest of you, get patched up now – we’re at MS-DEFCON 4, right? – and turn off automatic updates.

(What, Microsoft is still releasing security patches for Windows 2000? And to think of all the Chicken Littles who are worried about WinXP support going away in the next few years.)

CES keynote – Ballmer’s on tap

We’re about an hour away from the Consumer Electronic Show keynote, and Steve Ballmer’s no doubt in the green room, prepping for a talk that will be heard around the world. If you’re curious and don’t have anything better to do, you can watch it live on the MS Press Room site.

Me, I’m going to clean the fish tank.

Ballmer may well pull a rabbit out of his hat. One of the best things he could do for Microsoft and for us customers is to cut through the Windows 7 licensing BS: a re-design of the Win7 product lineup to mimic the Office 2010 lineup would be most welcome. But I’m not holding my breath.

UPDATE: Not much interesting from Ballmer at CES. I’m glad I cleaned the fish tank.