Leo’s Answers #268 – February 1, 2011

I've been independent computer repair tech for over 12 years now. The question I get the most (and have the hardest time answering) is: How come my antivirus program didn't stop me from getting this virus? AVG says (when you're installing the program) only 3% of today's security problems are caused by traditional viruses. Is this true? Is it true for the other A/V programs as well? And why is it that when we do get one of these non-traditional security issues (ie, malware) we then must rely on free software down loaded from the internet. Why don't the "traditional" A/V suppliers included a malware remover module with their software? If traditional A/V program are going to be satisfied with role of the canary in the coal mine (we know we're infected when our A/V program dies), why not just use a free product, use our common sense on the internet and hope for the best?

I've had a laptop for many years running with Windows XP Home edition and an 80GB hard disk. I wanted to upgrade the hard disk capacity and had bought a new 120GB hard disk. My backup and restore program moved all the data properly, but the result was ... an 80GB partition, and the rest of the drive unavailable. Can I resize that partition to take all the space? How?

I've heard that Facebook has https now? Where? How do I turn it on?

I sent 4 recipients an e-mail. As it turns out, I got a notice from MAILER-DAEMON that the address not deliverable. I know it is because they changed their address, which I wasn't aware of. Should the other 3 recipients have received the e-mail? This situation occurs once in awhile, because people don't always tell quickly enough when they change addresses. So, my question in essence, like with tree lights, if one fails, do the others stay lit?

alex writes:

for those who a interested--

try using virtual machine for your downloads. thats what i do. then if you get a virus, you can just delet the virtual machine and start again. viruses in virtual machine cant harm your computer.

Jim writes:

As Leo notes, flag what is junk as junk, unsubscribe from things you actually -asked- for, and "just throw out the rest".

What Leo didn't say was that email junk (aka spam) is like receiving flyers in the mailbox where you live. You -could- track down the sources of physical junk mail as well, but the results won't be worth the effort required to get them. Just throw the junk out and move on....

Ken B writes:

You forgot another "hidden cost" of C/R... What happens to all those challenges that go to the forged "from" addresses of the spam they're trying to block? Yes, you are "pushing the cost of protecting your inbox onto all the people who want to send you legitimate email", but you are also pushing it to all those innocent bystanders.

You'd be amazed (okay, not "you" Leo, but many of your readers) how many times I get a "challenge" to a spam I never sent. And, when my e-mail is used as the "from" for a large spam run, I can get dozens at a time. On more than a few occasions, I've taken the time to respond to some of them, letting the original "victim" receive the e-mail. Who am I to say you didn't want it? :-) (Though, admittedly, they usually just go to the big bit bucket in the sky.)

Mark writes:

Another issue that arises is that some seemingly legitimate publishers state that they will take x number of days to remove remove your email address from their list following an unsubscribe request, often an inordinate amount of time--up to 60 days in some cases. While there really is no technical barrier to implementing immediate removal from lists, publishers often (1) use the float time to continue spamming or (2) fail to do the necessary programming to effectuate and confirm immediate removal. Though the CAN-SPAM Act gives a publisher up to 10 days to remove an email address from their lists, my personal rule is this: I mark any future emails as spam following an unsubscribe request from that publisher.

I look after an office with 20 PCs and a server, and we run weekly full backups and daily incrementals. Backups are to a USB-attached hard disk, which is taken off-site overnight. What I'd ideally like to do is carry out the backup process over the internet, to a remote PC with the backup drive permanently attached to it, to avoid physically transporting the drive. Full backup is around 120GB of data, incremental is 5 - 10GB. What would you recommend as the best method to achieve this? (using an internet hosted, paid-for backup service is not an option - too expensive!!)

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