Ian Kelly's blog

Fake Hard Disk Utility scareware is a new type of malware that is trying to one-up the fake anti-spyware scams that have been common for years. While fake anti-spyware tries to convince you that your computer is infected with spyware and malware, Fake Hard Disk Utility scareware tries to convince you that your computer is falling apart.  It has appeared under a number of names, HDD Defragmenter, Quick Defragmenter, Win HDD and Win Defrag. The most common variety seen in the wild is named HDD Diagnostic.

In order to reduce the risk of Malware infections on Windows XP computers, Microsoft decided that as of 8th Feb 2011 a new security update would disable the automatic running of any disk put in your machine.

This is something which had already been in place for Windows 7, but they liked it so much they disabled it for everyone!

A small change for the better? Or yet another annoyance in a long line of M$ annoyances?

Recently there have been a number of reported cases of people receiving telephone calls from agents claiming to be calling from or on behalf of Microsoft. They advise that you may have recently had some technical issue or virus infection on your computer (who hasn't!) and that they can help you remove it. They won't. They are just after your personal information!

Please be aware of variations of this scam and avoid giving any personal details to any caller you are unsure of.

Details of the Scam:

Hello to all. This will be my first post as new Systems Admin for NICVA. After spending many hours getting to grips with an inherited infrastructure my first intent is to streamline, consolidate and virtualise where possible. This begins with the virtualisation of our backup domain controller, using the standalone vmware converter my task is made very straightforward and also allows me to quickly alter the hardware physics of the machine. This small task will help contribute to our efficiencies and overall environmental friendliness by decreasing power consumption.