SocialMe is a small app. on Facebook that lets users see other users SocailMe profile, pics and tag them as they please. The more tags and comments you receive, the more your virtual score increases. It lets people get attention and socialize in a virtual way, which is good.

The bad part – the application is exploited. I discovered this sometime at the beginning of 09, while I was browsing through SocailMe profiles, Firefox blanked out and asked to close the browser as it had detected an intrusion. After that incident, smelling something fishy on SocialMe/ Facebook, I decided to replicate the problem. For security, I installed McAfee Enterprize edition with firewall on my system and went back to browsing on SocialMe. And to focus on my target, I just had Facebook with SocaiMe open. And I used a brand new Windows installed system that had been patched and shielded with latest updates and detection rules.

Surely enough, after an hour of so of browsing on SocialMe, Firefox detected an intrusion and asked me to close, while McAfee displayed a message saying that it had detected and deleted an infection. A Trojan Virus. I left Firefox window open, and McAfee continued to detect and delete the same Virus over and over again.

Report the incident to Facebook help – I reported the incident to SocialMe development team and also in Facebook feedback under help section. I did not hear from SocialMe at all, but Facebook did reply back to my saying that I had to contact the developer of the application as Facebook did not support any third party applications. In other words, Facebook washed their hands off from policing any rogue application that is using their site as a launch pad to spread malicious software? Weird for a big guy like Facebook to shrug the responsibility off from their shoulders, when they have ample resources to stop their site from being exploited and abused. Of course it is not them, but it is someone that is using their site as a launch pad to spread malicious software. If a hacker exploits my site and uses it for malicious intent, it becomes my moral and professional responsibility to clean up and NOT allow that application in again. But I am sure, they have a clause somewhere in the agreement which says that they are not responsible for any damage caused by other third party applications on Facebook. Easy, so now Facebook does not have to police these application that are launched from their site.

Third Attack - After few months of not using SocialMe, I went back to using it again, hoping that they might have fixed the issue. NO, I was so wrong. This time my laptop got infected even though McAfee claimed that it had deleted the Trojan Virus and had cleaned the infection. However, it was a little too tale. This version of the Virus had already become resident to my system and was now replicating itself in any thumb drive that I inserted in my system. My system crashed trying to rid itself of the virus, and I had to reinstall Windows, and format all my drives.

Solution - STOP using SocailMe. Since Facebook is going to leave you in the wet and not take any action against SocailMe, you got to take your own cover.

It makes my wonder how many such “third party” rouge applications are exploiting good sites like Facebook, Orkut and MySpace? The industry got to change their attitude towards these third party applications, else they will continue to take shelter under these big trees, and keep spreading their nasty poison.

These 3 seem to be originating from the same scammer -

SCAM Email no.1:
asah witney; asahwitney04@live.com; asahwitney02@live.com

Hello to you overthere?
I am Originally from good year AZ ,am  nurse in
Arizona,i and my husband are presently in China and will be coming back from
china next month,we are going to settle and put up our big computer store as
this is what we are here for. Checking on the craigslist ,I read your
description and am interested in your service,we have about 20 laptops that
we want to install softwares on and clean them up.We are sending the
computers over and they  are laptops Hp centrino(intel) computer ..i want you
to Install softwares such as Microsoft Office and Antivirus, clean inner &
outercomputer components, update software to current status.We will like to
know if you will be able handle this job.so please get  back to us with you
total cost for the services of 20 computer excluding the shipping cost cus we
have a shipper that will come with the computers and the necessary
Softwares to you.
We await your urgent response so that we can put the arrangement in order.
Thanks

Email no.2:
Jeremy Douglas; jeremydouglas101@googlemail.com

How you doing? My name is Jeremy Douglas, i from Jacksonville, FL and
right now i work in Valdosta, GA. I read your description and am
insterested in your services,I just brought some computers and they
are are laptops HP 530 computer ..i want you to Install software such
as Microsoft Office and Antivirus, clean inner & outercomputer
components, update software to current status,Get back to me with you
total cost for the services of eight computer excluding the shipping
cost cus i have a shipper that will come with the computers and the
necessary Softwares to you.
I await your urgent response so that i can put the arrangement in
order or Call 559-762-4247
Thanks
Jeremy

Email no.3:
Jeremy Douglas; douglasjeremy55@googlemail.com

My name is Jeremy Douglas, from Ocala, Florida work in Elizabethton,
Tennessee. I brought some computers and they are are laptops HP 530
computer. I want you to Format, Install software such as Microsoft
Office(2003), Antivirus(Avast), Corel Draw9, PhotoShop, Clean Inner &
Outer Computer components, update software to current status,
Get back to me with your total cost for the services of 8 Computers (Laptops).
I await your urgent response so that i can put the arrangement in order
Regard

Email no. 4:
orris jessica – orrisjessica@yahoo.com

Hello,
How you doing?
My name is Jessica,i hail from UK and right now i work in Germany I read description and am instrested in your services,I will be importing some computer into the United States.The PC are laptops pentium 4 dell computer ..i want you to Install software, clean inner & outer computer components, update software to current status.Get back to me with you total cost for the services of 10 computer.i will like You to know that my mode of payment is by check.I await your urgent response so that i can put the arrangement in order.
Thanks.

Email no. 5:

So I disconnected my cable connection from the router to see if the router was causing it, and there it was. I was able to connect to their web site if I wired my computer directly to the modem. But I need my router to be able to be wireless. I was thinking that there is some new application that their web server has added that needs some ports to be open to work., but could not get good answers from their tech support.

So after much research, I found out that if you use a free proxy web site to connect to their web site, you can get around the firewall. I used kproxy.com and it worked. All you do is type www.kproxy.com on your IE browser and on the URL box of kproxy site, type the URL www.relianceindiacall.com This should work. Just as a warning, the Krpoxy site opens a ton of popop adds, so make sure you have a tool bar that blocks them. I use google toolbar.

Recently I was called for an onsite service call at a residence. The issue was that they had just purchased a wireless router [Linksys G series] and they were not able to make it work with their laptop. And another issue was that their desktop would not connect to AOL if they wired it to the router. So they wanted me to configure it right.

I have never been a fan of AOL, as they put craf on your PC. Being a tech I know that and there are tools that you can download for free to see how infected your computer software is.

Anyways, I go there and refresh the power on the cable modem and the router and it seems to work. So I wire it up to the PC to see if Internet works. Yes it did. So why did his AOL did not connect? well, after examining his computer I realized that he already had bunch of spyware, trojens and or worms on his computer. So I try to decrapify his PC by scanning it with Spybot Search and destroy and AdAware SE Personal ed. Most of the things are cleaned, but of course it took off some functionality of AOL. You will wonder why? Wait I know, coz some software that AOL installs on your PC need back door entry to be clear. I have known this for sometime now and for this very reason, I recommend to my customers not to use AOL in any form. But this giant company has acquired its market by mailing free CDs to people even in Mars.

So in order to fix the AOL software and AOL messenger, I had to reinstall the software from their web site and let it run. After it was all downloaded and installed, I try to start it up, but the same thing happened. The softweare would start, but during the connecting phase, it would simple disconnect. So I go into the router settings to see if there is some kind of built in firewall or port forwarding rule that I could use for AOL. But could not find any. Did AOL mention this during the installation phase – NO. So I think to myself that since they do not mention anything about port forwarding or relaxing firewall rules, it should work as it is. But no it did not. So finally I gave the PC a static IP and put that IP in the DMZ area of the router. [DMZ is an acronym for demilitarized zone. which means that the device under that IP is set with all ports open. which means no firewall and no immunity form hackers or broadcasted melicious softwares.] Guess what happens next – Yes, AOL works! But at the cost of exposing that PC to the demiliterized zone. I explained the customer of the risks, but he said he is trapped. All his business contacts have his AOL email ID and he has to have AOL for his business.

So much for giving your trust to a big company like America Online. What a bunch of liars and two faced people are running that company. They tell you that AOL gives you free spyware protection and protection from viruses. It actually has a software module to do that. But itn’t it an irony that the same software needs to be in a DMZ zone in order to function on a simple home networking router?? It needs you to open up back doors on your computer in oder or work? huh! I wonder how safe they really make your PC.

There were bunch of drivers missing. So I say to myself, “no big deal”. I download the drivers from Gateway web site and install them one after the other. All goes fine except that the Sound drivers and SM Bus [Chipset] drivers does not install.

After spending 8 hrs and doing another windows reinstall, I somehow find out the make and model of the chipset and the sound card. It was a ATI chipset with SB400 AC97′ type sound chip on board. Gateway had posted an AMD driver setup file for this? Weird! So, anyways, after running the ATI chipset driver setup file, SM BUS was installed successfully, but sound wasn’t. I was hoping that it will coz the driver said it will install both the chipset and the SB400 sound chip.
At the end the driver that actually worked was what Gateway had provided – AC97′ Conexant sound drivers. Weird!!
What was I doing wrong all this time? – Well, I was using the setup file to install this sound driver, since windows built in driver wizard was not able to find a suitable driver in the directory where I had it all saved. So all this time I was thinking that it is not the right driver, since windows does not like it. Even the built in Setup file that came with the driver failed to install and gave an error saying “Failed”.
Sound Driver solution – But the way it worked was I had to do a forceful install. i.e. using Have Disk feature while installing the driver. So to make the sound drivers work, -

you will have to go to device manager, right click on the sound device [doesn't matter if it is not yellow with question mark],
• select update driver
• select Not at this time when asked to connect to the internet for drivers
• select Install from a list or specific location
• select Don’t Search, I will choose the driver to install
• select Have Disk and browse and point to the folder where the drivers are saved. [Make sure the drivers are unzipped]

This should fix your sound problem. It fixed mines, although I still had wireless dis connectivity problem which I could not fix. Or let’s say, I was so fed up with the piece of shit that I did not want to work on it anymore. Thank’s to Gateway for making such f***ing piece of shit notebooks with crappiest hardware in it. I am never going to recommend another Gateway to anyone.

Alright, to cut the story short, the main reason a PC gets slower is because of the memory issues in every software and OS [Operating System]. In layman’s term if you mix tar in gasoline n then not change your engine oil and filter, you sure got yourself some trouble.
Soon even before you can realize, you got worms, trojens and viruses infecting the software of your PC.
Ooh I forgot to mention the Hard Drive part. The way data is stored on a hard drive, it needs scanning and defragmenting once in a while. Just like the filing cabinet of your office. Once in a while you need to re arrange all the stuff in your filing cabinet, or it gets unmanageable.

THE SOLUTION:
The solution comes in two pack.
1. Run some good anti Spyware software and anti Virus software and get rid of those nasty stuff. For recommended cleaning software that really works, read on to the “Tools” tab of my web site.
2. First run scan disk, then Defragment your Hard Drive(s). I have instruction for that on the Tools tab as well.