Latest and Greatest Rant Central

Aloha, Brian here. Tech-Rant guy and all-around player and raconteur.  You will undoubtedly soon be overwhelmed by threats and news stories of being infected by the malware ‘DNSChanger’ that will knock you off the Internet and prevent you from connecting to your preferred websites come Monday, July 9. 2012. As a pre-emptive strike against unnecessary stress and confusion, I am providing the quick link provided by the ‘good guys’ to verify that your system is indeed NOT infected. Now, before you click on this link, think about this for a minute. Isn’t this exactly how a BAD GUY would TRICK you into CLICKING into a BAD LINK? It’s one form of ‘social engineering’ whereby someone comes up with a plausible story to get you to provide information, or in this case, follow an infected link. But, you should realize that I am the good guy and this is a legit email because you can always call me (I never pick up anymore, sorry) or email me, (guaranteed fastest response time!), and I will assure you this is legit and that I did indeed send it to you. That lesson being learned, click here http://www.dns-ok.us/ to receive verification as to whether or not your system is infected by the DNSChanger Malware that the FBI and other world security entities have been warning us about. See the story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57466871-83/web-users-beware-dnschanger-victims-lose-web-access-july-9/ ANOTHER LINK!!! OMG! I get a lot of calls about emails that are sent with hyperlinks in them, like the two I included in this email, as to whether or not they are legitimate or not. (Subject: You have received a notice from the IRS, or USPS, or Your Ex) A very easy way to tell is to hover your mouse over the link and then READ, (I know, sucks right!?!), the displayed URL in your email program. It pops up a box that shows exactly what the url REALLY contains. Neat huh? Go ahead, try it. If the link you are examining says something like, blah-blah-blah.amazon.com but when you hover your mouse over it, it reads ‘blah.amazon.redirect.cn’ or ANYTHING other than what the visible hyperlink shows, particularly the ending of it (.com, .org., .net, .us, .biz, etc.) DO NOT CLICK IT if you are suspicious. Is that too technical? I may have overstated in saying ‘anything’ because most url’ s are like above, a hundred different characters, strung out in a secret language that makes no sense. However, we were talking about if you receive an email from a source that concerns you and it seems to be encouraging you to click a link that just seems fishy, hover over it, look carefully at it and you will likely see the source of your suspicion revealed therein. You can ALWAYS contact me, or simply forward the email and I will verify it for you. After all, I am here to help you decipher this never-ending onslaught of technical jargon and help you survive this Tsunami of TMI that we are all drowning in. Please check your browsers via the above link, ask me a question, give me a lap dance or just send me $$. It’s all good. Aloha! Brian _______________________