Elite News

System INformation for Windows

2007-05-04T22:10:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered how many PCI slots you have on your motherboard, but your computer box is buried deep in wires and paper under the desk; and it's just not worth it to unplug everything and open up your case? Or wanted to see a simple list of all installed license keys on your system? Well, if you are using windows, you're in luck. There is a great free software you can download and run without the need to install anything. It will tell you everything you ever might want to know about your system. It is called System Information for Windows (SIW). And you can download it here. Give it a try.

(They were even mentioned in PC World in the "101 Fabulous Freebies" article in 2006)

Cannot accept or decline outlook task

2007-01-08T00:10:00.000-08:00

If you use outlook tasks and find yourself no longer able to accept or decline tasks assigned to you by others you will want to read this. There is a Microsoft office update that actually breaks the ability for you to accept or decline tasks. From my search over the internet, the only solutions listed is to uninstall the office update named KB892843. However, upon multiple computers that I have encountered that had this problem, there was no office update named KB892843. Through a long process of trial and error, I have discovered that the actual office update that is breaking the task function is named KB913807. And it's a little tricking at uninstalling. For some reason, you will have to uninstall the same update twice. The first time will seem like it uninstalled, but after a reboot, it'll come back. After the second uninstall, then will it be really uninstalled.

Once that update is removed, outlook will be able to accept and decline tasks once again. However, any tasks still in your inbox will remain broken due to how that update worked. You'll simply need the sender to resend the task again.

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

A very merry Christmas wish to you!

Check out the real Mary Christmas:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061221/ap_on_re_us/the_christmases

Elite Development Group Announces New Digital Forensic Services

2006-12-15T10:45:00.000-08:00

The company now specializes in the handling and safeguarding of digital evidence through the use of licensed private investigation techniques

ALISO VIEJO, CA – December 14, 2006 – Elite Development Group, a provider of progressive IT and digital security solutions, announced today that the company has received a private investigation license from the state of California. This gives Elite Development Group additional credence in conducting investigations and participating as an expert witness in civil and criminal litigation. The company joins a select group of firms in Orange County that specialize in digital forensics and IT security solutions.

Digital forensics can assist a business owner in obtaining evidence to utilize in the prosecution of individuals who have illegally obtained information or compromised their infrastructure. By hiring a licensed private investigative firm, companies and individuals can be assured those who are conducting their investigation are well versed in the protocol of obtaining and preserving evidence.

"Through our progressive digital security solutions we have been able to assist business owners in recovering evidence that could have easily gone uncovered,� said Nicole Friel, President and CEO of Elite Development Group. �We are can provide digital security services to small-to-medium size businesses that in the past were only accessible to large corporations."

Security breaches cost companies significant amounts of time and money. Digital forensic investigation can assist businesses with identifying and preventing employee theft or outside criminal theft. According to the Computer Security Institute�s 2005 "Computer Security Institute/Federal Bureau of Investigation Computer Crime and Security Survey," the average financial losses due to unlawful access of digital data increased from $51,545 in 2003 to $303,234 in 2004. With the advent of new technology, being prepared to face serious threats relating to computer security is vital for the continued success of businesses over time.

Elite Development Group�s team of security advisors proactively respond to network threats in order to protect the corporate enterprise. Through the development of administration policies and best security practices, Elite Development Group provides the essential tools to block aggressive electronic criminals from manipulating, stealing, or destroying data on a company�s network. Their Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) service can detect, notify, and take corrective action against unauthorized network access or misuse.

About Elite Development Group

Elite Development Group is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, and supplies specialized network integration and security initiatives for small to mid-size companies across the United States and the United Kingdom. Their certified technical engineers provide the latest network safety measures and proactively respond to anticipated network threats.

Elite Development Group designs, manufactures and supplies innovative custom configured mid- to high-end servers, workstations, and storage solutions integrated with state-of-the-art network security software and hardware from the foremost companies including SonicWall, Symantec, Barracuda Networks, eEye Digital Security, Kerio Technologies Inc. and Hewlett-Packard.

PSA

2006-12-09T16:56:00.000-08:00

This is a public service announcement for those using windows who find themselves not being able to run windows/Microsoft update anymore after they install a "critical" update and windows complains with this error: "Files required to use Windows Update are no longer registered or installed on your computer..." The error also gives the user the option to "register or reinstall" the needed files for Microsoft update to work again. However, upon choosing that option, nothing is fixed and you're back to where you started with the same error message. And no matter how many times you try to "register or reinstall" the needed files, Microsoft update refuses to work and loops back to the same error. Luckily, there is a solution to get yourself out of this infinite loop of register or die Microsoft update error message. The solution is to re-register Microsoft's XML parser dll file. To do so, close out of every other program and simply click on 'start' and then 'run'. In the run field that pops up, type in "regsvr32 msxml3.dll" without the quotes and press enter. Restart your machine, and once your machine comes back up, you should have no problem running Microsoft update anymore. The infinite loop is now broken. Enjoy!

more Mac Trouble

2006-11-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

Now that macs are getting more and more popular, it seems to have drawn itself a lot of attention for exploitation. Two new zero-day security flaws has been recently discovered and are potentially dangerous. One is a flaw in how mac os x handles .dmg or image files. Another is a flaw in which a adware dubbed "iAdware" can be installed without the user's knowledge. Read the details of the image handling flaw here. And you can read more about the adware for the mac here.

ipod carries windows virus!

2006-10-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

Apparently, a small amount of ipods have been shipped with a windows virus on it's hard drive. It is the RavMonE virus that was traced to a particular windows machine on an contract manufacturing site. Mac ipod users seems to be safe from it because it seems to only affect window ipod users.

special thanks to cnet.

Macbook Random Shutdown Problem Solved At Last!

2006-09-03T23:05:00.000-07:00

Apple's forums are full of people searching for a solution, now it appears that an IT Engineer from Munich, Germany has found the source of the issue.

read more | digg story

Share Huge Files Online with Gigasize (1.5 GB/FILE!)

2006-08-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

Gigasize is new on the block, but compared to sites like Rapidshare and Megaupload, it is light years ahead. Without signing up, you can host files up to 1 gigabyte, or sign up to host huge 1.5 gigabyte files. Could sites like this kill P2P networks?

read more | digg story

Digg's Eli White Releases PHP Book

2006-08-31T21:45:00.000-07:00

A digg developer publishes a PHP how-to reference. Called PHP In Practice, the description reads: PHP 5 in Practice is a reference guide that provides developers with easy-to-use and easily extensible code to solve common PHP problems.

read more | digg story

How To Crash Internet Explorer

2006-08-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ever wish you could make your friends and family switch away from Internet Explorer? Perhaps the ability to make it spontaneously crash (and I mean totally crash) just by sending them a link might sway them...

read more | digg story

October 3rd Declared "Day Against DRM"

2006-08-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

"If consumers even know there's a DRM... we've already failed" -Disney Exec
Taking inspiration from Disney, DefectiveByDesign.org is asking people to submit ideas for actions for October 3rd - a "world wide day of action against DRM". DBD will highlight the best ideas and award prizes for ideas and actions that raise public awareness.

read more | digg story

md5

2006-08-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

In the past, I have done a lot of research into Rainbow Tables (link) and here is a free solution to cracking a md5 password.

www.md5lookup.com

This tool uses similar methods of finding a password as a Rainbow Table. Basically, it maintains a database of md5 hashes 1-7 digits long (8 for alpha only), whenever you submit a md5 hash, it searches its database for it, speeding up what used to take days with brute force.

The greatest part, it is free to use for everyone, and open source if you want to use your own table.

with the introduction of tables, hash tables, and rainbow tables, encryption is not safe.

OFF System

2006-08-14T21:50:00.000-07:00

Earlier i posted about my dislike of the RIAA and MPAA and the unfortunate decline of torrents, there might be a solution. Enter, the OFF System (Owner-Free Filing system).

The OFF system offers a way to distribute media and avoid copyright issues.

It works on the idea that the data stored on the servers are owner free. No one can claim ownership of it, it is owned by no one.

But how does that work?

Basically, rather than storing files on the server they store data. Data that looks random and is not owned by anyone. Instead of downloading the file you download the random data and a equasion to combine it into an actual file.

So like say someone copyrights the number 5, sure you cant have the number 5 on your server, but what if you offered the numbers 2 and 3 and you happened to add them together to make 5 on your own? They do not have the copy rights for 2 and 3, 4 and 1, 7 and 2, and so on. There are an infinite amount of combinations, subtractions, divisions, that they would have to own.

The example they gave is say you have 4 strings of data,
String A
String B
String C
String D

Now if A combined with B makes a song, say Perfect Situation by Weezer, and A + C = In the End by Linkin Park, who owns A? Does Weezer or Linkin Park? What about if B + D = some other song, who owns B?

They have a OFF client for download, but its in the way Beta right now, so im not sure about the stability.

More info and downloads:
http://offsystem.sourceforge.net/wordpress/?page_id=13

The Benefits of Hybrid Drives

2006-08-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

"Flash memory is being integrated with the hard disk by Seagate and Samsung and onto the motherboard by Intel. Potential benefits: faster read/write performance; fewer crashes; improved battery life; faster boot time; lower heat generation; decreased energy-consumption."

read more | digg story

Vishing : The New Internet Con

2006-07-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

Internet con artists are turning to an old tool â�� the phone â�� to keep tricking Web users who have learned not to click on links in unsolicited e-mails.

read more | digg story

Windows account password cracks

2006-07-03T23:29:00.000-07:00

Ophcrack is the fastest Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003 password cracker. Download and burn!! Ophrack 2.1 comes with a GTK+ Graphical User Interface and runs on Windows as well as on Linux.

read more | digg story

Microsoft censors MSN Messenger

2006-07-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

Microsoft filters out any MSN messages containing "download.php" or "gallery.php". The messages are silently discarded without any indication being given that they have been blocked. To see a list of legitimate URLs that are now unable to be sent through MSN, put allintitle:download.php into Google. Many are Free Software downloads.

read more | digg story

The Internet needs YOU!

2006-07-03T23:12:00.000-07:00

The US government is asking for comments on how the Internet should be run, and anyone is allowed to comment - but you'll need to be quick.

read more | digg story

Academics break the Great Firewall of China

2006-07-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Computer experts from the University of Cambridge claim not only to have breached the Great Firewall of China, but have found a way to use the firewall to launch denial-of-service attacks against specific Internet Protocol addresses in the country.

read more | digg story

Little-Known Tweak to Boost Hard Drive Performance!

2006-07-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

This tweak involves a registry change to force Windows to use UltraDMA-6 mode (133MB/s) for transfers with your drives. Windows has a particularly strange way of handling transfer modes for storage devices, so you could be running slowly and not even know it. I was able to boost the transfer rate of my hard drive by 6X with this tweak!

read more | digg story

Recovering Deleted Files in Windows XP

2006-07-03T21:51:00.000-07:00

How-to for undeleting / recovering deleted files in Windows XP using a tool you can put on a USB drive.

read more | digg story

Faster Win XP log off and shut down tool!

2006-07-03T21:43:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has a downloadable tool that they describe as: "A service to help with slow log off and unreconciled profile problems." Usually the culprit to slow log-offs or long shut downs is due to profile resources being tied up for whatever reason. This tool will unload any profile resources tied up to help the computer log off or turn off much faster.

Here is the link (click here)

Microsoft Instructions on how to Disable WGA Notifications!

2006-06-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, this from Microsoft?

read more | digg story

How to Hack a $10 Digital Disposible Camera

2006-06-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Turn a "disposable" 10 dollar digital camera from RitzCamera, CVS, or Walgreens into one you can use over and over, just like a normal digital camera.

read more | digg story