Petrified,Transfix..blah blah When asked to make a BOOTable USB.Ding dong now no more...just in 1min You can do sooo

Well again we meet but its just a commercial entry by the way..A jolt hit me last night when my friend next room  came panting "DVD drive /Optical drive was malfunctioning".He looked a bit pale i have a project report to make next what i heard probably ...i will be screwed if my computer doesn't work properly.Well Whats the matter i asked him,it's your DVD player not responding not your hassling computer.Ya he said but he wanted to FORMAT his system to install a fresh windows 7 !!OOhhhhh Bingo!! there is the problem.Now i told him all the technical jargon but he couldn't follow at all albeit he was very much pleased and mystified with my idea What What "a BOOTable USB " .You ought to see his face baffled ...in a brisk businesslike tone he said can it be done.For sure in a minutes of time.  
                                    Merry time tough for him,aback i tried to make this for him but i was gasped to see that i wasn't able to make it so.Crawled websites to find how to do,found a beautiful site which made it as simple as to make a Maggi .


Bootable USB guide, here we assume that you are using either Vista or Windows 7 to create a bootable USB. 

Steps are important to follow--

1. Insert your USB (4GB+ preferable) stick to the system (make sure it got no files) 
2. Open elevated Command Prompt([Windows] + R). To do this, type in CMD in Start menu search field and hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Alternatively, navigate to Start > All programs >Accessories > right click on Command Prompt and select run as administrator.
3. When the Command Prompt opens, enter the following command:                             DISKPART and hit enter.                                                                                       LISTDISK and hit  enter .Once you enter the LIST DISK command,it will show the disk number of your USB drive. In the below image my USB drive disk no is Disk 1.
4. In this step you need to enter all the below commands one by one and hit enter. As these commands are self explanatory, you can easily guess what these commands do SELECT DISK 1 (Replace DISK 1 with your disk number)                                      CLEAN                                                                                                                 CREATE PARTITION                                                                                          PRIMARY                                                                                                                SELECT PARTITION 1        ACTIVE                                                                                                               FORMAT  FS=NTFS                                                                                            (Format process may take few seconds)
   ASSIGN                                                                                                            EXIT        (Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.)
5. Insert your Windows DVD in the optical drive and note down the drive letter of the optical drive and USB media. Here I use “D” as my optical (DVD) drive letter and “H” as my USB drive letter.(This you could do on someones else computer if your optical(DVD) doesn't works well...i hope that's fine buddy's..you can knock your friends head if he doesn't allow to do on his computer )  
6. Now, Go back to command prompt and execute the following commands:           D:CD BOOT and hit enter. Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.                           CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.                                                                             BOOTSECT.EXE/NT60 H:                                                                         (Where “H” is your USB drive letter)
7. Copy Windows DVD contents to USB.You are done with your bootable USB. You can now use this bootable USB as bootable DVD on any computer that comes with USB boot feature (most of the current motherboards support this feature..it's on the BIOS settings).

Note that this bootable USB guide will not work if you are trying to make a bootable USB on XP computer

Well thanks to the person who devised this brilliant idea (http://www.bootdisk.com/pendrive.htm)...but perhaps you could give me some credit though( i believe you all are not a lot of ingrate..hopefully is-int it)

Once who couldn't follow please don't start scratching,maundering and stumbling .I tell you the secret even my friend for whom i took the pain was able to follow(i didn't wanted to disparage you..but a little thinking could help you i hope after this secret overt)  

As said it ought to be a commercial and abridged discussion but tacit,terse are not in my syllabus.Well for my viewers do not get exasperated so early we will have an unabridged discussion on Firewalls,Anti-virus and Spy-ware .Till then its me "you-know-who" signing off ...see you

Entangled "Virus,Worms and Trojan Horse"

The most common blunder people make when the topic of a computer virus arises is to refer to a worm or Trojan horse as a virus. While the words Trojan, worm and virus are often used interchangeably, they are not exactly the same. Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses are all malicious programs that can cause damage to your computer, but there are differences among the three, and knowing those differences can help you to better protect your computer from their often damaging effects.Let me edify you with the proper meanings and the way to combat them.

What Is a Virus?

 

A computer virus attaches itself to a program or file enabling it to spread from one computer to another, leaving infections as it travels. Like a human virus, a computer virus can range in severity: some may cause only mildly annoying effects while others can damage your hardware, software or files.
Almost all viruses are attached to an executable file, which means the virus may exist on your computer but it actually cannot infect your computer unless you run or open the malicious program. It is important to note that a virus cannot be spread without a human action, (such as running an infected program) to keep it going. 
People continue the spread of a computer virus, mostly unknowingly, by sharing infecting files or sending e-mails with viruses as attachments in the e-mail. 

What Is a Worm?

A worm is similar to a virus by design and is considered to be a sub-class of a virus. Worms spread from computer to computer, but unlike a virus, it has the capability to travel without any human action. A worm takes advantage of file or information transport features on your system, which is what allows it to travel unaided.
The biggest danger with a worm is its capability to replicate itself on your system, so rather than your computer sending out a single worm, it could send out hundreds or thousands of copies of itself, creating a huge devastating effect. One example would be for a worm to send a copy of itself to everyone listed in your e-mail address book. Then, the worm replicates and sends itself out to everyone listed in each of the receiver's address book, and the manifest continues on down the line. 
Due to the copying nature of a worm and its capability to travel across networks the end result in most cases is that the worm consumes too much system memory (or network bandwidth), causing Web servers, network servers and individual computers to stop responding. In recent worm attacks such as the much-talked-about Blaster Worm, the worm has been designed to tunnel into your system and allow malicious users to control your computer remotely.

What Is a Trojan horse?

 

A Trojan Horse is full of as much trickery as the mythological Trojan Horse it was named after. The Trojan Horse, at first glance will appear to be useful software but will actually do damage once installed or run on your computer.  Those on the receiving end of a Trojan Horse are usually tricked into opening them because they appear to be receiving legitimate software or files from a legitimate source.  When a Trojan is activated on your computer, the results can vary. Some Trojans are designed to be more annoying than malicious (like changing your desktop, adding silly active desktop icons) or they can cause serious damage by deleting files and destroying information on your system. Trojans are also known to create a backdoor on your computer that gives malicious users access to your system, possibly allowing confidential or personal information to be compromised. Unlike viruses and worms, Trojans do not reproduce by infecting other files nor do they self-replicate.

What Are Blended Threats?

Added into the mix, we also have what is called a blended threat. A blended threat is a more sophisticated attack that bundles some of the worst aspects of viruses, worms, Trojan horses and malicious code into one single threat. Blended threats can use server and Internet vulnerabilities to initiate, then transmit and also spread an attack. Characteristics of blended threats are that they cause harm to the infected system or network, they propagates using multiple methods, the attack can come from multiple points, and blended threats also exploit vulnerabilities.
To be considered a blended thread, the attack would normally serve to transport multiple attacks in one payload. For example it wouldn't just launch a DoS attack — it would also, for example, install a backdoor and maybe even damage a local system in one shot. Additionally, blended threats are designed to use multiple modes of transport. So, while a worm may travel and spread through e-mail, a single blended threat could use multiple routes including e-mail, IRC and file-sharing sharing networks.
Lastly, rather than a specific attack on predetermined .exe files, a blended thread could do multiple malicious acts, like modify your exe files, HTML files and registry keys at the same time — basically it can cause damage within several areas of your network at one time.
Blended threats are considered to be the worst risk to security since the inception of viruses, as most blended threats also require no human intervention to propagate.

Combating Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses

The first step in protecting your computer from any malicious there is to ensure that your operating system (OS) is up-to-date. This is essential if you are running a Microsoft Windows OS. Secondly, you need to have anti-virus software installed on your system and ensure you download updates frequently to ensure your software has the latest fixes for new viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Additionally, you want to make sure your anti-virus program has the capability to scan e-mail and files as they are downloaded from the Internet, and you also need to run full disk scans periodically. This will help prevent malicious programs from even reaching your computer. You should also install a firewall as well.
A firewall is a system that prevents unauthorized use and access to your computer. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Hardware firewalls provide a strong degree of protection from most forms of attack coming from the outside world and can be purchased as a stand-alone product or in broadband routers. Unfortunately, when battling viruses, worms and Trojans, a hardware firewall may be less effective than a software firewall, as it could possibly ignore embedded worms in out going e-mails and see this as regular network traffic.
For individual home users, the most popular firewall choice is a software firewall.  A good software firewall will protect your computer from outside attempts to control or gain access your computer, and usually provides additional protection against the most common Trojan programs or e-mail worms. The downside to software firewalls is that they will only protect the computer they are installed on, not a network.
It is important to remember that on its own a firewall is not going to rid you of your computer virus problems, but when used in conjunction with regular operating system updates and a good anti-virus scanning software, it will add some extra security and protection for your computer or network.



In my next post i will through some more light on things like Antivirus ,Spy-ware and Firewalls .Hope this post well help you segregate and have a clear idea of Virus,Trojan and Worms.So buddy's it will be all for this week .Catch you all in my next post.