Worst excuse ever

For the last few days, if you go to almost any Cyprus website, you get a warning like the one on the screenshot below.

This one in particular is from the Google Chrome browser, and here is how Google explains it:

This message appears if Google Chrome detects that the site you’re trying to visit may have malware.

And just in case you didn’t know what malware is, Wikipedia to the rescue:

Malware, short for malicious software, is software used or created to disrupt computer operation, gather sensitive information, or gain access to private computer systems. It can appear in the form of code, scripts, active content, and other software. ‘Malware’ is a general term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile, intrusive, or annoying software.

Malware includes computer viruses, worms, trojan horses, spyware, adware, and other malicious programs.

Apparently, this time, CyTA had something to say:

CyTA said any computers receiving the message should clear their caches and cookies as the phenomenon was being caused by a virus, which was affecting connections. It said the sites were clean and did not contain malware. “It is a false message caused by a virus,” a CyTA technician said.

What?  Really? Make up your mind, sir!  Is it a false message or was it caused by a virus?  If it was, it’s not so false then, is it?  Oh, and I wish viruses were as easy to take care of as clearing browser cache and cookies…

Getting sick

It seems, Maxim was carefully choosing the virus to bring back home. He managed to convince Dr.Simos that antibiotics are necessary. Then he passed his virus to Olga, who doesn’t feel very well for the last couple of days. And Olga, in turn, passed it on to me. Or, maybe, it was Maxim again. Anyway, I feel like I am getting sick. I wonder if I will be able to fight it off this time…

Maxim is better, but not out of it yet

Maxim looks much better today. The temperature wasn’t there in the morning. It came back in the afternoon, but did climb higher than +38C. Then dropped. Then got back. But overall, he looks healthier and more active.

Because he still has the temperature, I guess we’ll be visiting Dr.Simos again tomorrow. There’s also a side effect from all the syrups we are giving him in a form of a few tiny red dots on his forehead and some more on his tummy.

He still eats good and drinks a lot though…

That’s a virus infection too

Maxim’s temperature didn’t go down, so we went to see Dr.Simos. He checked the kid thoroughly and said that Maxim’s throat is soar. He seems to have some sort of virus infection – nothing serious though.

Maxim was prescribed a couple of sirups that should easy up his throat and help fight the temperature. It is expected that by Wednesday he should be fully OK.

By the way – to those of you who trust only in “natural” ways of healing I have to say “Reconsider!”. I was once again amazed by the wonders of technology and progress today, when a sample was quickly taken from Maxim’s throat and analyzed with a bunch of chemicals, giving a rather precise result within 10 minutes – what was and what wasn’t there and what is the best way to fix it.

Amen to the technology!

P.S.: Oh, and the front upper teeth are coming too. We can almost see them.

12 minutes

They say that your unpatched Microsoft Windows machine will live for only 12 minutes on the net before getting 0wned. Now, a lot of people are saying a lot of different things about Windows security, but I tend to agree to this particular one. I’ve seen it plenty of times at work. In fact, we now have a requirement for all colocated clients to fully patch their servers before connecting to our backbone.

Slashdot has a story. And a dup.