Support for one of the earliest popular web browsers, Netscape Navigator, will be discontinued as of today. The browser, now owned by AOL, was once used by 90% of internet users, however the sharp decrease in usage to around 0.06% has lead to all support from AOL being stopped.

The decision was said to be due to "AOL's current business focus and the success of the Mozilla Foundation".

The move was announced in December, and it was said that all support was to cease on February 1, 2008. This was extended until March 1, 2008 in order to allow AOL to "provide tools to ease the migration of existing Netscape browser users to ... alternatives" such as Mozilla Firefox or Flock.

The decision means that there will no longer be any security patch updates, or new functions for the browser.

This season, if you have receive a new computer or new software, check em for the gifts you might not know about. Many computers come with bundled software that includes Adware, Malware and even Spyware. You may not find it until you launch the software program. It may give you a message that says it needs to connect to a site to complete the registration. Make sure you read the entire license agreement.

I know of many stories about how a user had to do a complete restore on their new computer just days after getting it. These stories involve the user spending hours on the phone with customer support trying to resolve the problem. In previous years, Dells customer support has been swamped after the holidays with calls from new users asking for help. Before you get online with the new computer, insure the AntiVirus and Firewall is functioning. The computer will probably prompt you that it needs to get updates. Check what the update is before agreeing to the install. Make sure you get the MS updates needed too.

If after all this, you still don't know which updates or installs to agree to, there are help sites that provide assistance.

Check the products site first, they may have customer support or even a Forum.

Visit Spyware Warrior for a list of rogue/suspect Anti-Spyware products and web sites.

http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

Test your Firewall at Hacker Watch to make sure you're able to block attacks.

http://www.hackerwatch.org/probe/

If you're unsure of a process thats running, check it at UniBlues process library.

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/

These are just a few of the help sites out there, there are many excellent sites that can help you.

If after all the searching, you still need help, I recommend the Major Geeks Help Forum.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/

It will involve you registering and downloading the Hijack This program, running it and then uploading the log results to the Malware Forum there. They are good people there and will help you get your computer happy.

Think you've got it covered? Do the “How safe are you” quiz at Stay Safe Online.

http://staysafeonline.org/basics/quiz.html

Also a point to ponder. If you're giving instead of receiving, make sure what you give is safe and reliable.

Don't forget to create a restore point and maintain backups of important data is my last bit of advice.

So after the gift giving, after the clean up, after the nap on the couch, check your computer to insure your online safety.

Happy Holidays to you and yours.

About The Author
Doug Woodall writes to educate about computer security. He also hopes you visit his website at http://www.spywarebiz.com the next time you need a computer securty product.

With the website launch of "Doritos Coolpedia" (Coolpedia) on September 28 and Notable Internet Quote Voting started on October 14, Pepsico Taiwan & Doritos announced "Top 10 Internet Cool Quote" on October 31. This 2-week-period voting attracted more than 10,000 Internet users from 64 countries participating and electing. Finaly, "Among men, Laa-Laa; among horses, Red Hare" (In Chinese: 馬中赤兔，人中拉拉) was elected as the "Best Internet Cool Quote".

This announcement invited a famous Taiwanese band "MACHI Brothers" (MACHI) as the spokespeople for Coolpedia. According to Pepsico, MACHI is a symbol of younger people in the presence of the e-Century in Taiwan. Originally, Coolpedia is a protal for younger-ages people to share and contribute their creations and improve some interactions on the Internet. At the announcement, members of MACHI dressed different "Cool Quote T-Shirts" to symbolize the unlimited creation of Coolpedia.

On November 1, Coolpedia will provide audio-visual website version for the "Cool Video Award" candidation with the pursuit of "No pictures, no truth!". Pepeico Taiwan predicted that will be a great variation during Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 ages.

Popular social networking website Facebook went down for unknown upgrades, possibly to circumvent multiple holes that were published in a white paper earlier. From roughly 1:00 to 4:15 pm ET, users reported the site was down.

Blogs have speculated it may be simply a server upgrade, or it may be new features. One web development blogger has even raised the theory that the site was hacked, with the login box showing multiple random email addresses, through "" coding. Another user replied to this posting, saying that they were even able to read the other, random user's inbox. Both a blogger who works at a computing company's office in Johannesburg, South Africa and a Norwegian news outlet reported similar troubles. Many blogs received comments from people with similar circumstances, worldwide.

A white paper by Adrienne Felt, posted on July 27, 2007, explained step-by-step how to use an exploit to hijack a user's account. The white paper was then partially censored by the author, until the vulnerability has been fixed by Facebook. Regardless of whether the change was prompted by this paper, both the XSS hole and problem with forms described by the author were fixed during the upgrade.

The site read "We're upgrading. We'll be back soon." with no further explanation.

This is the first known global outage for the site.

This comes as a rival site, ConnectU, has filed a lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly stealing the idea and the code. The hearing is scheduled for tomorrow.

Also on Wednesday, the Black Hat Briefings computer security conference begins. The conference unites people from "government agencies and global corporations with the underground's most respected hackers."