Spell Check for Hackers

               Commuters pass by the front of the Bangladesh central bank building in Dhaka March 8, 2016. REUTERS/ASHIKUR RAHMAN

After misspelling the word “Foundation” hacker’s attempted billion dollar heist was stopped short. But, not before siphoning 80 m USD from the Bangladesh Central Banking System.

The initial attack took place last month in the Bangladesh Central Bank’s online files where payment transfer credentials were accessed.

With the proper, albeit, ill-gained data obtained the hackers solicited the New York Federal Reserve successfully triggering four transactions totaling 81 m from the Bangladesh Central Bank to numerous private and individual recipients in the Philippines.

Stuart Miles @ Free Digital Photos

According to Reuters, banking officials revealed that the hacker’s fifth out of 30 requests raised a red flag, causing Deutsche (routing) Bank to seek clarification for the destination of the funds.

Apparently, the intended recipient, a Sri Lankan non-profit organization’s title ended with the word “Foundation” and not “Fandation.”

Banking officials also told Reuters that they have retrieved some of the funds from the Philippines with hopes of further recoveries.

Abul Maal Abdul Muhith — Bangladeshi  —Minister of Finance  said, however, “The Fed must take responsibility” — or, his country may resort to suing for any unrecovered funds.

Could Artificial Intelligence Rule the World?

You may think it’s another doomsday conspiracy theory. Or maybe just another plot written for the next “Terminator” movie or video game. Truth is—the scenario is real and not as far-fetched, or futuristic as many may believe.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) already controls much of the world’s decision-making on defense and is a heated topic of discussion among many “big guns” of our world today. It’s here, and it’s getting smarter by the minute.

But, don’t take it from me. One doesn’t have to be a fly on the wall in one of the many round table-board room discussions on the topic to get the buzz.

In a 2015 “Ask Me Anything ” Reddit interview, Bill Gates stated—“I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence. First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”

Some MIT Professors and leading scientist disagree. and believe a computer-run society if ever realized, is well off into an unforeseeable future.

Still, one only has to look back over the 30 years Microsoft Windows alone has been around to see the astronomical technological leaps and bounds.

On November 20, 1985, Windows 1.0 was introduced to the open market. On November 20, 2015, Computerized “Plant Life“ was introduced.

Of course, there have been countless innovations since the introduction of personal computers and operating systems, but as far as AI is concerned the most exponential advancements have come about in the past ten years or less.

Artificial intelligence can be thought of as a sponge. The more it interacts with humans the more it learns about humanity — As is the case with any intelligence-gathering operation.

In October 2004, Google Inc. purchased a small  C++ program designed by two Danish brothers, Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen, at the Sydney-based company “Where 2 Technologies.” The program was soon redeveloped and released as a web-based application known today as “Google Maps.” That same October, with financial backing from the CIA’s In-Q-Tel, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency among other sources, Google purchased Keyhole, converting its marquee application Earth Viewer to the ever so popular Google Earth.

Among Military strategies of the world today, the most alarming are the research and development efforts toward unmanned drones, automated robotic soldiers, and homing devices geared to self-select, identify, and destroy potential enemies.

Companies that receive funding from the U.S. Department of Defense such as Boston Dynamics, a company also purchased by Google, have already produced Six-foot, 320-pound humanoid soldiers.

Elon Musk — dubbed as the real-life 21st century “Tony Stark”, foresees imminent danger in the implementation and rapid development of AI — especially if the market becomes encapsulated by one or two major corporations such as Google, or Facebook with the sole intent of capitalizing its revenue.

Musk, co-founder of Pay-Pal, CEO of Tesla Motors, founder of SpaceX, two-time bachelor degree recipient in applied Physics and Engineering, to name a few, has now co-founded a non-profit research center called OpenAI. 

Along with fellow entrepreneur Sam Altman and other investors, Musk basically states he’s funding the OpenAI program to help keep an eye on companies and individuals who might develop and distribute the technology to the highest bidding Dr. Dooms of the world. Musk himself was at one time an investor in artificial intelligence companies such as Deep Mind and Vicarious but said it was also to keep an eye on them.

Previously in an interview with CNN, Musk stated — “Humanity’s position on this planet depends on its intelligence, so if our intelligence is exceeded, it’s unlikely we will remain in charge of the planet,” 

Altman stated — “I believe it’s better to empower humankind with distributed artificial intelligence than a central artificial intelligence controlled by a single company,

How Musk or anyone else intends to distribute such AI among the masses other than in a conceptual sense is unclear. We already have Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Now. And the more they “Help” us – the more personal information they gain from us. And of course, the more information they gain from us — the more they can “Help” us— But, unto what end? History reveals mankind as its own worst enemy – so, when the world is busy chasing its tail — who’ll be watching? And what perception could a pre-programmed police agency consisting of emotionless machines possibly arrive at?  Moreover, what conclusive action would it take to remedy the problem?

In an op-ed for The Huffington Post Stephen Hawking stated that success in the creation of AI will be “the biggest event in human history” — “Unfortunately,” he continued,  “it may also be the last.”

I agree with Elon Musk in what I perceive to be his most profound assertion on the matter and that being — we are summoning the demon.

“I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. With artificial intelligence, we’re summoning the demon. You know those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and he’s like — Yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon? Doesn’t work out.”  Elon Musk

 

Linux Mint 17.3 Attacked

Clement Lefebvre, head of the Linux Mint operating system posted early Sunday, February 21 that the Mint 17.3 Cinnamon edition was compromised on Saturday.

The IP trail led to three particular names in Sofia, Bulgaria whom, if truly the culprits, have written a counterfeit version of the ISO containing a “Backdoor” security trap.

Upon gaining a data shell script through the WordPress platform, the hackers implemented a redirect code into the official version of the OS, pointing the default gateway to absentvodka.com. A site, which upon my attempt to ping, and tracert from the command prompt timed-out, unable to locate a path.

I also tried googling the site but came up dry as you can see here—probably suspended after the attack was found to be ongoing.— And the Vodka was Absent too! What’s the world coming to?

Lefebvre added —  “the situation happened today, (Saturday) so it should only impact people who downloaded this edition on February 20th.”

Anyone who’s computer was affected is urged to contact Linux Mint.

Lefebvre and Linux Mint were commended by users who had questions in the blog’s comment section, thanking him for the urgency of addressing the issue, forthrightness, and attentiveness to their concerns, via the self-hosted WordPress Linux Mint Blog.

He responded to them saying.  “We’ve always been transparent. It’s something we owe people to a certain extent, and it’s also easier to just say things the way they are. That’s how I was brought up anyway, so that’s how it is. Regarding servers, there are more and more servers all the time, yes. The only attacks we suffered in the past were DDOS though, this is new. It’s also important we communicate about this attack because we’re not talking about downtime or inconvenience here, this is a call to action. We need people who are affected by this, to understand that they are, so they don’t get hurt or used going forward.”

In a prompt response to this comment published to the blog about 45 minutes after the original post was made —  “it seems like the download pages still point to the hacked ISOs.” Lefebvre stated, ” Thanks for reporting this, this is a second attack so it means we’re still vulnerable. I’m shutting the server down right now.

Lefebvre admits that Linux Mint doesn’t know the motivation behind the attack as of yet, and haven’t called for an official investigation.

” If more efforts are made to attack our project and if the goal is to hurt us, we’ll get in touch with authorities and security firms to confront the people behind this.” Lefebvre said while adding — ” We took the server down while we’re fixing the issue.”

On the surface, this looks like an isolated elaborate hoax – or does it? It’s certainly cause for concern.

I still say — Wi-Fi may be the rave of the air-wave age — but how long can we keep the back door open? The flies are taking over.  

 

What do you think?

Hollywood Hospital Hacks Demand 3 million

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center’s President, and CEO, Allen Stefanek told NBC news reporter, Angie Crouch, that the hospital’s staff noticed “significant IT issues on Friday, February 12 when they were locked out of the system and “declared an internal emergency.”

LAPD and FBI forensics experts were called in and gathered evidence that the attack likely began a week earlier.

A staff Doctor who wished to remain anonymous stated that the computer system was the victim of a ransomware attack, to the tune of 9000 bitcoins — equivalent to 3.6 million USD.

No reports were released revealing any patient identity or medical records, but, many were transported to other hospitals, as files containing crucial lab results, CT scans, and X-rays were encrypted pending ransom demands.

The Doctor also called it a very dangerous situation due to inaccessibility to any previous inpatient, and outpatient medical records.

Falling on the heels of many similar attacks in the U.S. and around the world— it is not an isolated incidence.

CNNMoney reported July 2015 of attacks on hospitals, universities, and lofty insurance firms, compromising 4.5 million patient records within the UCLA medical center network, 310,000 University of Maryland records, and numerous Federal Agencies.

Wi-fi may be the rave of the air-wave age but how long can we keep the back door open?

 

Jason Murdock At International Business Times has more.

What is a ransomware attack?

Cryptolocker – a form of ransomware – encrypts a victim’s files until a ransom is paid.

Ransomware attacks are frequently carried out by hackers and cyber criminals to extort money from internet users by ‘locking’ sensitive or personal data which they will then unlock for a fee – usually demanded in the form of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. Using the dark web as a cover, an entire criminal underground economy has been built from this form of cybercrime.

With such extortion attempts rising, security experts increasingly warn firms not to pay the money as this only fuels the online crime wave.

Recently, Lincolnshire County Council was hit with a ransom-style cyberattack in which hackers demanded £1m to unlock its computer systems. The attack resulted in a total shut down of the council’s network for almost a full working week and was blamed on “O-day malware”.

While in a separate incident, a blackmail-style cyberattack against Israel’s Electricity Authority recently paralysed some computers for more than two days and led to fears the critical infrastructure had been compromised.

More about Ransomware

• Lincolnshire County Council knocked offline by ransomware demanding £1m
• Android ransomware porn app sends internet history to all your contacts unless you pay bribe
• Israel: Electricity board crippled by ransomware cyberattack causing widespread panic
• It’s official, your smart TV can be hijacked: Malware is holding viewers to ransom
• Fake apps demand $500 ransom by accusing users of watching child porn
• WhatsApp Web app flaw allows hackers to hijack 200m PCs with only a phone number
• Adult Player Android porn app blackmailing users with secret photos and demands of ransom
• IBM warns companies to block Tor network or face corporate ransomware and DDoS attacks
• The evolution of cybercrime: From Julius Caesar and Prince Philip to state-sponsored malware

DON’T ASK.COM

Although Ask.search.com or the Ask Toolbar has finally come into the cross-hairs of Microsoft’s proverbial “silver bullet”  — causing some to make claims that MS “automatically” removes the hijacker from hell— it isn’t automatically automatic.

Even though Microsoft stated last year that it would change its evaluation criteria to detect products that prevent user’s control over their preferred browser and search engine settings, there are still steps to be aware of — and taken by some to remove it from their computer.

While tracing the path of the Ask toolbar to remove it from a customer’s computer that had become almost useless under its spell — just last week —I was reminded of that fact.

The incident solidified my suspicions as it was not the first time I’ve had the honor of performing the necessary exorcism on a customer’s computer since Microsoft’s new detection criteria went into effect June 1, of 2015.

A Spokesperson for IAC, Ask.com’s parent company rebutted at the time that Microsoft’s new security measures only apply to and affect less than 1% of the Ask toolbar installs, as their newer versions do not include the browser search protection functionality.(formerly known as the conduit virus)  

If this is true it is due only to the unlikely possibility that 99% of the Ask toolbars installed since 2010 when the company started using the nefarious methods of hijacking have all been uninstalled.

Personally, I can’t see anyone who recognized the sluggish, redirected, and sometimes frozen screen they struggle with as a direct result of the toolbar wanting to not uninstall it.

That would be like going back to AOL with dial-up!

The saddest part for Ask.com, from my perspective, is that many, including myself, may have chosen it as our homepage, search engine, and default browser at one time.

That is, after following their legitimate advertising campaigns via my favorite medias, such as Nascar, (and in retrospect wearied from the browser wars already taking place)  I actually tried it —

for about two minutes…

The problem was that at the same time they were running the legitimate campaigns trying to get a foot in the door of a cornered market, they were also trying what other browsers had done for years —but apparently they just sucked at it.

Honestly, that’s probably not a fair assessment. The issues were more likely due to conflicting struggles between the toolbar and the other shared definitions within the bundle itself. I can’t imagine Ask.com deliberately causing one’s computer to lock-up. They just made bad decisions on how to qualify a search engine for the race.

Browser wars go back a while. As long as I can remember there being more than one browser they were vying for notoriety and a place in the market. There were redirects and frustrations enough to make you pull your hair out.

Ask.com didn’t start it… Ask.com just Asks for a place in the market. Which, in my summation, explains why Microsoft has such a soft spot as to not have already “Black Flagged.” them as intentionally malicious.

Nonetheless, I commend Microsoft for addressing the issue — even if they refuse to call it what it is — I was elated to find a one click removal process under the Internet options tools of Internet Explorer. Trust me — that wasn’t always the case.

Firefox, Google Chrome, and other browsers, on the other hand, still required manual removal procedures. And if you’ve ever removed one of these hindrances manually you know the process can be painstaking, and time-consuming – to say the least.

Extensions attached to URL’s on each browser must be removed, and the browser closed.

Unearthing the name of the service, or program title the creäture is hiding under, (the bumbling bundle medium it slithered in on) is half the battle — because these days it’s not as simple as adding or removing a program in the Control Panel.

To help narrow it down to the most recently installed programs, you can click on the “Installed On” column, or the drop-down at the top right of the Uninstall Program page and compare installation dates. That is if you have any idea of when the problem first came about. 

The customer I was assisting, as is often the case, had no idea when her computer became infected, or what caused the loss of navigational reliability. I asked how long she’d been using the Ask toolbar and she said—

“I didn’t know I was using it. I just know that cute little  thingy  showed up one day and — Eeeek! You Removed It?”

“Yes ma’am,” I responded, “I thought actually being able to USE your computer might take precedence over a “cute” little thingy.”

After it was all said and done — she very much agreed.

More oft than not, while trying to remove a program in “Programs and Features” Uninstall a Program” or the “Task Manager,” you’ll experience a pop-up stating that a process of the program is in use and cannot be removed or— a similar prompt in more recent Windows Operating Systems. You then have to “end” each process related to the culprit or “end process tree” in your “Task Manager” before proceeding.

You can force a non-responsive program to uninstall through the registry, but this is only recommended for advanced users and technicians.

In many cases, it is necessary to remove hidden files from the registry to completely remove such viruses, e.g., the “RootKit”

As far as Microsoft Security Essentials, or Windows Defender “Automatically” detecting and removing the problem child from your computer — there are configurations to consider or certain steps to be aware of.

Windows Defender, as an example, may be on your computer, but, if you have a third-party Anti-Virus, or Malware security program installed (which was the case with my customer ) Windows Defender turns itself off to avoid conflict.

Microsoft Security protocol may eventually detect the bad coding, and remove it with a later patch (update) of your computer, which can sometimes add to your confusion, but, in this case, it did not.

In summation, you may need to do a little research to make sure Microsoft Essentials or Windows Defender is working behind the scenes to detect and remove search.Ask.com, or one of the many titles or bundled names it goes by.

Also, we can’t really blame Microsoft for the all- too -many independent publications of how it was going to magically slay the dragon — because as you can see on its original statement the industry Giant only said it “May” be detected—“Any program using code that can potentially perform search protection may be detected, regardless of whether the code is active” 

On the flip side, as repulsively time-consuming and frustrating as the removal procedures of the toolbar have been at times, I hold no personal animosity toward Ask.com. And if you want my opinion of whether the newer versions of the Ask installations are truly Malware free and less repulsive… Just  don’t Ask.

 

Java installer flaw shows why you should clear your Downloads folder | CSO Online

Thoughts and Writings from Robert Borochoff @  https://robertsinterests.wordpress.com/

Robert's Interests

Java installer flaw shows why you should clear your Downloads folder | CSO Online

On most computers, the default download folder quickly becomes a repository of old and unorganized files that were opened once and then forgotten about. A recently fixed flaw in the Java installer highlights why keeping this folder clean is important.

On Friday, Oracle published a security advisory recommending that users delete all the Java installers they might have laying around on their computers and use new ones for versions 6u113, 7u97, 8u73 or later.

The reason is that older Java installers are designed to look for and automatically load a number of specifically named DLL (Dynamic Link Library) files from the current directory. In the case of Java installers downloaded from the Web, the current directory is typically the computer’s default download folder.

If an attacker manages to place a specifically named malicious DLL into a…

View original post 100 more words

SEO Hats — Rank Grayware

If you think connecting your website, or blog across the web, to gain more traffic, and repeat clientele is as simple as linking to every similar site or niche — it’s likely you’re not hearing the full harmony being played by the band, SEO. 

I often think of SEO in terms of musical composition. Like that of a tenor Violinist playing a stretto, over the arpeggio of a cello, rising and falling together in perfect time, simultaneously combining with a harmonic chord of the bass, to form a fantastic crescendo, climaxing together in an explosive sonata motif and —

 

 

Not exactly.

It’s more like that “little Ol’ band from Texas.” Yep — Like ZZ Top, “On Page” SEO is comprised of three major “On Stage” band members who not only depend on one another to form perfect sound but often rely on other accompaniments, well-placed harmonies, and intricate networks to achieve world-renowned musical status. – Or, for the serious webmaster, as it were, an even sweeter sound of “SERP” Success.

Incidentally, I’m particularly fond of the Drummer— “Frank Beard.”  You guessed it!  He’s the one without  a beard.

In the grander scheme of SEO ranking and analytics, many will say that I, like Frank Beard, lack the facial steel wool to weigh in on the matter. And granted I don’t work for fortune 500 marketing clients, or, maintain 1000-TB web servers. Still, while holding SEO marketing professionals in the utmost reverence, and respect of their well-deserved positions and expertise — as website owners, bloggers, technicians and writers, you and I —”The Little Guy” do have the right to practice, and use SEO page ranking tactics.

If you self-host and monetize a site in any way, shy of paying huge amounts for monthly rankings you should learn as much as possible about page ranking, and SEO. Two of the best sites I’ve found to help with this daunting task though there are many, are SEOBOOK.COM and RedFusionmedia.com.

Search Engine Optimization begins at the development stage of the site with proper HTML, HTTP, XML, and URL structuring. And, of course, some sweet little secrets such as “Hidden” Meta tags.

Make no mistake, these are crucially important. For me, though, “Content Is Still The King” — so —  I’m speaking  here about —”On Page”—”Off Page” – and any “Gray Hat” strategies administered by the webmaster through content and social media transactions.

Even with a Free WordPress.com blog site; Who by the way take care of most of that for you, your search engine indexing will benefit greatly by learning and utilizing SEO methods.

Some of these strategies include Keywords and internal links from one of your related post to another — and especially getting incoming links from other sites throughout the internet.

What’s more, enough can never be said about the many free tools Google offers to help webmasters devise a plan, project, or campaign such as the priceless Keyword Planner.

 

     WHICH  HAT  SHOULD I  WEAR

Personally, I don’t believe “Black Hat” SEO strategies exist anymore. “Black Hat” SEO isn’t a “Hat” worn by SEOs but the bottomless pit across the void of “Gray” into which, should one fall, will never be seen again—

Above a 1—3 page ranking anyway.

That is, websites, where such pervasive methods are discovered aren’t long for this world and are in danger of being —

       Cast into outer darkness by the google gods!

And that, just this side of oblivion is where an immensely variegated sea of Gray was blue-penciled in, to defuse the darkness.

Or, maybe that’s just how it looks through the rose-colored glasses I wear.

Some will disagree with me as SEO isn’t an exact science, and there are lots of opinions based on “Assumption.” Butt, assuming we all know the word “assume” can make an ass out of -U- and Me. And, well—                                                     I assume we all know?  Anyway… Though categorized or, labeled differently by many “Search Engine Optimizers” the three major players of “Applied –On Page SEO” are:

1.Content

2.Title

3.URL

If you’re familiar with SEO tactics you may already be yelling at me through the screen things like:

“Okay, Beavis— you don’t have a clue — you left out the most important thing — keywords are the most important thing in SEO.”  And you would be right — to a point.

Proper placement of “Keywords” is crucial for “Brand” building, and target conversions but the wrong keywords can keep your post from ever seeing the search engine light of day. e.g., Overly used keywords that are in constant competition across the web in nanosecond frequencies are not being indexed equally by the search bots, therefore, are certainly not the most important thing in SEO.

Other search engine optimizers claim Keyword density is the most important aspect of site optimization — and though there are recommended keyword per total post word ratios — Keyword density (KD) shouldn’t be meticulously calculated to where it is obviously vulnerable to the reader.

You the reader have most likely deduced from what little I’ve covered thus far that —  there is no #1-star front man of the band – SEO.

Besides, Search Bots are not your targeted audience to begin with. Are they? They can’t truly understand the message you intend to convey, therefore- reader-friendly sites with sincere content gain more sustainable, returning traffic. And after all, who’s really paying the bills?

Relevant internal links will broaden your site’s chances of being indexed thereby increasing strategic reliability, and initial clicks — but fresh, captivating content is what builds confidence, clientage, and conversions.

On this note, I  can’t stress enough, regardless of your desired purpose as a site owner, be it an outlet for your creative arts, or selling Real Estate — one doesn’t have to resort to SEO spam to generate readers or revenue. There are ethical ways of leading the “Search Engine Crawler Parade.”

 

 

With proper optimization, your site, could be the “Pied Piper” of the product you are promoting without having to offend readers with obvious redirects, and adware tactics.

“White hat” methods can not only attract more readers than crudely placed “Gray hat” techniques but, also, when followed up on, secures more patronage. This isn’t to say that “ALL” Gray Hat methods are evil, and should never be implemented. The fact is that many SEOs and online-marketing companies couldn’t stay in business if they didn’t use some “Gray Matter” technique in their marketing plans.

In the ever-changing world of SEO, rules are occasionally bent to secure a client(s) significant search engine page rank. Therefore, every SEO who occasionally wears a “Gray Hat” can’t be fitted with the same size as a blatant burner-site, redirecting, link mill, re-marketing spider hog.

If you are one of those, who either maliciously sabotage other sites or just “Bad” at using “Gray Hat” marketing — in the words of “Kristine Schachinger“ @ “Search Engine Watch”   “You, my friend, are an asshat SEO.” 

These SEOs, Kristine adds, “aren’t SEOs at all, but they make money using our techniques while making the rest of us look bad..”

This to me is where the “Gray” really begins to get darker — and, in fact, in an area called “Grayware” truly does become “Black,” as Malware by any other name is Malware and should be labeled as such. Still, it stands to reason as in every area of life — there truly are more than 50 shades of “Gray.” And obviously so with two different spellings for the word -“Grey.”

And with that — as “Grayware” is an IT security label regarding shadowy webs spun by “Mad Hackers” more than “Mad Hatters,” I will save the topic for another day — as this one now fades to “Black.”

See Also: Sons of Thunder Patron

 

Reliability Monitor

When diagnosing computer issues, in addition to the more commonly used tools provided by Windows like Event Viewer, MMC Plug-ins, Task Manager, and Performance Monitor, there are some very useful, lesser known consoles as well. A well-hidden helper, though with several ways to get there, is the ever-so- trusty —

“Reliability Monitor” 

Introduced with Windows Server and Vista in January 2007 as an MMC (Computer Management Console) Plug-in, Reliability Monitor at the time doubled with the Performance Monitor as a dual-interface diagnostic tool. Windows 7 however, brought it out from the MMC and made it much easier to get to and utilize — once you know where to find it.

In Windows 10 either type ‘reliability’ and click the “View Reliability” link. Or — go to —

Control Panel>Security and Maintenance>Maintenance and then click the “View Reliability History” link.

Unlike many Microsoft and industry labels, seemingly having no logical relevance to the feature they identify, “Reliability Monitor,” and “Reliability History” are spot-on accurate terms. A fact readily realized in that it keeps a live-feed record of your computer’s stability factors for up to one year.

While still displaying Event Management readouts, Reliability Monitor is exceedingly more tech-friendly and reliable instrumentation. Its main objective is to keep tabs on five major areas of performance, and configuration counts that could have adverse effects on the stability of your computer. These could be either hardware or software problems, or changes.

The five categories are as follows: 

• Application Failures- errors and failures of applications: e.g. — Windows Calculator
• System Failures- Operating System/Windows Hardware Failures
•  Miscellaneous- errors and failures of peripherals: e.g. – Disk Failure etc…
• Warnings- Issues that may or may not affect stability or behaviour: e.g.- Driver Update Failed
• Information- updates, changes and installations: e.g.- Succesful Driver Installation- e.g.- Succesful Microsoft Update.

Regular monitoring of these five crucial data points coupled with accurate evaluation of the provided stability index could absolutely help avoid an otherwise inevitable  “SPOF” — (Single Point Of Failure.)

For those head scratching glitches that only rear their ugly heads in nanosecond ticks of time — i.e.— the ever-so-evasive “intermittent failure” — The Reliability Monitor is your go-to tool!

How it works

SSI= System Stability Index

As seen here the SSI is based on a scale from 1 to 10.

10 – Being “Very Reliable” and    1 – “Not So Much”

Respectively, each time there’s a failure the SSI line spikes down toward the “Less Reliable” part of the graph, and an icon appears alerting you of the type of error. You can get information about a failure or error by clicking the event on the graph. Likewise, For a more detailed description of the failure, click on the item in the Action column. 

When you’re troubleshooting an existing problem or complaint with a computer, or an intermittent issue, you can use the arrows on either side of the graph to go back to a specific time. This is tremendously helpful in gathering suspicious patterns between points in time to compare them with the frequencies of the complaint. Similarly, you can click on “Days” or “Weeks” to view the System Stability Index results between points in time.

Incidentally, you’ll find that “Most” of the failure and error messages are not all that critical — even the ones marked as critical. This is because many applications or services will fail, or stop when Microsoft is implementing a security patch or an application issues an update of some kind. But, all is well there too, as Microsoft has added an extra Troubleshooting help link at the bottom of the console labelled:

View All Problem Reports:

This view is helpful in diagnosing actual errors, or issues as it doesn’t list the peripheral events included on the Reliability Monitor, such as software updates. Listed below is a full page view, and a partial snippet of a “View All Problem Report”

Overall, as earlier stated, depending on the workload of one’s computer, the “System Stability Index” will range from 10 – 1.        i.e., A new operating system or computer may start off with a reading closer to a 10 and balance out around a 5 the more it is taxed with installations of applications and services. As failures and errors begin to occur, a healthy computer may average from 5 to 10 while making the occasional plunge, or spike towards the 1. Below are examples of a healthy, average home use computer, and a healthy like model, but with a highly taxed HDD. (Hard Drive)

As you can see both computers are constantly being monitored by the Reliability Monitor — and both computers inevitably have application, service, and system failures, stops, and errors. In conclusion, whether you’re trying to heal an over-taxed, highly used test computer with over 50% of its disk space used — or maintaining a year old computer with only 28.0 GB used on its disk — The Reliability Monitor is just what the Doctor ordered.

See Also: Sons of Thunder Patron