Microsoft say that patches it released on November 10th are not to blame for the recent spate of report black screens after users log in to their Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista and 7 systems. The phenomenon has been dubbed the Black Screen of Death, a half hearted poke at the infamous Blue Screen of Death that typically follows a cataclysmic turn of events for a Windows based system.

According to the BBC security firms have suggested that the latest round of patches issued by Microsoft are to blame for the mysterious turn of events. Microsoft however are currently investigating the problem and stated that their "November Security Updates are not making changes to the system that these reports say are responsible for these issues". Microsoft instead says that Malware such as Daonol is to blame and says, users experiencing the issue should contact Microsoft Customer Services.

When a user logs into an affected system, they see, well nothing really, just a black screen. No taskbar, no icons, wallpaper or any menu system whatsoever, just black. A lucky few have been presented with a My Computer window, but generally the system grinds to a halt. Not knowing what else to do, some users have resorted to formatting their systems. But if you haven't already taken the plunge and resorted to the extremes of a format then there is a possible solution for you.

Prevex, an IT security firm has issued a set of procedures (see bottom of article) that you might want to try, that could solve your issues. There is no guarantee that it will work, but it's worth a try before you go formatting.

The crux of it is this, if you know how to pull up Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Delete at the same time) and run a program from it just enter the following including the double quotes into the Create New Task box: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "http://info.prevx.com/download.asp?GRAB=BLACKSCREENFIX"   . When prompted click run, and not save. After the program has downloaded it will do what it has to do and you will have to reboot your machine.

When you log back in, you should with any luck have a fixed computer, but as previously stated this may not work for you. Prevex say though that if the black screen of death has only just started to occur after applying the latest MS patches or if you have run anti-malware programs, then there is a high likely hood that the fix will work. 

Source: BBC

Possible Solution: Prevex

Microsoft has confirmed through it's blog that several thousand Windows Live Hotmail customers' have been the subject of a phishing scam. On Monday Neowin.net received information that suggested a list of users' accounts had been posted anonymously on code sharing site pastebin.com.

Details of the accounts have now been removed from the site but Neowin managed to get a glimpse of the list. They estimate that there were over 10,000 accounts ranging from A-B on the list. The leak affects @hotmail.com, @msn.com and @live.com accounts and for the most part appears to include mostly European accounts.

This A-B list almost suggests that the poster of the information is just dangling a news story in front of everyone and that they may have thousands of other account details ranging from C-Z, ready to be leaked. It seems odd that they only posted the details of A-B accounts.

After receiving the information from Neowin, Microsoft has taken steps to ensure that the affected accounts cannot be used. They state on their Windows Live blog "that as a result of our investigation we are taking measures to block access to all of the accounts that were exposed and have resources in place to help those users reclaim their accounts".

If you are the owner of an account that you believe has been caught up in all of this then Microsoft has measures in place which will enable you to regain access to your account. It is also a wise idea to simply change your passwords every now and then, particularly when this sort news emerges.

The BBC is now reporting that a second list of a further 20,000 accounts has been posted and includes account details for Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Comcast and Earthlink customers and that the account details have since been removed from viewing.

Google have confirmed to the BBC that its Gmail email services has been the subject of an "industry-wide phishing scheme" and that immediate action has been taken to protect the affected account. A Google spokes person said, "We recently became aware of an industry-wide phishing scheme through which hackers gained user credentials for web-based mail accounts including Gmail accounts". They went on to say, "As soon as we learned of the attack, we forced password resets on the affected accounts. We will continue to force password resets on additional accounts when we become aware of them."

My advice is to be vigilant and cautious when opening emails or attachments from people or organizations whether you know the source or not. It is also a good idea to change your account password and to also change the login information of any website or service you use which uses the affected email services as a point of contact. This is of particular importance if the account makes use of a payment system that has your account details logged on the sites database.