Image: CNET News Screenshot

Just when I was really enjoying all the connections I have been making in Facebook, some jerk hackers are ruining the fun for lots of people.

A few friends of mine on Facebook appear to be infected, and another friend just called to let me know about it and if I knew anything specific.

They’ve released a new worm into the world that spreads itself through a link being sent around with a Google video. When you try to play the video it prompts you that you need to download a new codec. WHATEVER YOU DO DON’T DOWNLOAD THE NEW CODEC!

Here’s my general reminder and warning to everybody. Don’t upgrade something if you’re prompted unless you absolutely trust the site you’re on. Know what you’re upgrading. Even then, I recommend not doing the automatic upgrade if prompted and going to the manufacturer’s site directly without following a link.

Don’t open attachments from people in e-mail that you weren’t expecting to receive. This includes from people you know and for attachments where you actually recognize the file type. Both of these things can be spoofed.

Article: Facebook worm feeds off Google’s reputation

Need to send large files to someone easily. Check-out Pando.com.

Pando is currently in beta and has got Web 2.0 written all over it, but that’s okay because it seems to do a really good job of accomplishing the task it was set out to do.

They’ve got a great illustration that explains how it all works, but for just you readers out there, here’s a textual conversation of how the process flows from sender to recipient.

1. Files sent - Sender selects files and/or folders, enters recipient(s) email address(es) and clicks “send”. A copy of the files immediately starts uploading to Pando’s secure servers (supernodes).

2. Email received - At the same time, an email containing a small (~10K) .pando file is sent to the recipient(s). The .pando file contains data about the location of the files sent.

3. Files delivered - Recipient(s) click the .pando file to start a p2p swarm delivery from the sender’s machine, Pando’s supernodes and other recipients. All transfers are encrypted end-to-end.

Visit Pando - thanks for sharing.

Are you still sending large attachments directly through e-mail? Don’t do that, it’s not the best way, especially for really large files.

Do you have a large file you need to get from someone or to someone, but it’s larger than your e-mail application will allow, or maybe your application doesn’t allow certain attachment types?

You should try YouSendIt

It doesn’t get any easier than that does it?