security
Skype Encryption and Government Snooping
This article is a little out-dated since it was sitting as a “draft” in my blog. I just forgot to publish it.
Here is the deal – I’m not a tin-foil hat guy, but I’m also a conservative and definitely was as little government intrusion as possible. This is a prime example. Can anyone explain to [...]
Infected computers at half
Well this might be considered “encouraging” if it weren’t so discouraging. According to a report, 48% of over 22 million computers scanned were infected with malware used in phishing scams and password stealing apps.
I’ve preached this over and over – your anti-virus is only 1 layer of security. Don’t be lulled into a false sense. [...]
Gmail gets SSL by default
I’m sure it was prompted by the recent Chinese situation, but more kudos to Google for making SSL the default setting for Gmail and Google Apps. Most people don’t realize that your email typically flies around the hotel room, Starbucks, or your work in an encrypted form. That’s right – it can be easily sniffed [...]
Conficker – What you should really know
Last week was fun in the IT (information technology) world. Not because of any real damage by conficker – but because of the absolute media over-hype of something they don’t have a clue about. I had a couple of customers call me – and the conversations were short: “Rex, do we need to worry?” – [...]
Classroom Computers
============= From Email to a client=============
I’ve finally compiled my list of suggestions for helping to secure them and streamline the process of setup. This will help insure consistency of the laptops which will provide a much better classroom experience. Hopefully, the computers will be running XP, but these recommendations will work for Vista as well.
Implementing [...]
Serious IE Vulnerability
I know – I know. Typically I don’t post about Internet Explorer exploits. However, this one is pretty serious.
I do have a few customers that must use IE for sites such as the Caddo Parish and Bossier Parish websites. Both of them stupidly use Active X controls. Not that either of these sites are malicious, [...]
Formatting or Wiping – Erasing – Drives
———————- From Email:
going to be donating a couple of old computers to Goodwill. What is the best wayto wipe the hard drives? Is reformatting safe enough?———————-
Simply deleting files in Windows (and most OS’es) doesn’t actually delete the data. It is fairly trivial to recover it. The only way to insure security is to “wipe” or [...]
CheckFree DNS Hijack
———————From Customer Email to Me———————from: xoxoxox@aol.comto: rexdate: Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 11:20 AMsubject: Fwd: Urgent: Bill Pay Service Informationmailed-by: aol.com
Here is a copy of the email I was sent today. Let me know if there is something I need to do relative to his and my computer
From: MyCheckFree Customer [...]
Network Data and Security
Recently, I’ve been consulting with a client on network improvements. Following is an email correspondence sent to them in preface to some upgrades – such as migrating to a Novell SUSE Linux network.
============From Email============
As a reminder, security is relative. You have to weigh the cost vs usability vs convenience. If security practices are too complicated, [...]
