The big black hole of personal computer security can usually be found right between the user’s ears. From phishing (miracle weight loss, cheap Viagra, anyone?) to the subject of this wake up call, passwords, it’s people like you and me making bad, bad and easily avoidable choices.
Malware distributors who try to trick people using topical subjects are, of course, the scum of the earth. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t acknowledge that some of them are more skilful than others.
If you fly, then you know that everyone is required to turn off all electronic devices before take off or else. However, repeated tests over the course of decades haven’t found any evidence that using a cellphone, tablet, PDA or reader during take off, or landing, causes any problems.
The humble period is the smallest character on a computer screen. But it appears it could also be a major security risk.
Whether you take precautions or not, your activity on the internet is being tracked — call it a fact of life. That said, if you’re curious about who’s doing the tracking and what they’re after, there’s a Firefox plugin that can help you find out.
The House, today, has voted to keep the 2007 Better Use of Light Bulbs (BULB) Act which will set restrictions on the efficiency of light bulbs starting January 1, 2012, requiring that they be 25-30 percent more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs.
Wine connoisseurs aren’t happy when they open their favorite wine only find it’s a nasty counterfeit. In order to assure customers that they are actually buying the wine they think they are, Canadian vintners have discovered a new technology that allows customers to check the validity of the wine before they buy. A special cap and a smartphone app confirm the bottles authenticity.
The Washington Post has revealed that around 1.3 million users of its jobseeker site have had their e-mail addresses exposed to hackers. The newspaper said no more sensitive details were lost.
The FBI says it has seized nearly 50 computers in eight countries as part of an attack on two operations to sell bogus security software. But in a depressing acknowledgement of reality, it isn’t claiming to have done anything more than “disrupt” such activity.
Thanks to ongoing education and media coverage, the message is starting to get through to a lot of people about the need for caution and smart security practice online. Unfortunately, it seems, make a phone call and all bets are off.
What Facebook malware scammers do is illegal, despicable and indefensible. But boy, some of them sure do it well.
Google and Facebook, the two companies that have the most to gain by getting us to give them our data so that they can make money from it, have noticed that they are heading the same direction, which may start a war.
There was a recent accusation by Julian Assange, of Wikileaks fame, that Facebook is a spy organization extraordinaire.The Truth is not nearly that exciting. Facebook is just a privacy panderer.
An email marketing firm has suffered a data breach involving the names and e-mail addresses of customers for some major firms. The breach isn’t necessarily a major security risk in itself but could mean more successful phishing attempts.
Millions of us play online games these days, which means there’s real money to be made from them. On occasion that’s true even for those not associated with the companies running these sites.
Remember, what seems like a long time ago, when an Apple employee lost his iPhone 4 prototype in a bar and it ended up on Gizmodo? The investigation is about to end, perhaps with criminal charges.
Google says that it is ready to take action against content farms, low quality Web sites with millions of articles of questionable value, which cause problems for search engines trying to return valid content.
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