People that have Adobe’s Flash player version 9.0.115.0 or earlier, or 8.0.39.0 or earlier, need to update it now. A new exploit for these versions has been discovered and can allow someone to take control of your computer just from visiting a website that has malicious code. The new version that you need is 9.0.124.0 … Continue reading Flash Vulnerability
If you carry a notebook outside of your home or office then Whole Disk Encryption is a technology you should be interested in. It’s also called Full Disk Encryption. First let’s identify the problem. Most people who carry notebook computers (laptops) keep sensitive files on the machine’s drive. Business documents, business databases, contact lists, emails, … Continue reading Whole Disk Encryption
All these fake sites and applications are becoming a bigger problem. The latest is called removal-tool . com (warning, do not try going to this site). It appears to be a collection of spyware removal tools except that it actually tries to install quite a few different bits of malware on your computer. It’s a … Continue reading Another fake anti spyware site
A recent survey by a security company called Secunia shows that only 5% of computers are fully patched. The other 95% are running insecure software. It’s important to patch all of your software. This includes the operating system itself (e.g. Windows, Mac OS, Linux), your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox), and all your applications. … Continue reading Only 5% of Windows PCs are fully patched
The US Army has been upgrading their servers and workstations to Macs and are claiming they’re harder to hack (i.e. they’re more secure). The primary reason they state is that fewer attacks are written for Macs than for Windows. This seems true for now. One common weakness between all operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc) … Continue reading Can Apples be more secure?
Some programs you use are critical to the safe use of your computer, and it’s important to keep these patched. In this article critical software is the collection of programs (both visible and those that run in the background) that transport information from a web server to your screen. It’s the chain of data flow … Continue reading Keep critical software up to date
This article explains some things you can do to make a Mac more secure. Most of these ideas would also apply to Windows (XP and Vista), and Linux (in a more general sense).
This article covers the most basic proactive measures you can take to protect your computer. It’s been written with a single home computer in mind – small and large offices need completely different solutions and they’ll be covered in a future article. So you have a computer and are aware of the dangers present on … Continue reading Protecting A Home Computer – First Steps