Last week I wrote about hard drive encryption which could protect your data in the event your notebook, desktop or even a server were to be stolen… Odd that I mentioned one particular organization, Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, which had suffered two computer losses as of the date of that posting, because yesterday found SRMC back in the news with the …
Hacking: The Good, the Bad and the Murky (From IEEE Spectrum)
Over on the IEEE Spectrum site is a neat article on “The Two Faces of Hacking” which was last updated on July 6, 2011 as of this writing and it shows a graph of hacks, which is interactive to allow you to select only the “Good”, “Bad” or “Murky” hacks or any combination. The graph was created to outline the differences …
Was your personal information harvested from one of the major hacked websites?
If you are wondering if your information was exploited from one of the major hacked websites, there is a website that may tell you that. https://shouldichangemypassword.com/ It checks several databases for the occurrence of your email address. If your address is there, you may need to be concerned. If not, carry on… I checked most of my email addresses and …
I wanted a secure password, so I just went with this one…
One of the newsletters I read regularly had a link to this video… So I figured it would be a great password to use… Data from Star Trek TNG emulates Picard’s voice with a very long password.
SECURE IT ALERT: Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for June 2011 #patches
Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, June 09, 2011 Microsoft Patch Tuesday will soon be upon us again, and Microsoft has not let us down! A little something for everyone…. The following is directly from their Advanced Notification for June 2011, released today: ******************************************************************** Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for June 2011 Issued: June 9, 2011 ******************************************************************** This …
How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware #mac #malware #apple
It seems that Apple has finally acknowledged that there is a need to protect their users from malicious software, in particular the “Mac Defender” (also known as MacProtector, MacSecurity as well as MacDefender). In an article titled “How to avoid or remove Mac Defender malware“, posted yesterday on the http://support.apple.com site, you can find out how to avoid this inconvenience …
SECURE IT ALERT: Usama Bin Laden Death Email Scam Warning Issued by the FBI
Homeland Secure IT Alert Homeland Secure IT Alert for Friday, May 13 2011 On May 04, the FBI issued a warning about links related to the death of Usama bin Laden. The text from the FBI site follows: Malicious Software Features Usama bin Laden Links to Ensnare Unsuspecting Computer Users The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) urges computer users to …
Deleting system files before you leave a job is not a nice thing to do, and likely illegal!
I’ve said this before, but I think I will say it again. Should you leave a job and have personal files on your system, sure, by all means, delete your PERSONAL files, that’s okay, right? Maybe… In fact, laws on the books that state that everything you do at work is property of the employer, however, I am not a …
Bin Laden death results in malware spreading via social media, email and web
It will come as no surprise that anything newsworthy results in the creators of malware intensifying their efforts to spread their malicious code. The demise of Usama Bin Laden in no exception as various attempts to entice people to follow links through are being reported all over the place. I have seen 3 people I follow on social media who …
“We’re from the government and we’re here to help!” – FBI in regards to removing Coreflood from infected computers
The FBI seized control of the Coreflood servers a couple weeks ago, drastically reducing the traffic that was being generated by the large botnet by stopping the update of the bot clients. This will allow anti-virus programs to begin to discover the presence on infected machines and hopefully remove it. That’s awesome, but what’s next? The FBI is seeking to …