We recently alerted our readers to spam campaigns using the H1N1 vaccination program to prompt recipients to open the mail. And we have frequently mentioned that crooks love to take advantage of news, disasters, and other events. Now that the final draw for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next year has taken place,…
It’s the second Tuesday of the month and there are important updates being released. From Microsoft, of course, but also from Adobe. There’s a critical security issue in Adobe Flash Player 10.0.32.18 and earlier. It’s important that organizations deploy these updates before the Christmas holiday reduces IT staffing. Fortunately, this patch cycle is as early…
Sunbelt analyst Adam Thomas came across this ugly new social engineering technique when he analyzed the DefenceLab rogue security product. It does the usual scare-ware stuff: a fake scan and fake “Windows Security Center” alert: Then it directs the potential victim to a Microsoft Support page, but injects html code into the page in his…
It’s not possible to emphasise enough the importance of using sensible passwords on your network. Not just on the areas of your network that you don’t want your users to traipse through, but also on the default network shares that are present on installations of commonly used operating systems like Windows NT/2000/XP/2003. One of the…
Treat your passwords with as much care as you treat the information that they protect. Use strong passwords to log on to your computer and to any site where you enter your credit card number, or any financial or personal information—including social networking sites. Never provide your password over e-mail or in response to an…
Communicating by using an instant messaging (IM) program has some of the same security and privacy risks as e-mail, but there are a few dangers that are unique to IM. Never open pictures, download files, or click links in messages from people you don’t know. If they come from someone you do know, confirm with…
TFC (Temp File Cleaner) will clear out all temp folders for all user accounts (temp, IE temp, java, FF, Opera, Chrome, Safari), including Administrator, All Users, LocalService, NetworkService, and any other accounts in the user folder. It also cleans out the %systemroot%\temp folder and checks for .tmp files in the %systemdrive% root folder, %systemroot%, and…
Social networking Web sites like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live Spaces are services people can use to connect with others to share information like photos, videos, and personal messages. As the popularity of these social sites grows, so do the risks of using them. Hackers, spammers, virus writers, identity thieves, and other criminals follow…
Strong passwords are important protections to help you have safer online transactions. Keys to password strength: length and complexity An ideal password is long and has letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. Whenever possible, use at least 14 characters or more. The greater the variety of characters in your password, the better. Use the entire keyboard,…
Three basic types of firewalls are available for you to choose from: Software firewalls Hardware routers Wireless routers To determine which type of firewall is best for you, answer these questions and record your answers: How many computers will use the firewall? What operating system do you use? (This might be a version of Microsoft…