Archive for November, 2007
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Hackers, Charities & Holiday Giving
You know the Christmas season is well and truly upon us when the scammers target charities and donors. That is what happened earlier this month, when email addresses and passwords of thousands of donors to 92 charities were copied or compromised.
These charities had been using software and services from Convio Inc. of Austin, Texas. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security by Syd Tash
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
Yet Another QuickTime Bug
Polish security researchers have found another bug in Apple’s QuickTime media player. Attacks against Windows XP SP2 and Vista are expected very shortly, due to the popularity of QuickTime. In fact, exploits against Vista may be a lot easier than against XP.
It is not known yet whether Mac versions of the player are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Alerts by Syd Tash
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
A Firefox Update, & Firefox 3
Firefox has released an update, to version 2.0.0.10. It fixes a bunch of memory bugs that could lead the browser to crash. Or it could in theory allow an attacker to seize control of your computer. It also patches that cross-site request bug that could give a hacker unauthorized access to a [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Monday, November 26th, 2007
Recharge That Dead iPod - With an Onion
This post is not really about computer security. But I could not resist telling you about this video on YouTube. It shows how to charge up your iPod with just an onion and some Powerade or Gatorade.
It is great if you are away from your computer or charger, and desperate for [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Fixes by Syd Tash
Saturday, November 24th, 2007
More Perils of Email
By now you have no doubt heard and read a lot about email dangers, good email practices, etc. When you send an email to someone, they could in theory find certain information about you that you have posted online, or associated with that email address. Do a search on your own name and [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Alerts by Syd Tash
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
Typo-Squatting: Old Problem, New Threats
I often talk about kids online safety issues. See my Oct. 8 post here. Typo-squating is just one more danger to watch for. How does it work? People register domain names with common misspellings of very popular sites.
When you or your child accidentally enter that misspelled address or [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Alerts by Syd Tash
Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
Honey, I Slipped the Discs
In Britain, two CDs with a total of 25 million names and personal information went, uhhh, missing in action. That’s right, they contained names, addresses, birth dates, Social Insurance Numbers, even bank account data, and no one knows where they are. They might have been stolen, or just misplaced.
The list is of people [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security by Syd Tash
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
Apple Updates, & Monster.com Hacked (Again)
The other day, Apple released one of its biggest patches ever, with 41 flaws fixed in Mac OS X. It also patched 10 bugs in the Windows version of Safari, so if you use that browser (which is still in beta testing), update now.
A bunch of other applications were also updated, including [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
MLB & NHL Attacks, and a Firefox Update (Soon)
The other day, Major League Baseball and National Hockey League web sites were targets of an attack. Hackers tried to convince visitors that they had to scan their computers for viruses, and needed to download malware to do it.
Users were presented with a box prompting them to scan their computers. If the user [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security, Updates by Syd Tash
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Windows Encryption Cracked
Researchers in Israel say they have cracked the encryption used by Windows 2000, a graphical and business-oriented operating system first released seven years ago.
Windows uses a pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) to create encryption keys for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) sessions, among other things. These sessions are widely used by online banks [...]
