Archive for April, 2008
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Here is to You, Personally (Sort Of)
Used to be, the scammers flooded the Internet with phishing scams of various kinds, in an attempt to get your credit card number and other personal information. They still do that, of course, always trying to circumvent your security.
But a new trend emerged a while ago. That is junk email addressed to you [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security by Syd Tash
Friday, April 18th, 2008
A Microsoft Works Flaw
In China, blogs are chattering about a zero-day flaw in Microsoft Works, the low-end office productivity suite. A zero-day bug is one for which no patch, or fix is available yet. The problem is in an ActiveX control once again. ActiveX are small programs from Microsoft that add functionality and interactivity to [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Alerts by Syd Tash
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Critical Firefox and Apple Updates, and More
Mozilla has patched a critical flaw in Firefox, updating to version 2.0.0.14. The vulnerability is in the JavaScript engine of the browser. Check to see if you got the update automatically. Launch the browser and click Help, About Mozilla Firefox. If you do not have the latest version, click on Check [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
CAPTCHA Test Cracked in Six Seconds, and XP SP3
Spammers and phishers need large numbers of email accounts to flood the Internet with their garbage, and free services such as Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail are a tempting target. The crooks treat these accounts as disposable. They use them for a while until they are blocked, then get new ones.
In response, Microsoft put [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Syd Tash
Monday, April 14th, 2008
Keeping an Eye on the Wild, Wild Web
If you carry on any kind of business online, or have a Web site, then you need to be concerned about the information that is accumulating about you or your business on the Internet. Even if you just spend a lot of time surfing, you should be aware of what others in your field [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Featured by Syd Tash
Saturday, April 12th, 2008
Adobe Finally Updates Its Flash Player, and A Viagra Scam
Back on April 1 I told you about that Security Conference in Vancouver, where researchers penetrated a Mac running OS X and a laptop running Vista, but were unable to hack a Linux machine. And no, it was not an April Fools joke. Far from it.
It has now emerged that Shane Macaulay, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Friday, April 11th, 2008
A New Credit Card Scam
Here is the latest credit card telephone scam said to be on the rise these days. It is a sophisticated con. The crook already has most of the information he wants, and gives YOU your personal data, instead of the other way around. This supposedly builds confidence in the caller.
To begin [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Alerts by Syd Tash
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
The Skyrocketing Growth of Viruses
Just a year ago or so, I reported that there were some 150,000 viruses circulating on the Internet, with more added every day. Some people found that exaggerated or even alarmist. However, I was not kidding. We are well on the way to reaching one million viruses this year. Currently, about [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security by Syd Tash
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
Do Not Delay, Patch Today! And Sign the Petition!
It’s Patch Tuesday, folks, and you know what that means. Yep, it’s time to trot on over to the Windows or Microsoft Update site and get the latest fixes for Windows. Or check that your computer downloaded the updates automatically.
Attention Symantec customers who have Norton AntiVirus running on their computers. Symantec [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Monday, April 7th, 2008
A Review: Anti-Virus, Firewall & Anti-Spyware
There seems to be some confusion over anti-virus programs, firewalls, and anti-spyware programs. These are the 3 basic security programs you should have running on your computer, if you want to surf the Internet safely. But what do they do? How many of each should you have? How and when should [...]
