Author Archive
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
Of Worms, Trojans and Phishing Scams
Here’s why you should patch your software, especially Windows, as soon as updates become available. A Windows Trojan is circulating on the Web, that exploits the flaw Microsoft fixed back in October. It could cause a worm infestation on networks. The worm is called Win32/Conflicker.A.
The hackers love these updates. They jump [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Understanding Your Operating System
I often talk about the programs and methods you need to use to protect your computer on the Internet. But underlying all this is your trusty operating system that actually runs your stuff. When we say you have Windows XP or Vista, that is the operating system or OS. If you have [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Featured by Syd Tash
Friday, November 28th, 2008
Spam - Here We Go Again
Last week we talked about how that big email spammer in California, McColo, was finally shut down. Spam levels immediately dropped sharply, plunging as much as 75% in the days following the shutdown. This occurred because some of the world’s biggest spammers were running spam-sending botnets using McColo’s servers.
Now the junk mail flood [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Alerts by Syd Tash
Thursday, November 27th, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone
To all my American friends and visitors, a happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
Let’s especially give thanks to all our soldiers who are in harm’s way, protecting our freedom and democracy.
Thanks for dropping by!
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2 Comments » - Posted in News by Syd Tash
Tuesday, November 25th, 2008
Avoid Malicious Sites With This Trick
Here’s a short note on something I’ve been meaning to mention for a while. AVG antivirus is one of the programs I recommend in my book. It is free.
The current version, 8.0, comes with a great feature called Safe Search. When you do a search at a major search engine, each result [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security by Syd Tash
Monday, November 24th, 2008
Your Internet Security and Safety
Why are there so many viruses, trojans, worms, phishing s cams, ID thefts and other junk on the Internet? How did we get to the point where most email is unsolicited spam? Well, the short answer is people still open unsolicited email and fall for those phishing scams. So the hackers and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Featured by Syd Tash
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
Internet Explorer 8 is Coming… Next Year…. Maybe
Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), having released a beta or test version last August. The next version, according to the company, is a Release Candidate (RC) that is scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2009. That would seem to indicate a general release a few months later.
However, some [...]
No Comments » - Posted in News by Syd Tash
Friday, November 21st, 2008
A Flaw is Found in Vista
A security company in Austria has found a vulnerability in Windows Vista. It might allow a hacker to run unauthorized code on your computer, or in other words, seize control of it.
You would have to be surfing the Internet with your Administrator account. But it could be possible to mount the attack without [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Security by Syd Tash
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
A Firefox Update
Mozilla, publisher of the Firefox browser, has issued an update. It fixes 11 flaws, of which six are rated critical. Most of them can be exploited to run malicious code on your computer, or basically hijack it.
Your Firefox browser version 3.0 should have updated itself automatically by now. To check which version [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Updates by Syd Tash
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
A Phishing Scam
Residents of Canada, watch out for a spoofed email popping up in your inboxes. It claims to be from The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which is basically the tax man. The CRA is equivalent to the American IRS.
The emails claim you have a government refund waiting, but your information is incomplete. Just [...]
