Your Daily Computer Security Tips

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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 developers are concerned that the current test version is too buggy and unstable for a RC. But Microsoft must be feeling the pressure from Firefox, which is up to 19% of the browser market and rising.

IE still owns this market with 73% of browsers, but that is down from 90% a few years ago. And Mozilla, publisher of Firefox, is working on version 4 of its browser.

Microsoft must take care not to release IE8 before it is really ready, or that would just drive even more users into the arms of Firefox, not to mention Opera, Chrome and others. This is a nice position for consumers to be in. At least now we have choices.

Should we breathe a huge sigh of relief? Well, maybe for just a minute. After a long investigation by the Washington Post, the ISPs serving California-based McColo Corp. were convinced to shut it down.

It was claimed that McColo was single-handedly responsible for 75% of the spam choking up the Internet. That amounts to billions and jillions of emails every day. Wonder how come those self-same ISPs didn’t notice it earlier?

Anyway, since the company was shut down, spam levels generally have indeed dropped significantly. But don’t jump too high for joy. You may rest assured that someone else will rush in to fill the void, offering you fake Viagra or Cialis pills, or perhaps a non-existent eastern European girl who will love you forever.

In the long run, the only way to defeat spam is for us to stop opening and responding to it. Response rates are very low. But even one sale or ID stolen per million emails is profitable, when they are sending out billions per day.

Remember also that these days, just opening a malicious email could infect your computer with a virus or Trojan. Or worse. So don’t.

Congratulations to the Firefox browser team, Mozilla and the community. Firefox has reached 20% of the global browser market for two of the four weeks in October. This is according to Net Applications, a worldwide analytics service.

What people seem to like about Firefox is that it is safer and faster than Internet Explorer, extendible, and most of all, it is not part of Windows. In other words, it is not made by Mother Microsoft.

Incredibly, there are almost 200 browsers on the market today, including Safari, Chrome, Opera and SeaMonkey. Some are better than others, of course. If you haven’t tried Firefox yet, you should. Get it here, for free: http://www.mozilla.com

If you already have Firefox, check your version number. You should be using version 3.0.3. If you are not, update now.

Over the years, Microsoft has been severely criticized for its insecure operating systems and other software. However, the company claims to have made considerable progress over the last six years in making Windows more secure.

For example, back in 2003, 16% of all software vulnerabilities were found in operating systems. Today that figure is less than 8%.

So the hackers are taking a different approach. The main line of attack now is to trick you into doing something you know you shouldn’t, such as opening an attachment or responding to a phishing email.

Lost or stolen equipment such as laptops and hard drives account for almost half of all data losses. This seems to mean we have to better protect physical access to our computers and other gear.

Generally, computers running Vista show fewer vulnerabilities in the operating system and other software than XP computers. This is all welcome news. But it looks like further progress will only come when the average surfer like you and me follow good habits and safer surfing practices online.

This doesn’t have anything to do with computers or security – at least not directly. But it is too delicious to pass up. I just had to let you know about how to get a real live person of the human variety, on the phone, when you call a big company.

This site lists real phone numbers for many well-known companies, as well as brief instructions for getting through to a live person. Go here to give it a try:

http://www.dialahuman.com/

Back in 2003, when in general spam was merely annoying and a time waster, about 15 billion spam emails flooded the Web every day. That deluge prompted the U.S. to pass an anti-spam law in December, 2003. It became known as the CAN-SPAM Act.

Ah, the good old days. Now, it’s five years later. Spam volume has grown to a staggering 164 billion emails daily, accounting for 97% of all email traffic. This costs businesses, and individuals too, billions of dollars annually.

Even worse, most spam is now malicious. They contain URLs to sites that try to infect your computer with malware. So it appears that prosecuting spammers under the CAN-SPAM Act, and even the Act itself, are largely ineffective in the battle against the junk.

One big and obvious hole in the Act has been that of course it does not apply outside the United States. So spammers originate their emails from other countries, using botnets or other tricks.

What to do? Use email filters to block spam or direct it to a junk folder. Never open, read or click on a link in an unsolicited email. And above all, never respond to or buy anything through a spam email. The crooks keep sending them out because they are profitable. If we stop reading them and clicking on the links inside, the volume will surely diminish.

In a change of previous policy, Microsoft has announced that the old, venerable Windows XP that we know and love, will be available till July 31, 2009 as a “downgrade” from Vista.

Computer makers who install Vista Business or Ultimate on their machines will be able to offer a downgrade to Windows XP Professional. This option was supposed to end on Jan. 31, 2009.

For smaller companies who build their own brand of computers, the deadline remains Jan. 31, 2009 to purchase XP licenses and install XP directly on their PCs. However, even past these two deadlines, manufacturers will be able to offer XP until their supply of licenses runs out.

Here’s a statistic I find shocking (and Microsoft should, too): According to a Florida company, more than one-third of all new Vista computers are being downgraded to XP. Let’s hope Vista’s successor, Windows 7, fares better. It is due out in early 2010.

Here’s a little something I wanted to share with you. Microsoft will give you 5GB of online storage, absolutely free. That means you can store or back up your stuff, and access it from anywhere in the world.

It’s password protected, of course. You decide if a folder is personal, for sharing or public. This service will work on Windows and Mac machines, with Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Check it out right here: http://www.skydrive.live.com

I have never much liked these online storage services, because they sometimes go belly up. You can read about one that did just that here:

http://mypcsecurityblog.com/security/this-online-storage-service-is-gone

However, there is less chance of that happening to Microsoft, so go ahead and enjoy it!

Google has launched its own free Web browser, called Chrome. This is just a week after Microsoft released another Beta (test) version of Internet Explorer 8. According to Google, Chrome is supposed to be more sophisticated and better suited to today’s graphics and media-rich Web.

The current Chrome release is for Windows machines only. Mac and Linux versions will follow. Google also supports the Firefox browser with an advertising partnership which runs until 2011. Mozilla, publisher of Firefox, is probably not a happy camper today.

Chrome is still in Beta. It is open-source software, which means that anyone can modify it or write extensions for it. I usually suggest you steer clear of software in Beta testing. But if you really want to try it, go here: http://google.com/chrome

Internet Explorer has about 75% of the browser market, while Firefox is holding down 10%. And here’s an interesting factoid: about 25% of Web surfers are still using Internet Explorer 6!

If you are one of them, you should really think of moving on up to IE 7, ummmm, very soon.