Category: security
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Why Email Scams Won’t Go Away
Depressingly accurate.
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Heartbleed: What You Need To Do
Most of us have heard the news about the “Heartbleed” vulnerability, which possibly allows hackers to retrieve your login password or other personal information from many popular web sites. So what’s it all about? “Heartbleed” refers to a vulnerability in an encryption library that’s used by many different web servers. The library is called “OpenSSL,”…
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SSL Vulnerability Closed in OS X Update
Apple released Security Update 2014-001 yesterday, which closes the vulnerability discussed in my last post. Mountain Lion and Mavericks users should install this update ASAP. Note, if you are a Mountain Lion user and do not wish to update to Mavericks at this time (completely understandable, but fixable), then do not install the OS X…
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Public Service Announcement for iOS and OS X users
On Friday, Apple released version 7.0.6 for iOS (iPhone / iPad) users. Go to Settings on your iOS device and install this update now. What’s the deal? A very serious vulnerability that exposes the secure communication link between your device and any services that you use (Gmail, Facebook, Dropbox, online banking, etc). The exploit package…
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“Badges? We don’t need no steenking badges!”
All too often I’ve encountered a certain type of person in an enterprise, business or personal setting who questions the need for a secure network environment. Actually the word “questions” is too weak; this type of person actively opposes network security measures. And very often they’re in a decision-making position for their organization. One otherwise…
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Plug those holes: web browser plug-ins
Courtesy of How-To Geek, here’s a great article about browser plug-ins and how to disable them. You’re probably already familiar with Windows and OS X start-up programs and the havoc they can wreak. Browser plug-ins and Internet Explorer’s “add-ons” and “browser helper objects” (“BHOs”) can be another source of vulnerability and frustration, just like the…
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Java security problems, again
For the third time in a month, Oracle has issued a new Java security patch. If you use Java, you need to download and then install the new version. Once you’ve done that you should without fail disable Java in your web browser. With that out of the way, my primary recommendation is still to…
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Curious about Google Search?
Google has published a great article about the plumbing that makes their search engine work. It’s pretty simple and straightforward; I’m sure that you’ll enjoy it. If you want to sharpen your Google search skills, take these free online lessons. If you’d just like a quick reference for search operators, you’ll find a few good…
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Java – What, me worry?
There’s an interesting article today on THE VERGE. Joshua Kopstein poses the question “Why won’t Java just go away?” That leads to our question: “What is Java, and do I need to worry about it?” Java is present on many PCs – Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s a both a programming language and an application…
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Cloud for Small Business – Hot nor Not?
Last week I offered Rodney Roger’s perspective on the place of cloud computing in the enterprise. His premise, with which I completely agree, is that current “enterprise” cloud offerings lack the breadth and depth of on-premise systems. To paraphrase him, Salesforce and Workday are not ERP. He’s absolutely right. He also points to emerging cloud…