Tech Tips From a NYC System Administrator
Another case for making it mandatory to have peoples personal info stored in an encrypted database: The personal records of some 3.5 million Texans were inadvertently exposed after they were placed on a state computer server that was accessible to the public for about a year, state officials said on Monday. State Comptroller Susan Combs…
I have to say, if this is true, it’s pretty impressive in a Big Brother sort of way. Basically, China is monitoring your phone calls. If you say a naughty word like “protest”, your call will be dropped. From the New York Times: If anyone wonders whether the Chinese government has tightened its grip on…
Read More “NYT-China Tightens Censorship of Electronic Communications” »
President Obama is planning to hand the U.S. Commerce Department authority over a forthcoming cybersecurity effort to create an Internet ID for Americans, a White House official said here today. If it weren’t for the Wikileaks debacle (nice security there guys!), the fact that government programs can’t be financed properly (Social Security, Medicare, the Postal…
Read More “Obama Eyeing Internet ID for Americans – Tech Talk – CBS News” »
Get used to it. Moving things to the “Cloud” is becoming more popular. So will the data breaches… Company data belonging to customers of Microsoft’s hosted business suite BPOS has been accessed and downloaded by other users of the software. Read more…Microsoft BPOS cloud service hit with data breach – Computerworld.
From TechCrunch: Developer Eric Butler has exposed the soft underbelly of the web with his new Firefox extension, Firesheep, which will let you essentially eavesdrop on any open Wi-Fi network and capture users’ cookies. As Butler explains in his post, “As soon as anyone on the network visits an insecure website known to Firesheep, their…
Read More “Beware of Wi-Fi Hotspots – Easy password stealing FF extension” »
I used to be afraid of Google. Now, I’m more afraid of Facebook. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging a federal judge to dismiss Facebook’s claims that criminal law is violated when its users opt for an add-on service that helps them aggregate their information from a variety of social networking sites. In a…
Read More “EFF – Facebook Tries to Make Violations of Terms of Use Into Criminal Violations” »
Spam. We all get them. Some come with attachements that are just viruses or trojans. Some come from folks in Nigeria who want to give us $2000 cash. Some purportedly come from financial institutions looking to verify your info. What we need to remember is that NO bank, NO credit card company, NO financial institution…
Even PDF attachments aren’t safe. If you receive an email from an unknown sender with a PDF attachment, be aware that trying to open it might launch an executable that can inject malware into your system. The attack produces a warning dialogue box, but users are accustomed to seeing, and ignoring, those in many situations….
Read More “PDF Malware Using New Attack Technique | threatpost” »
Thankfully, they got rid of the provision that gave the President a kill switch for the Internet: …it no longer gives the president unilateral power to disconnect networks from the Internet in the event of a major cyberattack… Cybersecurity Bill Passes Senate Committee — Government IT Security — InformationWeek.
Malware/Trojans spreading via emails linking to fake Holiday E-Cards purportedly from “your friend” or your “Online Banking Team”. Christmas, Amazon and Zbot – it’s that time of year again – Sophos.