Just about a year ago, the Infotech security space was all ablaze with noise about this thing called “BadBIOS.” This was a scary bug, for several reasons. First, it was new, which meant that before the security researchers could come up with the cure for it, it could do a lot of damage; but that’s not unique. Second, it had […]
…and from the “whatever happened to” department…
Do You Use Free Programs and Services?
There have been several incidents in recent memory in which a service provider has stopped providing a free service or stopped providing service altogether. Most recently, the developers of TrueCrypt, a disk encryption product, announced that they were stopping all development and support of their product. They went so far as to alert users that the product should not be […]
When is a Cell Phone More than a Cell Phone?
answer: ALWAYS. It is a rare circumstance when our United States Supreme Court agrees so completely as they did in the case of Riley v. California: all nine of the Justices agreed that law enforcement officers DO need a search warrant to examine the contents of your cell phone. This question is no longer about seeing who called and whom […]
What is Do Not Track; Why it Matters
The internet is a cool place, is it not? We now have access to information on a scale not dreamed of by our parents; our grandparents didn’t even know a lot of this information even existed. You can find countless places to pursue any of your interests. Some of the material is provided by subscription, and it’s up to you, […]
Well, Money, Obviously
That’s the answer; the question is, what do the bad guys want? Ultimately, the bottom line, at the end of the day, the spam, the botnets, the phishing emails, the hoax sites, it’s all about getting money, either directly or indirectly, from someone otherwise unwilling to give it up that easily. Let’s start with spam, since there’s so dang much […]
How to Tell Who REALLY Sent That Email
Sometimes I’ll get an email that I KNOW didn’t come from the person shown in the “from” column in my gmail online. Most of those are ending up in my spam filter these days, but every once in a while one will look legit enough that Google lets it through. Only by knowing my friends and relatives do I know […]
Cryptolocker–there is no cure, so best prevent
There’s a nasty piece of malware out there called Cryptolocker. You won’t know you’re infected with it until you get the notice that your files are encrypted and if you don’t pay $300 by a certain date the decryption key will be destroyed, causing you to lose all your files forever. At this time only Windows operating systems are vulnerable, […]
The–Blue–Screen-Of–DEATH!!!!!
Every computer system has the capability of crashing. Some self-recover better than others, and some manifest it more elegantly than others. Make no mistake, regardless of what kind of computer you are using, your computer can crash. I am not particularly loyal to one hardware set or to one operating system. I use them all and I enjoy them all. […]
How Safe is Your Password?
A reporter from Wired magazine recently got schooled in password security, which generated a lot of conversation in the tech space on keeping yourself safe in cyberspace. There is one simple thing to do to stay safe in cyberspace: stay out of it. Yeah right. That’s what I thought. So here’s the rundown: Strong passwords, different passwords, different cards, non-obvious […]
More Cores is the Key to Multitasking
Multi-core processing is one of those terms that geeks love to use when they tell people about their computers because having multiple cores means wonderful things. Let’s start on what a processor is: A processor is a component that processes instructions from the different programs and makes outputs. That’s obviously a simplified explanation, but that’s what it is and what […]