Security

As I read this article today, I found myself shaking my head as this could quite frankly happen to anyone that does not fully comprehend just how dangerous an unprotected computer can be. While it is an undeniable fact that stories like the above linked are taking place with Windows users and social networking Web [...]

It is not good enough simply to say that you have a firewall. Not all firewalls are the same. Qualities — and functions — differ.
In very simple terms, you want a firewall that protects your computer in two directions. You want to stop unwanted traffic from reaching your computer. In addition, you want to [...]

Learn about the scope of the malware problem and strategies that can help you defend against evolving malware threats.
Managing and protecting against endpoint security threats continues to get more difficult for most organizations regardless of their size. Malware of all types are becoming more virulent, their authors are becoming better at getting around current defenses, [...]

Identity theft has been tagged as being the fastest growing crime in America. Your private information is a commodity that some criminals harvest and resell. It is a whole subculture. The people stealing the personal information may not bother with committing the actual identity theft, but there are buyers for your personal information.
One of the [...]

There are some things that you want to keep private. It may be financial information, sensitive data like your passwords, proprietary information, or other such confidential material. You simply don’t want friends, colleagues, roommates, family, or repair people to have access to that information. Not only is that information private, but you want to secure [...]

As if we did not have enough malware and phishing concerns these days. This latest report on a security threat that all platform users might want to keep an eye on is rather disturbing. Apparently there is now malware out there that will go so far as to fabricate a fake page representing your latest [...]

This guide covers seven typical IT security compliance errors and outlines the best practices you can immediately apply to your environment to help your company achieve compliance.
Currently, there is no single standard framework that explicitly defines what your organization must do for compliance. A big challenge for IT security professionals is navigating this ambiguity and [...]

Unfortunately, there is no black and white answer to the question. The communication method you choose depends entirely on you, the message you want to convey and the result you want to achieve.
Both IM and email have their benefits and drawbacks. However, in certain situations, it is definitely advantageous to choose IM over email. For [...]

In this RunAs Radio podcast, Richard and I talk to Dana Epp about the free tools he uses to manage his networks. The list of tools include nmap , Microsoft’s Baseline Security Analyzer , Windows Server Update Services , the Application Compatibility Toolkit, and of course the SysInternals tools.
Dana Epp, Scorpion Software’s founder and CEO, [...]

If you think computer security has improved in recent years, The Myths of Security will shake you out of your complacency. Longtime security professional John Viega, formerly Chief Security Architect at McAfee, reports on the sorry state of the industry, and offers concrete suggestions for professionals and individuals confronting the issue.
Why is security so bad? [...]

Some of our regular readers are students and are starting their new academic year. Whether for academics or for entertainment, these readers will be increasing their downloading and their time online. If you download, share files with friends and classmates or, for that matter, just go online, you need to protect the investment in your [...]

With the advent of rich Internet applications, the explosion of social media, and the increased use of powerful cloud computing infrastructures, a new generation of attackers has added cunning new techniques to its arsenal. For anyone involved in defending an application or a network of systems, Hacking: The Next Generation is one of the few [...]

This is going to start a debate. Even if you are protected by a router that sits between your computer and the Internet, you still need a firewall. Now some people will disagree, so let’s look at this in very simple terms.
The reason for bringing this subject up now is that some returning university / [...]

The number of malware sites are increasing. IBM has reported an increased sophistication with attempts to infect computers. The frightening thing is that some malware is being pushed unknowingly by legitimate sites.
This is a danger to all computer users. However, there is one segment of our readers who are going back to school in a [...]

Students returning to school at colleges and universities need to be concerned about their security online. However, the same security measures should apply to ALL Internet users. For students, they will be using new Web sites, and setting up new accounts via the school. As such, they are prime targets for hackers and criminals who [...]

While the first part of this story is certainly sad and unfortunate, it is later into the article where things become readily frightening. Hard drives, likely unwiped, are available for a song to anyone willing to pay. Imagine, all of your history just sitting there on an old PC that you “threw away.” One might [...]

End users seem prone to fall for every hoax and every encouragement to “click here,” which makes it especially difficult for support professionals to protect those PCs.
Here are some tips geared toward safeguarding your users against their own gullibility and protecting your servers against virus attacks.

Tell your end users not to open attachments [...]

For definitive virus detection, you must turn to an anti-virus program with updated definitions. If a reputable anti-virus program will install, run, and complete a check successfully, and if its definitions have been updated within the last 24 hours, you can be fairly confident that the problem is not a virus. Otherwise, virus infection is [...]

In Part I of this series, I outlined some of the sure signs that your computer is infected with a virus. However, sometimes identifying a virus is not so cut and dry as the symptoms can disguise themselves as Windows problems.
You might have a virus if…
A virus infection could also cause some of [...]

Came across this Tweet from Iggy over Twitter today. As Iggy points out, this story has yet to be confirmed. But despite this, it does bring up some interesting questions. Are some establishments so insecure that they would go so far as to bother a paying customer with idle threats and zero evidence to back [...]