Security

Remember the news stories a few months ago about the flaw in DNS that was discovered by Dan Kaminsky? This article from MIT’s Technology Review magazine explains the discovery and the decisions taken to patch and explain the vulnerability in an article that is a good overview of what happened.

Dan Kaminsky, uncharacteristically, was not [...]

iDefense Security & Vulnerability Research Labs have issued two security advisories (here and here) listing weaknesses in ZoneAlarm products prior to version 7.0.362. The first one is only exploitable by a local user but there isn’t a mention of whether it’s local or from remote - but it allows the attacker total control of [...]

Disabling unnecessary services is an important part of securing a computer. Download this Excel spreadsheet here - a free membership is required. If you don’t have Excel, a free viewer is available here.

This tool covers updates and bulletins that aren’t covered by the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) tool.
The SMS Extended Security Update Inventory tool is a scan tool built for the sole purpose of helping customers determine SMS client computers that may need security updates that are not detectable using the existing SMS Security Update Inventory [...]

The latest release of the MBSA utility adds support for Windows Vista for the first time. The tool analyzes the security configuration of the computers you run it against (it can run against many computers on your network at the same time) and suggests actions to reduce security vulnerabilities. The checks available [...]

How many of you forget to log out of a web page after leaving it? If you’re logged in to something, ALWAYS log out - don’t just close the window or tab. Not logging out could leave you vulnerable to identity theft. And webmasters: PLEASE make sure there is a logout [...]

Microsoft has written the Fundamental Computer Investigation Guide for Windows. If you have suspicions and need more data - but you are not yet ready to call in someone for a complete forensic investigation - this guide will help you to investigate further using forensic principles. Using forensic principles will preserve evidence for [...]

Security researchers at Indiana University and Symantec have discovered a hack that allows an attacker to enter common home routers if someone visits a properly designed Web page and the router’s default password hasn’t been changed. The attacker can then wreak further havoc such as denial of service, malware infection, or identity theft among [...]

By now it should be clear that Diebold’s AccuVote-TS electronic voting machines have lousy security. Our study last fall showed that malicious software running on the machines can invisibly alter votes, and that this software can be installed in under a minute by inserting a new memory card into the side of the machine. The [...]

I’m waiting for a comparison test of CounterSpy v2 and Spy Sweeper - for a few months CounterSpy was the best anti-spyware tool and I used the demo version to clean up customers’ infected computers. Then Webroot brought out version 5 of Spy Sweeper and it did a faster and better job of spyware [...]

Take note, Vista users! This article states that Vista’s firewall as it is configured out of the box offers little more protection that Windows XP’s firewall did - and most security experts agree that the XP firewall isn’t sufficient. You need a third party software firewall, especially if you are connected to high [...]

Stolen banking and credit card information, compromised medical and financial records, tapping into cell phone conversations…
A team of researchers from the University of Calgary are hoping to put an end to these daily threats by using the theory of quantum physics to develop a spy-proof code.
Their initiative is based on the fact that information delivered [...]

The link says credit card info only is affected - but CBC Radio News is saying debit cards also…
If you have shoppped at Winners or HomeSense using a credit or debit card, your safest course of action is to cancel the credit/debit card(s) and set up a new one.
UPDATE: It’s credit cards only - [...]

How many of you geeks support a not so knowledgeable relative or friend? I’ve done it a lot, and there are several difficulties I have:

My ear gets sore from pressing the phone to it; or

I get frustrated because the other person has trouble doing what I’m telling them to; or

I have to tell [...]