Security

Sometimes it is difficult not to have some sympathy for the Internet security people. It seems that they have an uphill battle and often the headlines are not encouraging. For example, earlier this month, Gregg Keizer reported “Windows 7 more vulnerable to malware than Vista, says researcher.”* Then there are reports saying that Twitter has [...]

There used to be the belief that if one stays away from “bad” Web sites, then malware is not a problem. That is not true, as a recent example with the New York Times illustrated. The popular news Web site was compromised, and the trusted site was serving up malicious ads:
The malicious ad took [...]

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 stop [...]

There are daily items in the news about identity theft. The obvious consequence is an unexpected financial disaster. However, it can be worse. There can be crimes committed under a stolen identity and warrants issued for the person who has had his/her identity used. And yet, it can be worse.
Identity theft can be a matter [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

One of the absurdities that is circulating is that even hackers are suffering in this economy. With the tough economic situation, supposedly hackers are having more competition. This is just one of the theories to explain why there is a steady increase in malware and criminal activity such as phishing and identity theft.
Whether it is [...]

At this time of year, some of our readers who are back to university and colleges have set up new email accounts. Some educational institutions require this in order to broadcast messages to its students. Unfortunately, this is just another avenue that hackers / criminals can use to access the computer. Spam is not only [...]

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 [...]

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 / [...]