Firefox Users – Upgrade to Firefox 59 for Privacy Improvements

Firefox 59, the latest version of Mozilla’s popular web browser, has several privacy and security improvements that users may be interested in.  Our standard recommendation is always to use the newest browser versions, so upgrading to Firefox 59 should be a no-brainer.

Firefox 59 had added an option to block the most serious privacy concerns in a new Settings menu.  You can find the available options by opening the Settings menu (the “stack of ...

Continue Reading →
9
APR
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity

, , ,

Weekend Update

A quick Saturday digest of cybersecurity news articles from other sources.

Photographer Tutorial Company Reacts To Pirates By Screwing With Them Hilariously

Great story about dealing with creative content pirates on the Internet.

What Will an Artificial Intelligence Future Look Like?

Great article from the Smithsonian takes a ...

Continue Reading →
7
APR
0

artificial intellegence, authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, encryption, robotics, Web Design, Weekend Update

, ,

Facebook to Simplify Privacy and Security Dashboard

In the aftermath of the story about Cambridge Analytica violating the privacy of Facebook users, Facebook has announced plans to centralize and streamline the tortuous task of managing your privacy and security settings.

These changes are important, but actually do not solve the root problem, which is Facebook’s rather laissez-faire manner of managing app developers and data integrators who use the Facebook platform.

The promised  improvements are:

  • Creating a simpler ...
Continue Reading →
6
APR
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Facebook

Income Taxes – File Early to Beat the Hacker

The early bird gets the worm.  The second mouse gets the cheese.  The late tax filer gets nothing.  Why?  April is tax fraud time.  The best way to avoid losing your tax refund to a scammer is to file as early as possible, before the tax fraudster can get it done.  Having said that, this information would be more valuable in January than in April.  From US-CERT.

Tax ...

Continue Reading →
2
APR
1

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Identity Theft, passwords, Phishing

,

Tomorrow is World Backup Day

Which means we all get into our cars and spend the day driving in reverse?  Not quite.  What this means for some of your that today is the day you quit kicking that can down the road and set up a data backup for your systems.  Hardware, software, cloud – pick your poison and set it up.

For those of you who are already using a backup solution, today would be ...

Continue Reading →
30
MAR
1

backup, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity

Something You Are: Typing Cadence

What would it be like if you could identify yourself and authenticate your account by the way you type?  A Romanian company, TypingDNA, has created a Chrome extension that does just that.

I am a big advocate of two-factor authentication, but there are some problems.  One of the three types of authentication is biometrics, which is “something you are.”  NIST, in SP 800-63B ...

Continue Reading →
28
MAR
0

authentication, Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, passwords, Security

Using Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity

The problem with cybersecurity it that an attacker only needs to exploit a single vulnerability, while a defender needs to protect everything.  Defense has evolved from perimeter defense, to defending all endpoints, to adding automated detection and prevention appliances, to universal threat management that looks at not just north/south traffic passing through the Internet gateway, but also east/west traffic across the LAN ...

Continue Reading →
26
MAR
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, Security

Why Do I Need a VPN?

Did you know that most traffic across the Internet travels in an unencrypted state.  And when you make an open wireless connection  in a coffee bar or other public location, the radio connection is unsecured and  unencrypted, too.  This traffic travels as plain text, and can be read by anyone with the skills to intercept the traffic and open the data packets.

We ...

Continue Reading →
23
MAR
1

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, encryption, surveillance, wireless

, ,

USB Exploits Pose Security Threats

Often when I am writing about cybersecurity, the situation seems worse than ever.  But its not more dangerous than its ever been, it dangerous in ways that its never been.

A team of Israeli researchers have cataloged 29 different USB exploits and attacks.  These attacks can come disguised as a smartphone charger connection, or may come hidden on a USB thumb drive.  Plugging an ...

Continue Reading →
21
MAR
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity, malware, ransomware, smartphones

Spectre and Meltdown Chip Based Security Vulnerabilities – Where Are We Now?

In January we learned about a pair of cybersecurity vulnerabilities called Spectre and Meltdown.  Discovered last summer by different security researchers, these vulnerabilities are proving difficult to mitigate because the problem exists in the way central processing units (CPUs) have been designed and manufactured.  These processor cores are at the heart of all computer hardware, from PCs and servers, to ...

Continue Reading →
19
MAR
0

Computers and Internet, cybersecurity

,

Page 23 of 61 «...10202122232425...»