Apple Malware “NetWierd” Steals Passwords

A rather poorly written malware application for Apple equipment has been offered for sale on the Internet by malware writers who hope to sell it to other cyber-criminals.  once installed on your Mac, it sets up a connection with a server in the Netherlands, which provides remote access, command and control functions.  It also looks through the password cache of your web browsers, looking for passwords to your online accounts.  For a more complete report see the article on Continue Reading →

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The Problem of Easy Passwords

I just read an article on Ars Technica that gave me the willies.  This is a longer article that explains why passwords are failing to do the job anymore, even longer, more difficult passwords that contain upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols. 

This little beauty shown below uses the graphics processing units of 8 AMD Radeon graphics cards to crack passwords.  At $12,000, it ain’t cheap, but it can process the entire key space of 8 ...

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Microsoft Updates Logo

It has been 25 years since Microsoft introduced the 4 color waving flag logo with Windows 95.  They have announced plans to update it in conjunction with the release of Windows 8.  The new logo is shown below.

Microsoft new logo

While this log is still quite similar to the previous version, it shares the same tiled look as the Windows 8 user interface.  You can see the short video on YouTube or read ...

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Using the TOR Network to Stay Anonymous Online

In an article post from Tech Gurus’ Moyo Ogunjale, where he discusses the issue of searching the deep web or hidden web, he goes into some detail on how to use the TOR Network not only to search for the hidden web, to to communicate anonymously online.

The TOR network stands for The Onion Router, and is named presumably because as you peel back the layers looking for the identity of the user, you just get another layer.  The ...

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Hotel Locks Easily Hacked

As someone always travels with a laptop, smartphone, and other expensive toys, and who spends a bit of time staying in hotels from time to time, I am always reluctant to leave my trove in the room, usually opting to take my laptop with me and keep it locked in the car truck (like that is really more secure.)

We recently stayed at a Holiday Inn in Rochester MN where this issue was brought to mind.  The keys that the registration ...

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Philips Passwords Exposed by r00tbeer

A new hacktivist group named “r00tbeersec” cracked some databases at Philips, the huge Dutch electronics company, and published them on the Internet.  As reported on Sophos, this trove included on database of 400 passwords that was stored in plain text.  This is just bad management by the IT folks at Phillips.  The interesting bit is some of the passwords in the list were just so simple to begin with.  What follows are excellent examples of just plain bad ...

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Mobile Devices and Security

A tip of the cap to the blog of Johnson McCann Insurance for this article.  Here are three great ideas for managing the risk of owning a mobile data device such as a smart phone or a tablet.

Physical Damage:  The biggest threat to the safety of your device is accidental damage that occurs when you drop your phone or tablet, or sit on it, or slam it in a car door or trunk lid.  The best idea here ...

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