March 12, 2010
SECURITY POSTSCRIPT
Take a minute to make sure your security software is running. If you’ve switched to Microsoft Security Essentials, look for the reassuring checkmark down by the clock.
Two people reported problems with MSE in the last couple of days – no icon visible and an error message when they tried to launch the program from the Start menu. It has to be related to the upgrade released a couple of days ago but I can’t find any other reports and my own experiences installing the upgrade on 10 or 15 computers so far have all been straightforward […] continued
March 10, 2010
MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS UPGRADE
Microsoft has rolled out a minor upgrade to its free security program, Microsoft Security Essentials. A few days ago I began running into computers with an MSE icon by the clock that had an exclamation point in it. Take a look at your icon! If it looks like the picture on the left, double-click on it to start the program.
It takes a single click to install the upgrade. The process takes 2-3 minutes – it only seems like a long time if you’re staring at the screen impatiently drumming your fingers.
Microsoft has released […] continued
February 26, 2010
GROOVESHARK – MALWARE WARNING
Be careful out there!
I went to Grooveshark tonight to listen to some music. (Here’s what I wrote about Grooveshark recently. For obvious reasons, I’m not going to link directly to the site tonight.)
Within a few seconds, the Internet Explorer window vanished and was replaced by a typical malware window claiming that my computer was infected with terrible diseases.
The malware came from a poisoned advertisement. Web sites that display advertising don’t put the ads there individually. Instead, they sign up with an ad network that’s responsible for supplying the ads to fill a space […] continued
February 25, 2010
CONFIDENTIAL FOLDERS IN SMALL BUSINESS NETWORKS
Here’s a procedure for people working in a very small business that don’t want to call me for every routine task.
Very small businesses frequently have a single folder for all company or firm files. It’s almost always mapped to a drive letter, so everyone stores all work files in the “N:\” drive or the “P:\” drive. Everyone has full permission to add, edit, and delete files and folders in the COMPANY or FIRMDOCS folder. There are subfolders for each client or project, so things get a little cluttered and messy after a while, but it works well […] continued
February 18, 2010
MORE HACKING ATTACKS
The Wall Street Journal reports today: “Hackers in Europe and China successfully broke into computers at nearly 2,500 companies and government agencies over the last 18 months in a coordinated global attack that exposed vast amounts of personal and corporate secrets to theft, according to a computer-security company that discovered the breach.”
This is apparently not related to the attacks from China that caused Google to make noises last month about closing its operations in that country. In fact, the New York Times calmly notes that this is a relatively small blip in the world of compromised […] continued
January 25, 2010
FIREFOX 3.6
Mozilla has released Firefox version 3.6, with increased security, faster display of web pages and Javascript, and some new features for add-ins and themes. Here’s a description of the new release and a video demonstrating some of the new features.
If you are running Firefox, you can get the new version by clicking on Help / Check for updates. Presumably it will soon be offered automatically when you launch Firefox.
Switching from IE is easy: start at this page and you’ll be given lots of information about what to expect. Firefox imports favorites and passwords from IE […] continued
January 20, 2010
UPDATES
I’ve prepared a list of computer safety tips for years. Over time, the advice to keep critical programs up to date has moved to the top spot on the list. You don’t have to spend all your time reading technology news but you do have to be able to identify which reminders are legitimate when they pop up from the system tray.
There’s a weird news story to illustrate why updates are important: the entire network of computers at the University of Exeter has been locked down and taken offline for days because a virus has […] continued
January 19, 2010
COMPUTER SAFETY 2010
Here’s an updated list of ways to be safe and secure with your computer.
Install updates from Microsoft promptly. Look in the lower right corner for the gold shield (WinXP) or update icon (Win7/Vista).
Install updates to Acrobat, Flash, Java, and Quicktime promptly. Each will alert you from the lower right corner.
- An easy and safe way to keep up with updates: visit Secunia Online Inspector once a month and follow its suggestions.
Install antivirus software and keep it up to date.
Know the name of your antivirus software. If you get a security
[…] continued
January 16, 2010
GOOGLE AND CHINA
The technical side of Google’s blowup in China is shaping up as an explosive story about technology and hacking. Keep an eye on this one!
On Tuesday Google announced that it would no longer comply with Chinese censorship demands and might cease operating in China altogether. As I understand it, Google has set up a separate search page that operates within China and censors some search results as requested by the Chinese government. I believe Google also cooperates with the government in blocking access to Google.com. Update: Apparently Google.com can be reached from Chinese computers but search results are […] continued
January 15, 2010
PREVIEW SPAM WITH EXCHANGE DEFENDER
Exchange Defender has a new tool for previewing quarantined messages.
Exchange Defender is the service used by many businesses to quarantine spam and scan incoming and outgoing mail for viruses before delivering mail to the company server. Exchange Defender sends a daily report listing all quarantined spam, as well as providing add-in software for Outlook and an online control panel for reviewing quarantined messages.
(Exchange Defender is well suited for any business running Small Business Server; almost all my clients with Microsoft Small Business Server rely on Exchange Defender. You need a partner to set it up for […] continued
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