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I’m paranoid about the web, and with good reason.
The #1 way hackers get into computers today is through your web browser from an infected website. The battle for control of your computer has spread from e-mail and attachments. Another battlefront has opened up on your web browser. A large number of big-name sites have been hacked recently and nobody is completely sure just what the hackers made off with. Hackers use DNS spoofing to trick computers into coming to an infected website, so you can’t completely be sure that you ended up on the website you intended to visit. They also buy up common misspellings of big sites to catch anyone that makes a typo.
Hackers have been using SQL injection vulnerabilities to break into websites for years (it is in fact one of the primary ways hackers get into a server), and these vulnerabilities still go unpatched. Now they are infecting websites in order to set up complex computer/browser/plugin fingerprinting engines that detect vulnerable versions. These engines deliver attacks custom-tailored to infect the visitor’s computer with slimy botware. Take out the cookies, pop-ups, plugins and JavaScript and you’ve stripped your attack surface these engines can attack, down to just your web browser. But this makes browsing less user friendly and a lot more frustrating in the short term, and confusing for people who aren’t technical.
Of course, whenever someone starts talking about a really secure platform, the Mac fanboys jump right in to tell me how secure Apple MacOS is–never mind that the MacOS/Safari combo gets hacked every year (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010,2011) during PWN2OWN at CANSECWEST. Never mind that the hackers have now developed a crimeware kit for the Mac, which means Mac users will need to be on the lookout for a deluge of malware from now on.
With so much dangerous malware and so many threats, how do I stay secure online?
Internet Explorer 9: Overview
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 with a new, slim, tabbed interface. Here’s a look at the new Microsoft Web browser.
Continue readingCisco Security Agent is being retired.
- End of Life: June 11, 2010
- End of Sale: December 10, 2010
SEE: EoS EoL for the Cisco Security Agent [Cisco Security Agent] – Cisco Systems.
I just set up Windows 7 on my home workstation tonight and I’m relatively impressed with the result, which for Microsoft, is saying something. I’m planning a full review later. Stay Tuned!
K9 Web Protection
From: BlueCoat K9 Web Protection
(http://www1.k9webprotection.com/getk9/download-software.php)
Price: Free, up-to-date, Highly Recommended
Supported OS: Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista; Mac OS X 10.4.7 and later
BlueCoat manufactures security devices providing Web Content Filtering for corporate enterprises. They also make a parental control application called K9 Web Protection which is free for home users. It is an excellent balance of filtering capability and ease of use and has a lot of options to help parents set limits on web browsing and block unsafe or inappropriate sites. What you get is pretty impressive, given that it is free.
I'm a heavy user of Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Tasks especially. One major frustration I have with the redesigned Office 2007 productivity suite is that Outlook Tasks now have a default due date of "TODAY". So how do you change the default? Continue reading