Headlines of note
Interesting ‘news’ items today.
* PayPal Vulnerability Allows Hackers to Steal All Your Money
* Supercookies are back, and they’re as unappealing as ever
“Supercookies are back in force. But if supercookies are so great for consumers, why aren’t mobile carriers bragging about using them?” Read more..
* Scanner identifies thousands of malicious Android apps on Google Play, other markets
“A team of researchers have created an app vetting scanner referred to as “MassVet,” and they used it to identify more than 127,000 potentially harmful applications (PHA) in more than 30 Android markets – including Google Play.” Read more..
* The Internet of Things is a safety issue, and therefore a business risk
“When you merge the physical and the digital, it’s not just about InfoSec any more. People’s lives could be at risk.” Read more..
* Adobe Flash steadily heading toward demise
“After multiple malvertising campaigns on major ad networks, including Yahoo and AdSpirit.de, as well as the disclosure of major vulnerabilities, companies have begun banning Adobe Flash ads on their websites.” Read more..
[ Well.. that’s about 5 years too late.. But, better late than blah blah. ]
* Here’s How Iranian Hackers Can Hack Your Gmail Accounts
“Hackers are getting smarter in fooling us all, and now they are using sophisticated hacking schemes to get into your Gmail. Yes, Iranian hackers have now discovered a new way to fool Gmail’s tight security system by bypassing its two-step verification – a security process that requires a security code (generally sent via SMS) along with the password in order to log into Gmail account.” Read more..
* Warning! How Hackers Could Hijack Your Facebook Fan Page With This Trick
“Facebook bounty hunter Laxman Muthiyah from India has recently discovered his third bug of this year in the widely popular social network website that just made a new record by touching 1 Billion users in a single day. At the beginning of the year, Laxman discovered a serious flaw in Facebook graphs that allowed him to view or probably delete others photo album on Facebook, even without …” Read more..
Oh, yes, there’s more, but…
Today’s quote: “It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Warning: Critical Patch for Windows Issued
Oh, yes.. more of the same. Act now and protect yourself. * Microsoft releases emergency patch for all versions of Windows
“The flaw, affecting Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1, can allow a hacker to take over a machine.” Read more..
And when I went to Start>Windows Update, I saw this new item..
No, thanks. I never want the first version of any thing.
Other news: More Items Like This * UCLA Health hit by hack; medical data on 4.5 million people exposed
“The LA-based university health system says the data stolen was not encrypted.” Read more..
[Silly me! I thought there were laws making such PII mandatory-encrypted.. ]
* * *
Today’s quote: “Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.” ~ Robert Green Ingersoll Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories. Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
More bad security news
Well, right after (“Patch Tuesday”) major software vendors released Updates to patch several major security vulnerabilities, news of a very serious database software flaw (named “venom”) makes the news (click here to read more).
Ho hum. Not terribly surprised. This is just the flavor of the week..
So, here’s something maybe a little more useful to some of you.. How To Deal With Difficult & Toxic People
Today’s quote: “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.” ~ Lao Tzu
Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Important things… on a Thursday?
The topic today is “Important Things”. I will warn you up front – I am not going to be too rigid in my definition…
1) Windows owners will want, I believe, to apply a ‘quick fix’ Microsoft has made available for us now. This closes a ‘vulnerability’ that the Online Evil Doers are using to exploit machines (aka “hack”). Eventually, this fix will be released via Windows Updates, but those who want it now can click on my screenshot (below), scroll down a bit, and then click the webpage’s Fixit Install button.
click on image to go to MS website
2) Watch out for ‘Microsoft Tech Support’ scams (telephone)
“I’m from Microsoft and I’m here to help.” At least, that’s what reader MP thought he heard when he answered the phone. It wasn’t.
Con artists all over the world are bilking big bucks out of unsuspecting Microsoft customers — including savvy Windows users.
3) You may have heard the hype about the Internet “running out of addresses”. Well, it’s true. Those who originally designed TCP/IP never dreamed it would be used publicly and by so many; (it was not DARPANET‘s purpose) and so, a new addressing scheme is in the works – IPv6.
This article, Vint Cerf, ‘Father’ of Internet, Weighs In on IPv4 Exhaustion, puts things into clear and simple perspective quite nicely (and is free of “media hysteria” {for ratings}.)
4) I am rather impressed with the Canon MX870. This review seems a bit off to me.. as I have not yet witnessed ‘print lag’, but have seen speedy, automatic duplex copying on a does-it-all. As well as high quality color photo printing. For $140… it’s making me rethink my interest in color lasers…
5) I sat up when I saw this title, Fear of liability is putting a stranglehold on common sense (I wonder if the Courts ever considered that… Actually, no, I don’t ‘wonder’. I am pretty sure they haven’t. Who factors in the Law Of Unintended Consequences?) A good read by Toni Bowers.
“We’ve probably all known a boss or co-worker who is both mean and incompetent. Why are some of these people allowed to retain their jobs?”
6) Egypt Flips Internet Kill Switch. Will the U.S.?
“What can an undemocratic government to do to control its people? If tear gas and rubber bullets don’t work, take away their Twitter and Facebook access, of course. And if the people still don’t fall into line, cut off their Internet and mobile phone access entirely.”
7) High school cybersecurity competition kicks off
The Center for Internet Security’s US Cyber Challenge today kicked off an online competition to identify high school students possibly interested in cybersecurity career. The Cyber Foundations competition is part of US Cyber Challenge’s overall goal of finding 10,000 Americans interested in pursuing cybersecurity as practitioners or researchers.
8) Best For Last Department:
We have a very special event coming up. An event of such significance and meaning that life, for many, comes to a stop, and we gather friends and family together to be with us when we witness it.
An event of such significance and meaning that advertisers actually produce halfway decent ads to show us for it. And everyone “tunes in”. I’m talking, of course, about Super Bowl XLV. And many of you are wondering what my pick is.
… well… truth is, for the first time that I can remember — I don’t have one.
A reader sent me this: “I just saw a report on our local tv news that women have more of a chance of a heart attack watching the Super Bowl than men. Here is the link for you to read… http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2011/01/31/study-examines-super-bowls-heart-attacks/
And another reader sent me this ‘quote for your day’:
Physical age is not a true measure of a person
Judge a person by his good work, knowledge, practical experience,
His physical and mental health
And his love and respect towards you and the beauty of nature.
Thank you, Dear Readers (you know who you are).
Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
Apple releases 41 patches for Leopard, Flash
Keeping your software patched and up-to-date is a vital part of safe(r) computing these days. I cannot recommend enthusiastically enough that you enable “automatic” updating wherever and whenever it is offered.
A “patch” (aka “update”) closes ‘holes’ (aka “vulnerabilities”) that hackers are “exploiting” to take control of, or plant malware on, (your) machines.
There is an active exploit out there for the Flash player (Those animations on Webpages) that affects anyone who has not disabled Flash– whether you’re running Windows, Mac, or Linux.
If you like having Flash animations, you should visit this page on the Adobe Website which will analyze your version of Flash Player to see if you need to update.
Mac users should visit Apple Update and get these important updates.
Today’s free link: A repeat today, because you really should know about this free tool: the Secunia Software Inspector will scan your machine’s installed programs and determine if they’re out-of-date, or there’s patches missing– and it will help you resolve the problems it finds.
Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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