Tag: security
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Understanding Email Headers
One of the most popular ways for people to get infected by malware is through email. One of my first online jobs was working for a company that is involved in email spam filtering. I still work for that company occasionally, and while it’s true that the technology to filter email has gotten more advanced,…
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The Quest to Cripple Encryption
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it looks like the Attorney General (as well as law enforcement in general) doesn’t understand how encryption works. At a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in late July Barr lamented the expanding presence of encryption. In the speech, Barr is trying to play consumers (that use and benefit…
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Facebook Study: New Name, Old Violations
Facebook Study is a new (Android-only) way for Facebook to worm its way into your phone.
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Forget Floods and Earthquakes – Ransomware Takes Out Cities
The newest danger for cities isn’t natural disasters, it’s outdated software.
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Facebook: Dumb or Evil?
There’s been lots of pretty negative news coming out of Facebook over the past few years. I’ve only touched on a couple of things (smartphone privacy, social engineering), but it’s looking more and more like Facebook is either grossly incompetant or a bad actor when it comes to respecting their customers information and privacy. The…
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WinRAR Vulnerability Leaves Millions of Users at Risk
If you’ve been a computer user for any length of time, you’ve run across compressed files. In the old days, you’d have to download a separate program to be able to deal with these compressed files, at least on Windows. Thankfully, current versions of Windows now come with the ability to handle compressed archives. There…
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Password Security Is No Joke
It’s no secret that online security is more important now than it was a decade ago. One of my own personal pet peeves, though, is the constant use of very bad password practices that are used by lots of people (me included)! Password Safety It’s become fairly common knowledge that having a long and strong…
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Site Reveals Dangers of Free Android Apps
While it’s pretty commonly known that the Google Play store is much less restrictive than the iOS App Store, it’s worth realizing that while that does make Android potentially more flexible, it also means users have a much great responsibility to ensure protection of their own data. Whether or not users have the time, experience,…
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Social Media Paranoia: The New Normal?
Security on social media is a constant balancing act. Lots of memes, quizzes, or trending topics look harmless, but if the whole Cambridge Analytica fiasco has taught us anything about social media’s potential pitfalls, paranoia is a much better (and safer) default attitude to have. The 10-Year Challenge Danger One thing that seems especially popular…