TW Blog :: Entries for Security
Motives are causes experienced from withinArthur Schopenhauer
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Critical IE Vulnerabilities
Also relates to Exploder
Take heed of the warnings and save yourself a lot of worry in the future. Spread Firefox!
If browser exploits aren't enough for you, the vulnerabilities in the operating system and office applications just keep coming.
Posted on Oct 13, 2004 at 15:06:35. [Comments for Critical IE Vulnerabilities- 0]
The Anti-Virus Virus
Also relates to The Office
I have found in recent weeks one major cause of interruption has been support assistance to clients whose computers are malfunctioning. In a strange twist of irony, several recent calls have been for indicative viral infection which have actually turned out to be anti-viral infection. There have been no trace of the common imprints left by Sasser, GaoBot and other variants of these deviant worms. Instead the problems appear to have arisen as a result of infectious automatic updates of the anti-virus software which have left required libraries absent from the system. Catch-22 ensues. The AV software has to be disabled for the computer to run, but then it is not possible to retrieve any further repair patches through the automated system. The vendors rarely have any support information on this! I am not going to name names except to say that for three clients I worked with three different products. All three of them a household name - you guess!
As a result of this I decided to delve deeper into the AV product lines on the market. The product that seemed to come out on top in most comparison charts was Bit Defender. I have a client test-driving the professional version with integrated firewall right now. I would be quite keen to join in if I could make the time to hard uninstall all the stray components of my current AV! An evaluation version is available for 30 day trial.
Posted on Jun 20, 2004 at 04:34:44. [Comments for The Anti-Virus Virus- 0]
How Safe Is Your Money?
Also relates to Peregrinations
The other day I received an email with reference to one of my online bank accounts, requesting that I confirm my email address (for security reasons) by supplying my account log-in ID and passwords! I do not feel obliged to mention the (reputable national) bank by name, but it is alarming that spambots and/or hackers are able to acquire email addresses associated with online banking accounts. The email itself was cloaked with the correct domain name for the bank, as was the URL link for confirming details. To further snare the account holder, the requested details had the correct (and quite specific) names used for this particular online bank account.
When I requested verification of the email from the bank, they confirmed they had no association with it, and that other users had also reported receipt. Surely as soon as the scam was first reported, all account holders should have been warned - an unsuspecting account holder could see their account wiped clean in a matter of seconds. I hope that users of internet bank accounts are aware enough not to fall for this kind of scam. Also, that the bank in question reviews its security strategies both externally and internally.
Posted on Oct 28, 2003 at 18:55:34. [Comments for How Safe Is Your Money?- 0]
