Archive for the 'Security' Category


Facebook Fan Check Virus

Monday, September 7th, 2009

There’s a rumor going around and a lot of unconfirmed information that a facebook application known as fan check is actually a virus. I’m seeing several claims that if someone becomes a fan of this facebook app (which the page claims is undergoing changes and currently unavailable)… well if someone becomes a fan in the […]

Clever Smitfraud….

Monday, August 18th, 2008

Sometimes you see a malware implementation that you have to have respect for the cleverness/ingenuity of the design. These pests can be dastardly to get rid of, but essentially this pest was occasionally popping up a “windows integrity scanner” installer. It wasn’t frequent, but it was persistent and the user was afraid that it was […]

Malwarebytes Anti-malware

Monday, June 30th, 2008

I’m usually a bit leery of new antispyware products. I do a first look at the rogue antispyware lists and just try to be as cautious as possible when moving away from the tools that I’ve tried and tested. I downloaded malwarebytes anti-malware very reluctantly to clean up a machine with “virus isolator” that nothing […]

Virus Warning – Email Subjects – IRS Notice – Important Information from the IRS

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

I’ve seen a couple of these emails today and wanted to give a post just to warn people that these are bogus and you should NOT follow the link suggested in the email. I HOPE no one reading this falls for it, but the “tax software update” that they are pushing is a virus. (SHOCK!) […]

Varying Degrees of Password Security

Monday, March 3rd, 2008

Last week we talked about creating strong passwords, but should we use different passwords for every site? It’s best practice to do just that. Do they all have to be really hard passwords? Again ideally, yes. So, how can we keep up password spreadsheet? Big sheet of paper? Password management program. Some advantages of password […]

Creating Strong Passwords that are Also Easy to Remember

Monday, February 25th, 2008

Making up passwords is something we have to do almost everyday it seems. Banking web sites, forums, email accounts, webhosting accounts, mail lists, etc. But it seems that making passwords is one of the things that some people have the hardest time doing. Maybe it’s not that it’s hard to make a password, but hard […]

Windows updates for February could set record

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

There could be a record number of vulnerabilities addressed next week when Microsoft releases an expected dozen updates for its Windows and Office products. (According to Brian Krebs at the Security Fix.) Tuesday February 13th is the date scheduled for the release of updates. One critical udpate will affect Microsoft’s security software (onecare/defender/etc.) 3 patches […]

Sony rootkit settlement

Wednesday, January 31st, 2007

Here’s a followup to one of the first big stories that I posted on… the Sony rootkit – there has been a settlement with the FTC (Federal Trade Commision). It has yet to be approved but, affected customers could see up to $150 to cover cost of repair (rootkit removal/etc.) They(Sony) must also allow the […]

Extended support for XP Home and Media center

Monday, January 29th, 2007

I want to make a note of this here… Microsoft has announced that XP Home and Media center editions will get extended support on par with that of XP Pro. Essentially this means security updates for these versions of the OS should be available until 2014. Previously support for XP Home was to have ended […]

Thank you NC department of revenue…

Saturday, January 27th, 2007

I heard on the local news last night that the North Carolina Department of Revenue has lost a laptop that had ~30,000 state taxpayers information on it. Social Security numbers/etc… The report I saw that the state has setup a hotline to “teach citizens about identity theft” and have sent letters to those affected. Thanks… […]

Google
 
Web www.averyjparker.com