Security

Sometimes, there's more going on than will fit into one post. Here are a few more links that caught my eye over the past 24 hours. In IT Blogwatch, Facebook un-munges email addresses, Fraunhofer lets you sign contracts on the phone, Symbian goes free, and Jonathan Schwartz tweets his final goodbyes.

Microsoft has confirmed a thoroughly revolting vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer. It means that bad guys can read your files remotely. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers panic and pray for patches. Not to mention embracing life...
(MSFT)

Having a security freeze in place slowed down my approval for an "instant" 12-month interest-free loan on an iMac -- and gave me time to rethink an impulse purchase.

From time to time, I hear security vendors make claims that make no sense. In fact, let's not mince words: I sometimes hear security vendors lie. There, I said it. This week on Security Levity, I want to talk about one such example...

Google's awarding prizes of $500 to $1337 for security bugs in Chrome and Chromium. So fire up that download, elite vulnerability hunters. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers look after the pennies. Not to mention GHP is back in town ...
(GOOG)

Newly hired networking pilot fish is tasked by the almost-as-new IT director with helping to create a cohesive network for the company's 14 remote sites -- and that's no small task.

I saw an interesting article in New Scientist this morning: "To beat spam, turn its own weapons against it". I thought I'd talk a little about it in this week's Security Levity...

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Last night, a major tech blog was hacked. While you were sleeping, TechCrunch was dead to the world. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers wonder if it's connected to Apple's announcements tomorrow, pointing fingers at Rackspace security. Not to mention Happy Australia Day...

Either open-source software is open, or it's not. But a popular Arab blog charges that SourceForge has blocked all access from Syria, Sudan, Iran, North Korea and Cuba.

Consumers with a paid anti-virus subscription are advised to act quickly in getting free protection from the likes of Avast!, AVG, or Microsoft.

It's time to download Firefox 3.6. Just released by those ever-so-nice people at Mozilla, it improves performance, checks your addons, boosts stability, and adds a nifty 'persona' feature. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers shovel the bits. Not to mention First-Person Tetris...

Today, Microsoft is issuing an emergency patch for Internet Explorer and Mozilla is releasing the latest version of Firefox. Make the right browser upgrade: Go Firefox.

Microsoft will soon be releasing patches for the vulnerabilities highlighted by the recent Google China hacks. The so-called Operation Aurora malware exploited bugs in IE, causing Redmond to issue fixes outside its usual second-Tuesday schedule. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers dig into the details and continue to point fingers at China. Not to mention Farmville!!!
(MSFT) (GOOG)

There is a critical security bug in Adobe's Shockwave software and everyone using it should upgrade to the latest version. You can test which, if any, version of Shockwave is installed at an Adobe tester page. But, do you really need it?

This week on Security Levity, a sneaky trick that some spammers are trying, in an attempt to stay on the right side of the law. When we think of 'spammers', we usually picture an offshore group of criminal individuals, pushing fake pills from websites that are outside the direct reach of U.S. law. But there's another group of spammers, who are closer to home...

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