Bio

Michael Horowitz wrote his first computer program in 1973 and has been a computer nerd ever since. He spent 20 years working in an IBM mainframe environment as both an application developer and a DB2 DBA. He then spent a few years working in the Research and Development group of a large Wall Street firm. He has also done technical writing and teaching. He is an independent consultant who has long been focused on Defensive Computing. For more see his personal website michaelhorowitz.com. This is a weblog of Michael Horowitz. The opinions expressed here are those of Michael Horowitz and may not represent those of Computerworld.

Latest Posts by Michael
Steve Gibson's Fingerprint service detects SSL man in the middle spying

Secure HTTPS web pages don't need to be decrypted to be spied on. All it takes is some man-in-the-middle proxying. For non-techies, detecting this type of snooping was all but impossible. But now, a new digital certificate fingerprinting service from Steve Gibson (famous for his Security Now podcast), lets us detect secure web pages that aren't entirely what they appear to be. 

April 14, 2013 12:35 PM EDT
Blog: Defensive Computing
There are a dozen known flaws in Java

Oracle released a new version of Java less than a week ago. Yet, there are already a dozen known, un-patched bugs in this latest release (Java 7 update 17). Didn't take long. It never does.

March 10, 2013 5:54 PM EDT
Blog: Defensive Computing
Adobe updates Flash Player yet again

Adobe has released upates to the Flash Player for the second time in four days. 

February 12, 2013 1:54 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
New Java from Oracle. Whoopee. Update ASAP.

Oracle today released updates to both Java 7 and Java 6. These updates fix a ton of security flaws and were rushed out the door because at least one flaw was being actively attacked. Anyone running Java on Windows, Linux. Solaris or OS X Lion and Mountain Lion should update as soon as possible.  Apple also updated their copy of Java 6 for Snow Leopard users.

February 01, 2013 5:58 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
Check your router now, before Lex Luthor does
The DHS and security company Rapid7 have issued warnings about vulnerabilities in the UPnP protocol that leave millions of routers vulnerable. Rapid7 has an easy way to check if your router is vulnerable. If it is, run, don't walk, to your nearest nerd.
January 31, 2013 6:52 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
Yet another Java security flaw discovered - Number 53
The river of security flaws in Java just keeps flowing. Today, January 27th, Adam Gowdiak of Security Enterprises, announced that he has found yet another vulnerability. This one lets an unsigned Java program run inside a web page even when the Java 7 Update 11 security rules should prevent it. 
January 27, 2013 11:41 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
Understanding the new security in Java 7 Update 11
The recently released Java 7 Update 11 changed security rules that had just been introduced last month with Update 10. Here I explain the rules for running Java programs embedded in web pages.
January 22, 2013 1:02 AM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
Oracle patches Java 7 security flaw with Update 11

Oracle just released Java 7 Update 11 to fix the latest Java security flaw. 

January 13, 2013 5:25 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
How to be as safe as possible with Java

Everything you ever wanted to know about the latest Java security flaw and how to live with Java as safely as possible. 

January 12, 2013 11:12 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
How far has Microsoft fallen?

The Surface with Windows RT tablet has fallen off the radar screen.

December 14, 2012 6:10 PM EST
Blog: Defensive Computing
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