Posted on Wed, Jun 09, 2010 @ 05:53 PM
According to Gawker.com Apple has suffered another huge embarrassment due to a
security breach of at&t' website. 114,00 iPad owners email addresses have been leaked and this is not just any email list this list includes some very exclusive people, NY Times CEO Janet Robinson, Diane Sawyer, Harvey Weinstein, Michael Bloomberg even white house chief of staff Rahm Emanuel just to name a few. It is actually possible that the number is higher and it could be that every single 3g ipad owner in the US has been exposed.
to see the whole article click here
It is my personal opinion that this is just another reason for Apple to move awy from at&t's horrible network and service to another carriers network like verizon or just open it up the iPad and iPhone to all carrier.
Posted on Mon, May 10, 2010 @ 04:22 PM
Twitter announced that it had fixed a bug that allowed users to "force" other users to follow them, although the fix included resetting many victims' followers back to zero.
We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we're aware and this too should shortly be resolved," Twitter said in a company blog post Monday
Twiiter became afflicted with the bug that forced some celbrity tweeters such asAshton Kutcher and others to follow a fake Twitter account. The security glitch also allowed members to add on as many followers to their own accounts as they wanted by tweeting "accept" and than "@" followed by teh twitter usernameof their choosing - including those of high profile athlets & celebrities
It is not knownhow long teh bug has allowed users to create their own twitter followings. And while twitter amins have already correctedd the flaw, they now have to deaal with a myriad of victims whose twitter account followings were set back to zero.
"Follow count display is set to 0 and follow/unfollow is temporarily offline while we fix a bug," Twitter said earlier Monday.
What is your thought, Should twitter have fixed the bug then set back followers to zeero or just left the followers as is and let teh user cancel them if they did not want to follow that account?
http:// twitter.com/painfreeit
Posted on Tue, Mar 09, 2010 @ 04:17 PM
Did you know that a Wi-Fi connection uses a radio link to connect to the Internet or other computers and the connection is not guaranteed to be secure?
What it boils down to is luck. If you are lucky, the Wi-Fi connection you find in a hotel or airport will be safe. If you are lucky, no hackers will be sitting around waiting for easy prey to pop on the Wi-Fi connection you found. Are you willing to risk the safety of your company and the data on your computer just to check in online while you are on the go?
Don’t compromise the security of your data for FREE Internet! It is all too easy to find a wireless hotspot these days. Coffee shops and restaurants even post signs in their front windows to advertise FREE Internet connections. Follow these 4 Wi-Fi safety tips and protect yourself against clever thieves.
1. Disable your wireless card’s ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) mode now! If you don’t know what an ad-hoc connection is, you probably don’t use it. Ad-hoc sometimes called computer-to-computer networking, allows two computers to be linked together. This type of connection may be used during a meeting to share documents or an Internet connection. Turning off this feature on your laptop will prevent hackers from connecting directly to your computer to steal data.
2. Assume you are being monitored by hackers on all free Wi-Fi connections. You can never really be sure if your connection is encrypted or secure when you do not have control over the connection. Turn on your firewall to protect yourself from computer-savvy hackers just waiting to break into your computer, browse your unprotected files or watch your online activity.
3. Don’t connect to your work computer without a Virtual Private Network (VPN). On an unencrypted connection, hackers can easily follow your actions and even hitch a ride with you right into your company’s system if you do not use a VPN. The worst part, businesses usually don’t know that their networks have been breached until it is too late. A VPN allows you to access your internal network or computer at the office using the Internet but through an encrypted tunnel so you don’t have to rely on the hotspot’s security to keep you safe.
What if you need to process a few payments online? While many companies, banks, and online shopping establishments now enforce stringent security policies, be aware that your email providers relaxed regulations could be dangerous. Even emailed financial information on a free Wi-Fi connection can be intercepted. Unfortunately, this kind of theft is difficult to track and even harder to prove. So, be careful out there!
4. Turn off your laptop’s wireless capabilities when you are not using them,
especially when traveling. Most laptops search for Wi-Fi signals automatically and the connection could stay open even when you store your laptop in your shoulder bag to eat a meal at the airport or board a plane. Hackers look for computers that are connected but show no activity so they can dive in and take advantage of the free data buffet. Don’t leave your computer open for hackers to stop in for a bite.
A friend in your corner… If you need help preparing your laptop for your next business trip, give us a call. We can help you turn off the ad-hoc connection, turn on your firewall, and determine if your connection to the office is secure. Don’t risk your company or personal data on a free Wi-Fi connection while you are away from the office.
Posted on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 @ 12:07 AM
December 2009 a popular website named RockYou.com experienced a horrifying breach. A clever hacker managed to penetrate their systems stealing account information for 32 million users.
Social websites. A weakness for users?
RockYou and other social sites like FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, require personal information
like your e-mail address, your full name, and sometimes even your birthday or address to verify you are
a real human. While this information seems pretty generic to users, thieves gather this data to build profiles
on unsuspecting users. These profiles are ultimately used for identity theft or hacking personal accounts like for your bank.
Many people use weak passwords or the same passwords for multiple websites.
This is like leaving your car door open when you go o a baseball game. While there are many cars in the lot, a thief will steal the one that is easiest to access. If your password is easy to guess or is the same on your social sites and your e-mail or even your banking website, hackers will simply plug in the password over and over to see what they can compromise. In this digital age of instant gratification, even hackers are automating their processes to increase efficiency.
Hackers love password checkers.
Did you now that password checking software programs can run all 308 million possible letter combinations for a six letter password (using all upper or all lower case letters) in under 3 minutes
(www.hq.nasa.gov)? Quite impressive, but also startling.
You can protect yourself with these three golden
rules of creating strong passwords:
1. Make sure your password is 8 or more characters
in length.
2. Use a mix of the three basic mediums available:
letters (both upper and lower), numbers,
and special characters like !@#$%^?* or &.
3. Don't use only names or words from the dictionary,
they are easily identified by hackers.
Following these three simple criteria is easy, but
sometimes the password you come up with is difficult
to remember, right?
Try using first letter mnemonics to fool those evil hackers.
Think up a short sentence
you can easily remember like, "My daughter, Joy,
has 500 Barbies!" Then take the first letter of each word and the special characters in the sentence to create a impenetrable password you can chuckle about each time you use it,"Md,J,h500B!" Now that is a password hackers won't find in the dictionary. Keep in mind, the more bizarre your
sentence is, the more likely you are to remember it.
Let's take a look at password trends.
Just reviewing statistics pulled from the 32 million folks unfortunately entangled in the RockYou hack, we can clearly see a poor password trend on this social site.
Roughly 30% of users chose passwords whose
length is equal or less than six characters.
Almost 60% of users chose their passwords
from a limited set of alpha-numeric characters,
meaning letters or numbers next to each other
on a standard keyboard.
Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words,
dictionary words or trivial passwords they
could easily remember.
The most common password among the 32
million RockYou users compromised was
"123456".
(Impervia.com white paper titled Consumer Password Worst Practices)
What does this mean for users?
Wimpy,simple, weak passwords won't keep your private
information safe. If you have to, write more complex passwords and keep them in your wallet or purse. Better yet, jot down reminders of what your passwords are just in case someone gets hold of your cheat sheet.