Before even starting this one, no I’m not telling you to all go join the Tin Foil Hat Club. This is simply a comparison of the differences between desktops and laptops concerning security. Security features come in two flavors, hardware and software. When you pit the desktop vs. the laptop, which of two has the better security features? Kensington...

Having a good backup strategy can allow you to have a good Plan B in case you lose your data. For many businesses it is a legal requirement as well. The biggest risk group for data loss is businesses who have small LAN setups and standalone computers. That isn’t surprising as many small businesses are uneducated about the importance of backup and do not...

It’s sad to say the average computer user doesn’t heed precautions when using a computer in their favorite coffee shop. No, I’m not talking about making sure passers-by don’t spill coffee on their laptops. I’m talking about basic security measures required to protect their privacy while surfing online via a public wireless connection found in your...

CAPTCHA, a challenge response system in order to deter spam, is one of those things everybody hates. Nobody in the history of the internet has ever said "This is a great idea!" because both users and site administrators can’t stand it. Users find it annoying, and admins feel bad about subjecting their users to it. There are "degrees",...

Challenge questions are those things you answer that are supposed to enhance the security of your account for whatever the account is, be it email, online banking, etc. An example challenge question would be, "In what city were you born?" Inevitably you’re going to be given a challenge question that you don’t have an answer to, such as,...

Like many of you, I have dozens of applications and utilities on my system. However, keeping track of new releases for each product isn’t really something I am interested in… unless the new release patches security issues. So for the past few months, I have been using Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) on my system to keep an eye on these...

Bandwidth capping is something many internet users in the US are going to find unavoidable very soon, especially in areas where the dominant data-capped ISP, whatever it may be, is the only "good" (as in "least worst") choice. What data capping has done is made bandwidth more valuable, and therefore more of a target to be stolen. Because of...

When it comes to identity theft, stolen data and so on, portable/mobile devices are a big target. All someone has to do is leave a laptop in the open for just a few seconds in a public area and *poof*, gone. Having a laptop stolen will ruin anyone’s day. And you’ve probably seen many different news stories about how people offer rewards to get their...

"Security Through Obscurity" is a term a lot of geeks throw around but there are more than a few out there that don’t quite get what it means. First I’ll tell you what security through obscurity isn’t.It is not choosing a stronger password. It is not anything that can be immediately identified as secured. It does not ordinarily...

Every so often you login to a web site that starts with https:// instead of http://. Modern browsers either show an image of lock and/or change the color of the address bar to inform you of this. The ‘s’ is for ‘secure’. It means that the information transferred is encrypted while on http it is not. Most major webmail providers do offer...

Up until now, Microsoft Security Essentials was only licensed for personal and home office computers, but now Microsoft is loosening up the restrictions to allow commercial use for up to 10 small business machines. [W]e are extremely excited today to let you know that Microsoft is making its Microsoft Security Essentials available to small businesses on up to 10...

Now that smart phones are becoming more and more commonplace, the next logical step is that the technology is going to become a target for malware and scammers. If you think about it, it makes sense for the mobile platforms to be a target as users, presently, have less concern about security risks on these devices. Scare tactics have successfully implanted the...

It’s no secret that unemployment has been an issue for for the past 4 or so years in the US. Unfortunately many new online scams have been designed to take advantage of people currently in this vulnerable situation. Since many of these scams can lead to malware infecting your system, it is important that your computer remain protected. A protection tool I...

As you probably know, when you are browsing the Internet your browser of choice keeps a local cache of items you view in a temporary internet files folder. It is important to remember that most everything you view and open is saved here which can include sensitive information. For example, if you use online banking with paperless statements and then view your...

Over the past couple a weeks, a new vulnerability in the Windows Shell was discovered which exploits shortcut (LNK and PIF) files in Windows XP and higher. The vulnerability exists because Windows incorrectly parses shortcuts in such a way that malicious code may be executed when the icon of a specially crafted shortcut is displayed. This vulnerability can be...

A recent report published by the security experts at Secunia finds that Apple, Oracle and Microsoft are 1, 2 and 3, respectively, in known software vulnerabilities across all their non-OS products. If you don’t want to read the full article, The Windows Club has a good write-up about it where they make a good point: The report shows an alarming development...

If you ever have the need to perform simple text encryption to, for example, “hide” text, send secret messages or just fool around, then here are a few resources you may be interested in:Base64 encoder/decoder Text to hexadecimal Text to binaryWhile none of these should be considered secure, they are a very easy way to disguise the target...

Windows Update is a really nice function of Windows that applies both service packs and hotfixes to your OS installation, but for other programs you are left with no notification of updates or potential security holes in the versions you have installed unless the particular program checks itself for new releases. A tool which can help you manage this is Secunia...

Whenever you purchase a typical run of the mill home wireless router you have 2 choices for the type of security, WEP and WPA. While it is important to protect your wireless network, it is also important to know that both WPA and WEP passwords can be easily cracked. Just do a Google search and you will see what I mean. On that note, here are a few things you can...

Just about everybody has used some form of wireless technology when it comes to your PC, namely wireless networking. You’re also aware of other things that are wireless such as printers, digital picture frames and so on. But the one thing that’s not in wide use nor is widely available is the wireless webcam, or wireless cameras that specifically...