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...

A cool little program which monitors and somewhat dictates your running processes is Task Catcher. Task Catcher allows you to efficiently monitor programs running on your computer without slowing you down or hogging all your memory. Task Catcher will block unwanted programs from running and restart your favorite programs if they are disabled or crash. You...

Microsoft Security Essentials is an antivirus/anti-malware/anti-spyware application. It is free and runs on the Windows operating systems XP, Vista and 7. This review is not going to concentrate on how much stuff MSE can detect but rather boiled down to a simple question: Does it get in your way? I’ll explain that further. Applications specifically...

If you are the only person who uses a Windows 7 computer, one thing you can do is have your login information saved so you are automatically logged in when your machine boots up. To accomplish this, I am partial to the the Sysinternals Autologon tool (because it support any version XP and later), however you can configure this directly in Windows 7 as...

KeePass has been recommended on this site several times as a password manager. One thing you should not overlook though is the ability to store text in its secure database. For example, you can create a new entry called “Life Insurance Policy” and use the notes field to store your policy information. Additionally, you can use the built in expiration...

In the context of this article, "account" refers to anything on the internet that requires a username and password in order to access it, such as a web-based email account, instant messenger account, and so on. There’s an old word (if you could call it that) that’s been used time and time again in thousands of different I.T. departments...

On many download sites, you may see an MD5 checksum (or hash) included on the page next to the file download link. If you have ever wondered what this is and how it is useful, then hopefully this tip will help. An MD5 checksum (you can read the full info on Wikipedia here) is basically a string of letters and numbers determined by the characteristics of a...

Whenever you do browsing to sites you are not familiar with, you always run some risk of the site not being “on the level”. If you do not go the route of script blockers, it is a good idea to have something watching your back. Web of Trust (WOT) is a tool that can fit this bill. WOT is a free Internet security addon for your browser. It will keep you...

Alliteration aside, the most popular firewall program I see recommended on this site, outside of the one built into Windows, is Comodo Firewall. While there is certainly nothing at all wrong with it, if you are looking to explore alternatives then PC Tools Firewall Plus is worth a look. PC Tools Firewall Plus is advanced technology designed especially for...

For those of you who carry USB drives with utilities to help diagnose and clean other people’s machines, a utility you might want to take a look at is Dr. Web CureIt. This is a FREE anti-virus and anti-spyware utility based on Dr.Web Anti-virus scanner, which will help you quickly scan and cure, if necessary, a computer operated by MS Windows 95OSR2/...

Have you ever wanted to hide certain programs from people that may be looking over your shoulder? If so then the free program, Window Hider is for you. You give Window Hider a list of programs and a shortcut key then when it detects you pressing that shortcut key it hides those windows in your list. While the author makes the case of using this to hide programs...

Pretty much every current browser out there has the ability to save your user name and password information on different sites and then fill them in when you visit later. While this function is incredibly useful and convenient, it is important to remember it is not a substitution for a password manager. Since this information is stored in your browser, it lives...

Whenever a platform is widely used, it is a big target for attacks. Take Windows, it is by far the most widely used OS so it makes sense there are more attacks on it than anything else. The same holds true for browsers and web platforms. So for those of you who use the popular WordPress platform for your blog, security should be a consideration. To help with...

What is a keylogger? It’s something that records keystrokes and is normally used without the consent of the user. You’ve probably heard that keyloggers are a bad thing. It is when used for illegal purposes, such as having a keylogger app installed without your knowledge via spyware. But it’s not a bad thing when you are the one who installed...

Wi-fi theft, as in the act of stealing someone’s internet connectivity by breaking into a wireless network, has been around ever since we first started using wireless routers. Before covering the topic of how likely you are for wi-fi theft, I’ll first say that wi-fi security has never been that good. If one is desperate enough to steal your signal,...

This is actually a very easy question to answer: No. And it never has been. But don’t freak out about it. More on that in a moment. When I say that email isn’t secure, I’m not referring to the username/ password you use to access your account. That’s a local level of security. Email isn’t secure because the vast majority of it is...