Defending The Kingdom

Forbes says some security firms are over-hyping threats to boost sales:

Verisign, the intrepid Web security giant, issued an ominous warning in December. It predicted an imminent invasion by a worm called Sober, which would infect networks worldwide and clog up the Internet. It would be timed to coincide with the 87th anniversary of the founding of the Nazi party. Other firms joined in a chorus of worry, offering an abundance of soundbites for news outlets. Then in January dozens more reports, similarly circulated by security firms, warned that an e-mailed virus called Kama Sutra would ruin PCs from Seattle to Sri Lanka.

Neither outbreak ever occurred. Two small security software outfits claimed credit for blocking Kama Sutra, but Microsoft said later the threat was overblown. Vincent Weafer, who runs the security response division at Symantec, the world’s largest seller of antivirus software, concedes both threats were duds and that his rivals overhyped them. “To get attention, you pick something new and say the sky’s falling down,” he says.

Protecting yourself isn’t as easy as you would like, but it’s not hard either. Keep a level head, use common sense, and you’ll be fine.

Bruce Schneier, an author and security expert, commented a few days ago on an article on Yahoo News that is pertinent for readers of this blog. The article stated that a group of European businessmen and researchers is attempting to develop software that will enable ground crews to take over the controls of an airplane should hijackers attempt to use the plane as a weapon.

The article reports that:

The system would be designed in such a way that even a computer hacker on board could not get round it.

Obviously, there is a potential problem with this. What if the hijackers use this system to override the controls of the plane (continue reading…)

As far as I know, Windows Firewall, which comes with Windows XP Service Pack 2, is fairly effective at inbound protection (warding off hackers and other threats coming from the outside world), but it doesn’t have any outbound protection.

Outbound protection is important because it can prevent spyware on your computer from sending the information it has collected back over the internet to whoever is trying to spy on you. (continue reading…)

Your computer is hopelessly lost to adware and spyware and viruses. I know because I’ve seen computers like yours. If you upgraded to Firefox as I suggested in the last post, you’re headed in the right direction, but there is more to be done.

Now you need to download two programs (free, of course) that will kill anything that manages to get by your defences. (continue reading…)

If you do just one thing to increase the level of security on your computer, make it a switch to the Firefox browser. If you’re like most internet users, you probably use Internet Explorer. But then again, if you’re like most internet users, you are probably not being kept very secure as you surf the web, and the browser you use is a big part of that.

How much safer is Firefox?

As of 28 July 2006, Secunia, a company that monitors browser vulnerabilities, reports that Firefox has 33 vulnerabilities, 4 of which remain unpatched. In contrast, Internet Explorer has 105 vulnerabilities, 21 of which remain unpatched. (continue reading…)