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{ Category Archives } Computer Security

AppleID (aka: iTunes Store) accounts finally get two step authentication

This is a much more secure, if a little more annoying, way to protect your AppleID. Since there is real money involved with your iTunes and App Store purchases now, I strongly recommend you set up two-step authentication on your own AppleID. I recommend you go to appleid.apple.com and Manage your Account, then take 10 […]

New SSH Keys on Your Server?

I just learned a nifty little trick for updating your SSH keys when a server has changed them on you and you are being warned by ssh of a “man-in-the-middle” attack possibility… ssh-keyscan -t rsa YourDomain.Com >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts vi ~/.ssh/known_hosts Delete the older entry – keep the new one. I just had to use this […]

Don’t enter your iOS UUID into a WebForm

This morning’s news reveals a story about how an FBI Agent’s Laptop was hacked into using a malicious java script exploit, and that a file of millions of iOS device users personal data was stolen from the hacked FBI laptop. Interestingly, perhaps even predictably, and irrationally; several websites have sprung up offering to compare the […]

FlashPlayer allows remote viewing/listening based on server settings

Every month since I disabled Adobe FlashPlayer on my laptops and desktops I have had that decision re-enforced by yet more news about security vulnerabilities, battery drain issues, and system crashes all derived from running FlashPlayer. I am so glad I disabled the junk software and recommend everyone else do that too. Here is reason […]

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Bring Your Own Devices Policies and Thin Client Technology

This is an interesting trend, and with the availability of thin clients and server hosted desktops (eg: VMware OpenView) it is possible to let employees use their own laptops yet never have any corporate data on them, as the data can stay on the desktop server in the data center. More Offices Let Workers Choose […]

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Computer and Browser Security Alert

DigiNotar is a Dutch certificate authority that has been a trusted source of computer and web security certificates for several years; but they have issued several fraudulent certificates including certificates for the domains of Google, GMail, Yahoo!, Mozilla, WordPress. Pretty much all the web browser companies and operating systems providers are scrambling to revoke the […]

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469 reasons why Facebook sucks

http://scottnolan.org/blocked_facebook_apps is a list of 468 reasons why I find Facebook annoying. I add more all the time. That is a list of all the applications I have blocked in the last year so they stop pestering me through my live feed. The additional one, is a Facebook internal one called Questions which is doubly […]

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Spam on the rise again, damn

Well it was a lovely Spring, with reduced SPAM on both email and blog comments, but that appears to be over and spam has skyrocketed once again. Groan.

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Heartfelt Thanks

Thank you Apple and Steve Jobs for keeping Adobe Flash off my iOS devices and making it easy for me to remove it from my Mac OS X gear. The stability, security, performance, and battery life I am enjoying now were not possible on a Flash-enabled machine.

Cool enhancement to MobileMe email system

I am not sure exactly when this happened, but MobileMe mail spool finally supports server-side filtering; you can finally put some spam fighting rules into your web account so the spam does not get to your iPhone/iPad (the Mail.app client has always supported client-side filtering). This potentially fixes the problem where your Mac saw no […]