Archive for the ‘Security’ Category
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
According the the Code Research Consultancy, wireless use of data is expected to increase by forty times within the next four years. A company called LightSquared has developed technology to capitalize on this trend. Apparently though, this wireless technology for smartphones could cause major disruptions with GPS satellites.
According to an article which appears on FoxNews.com, the FCC is concerned that this technology could possibly disable GPS systems. The ramifications include disruption to the air traffic control system, the military’s ability to keep track of and deploy resources, and prevent local emergency services from correctly getting to the correct residence.
If our military is susceptible to such new technologies employed by a company to do good, what could be done by a country wishing to do us harm? Could someone with a smartphone take down an aircraft by simply accessing an app?
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Air traffic control, Federal Communications Commission, Global Positioning System, GPS, GPS satellite, LightSquared, New York, Smart Phone, Smartphone, Smartphones, Technology, Wireless
Posted in Security, Smartphones | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Recently Toyota has been cleared of any wrong doing for their cars unintended acceleration. It seems the unintended acceleration was caused by the operator, not the car.
If we take this scenario though, extrapolate it out and consider where the auto industry is going, it isn’t entirely out of the realm that an epidemic of unintended acceleration could happen.
Cars are increasingly becoming more dependent on computers. First it was remote door locking and unlocking; then memory retention for settings was added. Now we have cars which can communicate with Google and cars which don’t need a physical key inserted into the ignition to run.
Many years ago, before hacking computers became a lucrative business, it was exploited as a way to wreak havoc. For people who do not care about the property of others, what better way for them to have what they consider fun then by having cars run into each other. Or perhaps instead of accelerating, when a driver applies the brake or turns the steering wheel, the car just dies. No power means no brakes and no steering.
Will car hacking replace car jacking? At least there wouldn’t be the need for violence. Will insurance rates skyrocket because of the increase in thefts? Will we be downloading the latest in firewalls and virus protection to our cars in the future or will the manufacturers invest in and design their systems with high security in mind from the outset?
At the moment, who knows?
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Incoming search terms:
- computers in traffic safety 2011
Tags: Acceleration, Automobile, Computers, Electronic throttle control, Google, hacking, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Sudden unintended acceleration, Toyota
Posted in Life Management, Privacy, Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Late last week Microsoft announced another vulnerability to Internet Explorer. It is covered in depth in Microsoft releases Security Advisory 2501696.
While all current desktop versions of Windows are vulnerable, they are only susceptible to the vulnerability through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Using other browsers in Windows does not open the computer up to an attack.
You can decrease your risks using browsers such as Firefox and combining it with the proper add-on software. NoScript works very well as long as the user does not allow all code to be run from every Website. If you are not familiar with the site, don’t allow scripts to run.
If you’re on the Internet, your computer can be hacked. While you may feel safe browsing the Internet in you pajamas in the safety of your home, you’re not. It takes the proper tools along with an air of caution to minimize risks.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Firefox, Internet Explorer, MHTML, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Mozilla Firefox, security advisory, Windows
Posted in Security, Web | No Comments »
Monday, December 27th, 2010
Many businesses are starting to look into utilizing the cloud and many companies are getting into the business. This past week, there was a data breach for people using Microsoft Business Productivity Online.
The security flaw opens up a users offline address book to others, allowing it to be download by people other than the owner. As I have a lot of confidential information stored in my address book, had I been using this system, it would have posed a serious issue. Fortunately I don’t use the Microsoft Business Productivity Online service.
Many smart business people don’t put a high enough value on security until something bad happens. There is a reason why some cloud service providers charge more than others. While many are looking to keep a tight handle on expenses, skimping on IT services could lead to much higher costs and severe penalties if the business is found to be neglectful in their security proceedures.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: BPOS, Business, Cloud computing, cloud computing security, Cloud service, Data breach, Microsoft, Microsoft BPOS, Microsoft Online Services, Microsoft SharePoint, New York, Security
Posted in Privacy, Security | No Comments »
Thursday, December 16th, 2010
There are two large Internet ad services, one is owned by Google and Microsoft has the other. Microsoft’s service is MSN and Google’s is DoubleClick. Many computers had malware silently installed on their computer just by browsing seemingly innocuous websites.
According to The Register, http://www.theregister.co.uk, “Among the titles silently thrust on marks was HDD Plus, a piece of malware that falsely claims users have serious system errors that can only be fixed by buying a premium version of the program.”
By default, most browsers provide no protection from this type of attack. We expect to have a white paper out shortly which will describe how to protect your computer from malware attacks such as this.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: DoubleClick, Google, Hard disk drive, Internet Explorer, malware, Microsoft, MSN, Register
Posted in Security | No Comments »
Monday, December 13th, 2010
You’ve probably head it before, my computer has a virus again. Running a computer and IT services company in New York’s Capital District, we hear that pretty often.
Recently a woman brought her computer in stating her computer has viruses again. Overhearing the conversation, I instructed one of the techs to perform a forensics investigation on the hard drive because it is not normal for a computer to come back unless something else is going on behind the scenes.
The tech found many traces of pornography website visits on the computer. I placed a call to the woman to review the situation with her. It was a very interesting conversation. She was very polite and insistent that it couldn’t be her teen son or her husband visiting the porn sites and it must be her kindergarten aged child as the child knows how to use Google and can read. Hey, whatever.
We received a call from our client who said over the weekend, a confession was made. It wasn’t the kindergartner. Who’da thought!
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Anti-Virus, AntiVirus, Capital District, Child pornography, Google, Hard disk drive, Internet pornography, Pornography, Virus, virus removal
Posted in Security, Web | No Comments »
Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
We meet all types of people in our business, as do many other people. Recently we had an odd issue with a person who thought we were logged into his computer remotely.
Several weeks ago we preformed a network audit for a professional business in Albany. Part of the process included installing software which would track what the system was doing over several days. When the audit was complete, the remote access was removed.
Last week I met with the gentleman over breakfast to review the network audit and pointed out some items he should look into. Two days later I received a message from him asking why we were on his system.
Even though I was on vacation, I made sure I looked into this as we take our work very seriously. Several attempts were made to contact the business, but the answering system was all we were able to get through to.
When I was able to speak with the gentleman he was pleasant but went into a long speech about us accessing his system. Finally I had to interrupt as everything being stated was incorrect. I asked if he would look at his email, as I sent him a copy of our access log (with portions of names redacted). He then stated that he had better find out who was accessing his system.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT services company located in the Capital District of New York.
Tags: Apple Inc., Audit, Business, iPhone, IPod Touch, ITunes, LogMeIn, Microsoft, networking, Personal computer, Remote access, remote desktop, Remote Desktop Services, Windows 7
Posted in Security, Technology | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 15th, 2010
Last year a construction company located in Maine experienced a cyber crime costing the company $545,000.00. The loss took place over six evenings. While Patco, the construction company had insurance, it didn’t begin to even come close to covering the amount of money they lost.
It appears Patco’s computer was compromised with Zeus. The Zeus trojan steals banking information by logging keystrokes. Once the information is obtained, it is sent to the perpetrators.
While the following suggestion may be a pain in the neck, stop for a few moments and weigh it against losing a substantial amount of money.
If you do any type of banking or security transactions via the Internet, do not use the same computer for browsing. For businesses, setup a dedicated financial transaction computer and have it locked down for only specific people to use.
Once we’re on the Internet, we become susceptible to becoming a victim. It is incumbent upon us to be diligent and put as many obstacles between us and the bad guys.
Tags: Business, Computer crime, Internet security, keystroke loggers, keystroke logging, Maine, Personal computer, trojan, United States, Virus, Zeus
Posted in Business, Security | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
As an IT provider we work with many different types of people and a in variety of situations. Some can be awkward at times. Case in point is from an issue we dealt with earlier in the week.
It is very rare that we have a computer come back regarding a virus removal. Usually we remove the virus and/or malware, secure the computer and the computer is good-to-go. When we setup the computer for this client, he stated he wanted a less stringent security policy than one we normally use.
We received an urgent call from Mr. X’s office, his administrative assistant said he had a virus and it was very important we got over there to take care of it as quickly as possible. While working on the system it became obvious the owner was using his computer to surf porn sites. As the owner, he certainly has the right to do with his time whatever he chooses, and he doesn’t complain about us charging him for the almost periodic virus removals.
This does put our technicians in a very peculiar situation when they come upon an issue such as this. In all my years of working on computers, I only came upon a scenario such as this once, and while it wasn’t the owner, the man held a very high position in the company.
If someone wants to browse for porn, that is their own business. But for the sake of their company’s security, they should not do it on a computer used for the business.
Tags: Anti-Virus, Malicious Software, malware, Personal computer, Security, spyware, Spyware and Adware, Trojan horse (computing), Virus, Viruses
Posted in Business, Security | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010
One of the area which I believe Android phones are lacking is in security, especially when compared against BlackBerry devices.
A few weeks ago I began researching options to enhance the security of my Samsung Fascinate Galaxy S phone. Several articles from well know and established magazines and Internet sites all had on their list a specific application, which I purchased and have been using for about ten days.
Yesterday I discovered a way to get around the security. Last night I thought I found another way to bypass the security and tested my theory this morning, and it was another security flaw.
I wrote the company last night and will wait a week to see if the company responds before releasing their name.
A major point to be taken from this is many magazines and review sites do perfunctory evaluations. In order to do a proper assessment, time must be spent. Not an hour or two, but a substantial amount over an extended period. It is the only way to do justice to the people who value their opinions.
Incoming search terms:
- samsung galaxy i500 verizon bypass activation
- galaxy s i500 bypass activation
- i500 samsung skip activation
- how to bypass verizon activation on samsung i 500
- how to bypass verizon activation on galaxy s
- how to bypass security on my smartphone
- how to bypass i500
- how to bypass activation screen on samsung i500
- how to bypass activation screen on my samsung galaxy s
- how to bypass activation samsung galaxy s i500
Tags: Android, Android Market, App Store, BlackBerry, Consultants, General and Freelance, Handhelds, iPhone, PC World (magazine), Samsung Fascinate, Samsung Galaxy S i500, Security, Smartphone
Posted in BlackBerry, Security, Smartphones, Technology | No Comments »
