Computer Safety & News

Several folks shared photos of the ominous cloud looming behind the Statue of Liberty circulating on Facebook.  Also, plenty of fabricated stories circulated distorting the facts and possibly alarming folks who have friends or relatives in the area.  As other major events have proven, it is important to always get facts from the proper sources. […]

Trend Labs shares an interesting PDF report on this topic: http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/a-look-into-the-russian-underground/ QUOTE:  Earlier today, we released the paper Russian Underground 101 which provides readers an overview of the Russian underground economy. The Russian underground is a key source for all sorts of illegal products and services used by criminals, which is ultimately aimed at users […]

Key security feature announced is multiple user profiles http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/android-4-2-still-jelly-bean-sweeter-1B6743843 QUOTE: Google announced also Android 4.2 on Monday. It’s still called Jelly Bean, just like the prior version, but it’s made just a little bit sweeter by the addition of new features such as Photo Sphere, Gesture Typing, multi-user support and more.  Sharing an Android tablet […]

Windows Phone 8 SDK has been released as documented by Next Web: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/10/30/the-windows-phone-8-sdk-is-now-live-for-all-heres-where-to-get-it/ QUOTE: Yesterday Microsoft promised to release the Windows Phone 8 SDK at its event in San Francisco. Today, during the opening keynote of its BUILD conference, the SDK went live.  Microsoft is betting heavily on Windows Phone 8, moving the core of […]

The state of South Carolina is working to resolve issues and hopefully sensitive information was not captured extensively during the compromised security incident. http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/none/304400-south-carolina-data-breach-exposes-ssn QUOTE: The latest data breach in South Carolina where over three million Social Security numbers were exposed is just another example of how organizations aren’t protecting sensitive data with encryption. As […]

The ISC offers an update on outages and malware/scam attacks associated with Hurricane Sandy https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Hurricane+Sandy+Update/14410 QUOTE: If you reside in the effected area, you are probably best off staying at home. Many roads are blocked by debris and in some cases by downed power lines. Here are some of the typical issues we see after […]

AVAST received top rankings in malware removal and performance http://blog.avast.com/2012/10/18/avast-only-free-antivirus-to-receive-advanced-award-for-performance-and-detection/ QUOTE: Avast! Free Antivirus won the top rating for malware removal from independent research organization AV-Comparatives last month, and this month is the only antivirus solution that also received the ADVANCED+ award for performance. The latest performance test measured the impact on system resources and […]

As in past major news events, there is a high potential for Hurricane Sandy related internet scams and malware attacks.  Please be careful with email, Facebook links, web searches and any charitable donations made during coming days. http://blog.avast.com/tag/hurricane-sandy/ QUOTE: With Hurricane Sandy bearing down on the northeast United States, the potential is high for cybercrooks […]

McAfee Labs shares an analysis of the top Android malware threat: http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/fakeinstaller-leads-the-attack-on-android-phones QUOTE: Android.FakeInstaller is a widespread mobile malware family. It has spoofed the Olympic Games Results App, Skype, Flash Player, Opera and many other top applications. This is not news in the mobile malware world, the FakeInstaller family is one of the most prevalent […]

Firefox 17 beta offers a new API that interacts with Facebook directly and may help reduce infections associated with fake email alerts.  The first social network implementation will be for Facebook. https://blog.mozilla.org/privacy/2012/10/22/being-social-with-privacy-in-mind/ With our latest beta, we’ve started testing a new social API right inside Firefox. This API provides an open, Web-based infrastructure that allows […]