Have an iPhone? Or maybe you have another smartphone. Personally, I am setting my eyes on the Google Nexus One. It’s just as pretty and from most accounts, it is even more functional than the Apple iPhone.

In any case, most everyone has a smartphone now and that means that their children are getting exposed to mobile computing as well. If you think that it’s such a headache to ensure that children are protected when they go online on laptops and home computers, then think again. It’s even more of a hassle to make sure they are safe on mobile platforms!

One thing you can do about the iPhone is to use the built-in parental control. More than that, however, you can check out Safe Eyes Mobile, a web browser made specially for the iPhone. It gives you additional control on top of the parental controls that the iPhone has.

Forrest Collier, CEO of InternetSafety.com endorses this mobile web browser:

“Apple has gone a long way toward child-proofing the iPhone with the new parental controls in the iPhone 3.0 software, but those controls apply only to content that Apple itself distributes through iTunes and the App Store. They don’t address the #1 source of objectionable material: the Internet. If you combine Apple’s parental controls with a browser that blocks pornography and other offensive websites, however, you can completely protect your child from harmful content both online and off.”

At the end of the day, these are excellent tools but I believe that your parenting skills will still emerge as the most important factor.

Tags: internet-security, iphone, mobile web browser, Safe Eyes Mobile

Categories: Real-World Issues, Web browsers

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I have become more active on Tweeter in the past months, mainly due to a self-imposed Facebook hiatus. I just found Facebook to be so tiresome and irritating (not just the platform but the people using it). I have had my Twitter account for many years now but I rarely use it. Now that I have been using it a lot, though, I realized that it is NOT exempt from spam.

What am I talking about?

Direct message spam. This is one of the most common things I get. I receive DMs from people I don’t know.

Retweets. I love how you can retweet messages on Twitter but sometimes, they just clutter up my timelines! What’s even worse is that I am not even interested in what some people retweet.

Tweets from those I follow. Yep, they can inundate my timeline as well.

The bottom line here is to KNOW who you follow and who follows you. Every single day, I get “follow” e-mails and many times, I have no idea who they are. Now I know better than to follow people I don’t really know. Once, I even got a “The Real Carrie Underwood is now following you” e-mail. Guess what? It wasn’t the real Carrie Underwood.

More so, disable the autofollow feature. This doesn’t make sense as you get all sorts of followers trying to fish for their own followers. Again, filter those you follow.

Another thing you can do is go to this link: http://twitter.com/spam. They have some practical and useful tips that can help you address Twitter spam issues.

Tags: social media, spam, Twitter

Categories: Tips

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Early this week, Obama once again made a move that set certain circles a-buzzing. You might have heard of it already – he appointed a cybersecurity chief. President Obama picked Howard Schmidt, who already has a reputation for being good at what he does. He has vast experience both with the government and the IT industry.

This move is no less controversial than others. I guess it’s always like that when you’re a public figure. You can’t please everyone, and you’ll always have various opinions about what you do. According to Richard Waters of Financial Times, the news was welcomed by security experts. He writes:

The appointment of Howard Schmidt, an internet security veteran with experience in both industry and government, was greeted with relief among security experts, where the move was seen as a welcome outcome after a seven-month delay in filling the role.

Like other security industry experts, Mr Silva said that Mr Schmidt’s broad experience and personal contacts in both the public and private sectors would put him in a good position to make the most of the role.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association added that the new official will also be in a position to represent the administration’s position as momentum builds on Capitol Hill for legislation on cybersecurity.

Of course, there remains some skepticism as to just how effective the role will be. It’s not even the person that some are questioning – it is the office and the powers that are associated with it. What do you think?

Tags: Barack Obama, cybersecurity, Howard Schmidt, News

Categories: News, Real-World Issues

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Windows 7 fans were rejoicing when Microsoft released a patch on Tuesday because their system was not affected in any way by the six security issues. The rejoicing was short-lived, however, as news has been released that there IS a bug that can crash a Windows 7 system. The bug has been named Zero-Day Exploit and was discovered by Laurent Gaffie.

PC World provides further details:

The issue is in the SMB (Server Message Block) protocol that forms the backbone of Windows file sharing. When triggered, the flaw results in an infinite loop which renders the computer useless.

Tyler Reguly, Lead Security Research Engineer with nCircle, explains “Exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a user attempts to browse to Windows Share hosted on the malicious server. On Windows 7, the DoS (denial of service) will occur as soon as you type ‘\\\’ in the search box. ” The vulnerability actually impacts both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

While the threat is very much real, experts say that the chances of the bug being exploited are quite low:

There are currently a couple different proof-of-concept exploits circulating, but there are no reported attacks in the wild at this point. Because the flaw only enables an attacker to crash the system, and doesn’t provide any unauthorized remote access that could lead to compromising information or performing other malicious activities, the odds of the exploit being actively used by attackers is fairly slim.

So what are Windows 7 users supposed to do now? Currently, Microsoft has not yet released a patch to deal with the threat. I suppose the only sensible thing to do is to be more careful with regard to visiting web sites, especially if you are unsure of its legitimacy.

Photo courtesy of Megaleecher

Tags: bugs, Exploits, Operating Systems, Windows 7

Categories: Operating Systems

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Viruses and malware issues are far from being a thing of the past. On the contrary, they seem to grow large by numbers as each day passes. Thus the works of security software companies have their work cut out for them. There is not definite date to which such threats and intrusions would wholly be resolved.

For the time being, it would be advisable for people to scan third party storage devices such as diskettes, USB drives and mobile storages to be safe and sound. These wandering viruses can attack at any time and this is a fact anywhere computer related materials are concerned.

Files can go as far as infecting the executable files, hence document, excel and compiled scripts are baits for immediate infection and malicious intrusions. Software applications also have their limits as their development teams cater only to a specific genre for known harmful files. But it is better to lower the risk of intrusion than not having protection at all.

[tags]scan, spyware, virus, infections, spyware, malware, trojans[/tags]

Tags: infections, Malware, scan, Spyware, trojans, virus

Categories: Backups, IT Security Basics, Malware, Network Security, Operating Systems, Programming, Real-World Issues, Security Policies, Spyware, Storage, Tips, Wireless Security

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Not everyone hates worms – the natural kind, that is. I still remember classmates from grade school (even high school!) who grossed out everyone else by eating worms in their natural state. I am talking about a different kind of worm here, though; the kind that everyone hates; computer worms.

Pretty soon, we just might have ants on our side to combat the threat that worms pose year in and year out. Researchers in the field of IT security have been working on a project to combat worms, drawing their inspiration from the common ant. The Daily Tech tells the story:

Security researchers found inspiration in the common ant. Describes Wake Forest University Professor of Computer Science Errin Fulp, “In nature, we know that ants defend against threats very successfully. They can ramp up their defense rapidly, and then resume routine behavior quickly after an intruder has been stopped. We were trying to achieve that same framework in a computer system.”

WFU created digital “ants” — utilities that migrate from computer to computer over networks searching for threats. When one locates a threat, others congregate on it, using so-called “swarm intelligence”. The approach allows human researchers to quickly identify and quarantine dangerous files by watching the activity of the ants.

The implications are tremendous. Anti-virus software that is commonly used today usually take up a lot of resources, and make computers slow down. With this new technology, we just might see a whole new breed of anti-virus programs. While everything is in the research and development phase still, it does give us a bright future in terms of fighting malware!

Tags: antivirus, ants, it-security, Malware, worms

Categories: Malware, News

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To date, Facebook is perhaps the most successful and widespread social networking site. It has transcended age and race, and practically everyone I know has an account. It has so much to offer, hence the amount of time that the average person spends on Facebook has skyrocketed in the past months. Even businesses and employers use Facebook to make their presence felt online!

But in spite of the allure and usefulness of Facebook, it does have some security issues. All the information that one enters can be accessed by the site AND its third party partners. With each application a user “allows,” his information is accessed, probably even shared with others. Unless a user changes the default privacy settings, practically anyone can access his information. This is something that not everyone really thinks about.

But the Canadian government found these issues important. In fact, the pressured Facebook to create some changes with regard to security. Thanks to them, several tweaks have been enacted. PCWorld featured this move and outlined the fixes.

One, Facebook had to fix the way applications access users data:

Apps will have to tell the user what information it wants and get express consent from the user beforehand. Information will be split into categories, which the user can check off before installing. Developers will also have to explain how that personal data will be used.

Two, what happens to a user’s information if he deactivates his account?

Users will be given an option to either deactivate or delete their accounts. Upon deactivation, they’ll be notified of the option to delete, and can elect to do so should they want all their data gone for good.

Three, what will happen to your account if you die?

Facebook will explain in its privacy policy what happens to an account after its owner passes away.

My thoughts – one and two are quite valid. Three, I am not so sure. You’ll be dead, why would you care? In any case, I wonder if Facebook will apply these fixes to the whole system or just for their Canadian users?

Tags: facebook, privacy settings, security, Social Networking, web sites

Categories: News, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues

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From Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome – that’s the path that many computer users have followed in the past years. Personally, I have stuck to Mozilla but I do use Chrome every now and then when I want things to go much faster. But did you know that Google’s streamlined browser has its share of security issues as well?

This is not really that surprising. After all, most any product you see in the market will be exploited by those who want to do so. In any case, Google has come out with updates to their browser, making it more secure for us users.

The most recent update for Google Chrome fixes some issues on how the browser handles Javascript and XML. For the Javascript engine, the fix makes sure that an infected web site will not allow malicious Javascript to run arbitrary code. You and I know very well that the phrase “run arbitrary code” simply translates to “install malware.” With this problem supposedly fixed, Chrome is definitely safer.

Another fix deals with the possibility of a web page using XML to, again, run arbitrary code. This happens when the malicious XML crashes a Chrome tab.

Last, the Chrome update will not allow you to connect to “HTTPS (SSL) sites whose certificates are signed using MD2 or MD4 hashing algorithms.” The reason for this is that these algorithms are prone to hacking and that it is relatively easy to pose as a fake HTTPS site.

For more detailed info, read it from Google’s own blog.

Photo courtesy of Ivan Zlatev

Categories: General, Google Chrome, Malware, News

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This piece of news is not so good for Mozilla. It had to shut down the operations of its online store late on Tuesday because of an alarming finding. The fact is that the firm that Mozilla had hired to deal with their backend operations has suffered a security breach. Mozilla immediately issued a statement about the issue:

Today, Mozilla discovered that GatewayCDI, the third-party vendor entrusted to run the backend of the Mozilla Store, suffered a security breach. Once notified, we took the immediate preventative step of shutting down the Mozilla Store to ensure that no additional users could be compromised.

And just to be sure, the company immediately shut down the international version of their online store. While this was not really necessary since the international edition is being maintained by a separate company, Mozilla still shut it down as a precaution. As of this writing, there is no news yet as to the whether the security breach has been fixed. Indeed, Mozilla did not even really divulge details as to the nature and extent of the breach. I guess it is enough that they owned up to the issue and that they took immediate steps to stop the problem before it became serious.

And in case you were not aware of what Mozilla offers in its online store, this is where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, backpacks, mouse pads, and all sorts of other things that you can buy with the popular Mozilla logo prominently printed on them.

Moral of the story? Even one of the best IT companies in existence today is prone to hacking. Us “mortals” should learn from this.

Categories: Firefox, General, News

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Last week, I found myself craving for Spam – the kind that you put in between two slices of nice white bread. The moment I checked my Inbox, though, my feeling towards spam – in general; food or e-mail related – changed drastically. For some reason, I keep getting these e-mails about Viagra and winning the lotto. And I am talking about my WORK e-mail here, not my personal e-mail! Seriously, I don’t understand why these people keep sending out these e-mails when everyone knows they’re SPAM and that they amount to NOTHING! No one pays attention to these e-mails, right?

Well, apparently, some people do! According to a survey conducted by Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group, 1 out of 6 people in the United States and Canada respond to spam e-mails. I know, this is simply unbelievable, isn’t it?

In this day and age, why would anyone still fall for these scams? Haven’t we learned anything at all? No wonder that these scammers continue to send out their e-mails! I mean, just one or two people who respond to their bait might give them the profit that they are out for.

To be fair, the scammers are getting more and more creative. They also take advantage of the hottest things happening. For example, around the time of Michael Jackson’s death, there was an astronomical increase in e-mails about him – a lot of these were spam. Even those who are normally careful were lured into opening these e-mails and clicking away.

Bottom line: spam might be here for a while. Make sure you are careful and don’t be cocky (like me) – you never know what might hit you!

Categories: E-mail, Malware, News

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