Monday, July 05, 2010
Critical Microsoft Fixit
Bill has announced that an unpatched critical security hole in Windows XP operating systems is a genuine threat. A temporary patch using Microsoft Fix it is available here - after the .msi file downloads double-click it and the install is self-explanatory. Users who apply this patch will not need to uninstall it before applying the official patch when it becomes available towards the middle of July.| Categories: Best Practices, Privacy Issues, Security Alerts, Virus-Trojan-Worm Alerts
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Restart Later?
Using Windows XP means having to restart the OS on a regular basis for many reasons. Many times you may be in the midst of something and choose to restart later. Rebooting your PC is also forced upon you at times and again it always seems to happen when you are knee-deep into something that causing you to reboot later - much later.
When you install software applications under Windows XP the installer (such as InstallShield) will frequently suggest you close all other programs before continuing the install. Oh, sure. As if.
Best practice sez: Restart, reboot and close all other programs before continuing the install and your XP box will be better behaved. There is much less chance of software or hardware conflicts if you plan ahead to avoid doing anything later.
Restart, reboot and close when asked.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Facebook Privacy Widget
This is a lovely Firefox Add-on that attempts to check and then offer to fix all your rogue Facebook settings. Krebs on Security reports on a study that found most of the Firefox crashes were do to crappy Facebook applications :(| Categories: Firefox Extensions, Online Apps, Privacy Issues
Friday, May 07, 2010
Facebook IP Leak
It appears emails sent from facebook contain enough info that it is possible to geo-locate a sender The details are here.| Categories: Online Apps, Privacy Issues
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Facebook f**k up
Oops. Facebook's new Open Graph API is leaking sez PC World. It's security breaches such as these that will cause problems because of the interrelationship between so many disparate applications and the general mass of users who never check settings. If people don't start taking security seriously before a problem develops the cost and effort to fix the problem could be very high indeed.
| Categories: Adware / Spyware Alerts, Online Apps, Privacy Issues, Virus-Trojan-Worm Alerts
Critical Opera flaw - patch NOW!
If you use Opera and do not automagically update your installation you a) should ;) and b) need to manually update NOW to fix a gigantic security hole. After the update you better be running version 10.53 to be safe.
Edited on: Saturday, May 22, 2010 8:01.07 PM EDT
| Categories: Alternative Applications, Opera, Security Alerts
WiFi network finder - now with password cracker!
If you use a router and are still using WEP encryption then please read this.
I'll wait.
Ok.
Connect to your router and ensure you are using WPA or better yet, WPA2.
| Categories: Hardware Innovations, Privacy Issues, Security Alerts, Technology
Monday, April 26, 2010
Palm Pre Security Hole
The recent Palm Pre OS has been found to have a major, glaring security gap because, since the browser is embedded into the OS, it's naturally vulnerable to various exploits (Javascript being the obvious one) making it a large target for evil-doers. A fix better come sooner rather than later to save the brand for the forseeable future. What were they thinking?
| Categories: Mobile, Online Apps, Privacy Issues, Security Alerts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
German Gov't Warns About Firefox
First they warned about IE. Now the German authorities are warning users to beware of a Firefox exploit that will only be fixed with the release of version 3.6.2 towards the end of this month. Details from the Beeb here. Time to use Opera!
| Categories: Alternative Applications, Mozilla Firefox, Opera








Matthew S. Carrick is my name and trying to keep you folks out of harms way is what I'm about.
I try my best to monitor the 'net on your behalf hoping to ferret out the critical 'news you can use' before it's too late. I may be reached
http: / / www.primelec.com