Better Safe Than Sorry

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.

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.

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 :(

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.

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

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?

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!