siliconsamurai-gmail, Author at TechRepublic

siliconsamurai-gmail

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CXO

The pragmatic professional

I’m concerned that, even among IT professionals (that is, people paid to manage other people’s computers), there is often a very narrow view of what is “correct.” Some people not only insist that their particular choice of IT tools is the best, they demand that others acknowledge this. That attitude seems more appropriate for the ...

Enterprise Software

Two Apples a day won’t keep hackers at bay, but neither will Firefox

Quick, what’s Apple’s biggest vulnerability? Right, QuickTime! QuickTime just happens to run on both Windows and Mac OS X, which makes this the second cross-platform threat I have reported here in the past week. This is also the second time in a week Apple has released a security patch to block malicious Web sites from ...

Open source

Cross-platform open source threat: Is open source really more secure?

Sophos has disclosed the existence of a proof-of-concept worm (StarOfficeBadbunny) that attacks through a vulnerability in OpenOffice and other programs using StarBasic macros. According to Sophos, this is a multi-platform threat affecting Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It is written in several scripting languages, including Perl. While this particular threat is minor, it does illustrate ...

Security

Critical new Opera 9.x vulnerability and Norton 2004 threats

This is a remote system access vulnerability caused by an ActiveX flaw. This is fixed by upgrading Windows Opera versions to Opera 9.21: http://www.opera.com/download/ Secunia is reporting a highly critical ActiveX remote system access threat in Norton Internet Security 2004, Norton IS 2004 Professional, and Norton Personal Firewall 2004. I hope none of you are ...

Security

Microsoft announces security bulletin changes

A Microsoft spokesperson just notified me of planned changes to both the advanced notification service (ANS) and format of the monthly scheduled Microsoft security bulletins. These changes are worthy of note, but they will not affect the actual information provided — just the way it is presented. According to the spokesperson, the changes are intended ...

Software

Get up to speed on Microsoft’s seven critical security bulletins

For May's Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released seven security bulletins -- and they're all critical updates. John McCormick tells you what you need to know about all seven security bulletins.

After Hours

iPods endanger pacemaker patients

We’ve all been in hospitals and seen the signs warning us not to use cell phones because of possible dangers to patients on delicate electronic equipment, but a Michigan high school student has found that iPods interfered with about one-third of implanted pacemakers tested. The Denver Post (among multiple other publications) is reporting that a ...

Security

Photoshop file threat emerges

Just when you thought it was safe to do something online, an example emerges that shows there can be dangerous vulnerabilities in virtually any application. I’m discussing this Photoshop file threat not because I think it will become some massive security threat to a lot of users but simply as an example that ANYTHING connected ...

Security

Top 10 security mistakes to avoid

Security management has a lot to do with details — staying on top of the latest threats and patching flaws. But sometimes, it has more to do with the big picture and how you approach security management. Here are the top 10 security mistakes I’ve seen people make: 1. Trusting people: The biggest threat to ...

Security

Apple patches 25 Mac OS X vulnerabilities

There are multiple critical remote code execution and DoS vulnerabilities in Macintosh OS X versions 10.3.9, Server 10.3.9, 10.4.9, and Server 10.4.9. The 25 vulnerabilities are a mix of locally and remotely exploitable threats. Here are links to the updates: 10.3.9 Client 10.3.9 Server Security Update 2007-004 Universal Security Update 2007-004 PCC SuSE security updates SuSE ...

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