TheTwidgetLog
Technology and other stuff
Security
Microsoft fires one over the bow
Nov 10th
In an article by Paul Thurrott, he talks about a test, run at Sophos, that points to Windows 7 still being vulnerable to 80% of the virus’s tested. Microsoft responds to Sophos pointing out that it was never claimed that Windows 7 would not need an antivrus solution. In fact Microsoft recommends that you get a antivrus solution as part of you system protection strategy. As talked about in the article, I believe this is bogus test announced just to reinforce the Sophos name as an antivirus solution.
Here is the post that started it all.
Below is the comment I posted at the Windows IT Pro article.
The reason this is a bogus test and brings the trust of Sophos in to question is that they are stating the obvious as a revelation. Mush the same way other companies state the norm as a feature. An example of that is the milk you buy. The low fat milk with 50% less fat, this is they went from 4% in the mix to 2% in the mix. The bigger number makes you feel like it is less.
Stating that a new operating system is still vulnerable to a system compatible virus is like saying the new baby is still able to get sick. You still have to give the baby antivirus shots and still have to take care of it.
As for prepackaging an antivirus solution, that would be great, until some European entity opens yet another lawsuit about unfair business practices.
Secure that computer!
Oct 5th
Every day I seem to hear some news about a bot attack or malware running amok. To counter this I have a list of behaviors and software that can help you keep from being the next statistic. Check out the Thou shalt be safe and secure page.
When will you know your computer is a bot.
Nov 6th
At last a question!
The person asking has a computer taken over by malware. They tried to recover by adding more antivirus programs but that only adds to the frustration.
I would appreciate it if you would add your voice to an on-going disagreement in my household. My boyfriend has just added a new anti-spy ware, anti-adware program to our computer and it now seems to be operating terribly, specifically, it shuts down every time we try to use the internet. (However, this is a point of contention b/c he seems to think it was operating terribly before he added it – hence the reason he added it – but, I think it operates much MUCH worse since the new program was installed.)
We already have McAfee, and the I think the new program is called AVG. Every time he runs a scan, it reports back that there are numerous pieces of adware or spyware (anywhere from 14-150). He thinks this is the reason to keep loading on protection programs and keep doing scans and quarantines. My opinion is that it’s nearly impossible to avoid ad- and spyware, so why keep adding goofy programs that are supposed to protect us from viruses, but really only seem to screw up our computer. Who’s right?
My thanks
Well I think you may have a couple problems. First, while it is a good idea to have some anti-virus and anti spyware programs installed you can have too many. I am guessing that the McAfee software came with the computer and unless you are paying them it is basically not working. I suggest you uninstall it as the AVG software will report parts of McAfee as a virus, due to the ways antivirus software works. Only use one antivirus program at a time.
If you system is still slow and/or AVG, a good antivirus solution, still reports a virus/malware infection then it is time to rebuild the machine from the scratch. Copy your data to a USB drive and break out the recovery disks. When your system is infected, unlike our immune system, the anti virus and spyware programs can not always remove the infection. The only way to ensure a clean system is to start over and immediately install the anti virus and anti spyware solutions. Read over my pages on security, Thou Shalt be Safe and Secure and Second Line of Defense. If you follow these guidlines and adjust your surfing habits then you may avoid having to rebuild your system for a while.
Thank you for writing.
You have the power!
Jun 28th
The first line of defense is behavioiur modification, don’t do those things that will cause you computer to be compromised. As with all lines of defense, you need to have a plan B.
These are the programs I recomend to protect your computer in case plan A fails.
- Spybot search and destroy- I use the inoculation feature, the host file to redirect bad sites to dead addresses.
- Spyware Blaster – I use it to block out known bad scripts and bad active-x scripts.
- Windows defender- to monitor registration changes and block them. Also watches for malware and can remove it.
- AVG free – antiviral program that is free and doesn’t have a lot of overhead.
- Firefox – I like the UI of Firefox and several add ons, in particular I use noscript. Noscript will block the script on a page from running until you have authorized it.
The use of thees programs will not guarantee safety, nothing will. What they will do is work with you to protect your computer.
Security, security, security – there is no place like root.
Nov 20th
You may think that the anti virus program you have will solve all you security needs. While it can help it is only one aspect of stopping spyware. Here where I work I have chosen to use three anti-spyware programs in addition to our anti virus solution to provide a safer computer environment in a public setting, although I use these my self to protect my computers.
One may think that because lab computers are locked down and, in some cases, frozen that these machines are safe. The sad truth is that they are at more risk than your home computer. The users of these computers are not worried about infecting the machines because it is not their machine. It is only prudent to add relevant and known security software to prevent known compromises and mitigate unknown. It is also a fact that no one tool or method of protection is adequate. As with protecting your health, protecting the health of a PC require various methods used together to provide an overlapping cloak of protection.
To that end I employ three free programs that work in different ways to protect the computers.
Spyware detection and removal, enhanced pop up blocking, block settings modifications, and blocks the installation of spyware quietly.
I only use a few of the many features this software has. I use the site blocking feature. This allows you to block sites that are known to be malicious, currently 32,572.
I also implement the hosts file augmentation feature. This feature allows me to place dead address statements in the host file to disallow access to the known malicious sites altogether. By doing this I keep the computer from talking to the site regardless of the threat, which may be a day zero threat and unknown to the previous feature.
Prevent the installation of activeX based spyware and other malicious software. Block known malicious tracking cookies in IE as well as Firefox. Do it all passively, causing no slowdown of the system.
Because these are installed on machines that have the disk structure locked the only one that can update itself is Windows Defender. However, during breaks it is easy to update the other programs and bring the protection level current.
This does not mean that we are secure, as with all security issues constant vigilance and reviewing of methods and measures must be done. Security is an ongoing process that will have its triumphs and failures.
Just call me Master.
Oct 30th
Firefox has a great service that lets you store the passwords for web sites in it and then automatically login when you return to that site. Unfortunately it also allows you to be taken advantage of unless you properly set it up.
After starting Firefox go to the the tools menu and select options, then select security. In the center of that window you will see passwords. If you have already used this facility then you will notice, when you click on show passwords, that there are sites and with a second click on show passwords, and a confirmation, they are viable.
In order to use this facility check the “Remember passwords for sites” box and protect your passwords, set a master password by checking the “Use a master password” box. Click the exceptions button to see site you have opted to not remember passwords for and remove site that were selected in error.
When entering a password there is a strength meter showing how strong a master password you have selected. you should have at least one capital, one number, and one punctuation mark in a minimum eight character password. With some experimentation you will be able to select a very strong password to protect this facility. One add part to this is even if you have entered the master password to allow automatic logins, the password is needed again to show the passwords as demonstrated before.
Now what was that password?
Oct 25th
You just got that great deal on a used computer from work, or from a surplus sale. You get home turn it on and you need a password. the user name is someone you have never heard of and every thing you try fails. You change the name to administrator and it is the same. well your in luck, I have found an Emergency boot CD that will solve this problem, for windows anyway. You have to download the files and make an ISO, or CD image, file that you can burn to a CD using your CD software or download the demo version of Nero. Naturally you will have to do this on a machine you have access to.
Once you have made the CD you will boot the problem machine from CD and choose the password utility. This CD is based on a small Linux kernel and you will see many other utilities that come with the program. Read the screens as you go and go slowly. When I tried this it work well and you select the defaults along the way. Clear the password rather than change it.
The spider in the fly.
Oct 18th
I recently received and email sent by a concerned person to all their friends warning of a new poisonous spider in the US, hiding in airline toilets of all places. This, like most apocryphal emails is a hoax. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/insects/telamonia.asp
It is hard not to just believe that these are real and warn everyone about the dangers, just in case. We would all feel bad if someone was bitten in the airplane facilities. The truth is that sending these things around is worse. The misinformation and lies just get everyone worried and then the one email to our close friends becomes a billion messages to the world just to keep them safe.
Please when you get these either have a good laugh and ignore them, or go to http://www.snopes.com to check, and then laugh and ignore them. Your friends will thank you for not filling up their email with stuff, and you will sleep easier at night knowing that the spiders are not in the toilets of planes waiting to bite.
Got questions?
Sep 13th
Have any problems with tech nagging you? Need help with setting up you computer? Send me an email and I’ll get some answers for you.
Email your questions to thetwidgetlog
You will notice that I have my address protected by recapthcha. This helps to cut down on spam after the bots get my address from the page.
My library has an iPad?
May 27th
Posted by Jerry in Security
View Comments
I received an email today at work asking about the acquisition of iPads for loaning . Below I have included the sanitized test, names removed to, well, hide the sender.
A college library just purchased four iPads to start experimenting with. Currently we are not planning to deploy in the near future. We will be testing to see if we could use iPads as student loaners in the library. Currently we loan over 100 laptops that are so well used we can’t even keep the batteries charged. Our hope is iPads can replace 25-50% of the laptops as a lower cost, longer battery life loaner solution where students’ needs are primarily web search related.
Here is my response to the question: Do we want to try this?
While iPads and iTouch devices are very good content consumption devices they are in a class of equipment designed to be tied to one account. Other devices like that would be a Kindle or a MP3 player tied to a subscription service. If we were to get into the business of loaning equipment my choice would be to use a netbook with a deepfreeze locked SSD, making it more rugged and less likely to compromise others. These can be acquired for $300 versus the $500 an iPad would cost.
Our support efforts for iPad, iTouch and even netbooks for students would be better directed at providing power access locations, the appropriate file types for instructional and informational use. Also we need to provide better web support, focusing on better information access for a broad group of web browsers, not just focus on how low can we make the cost or how little can we do to provide it. We also need to stop trying to find one answer to solve most needs, allowing the rest to fend for themselves. Multifaceted approaches usually provide full coverage and don’t always require more work, just more knowledge.
It’s not that I don’t think the iPad wold be a good choice for students. I just think they would be too difficult to manage the app access, personal information compromise that could occur and cleaning the unit before allowing the next patron to borrow it.
Your thoughts?