If you’ve been following my advice on securing your technology, one of the steps you’ve taken was to use unique, strong passwords for all your critical online accounts. If you have more than 2-3, you might also be using software known as a “password manager” which allows you to store your complex, hard-to-remember passwords in one place, secured by a master password. Examples of these include Lastpass, 1Password, Roboform, and Passpack (the one I use). Security analysts at IBM Trusteer have now identified a new form of malware that specifically targets password managers, turning on a keylogger when it detects the program being launched, with the intent of capturing your master password, and thereby gaining access to everything stored within.
What this means for you:
Though this particular malware isn’t widespread yet, it has the potential to cause devastating harm to compromised individuals, if only because it gives the hacker focused and confirmed access to every account stored in that particular password manager. As is always the case, security is only as strong as the weakest link, and 9 out of 10 times we humans are the weakest link. This form of attack requires a particular type of keylogger and trojan infection, so don’t discontinue use of your password manager unless you have reason to suspect you’ve been compromised. While there are no guarantees, you are much less likely to fall victim to a trojan attack like this if you have legitimate, updated anti-malware running on all your internet-connected devices and keep your operating system updated. Constant vigilance is also required: don’t open strange email attachments, carefully read/avoid pop-ups, and always have an experienced IT professional on speed dial.
Note: if you are still running Microsoft XP in your environment, you are putting your whole organization at risk. I’ve been seeing an increasing number of malware infections on older operating systems as antimalware manufacturers end support for their software. In most cases, these machines are running in forgotten corners of your workplace, but may monitor or control critical components of your infrastructure. The cost to recover a compromised XP machine and remediating the damage it caused typically outstrips the cost to replace it. Don’t put it off until it’s too late.
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I can’t tie a knot that would safely secure a boat, nor can I carve a race-winning pinewood racer, but I’m pretty sure my time as a Boy Scout primed me for a career in technology. Their motto, “be prepared” made a deep and lasting impression on me, and I try to exemplify that attitude in how I conduct my business, and encourage my clients to do the same. This can take all forms – planning for the safety and security of your loved ones is something everyone should take very seriously – but many businesses are less than ideally prepared for adverse events. Though most folks think in terms of actual disasters – fires, floods, earthquakes and so on (welcome to Southern California!) – you should also consider smaller-scale catastrophes such as data loss, security breaches, employee malfeasance, theft, vandalism, and virus infections. Every business should have a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan, and if that business or organization relies on technology, those plans should include technology recovery and continuity as well. Don’t have a plan? Here are five important items to get you started on writing one:
- Back up your data – most folks have learned the hard lesson of data loss and at a minimum try to back up their most important data to a separate drive. But if that backup is stored on premise, it is just as susceptible to whatever might damage your source data. At minimum, a copy of your backups should be stored offsite in a secure location, and the best solution is a combination of cloud-based backups and regular rotation of local backups to an offsite location.
- Keep track of critical logins and passwords – most organizations that can’t afford to maintain a full-time IT person on staff often suffer from a blind spot in their operation manuals and documentation: logins and passwords for important technology services, as well as contact numbers or email addresses for critical vendor services. Keeping these small bits of information current and stored offsite can mean the difference between hours and days in recovering from a disastrous event.
- Identify your technology weak spots – if your business relies on physical technology to conduct business, consider how hard it would be to operate without that technology for days, or even weeks. Email or web server on premise? Payroll checks printed on special printers? Even if you don’t use any specialized hardware, can your business operate without internet or electricity? Identifying these potential vulnerabilities will go a long way to helping you minimize or eliminate them before they can cripple your business during adverse circumstances.
- Evaluate vendor preparedness – if you rely on service providers for crucial technology services, you should have at least a basic understanding of how prepared they are for disasters. Though you have less to worry about with large, experienced providers (even Gmail goes down from time to time), if one of your “weak spots” is a service provided by someone else, you should know if they are prepared to handle a disaster, and how the loss of this service would affect your own operations.
- Train your people – if you or someone in a leadership position is incapacitated or isolated from the organization, others need to be prepared to fill those shoes. This means training them or at least preparing documentation for them on all of the above. Nothing is worse than watching an organization flounder while everyone stands around staring at each other not knowing what to do.
These are only a few aspects of a well-formed DR/BC Plan. The larger the business, the more detailed and complex it will become, but every organization large or small, should have one. It may seem expensive or a waste of time, but putting the effort into a DR/BCP will be the difference between your organization overcoming a challenge or succumbing to a disaster. Be prepared!
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Let’s face it: that shiny new computer you “just bought” doesn’t have the pep it used to have when you first bought it. Professionally-managed computers can usually forestall this degradation by several years, but all Windows computers, no matter how expensive or powerful or well-maintained (one does not necessarily equate to the other) will see a gradual performance decline with regular use. There are some obvious ways to put some zing back into the device – replace it with a newer one (a simple, if expensive option), or wiping out the operating system and starting over (not for technically disinclined) can restore it to a “fresh out of the box” level of performance. A more reasonable (and lower-cost) approach would be to do some clean-up and maintenance, both physical and digital on your computer.
Blow out the dust.
Most desktops and laptops keep their electrical components cool by blowing air across metallic heat-sinks. Over time, those components can become caked with dust, severely impairing their cooling capabilities. When your CPU runs too hot, your computer is smart enough to slow itself down to prevent the CPU from overheating and frying itself. As you can imagine, if your heat-sink can’t keep your CPU cool because it’s covered in a fuzzy sweater, your computer will be forced to run slower (or even shut itself off, in extreme cases). Desktops can usually be opened up and blasted with canned air for a thorough cleaning, but laptops aren’t as easy. While the laptop is on, use your hand to find out where the hot air is coming from, then turn off the device, and give that opening a puff or two from some canned air. Make sure you do it outside or somewhere with good ventilation, as a large cloud of dust will probably be blasted out. If you happen to have a model that is sealed or uses passive cooling (no moving air or parts), dust is not likely to be a problem.
Clean up that hard drive.
Just like your physical space, clutter and junk can ruin your computer’s efficiency. This particular maintenance task is multi-faceted, so make sure you check each of these areas:
- Scan for malware. Even though you might already have an anti-virus program installed, you should check at least once a quarter for viruses and other unwanted software (pop-up generators, coupon offers, etc.) using a program like MalwareBytes or RogueKiller (or both). You might be surprised by what they find. Many viruses are actually designed to run “under the radar” to remain undetected for as long as possible, and may have circumvented your antivirus to do so. Infections are a primary source of performance slow-downs.
- Remove “bloatware”. Even brand new out of the box, most name-brand computers come installed with what IT professionals call “bloatware” – software added by the manufacturer that is really there to sell you additional products or services. If your computer was procured by an internal IT department you usually don’t have to worry about factory-installed bloatware, but over time your computer can still accumulate it’s own set of software “barnacles”. Take a look at the “Programs & Features” control panel (Windows 7) and carefully remove any unnecessary programs. HP and Canon printers are notorious for adding a several arguably useful programs that will slow you down. Write down what you removed, just in case something you do need stops functioning properly.
- Ignore “PC Optimizer” software. Remove them if you installed them (see #1). Defragmenting your hard drive used to be an important facet of computer maintenance, but modern hardware and operating systems essentially obviate any degradation caused by fragmentation. The same goes for “registry cleaners”. At best, most of the “PC Optimizer” products out there are just scams, and a small number are actually malware in disguise. There are legitimate cleaning products out there that will help you maintain your computer (CCleaner is one of them), but the performance gains you will see are merely from clearing out the “digital gunk” that accumulates over time.
- Make sure you have enough free space on your hard drive. Steps 1, 2, and 3 may help you out quite a bit here, but if you are working with less than 15% free hard drive space on your primary drive, you can run into trouble and performance issues. Remove any unused or old programs, and archive old data to external storage. Windows is infamous for eating up drive space with temporary files as well. I recommend using a program like CCleaner to clean them up rather than doing it manually, as it can be tricky to find all the various locations Windows (and other programs like Internet Explorer) stash these files.
Free up RAM.
You may gain some RAM from getting rid of malware, fake optimizers and bloatware, but it also can come from closing out of applications that you aren’t using. Many folks either forget to close seldom-used applications, on top of keeping memory-hungry ones open all the time. Microsoft Outlook and Google Chrome are both memory hogs, and can soak up quite a bit of performance, even if minimized in the background. If you don’t need to keep an application open, “Quit” the app and check your RAM usage via Task Manager. If you’ve “trimmed the fat”, but you still have less than 20% of your total RAM free, you are going to see performance issues. Even though Windows 7 can run on less than 2GB of RAM, if you are multi-tasking power-user, you are going to need more RAM, and should consider some form of hardware upgrade.
Consider a faster hard drive, and/or install more RAM.
If you’ve performed all the above and still haven’t achieved the performance boost you were hoping for, but aren’t quite ready to spring for an entirely new computer, you may be in a position to upgrade your hard drive with a faster drive. In many cases, solid-state drives (SSD) can provide a significant boost in speed, especially in laptops, which might have started with a slower hard drive out of the box (usually for cost and/or battery-life considerations). This is definitely not an upgrade that can be handled by the average computer user, but even after factoring in the cost of the drive and the installation, may make more sense than a completely new computer.
Depending on the hardware and installed operating system, installing more RAM may be another low-cost way to breathe new life into your computer. In order for your computer to use more than 3GB of RAM, you must have an 64-bit OS installed, which isn’t always guaranteed, so make sure you can use it before you buy it. In many cases RAM can be purchased inexpensively, and installed quickly. Windows 7 and later really shines when you can give it more than 4GB of RAM, especially if you run RAM-hungry programs like Quickbooks, MS Office or any graphic-intensive application like the Adobe Creative Suite.
Do the math.
Before spending money (and don’t forget, time is money as well), it may be worth the effort to do some back of the napkin calculations on whether your time and money is better spent on trying to revive an aging computer, or biting the bullet and getting a brand new one. Though it has slowed somewhat, technology advancement is still accelerating, and each successive generation of computers are seeing shorter usable life-spans. Where 6-7 years before it may have seemed reasonable to get 4-6 years from a well-built computer, today you should expect a maximum of 3 years of optimal performance from the average laptop or desktop, and a sharp drop off in utility past that age. These numbers are considerably compressed if you work in an industry where change is constant (software development, content creation, customer service/retail) and maybe less constrained in industries that are a bit more conservative (finance, health, manufacturing). As a civilization, we are all becoming increasingly technically savvy and heavily reliant on the internet, which is advancing at a blistering pace. To stay viable in the market our tools need to keep that pace, and until there is a revolution in how computers are built, they will need constant upgrading and replacing for the foreseeable future.
If you’ve never really put much thought into computer security, but recent media coverage has convinced you it’s time to start taking it seriously, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed. Where do you start? Everyone’s being hacked – even the really big companies with entire teams of IT professionals! How can I, “average computer user” even hope to keep my stuff safe? First off, in the immortal words of Douglas Adams: “Don’t Panic.” There are a handful of straight-forward, easy to execute measures you can take that will improve your overall security profile. Consider these your first steps to developing a more secure technology future for yourself and your business. While these are definitely not going to make you hack-proof, it will make you a much harder target, and most hackers will move on to easier prey.
- Use strong, unique passwords where it matters. Keeping your critical passwords different will greatly lessen the impact when an account or an account provider gets hacked. This includes any accounts that handle your finances, but also things like your Facebook or other social media accounts, and definitely protect your email with a good, solid password.
- Change your home router password. This will make your home network less susceptible to hacking. I’d like to think more and more folks will learn how to do this (if only once or twice a year), but I realize it’s not always a walk in the park. Call your ISP – they can usually walk you through it via the phone, or if you’d prefer a more personal approach, call your local computer consultant. You’ve got C2 on speed dial, right?
- Make sure your antivirus software is running and up to date. Know what it is called, and understand how it appears on your computer, including warnings and detections. If you don’t have the time or inclination to manage this aspect of computing, there are plenty of companies (like C2!) that offer something called “Managed Support” that includes monitoring your antivirus software for you. This usually also includes making sure your Operating System stays up to date as well.
- Stay away from strange email attachments and unfamiliar websites. Most viruses are delivered via these two methods. If you receive an attachment you weren’t expecting, don’t open it, even if it looks legitimate. Call the sender and confirm they sent the email.
- Be cautious when installing software or driver “updates” especially when notified via browser pop-ups. These are frequently not legitimate and will lead your computer down a dark path of malware infestation. Be particularly suspicious if the “updates” suddenly appear when visiting a new website, or opening an attachment. That’s your signal to cancel any pop-ups and call for professional technology assistance!
These practices will improve your security stance, but there are still a myriad of other things that you could do to strengthen your defenses. To take it to the next level, you should consider the following questions:
- Do you (or your company) handle other people’s sensitive information?
- Do you work in (or for) a regulated industry? A publicly traded company? (Health, finance, government, etc.)
- Do you have intellectual property that is stored and/or transmitted digitally?
- How much inconvenience and expense are you willing to incur to reduce your risk?
- How much of your livelihood would be jeopardized if your computer was hacked?
Answering these tough questions usually requires assistance from an experienced IT professional, even on a individual basis. That being said, achieving any measure of improved security begins with everyone taking some measure of personal responsibility for security, and they can start that process by following the five simple practices outlined above.
Though its still used on over half of all Windows-based computers around the world, Microsoft has stopped providing certain versions of Windows 7, specifically Home Basic/Premium and Ultimate, to computer manufacturers worldwide. Once the current inventory runs out, the only computers that can be bought with Windows 7 will be business-class machines (such as Dell’s Optiplex and Latitude model lines) with the “Pro” or “Enterprise” version installed. Everything else will be Windows 8 or 8.1 until Microsoft launches Windows 10 mid-next year.
What this means for you:
While it’s true that the average consumer may have trouble purchasing a Windows 7 machine for the foreseeable future, Microsoft has no intention of cutting off support for Windows 7 like it did for Windows XP earlier this year. There is still a very large base of enterprise installations running contentedly on 7 and some companies have only just recently completed their migration from XP! Microsoft will continue to provide licensing avenues for companies that need to expand their existing Windows 7 fleets, and most IT organizations appear content to wait to see what Windows 10 has in store for their companies as opposed to switching their operations to the much maligned 8.
All this being said, if you need a new computer, don’t let the lack of 7 or the presence of 8 deter you from a purchase. As mentioned above, it is still possible to purchase Windows 7 Pro machines, though they come with a premium price as compared to the cheaper consumer lines that sold with Windows 7 Home. If you can’t get a Windows 7 machine, consider shopping for one that has 8.1 (not 8), which has multiple improvements (mostly under the hood) over its predecessor. Be prepared for some transition pain – mostly in learning how to navigate Windows 8’s dual-personality interface, but once you get settled in, the experience will largely be the same as what you enjoyed in Windows 7.
Before the advent of computers and the internet, getting control of the “paper tiger” was a common topic of conversation, both in the home as well as in the office. While paper is still an issue, most of us are distracted by a new predator that stalks us: the never-ending stream of email. Properly dealing with an overflowing email inbox is easy to put off until another day, because, unlike paper, it doesn’t create a physical mess that is hard to ignore, but it will render email much less useful, and in the long run it can wreak havoc on your productivity.
For email to be an effective work tool, your goal should be zero unread messages by the end of each workday.
For some people who have an excess of 1,000 unread messages in their inbox at any given moment, this may seem unattainable, but “inbox zero” is achievable with a little work. It will take more than one clean-up session and it requires ongoing discipline to maintain, but the results are worth the effort. It also takes some amount of ruthless dedication focused on deleting messages that you haven’t read and probably never will. With this in mind, it is okay to leave some messages in an unread state, especially if they can’t be dealt with at that moment.
The “unread” status of an email is a marker for what needs to be handled every time you read your email.
With these two concepts in mind, here are five things you can do to achieve this objective:
- Set aside time during the work week for email “housekeeping”. Block out the time on your calendar if you have to, and if your schedule allows it, make it the same time each day. Different times of day and various amounts of time will work for different people, depending on your average email volume. If your load is heavy, you may want to consider bracketing your day with 30-minute sessions. Focus purely on email. Seclude yourself – close your door, put on headphones, forward your phone to voicemail, etc. – and ignore those other distractions.
- Set up automatic rules or filters to process non–urgent emails. This could be anything from system generated emails from various workflow platforms, receipts from online purchases, newsletters that you do plan to read (but see item #3), or mandatory distribution lists (some of this is unavoidable if you are in a supervisory position). You could even go so far as to automatically delete emails that you can’t avoid receiving and don’t necessarily need to read, such as automated responses, or out-of-office messages from folks who use it even when they are only out for the day or weekend. The ultimate goal is to reduce the number of emails you have to manually process during your scheduled email sessions.
- Unsubscribe from all those mailing lists. Yes, I know they are full of information and relevant to your interests, but having them pile up unread, week after week, is the digital equivalent of hoarding. If they were important to your job, they wouldn’t be contributing to an unread Mount Everest. If your unread count on any given list exceeds 5 or more, you are not likely to ever catch up, so delete them, and seriously consider canceling your subscription. It’s likely the list maintains an online archive in case you ever need to research something, so not getting it in email does not equal knowledge lost forever. At minimum use #2 to get them out of the way of item #1, and set up another rule to auto-delete after a certain amount of time.
- Separate work and personal email. Before the advent of mobile devices and webmail, this wasn’t too hard to ensure, as many companies just disallowed access to personal email. In today’s work environments, personal emails are literally a swipe or two away. Aside from obvious safety and security reasons (opening a strange email from a Facebook friend on your work computer is not a good idea!), disciplining yourself to not check personal email during work hours, and vice versa, will help keep you focused when working, and allow you to relax when you are not.
- Delete. Empty your trash can. The trash can is not a storage folder, it’s meant as a short-term safeguard to retrieve emails you accidentally deleted. Just like cleaning up around the house, the last task you should be performing in your email housekeeping is emptying the trash. It will help keep your inbox to a manageable size which is still important, even in the days of seemingly unlimited mailbox storage. Also, delete everything you don’t need to keep, especially old newsletters, automated emails, etc. If you delete while you read, you’ll get to inbox zero faster than you might think. Regardless of how fast computers actually are, important information can be found much faster when your CPU doesn’t have to wade through thousands of useless emails.
We have the entirety of humanity’s knowledge at the tips of our fingers, but if it’s lost in an inbox with 3,000 unread messages, it’s not doing us much good. These five tips are only baby steps towards processing the fire hose of information that is today’s internet-connected work environments. Managing your email will allow you to spend more time on the other things that aren’t so easily corralled, such as building a successful business and leading a fulfilling and stress-free life.
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In the ever-escalating cloud services arms race, Microsoft just trotted out a whopper of a one-up over just about everyone in competition: Microsoft’s OneDrive VP just announced on the OneDrive blog that all Personal, Home and Education Office365 subscribers will have access to unlimited cloud storage for no additional cost. Lest you feel left out in the cold, business subscribers, Microsoft has plans to extend your storage in a similar fashion in 2015. All a part of its master plan, Microsoft envisions a future where everything is done in the cloud, and they want to make sure you are firmly rooted in their ecosystem.
What this means for you:
Before you rush off to move all your files to the cloud as Microsoft suggests, you should consider the implications. Cloud storage of any type is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, once you get your data uploaded, you can (supposedly) stop worrying about mechanical failures, such as hard drive crashes and sending your USB thumb drives through the wash. Another great benefit is your data is essentially accessible from anywhere on the internet. Setting up technology to provide this type of of service is not trivial. Even when you are as big as JP Morgan, it’s still possible to misconfigure your servers, so having a provider who is (probably) an expert at this is better than trying to do it yourself, especially if your company can’t afford a full-time IT professional.
On the other hand, your data is now stored on hardware (and a service) over which you have very little control, and which requires an internet connection. There is also the possibility that your data could be accessed without authorization, either by hackers who manage to penetrate the services security, or by the provider itself, who may be subject to government subpeona, or even by a provider employee with malicious intent.
Given the two sides of this very sharp sword, one must make a reasoned decision about whether to employ cloud storage as part of your technology profile. The most important factor will be the type of data you are planning to store: if any of the alphabet-soup laws apply (HIPPA for example), you may be severely limited in what you can legally store on a cloud-based service. Even if the laws don’t seem to directly apply, consider the consequences if any of your data were to be exposed on the internet for anyone to see: would it be damaging to your business or your clients? If so, you may want to rethink whether the cloud is ready for you.
Several technology manufacturers, including Broadcom (whose chips you probably have in several devices around your home and office) are planning to release in 2015 chips for a new networking protocol called G.Fast which can push bandwidth transmissions on twisted-pair copper lines to near fiber-optic speeds of one gigabit per second. Throughout the US and many other developed nations with significant communication infrastructures, internet speeds aren’t limited by technology but by physical wiring. The most common form of internet service in the US, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), is delivered via the same wires that provide basic telephone service, that were, up until now, limited in how fast they could transmit data mainly by what amounts to a simple (but hard to overcome) physics problem: copper wires are susceptible to radio-frequency interference from adjacent sources, including each of the strands in a single pair that delivers the signal.
What this means for you:
Don’t rush out to cancel your existing internet service. G.Fast isn’t expected to make an appearance until 2016 at the earliest, and providers will still have to grapple with an issue that they have faced many times in the past: the full, gigabit transmission speed of G.Fast is still limited by distance, with the last leg not exceeding about 160 meters before the speed drops off drastically. This means that ISPs will still need to install equipment proximate to residences and offices, something that is costly and time-consuming to execute, and very few ISPs (maybe with the exception of Google and their Fiber initiative) have demonstrated a willingness to pursue until they are forced to (see ATT’s GigaPower counter to Google Fiber). However, the fact that this technology can utilize existing wiring that is available in just about every building in the US means that getting to gigabit internet speeds might not require companies tearing up streets and hanging from telephone poles to string the more expensive cables needed for fiber-based solutions. And you can bet that companies like ATT and Verizon will seize on any opportunity to compete with Google, especially when they can spend less money to field a competitive solution.
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
According to security and censorship watchdog Great Fire, the latest iPhone just made its debut in China, and already new owners are being hacked by what appears to be a state-sponsored “man in the middle” attack. Though there have been many other allegedly government-backed attacks on US-based companies, presumably for commercial or political gain, this appears to be aimed at gaining iCloud identities of its own citizens, and its hard to not draw a dotted line to the recent Hong Kong protests, images and news of which were widely disseminated by mobile devices like the iPhone.
What this means for you:
Unless you are a Chinese citizen that has somehow managed to find your way to this modest blog, this particular event won’t have much impact on you. The hack is actually being perpetrated by China’s “Great Firewall” and only affects a specific, Chinese-only browser called 360 Secure Browser made by a company called Qihoo. Use of this browser is apparently mandatory for all education institutions in China. Seeing as other browsers not under the control of the Chinese government like Firefox and Chrome appear to be unaffected by the hack, it’s hard not to jump to some obvious conclusions. While the more conspiratorial among you may whisper that the American government is only a few steps behind the Chinese in this egregious breach of privacy, it’s important to note that unlike China, US-provided internet is not gated by a single, government-controlled firewall like China’s Great Firewall, nor our are students and teachers mandated to run a (allegedly) state-backed browser. However, this does not mean you should be less vigilant in protecting your security and privacy, as its quite apparent that US agencies like the NSA have no problems snooping on its citizens anyways.
If you thought you had data breach fatigue, prepare to be exhausted this week:
- Hacker tries to scam Internet with fake DropBox password database – DropBox refutes the claim, noting the “proof of hack” provided consisted of known stolen passwords from other sources.
- Kmart Hacked – Undisclosed Quantity of Credit Card Numbers Stolen – Sears-owned retail outlet may have been a victim of known point-of-sale malware “Backoff”, says no identity info stolen, just credit and debit card numbers.
- SnapChat denies it was source of potential racy photo leak – Third-party addon app “SnapSaved” blamed for providing an avenue for hackers to save pictures from SnapChat. SnapSaved admits to security breach, but downplays claims that hackers could provide a “searchable” database of photos.
- NATO Summit Gets Breached by Russian Hackers – Hackers whom security analysts believe to be Russian exploited a Zero-day flaw in Windows operating systems through a spearphishing campaign targeting Ukrainian government workers, leading to breaches on government servers and probably information leaks from Summit proceedings.
- Google Documents Flaw in SSL 3.0 Protocol – Google documents a serious flaw in encryption protocol SSL 3.0, immediately removes it from Chrome web browsers. Though outdated, SSL 3 is still widely used as a fallback protocol when newer protocols fail to function.
- 850K Records Exposed in Oregon Employment Dept Website Breach – State-run website exposes personal information on hundreds of thousands of job seekers. No financial information was exposed, but leaked info could lead to identity theft.