WOO ON TECH
Technology News for Busy People
New IE zero-day surfaces
Lest you think Microsoft has finally plugged the many holes in the S.S. Internet Explorer, Patch Tuesday December includes four critical upates (Microsoft’s “critical” rating means they should be applied immediately) addressing newly discovered weaknesses, including an active zero-day exploit of the OLE (Object Linking & Embedding) platform. This particular chunk of code allows Microsoft
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The pathology and etymology of Malware
A client recently asked me, “What’s the difference between ‘malware’ and a ‘virus’? Is ‘spyware’ still a thing? Are these pop-ups a virus, or something else? Was I hacked?!?” As a computer user who could easily remember the earliest days of computer viruses, his confusion was understandable, especially when the media and sometimes even industry
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Multiple networks dangerously compromised for years
In the early days of malware, the most well-known viruses were designed to be noticed: at minimum they made themselves a nuisance through a variety of prankish behavior, all the way to the other extreme of destroying data (usually right after taunting you, just to make sure you noticed you got infected). Today, cyber criminals
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Cheap Android tablets could be security risk
It’s become a tradition here for many folks to do some technology shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The savvy shopper can often find great deals on otherwise expensive items, and if they are willing to brave the insanity of brick-and-mortar shopping on Black Friday, can sometimes get an amazing deal on the year’s
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Sony Pictures Hacked
Unlike previous high-profile security breaches we’ve reported here, the attack on Sony Pictures appears to be more than a “smash-and-grab” attack to steal customer information. In this particular case, the attackers have apparently acquired many sensitive internal documents, including lists of passwords and financial records, and are threatening to release those documents unless their undisclosed
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Trojans targeting Password Managers
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
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