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Flashback Trojan is a Warning to Mac Owners
It finally happened: for the first time, Macintosh computers have been attacked by a trojan virus in a big way. Few viruses have ever targeted them before, and for decades Apple owners were told simply not to worry, that viruses were a Microsoft problem. Now the owners of over a half-million Mac OS X computers share the pain – and some of the vulnerability – that Windows users have long been familiar with. The malware is called Flashback, and was discovered not long ago by Kaspersky Labs, a leading Moscow-based software security firm. Flashback can hijack a Mac without even an administrative password, due to its exploit of a flaw in Java. Though discovered last September, Oracle, the company that makes Java, patched the hole back in February, but that didn’t solve the problem. It turns out Apple ships its own version of Java, and their patches weren’t issued until early April. (Obviously, the company has a learning curve about prompt and effective security responses in front of them.) By now there are a lot of infected Macintoshes – not really all that many by Windows standards, but it can still spoil your day if you have one. The virus masquerades as an installer for Adobe’s Flash, and it can install itself. All you have to do is visit an infected website with an unprotected computer. As of the latest reports, the trojan has created a botnet – a network … Continue reading
Beyond Passwords: Online Identity Standards
Virtually everyone’s been stuck one time or another trying to remember a online password and thought, “There has to be a better way.” A recent article in our newsletter talks about the problem and suggests tricks to make it a little easier to deal with. But although a lot of smart people have tried to figure out a safe, reliable, and more convenient system, nobody’s come up with one yet. Now, however, the US Government has decided to gently encourage efforts. In the spring of last year, the Obama Administration announced the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, NSTIC. Like the National Broadband Plan, it’s not legislation or even regulation. Instead, NSTIC is a hopeful collection of idealistic principles and goals to promote development rather than a concrete plan with real funding and hard, measurable results. Nevertheless, many agencies and corporations are very interested. It’s easy to see why. Identity theft has become a major problem, costing millions each year, and passwords remain the weakest link in cybersecurity. Commerce might also be helped if you could buy books on Amazon with your Google account or download tax forms from iTunes. And public safety would benefit if your child could be automatically denied entrance to adult websites, or doctors could check in online to help provide medical services after a disaster. The dream is to build a safe method of sharing relevant sensitive information about users with online entities while … Continue reading
15 Reasons Why SWCP BUS Is Your Best Backup Option for the New Year
The end of the year provides an excellent occasion to review your backup strategy. Consider how your life would be affected next year if all the files you worked on this past year suddenly vanished. As anyone who has suffered such an event knows, a dead hard drive, stolen laptop, or stepped-on flash drive can turn your world upside-down. Because once that data is gone, it’s gone for good. A New Year’s resolution of “Never lose a file again” suddenly makes a whole lot of sense. Granted, there are plenty of backup options available, online along with tape and hard drives, CDs, and so forth. Some are cheap, others expensive, but for maximum security, most methods require that you discipline yourself to remember to copy the files or change out the tape or disk and physically take them someplace else every time you time you work on them. This is both inconvenient and because it’s so easy to forget, risky as well. Uploads online to distant data storage centers may solve some problems, but remote, big box service providers don’t have options a local service does such as using removable drives, technician setups, and in-office help. A combination of both is needed. In trying to make surviving such disasters as data loss easier, Southwest Cyberport has developed SWCP BUS, an online backup system which is combined with our famous neighborly, local service. We are confident that this gives the SWCP … Continue reading
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