Showing posts with label Anti-Virus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anti-Virus. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Facebook Eating Into Its Ecosystem

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase
Right before Bill Gates retired he was talking in terms of baking anti-virus software right into Windows. He had been doing things like that during the entire life of that operating system. Remember when he baked the web browser into Windows and got into trouble?

I think it is but natural for Facebook to eat up into its ecosystem. Instagram owed no small amount of its user base growth to the fact that it used the social graphs on Facebook to spread the word. And guess what happened.

Mark Zuckerberg Reveals He Is Open To A Radical Change In Facebook Strategy
Facebook's sudden openness to owning more of its platform
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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Customized Threats

Image representing Symantec as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase
The Latest Threat: A Virus Made Just for You
a refinement to the technique could make automated analysis of malware nearly impossible ..... The makers of antivirus software regularly collect samples of malware and then use automated analysis to generate a collection of identifying characteristics, commonly called a signature. .... polymorphism—a technique for changing programs each time they are copied to a new machine ..... The database of malware maintained by Symantec includes about 19 million signatures. In its annual Internet Security Threat Report released earlier this year, Symantec stated that its automated analysis systems analyzed 403 million unique variants of malicious programs in 2011, a 41 percent increase from the 286 million analyzed in 2010. Without automation, this task would be much harder.
The devil has time on his hands, looks like. The fight between good and evil continues. This reminds me of This World dictators beating the protesters in their use of information technology. Like in Burma several years back the authorities encouraged protesters to go out in the streets and take pictures and upload them online. Then they coldly downloaded them to identify and punish individual protesters.


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Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Chrome Notebook Needs No Anti Virus B.S.

Image representing Microsoft as depicted in Cr...Image via CrunchBaseChrome Notebook Pilot User?

There's nothing to infect. What are you going to infect? There is no desktop. It is like every time you start your machine, you are loading the operating system afresh.

That is such relief. The anti virus business has always felt like a scam to me. I have always felt like that annual 45 bucks ought to go to Microsoft instead and Windows ought to be free.

I told them. They did not listen. And now the Chrome OS is going to kill Windows.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Passwords For Security

CyberspaceImage by Zebra Pares via Flickr
New York Times: A Strong Password Isn’t the Strongest Security: MAKE your password strong, with a unique jumble of letters, numbers and punctuation marks. But memorize it — never write it down. And, oh yes, change it every few months. These instructions are supposed to protect us. But they don’t....... Keylogging software, which is deposited on a PC by a virus, records all keystrokes — including the strongest passwords you can concoct — and then sends it surreptitiously to a remote location. ..... antivirus software could detect and block many kinds of keyloggers, but “there’s no guarantee that it gets everything.” ..... sites that allowed relatively weak passwords were busy commercial destinations, including PayPal, Amazon.com and Fidelity Investments. The sites that insisted on very complex passwords were mostly government and university sites. ..... “If an account is locked for 24 hours after three unsuccessful attempts,” they write, “a six-digit PIN can withstand 100 years of sustained attack.” .....“Eat your broccoli; a strong password is good for security.”

What are your options? You can still go for a strong password. You can still change them periodically. You can still get anti virus software. You can hope it is illegal for someone to try and get your password, but this is a big world. The nation state is an ant to the cyber criminals who mostly work remotely.

What is your prayer then? That you are personally too insignificant to be snooped upon? That there are too many people like you out there?

Password theft is like identity theft. Can you imagine the inconvenience of someone having stolen your password and then changed it? Your contacts are not going to think your password got stolen. They are going to think you are being rude in not responding to their emails.

Maybe you can inform your 10 or 20 key contacts. But it would not be possible to inform them all.

For the short term, my bet is on good anti virus software. Keep it renewed. Most people do. And I am glad. Bill Gates once promised to incorporate anti virus software right into Windows. And he went ahead and retired.

It is a relentless fight between good and evil. But common sense is a good armor for the most part. And, yes, there are too many people like you out there. It is a numbers game. It is statistical. You are for the most part safe. Just keep to common sense. Keep a strong password. And keep your anti virus software renewed.

Safety online is kind of like safety offline. There are some common sense ground rules to follow. Even so you might fall a victim. It is a numbers game. If you do, know what to do.

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