Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Windows 10 will ship with IE 11, but the default browser will be Spartan

A new, leaner, faster Microsoft browser will be the default for the next Windows.  It will still be based on Microsoft javascript and browsing engines.

Tablets Dead? Phablets the new Thing?

It seems that tablets are on the way out being replaced by large phones.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

North Korea suffering DDoS, affecting country's Internet access

Someone is performing a denial of service attack vs. N Korea's DNS servers preventing timely resolution of names.

Apple forces ntp patch on OS X users

This is the first vulnerability that has caused Apple to install a fix without asking the user.  The vulnerability in ntp (network time) is thought to be critical and all users should make sure they're patched via the App Store.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Friday, December 19, 2014

Google vs. "Goliath"

Google is opposing a MPAA backed plan to require ISPs to block "pirate sites."

The Instagram "Rapture"

Instagram has killed off thousands of fake accounts causing drastic drops in the number of followers of many celebrities.

Microsoft sues tech support scam artists

Some of the scum the prey upon the less technically minded of us is being sued by Microsoft for copyright infringement.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Innovative way to "p@wn" someone's computer via usb and $20 worth of hardware

Creative thinking, and some coding skill, and you too could have usb p@wning device.

12 million home routers "at risk" from http cookie exploit

Routers, mostly owned by ISP and rented by consumers, with the RomPager firmware may be at risk for arbitrary memory overwriting (aka code execution) by receiving a single packet containing malicious code wrapped in an http cookie.  No serious details available to help minimize exploitation.

Ars Technica hacked, users should change passwords

If you login to the news site, change your password.

Android phones with preinstalled malware CoolReaper

Chinese Coolpad phones came with the malware in the ROMs.

Google's End-To-End OpenPGP Chrome Extension

Allows Gmail users to send OpenPGP encrypted messages to each other.

ICANN hacked via targeted spear phishing, some top level zone files compromised

The bad guys accessed several zone files containing names, IPs, and name servers.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Google Drive now has primitive OpenDocument format support

The native file formats for openoffice and libreoffice can now be opened in Google Drive.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Pirate Bay is offline, but piracy continues...

"On the TV front, over the Dec. 6-11 period, pirates swarmed over AMC’s “The Walking Dead” (717,190 average peers per day), followed by CW’s “The Flash” (576,093), CW’s “Arrow” (518,816), FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” (427,167), Showtime Network’s “Homeland” (413,620) and CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” (412,729)."  Yahoo

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Seagates new 8TB hard drive

"Seagate, using its new shingled magnetic recording (SMR) technology to cram more data into fewer platters, is preparing to launch an 8TB hard drive priced at just $260."

Vulnerability found in Keurig 2.0 KCups

So does anyone read these posts?  You can hack your Keurig....

Sony's stolen cert used to sign Destroyer malware

A new variant of the same malware used in the latest Sonly breech has been signed with the cert stolen during the breech.

FIDO alliance announces specifications for password free authentication

Paypal, Google, Samsung, and others agreeing to "patent" free methods of authentication.

LastPass can now automatically change your passwords...

So you want to rotate your passwords every 30 days?

Apple Releases iOS 8.1.2

If you plan on patching "over the air"  you will need up to 7G of free space on the device.  You should probably patch using iTunes via Windows or OSX.

Critical Adobe Flash Patch

Adobe has released a critical fix for all current versions of Flash.  Users should upgrade ASAP.

Microsoft Patch Tuesday, December 2014

Microsoft has released patches for this month.  All users should review the changes and then patch as needed.

Friday, December 5, 2014

Windows 10, Fall 2015

The next version of Windows won't be released to the public until the Fall of '15.

Some dangers of using "Login with Linkedin" and other 3rd party authentication

An article on how unverified email addresses were used to login to sites.  "could register a victim's email address with an identity provider and a chosen website, then click the social network sign-in button to gain access, all without ever clicking an email verification link."

Latest Dec 3rd Safari Patch Buggy

If you patched OS X Safari in the last few days, you might be experiencing difficulties using the browser.

Adobe Patch List for December 2014

Adobe plans on releasing patches on Dec 9th for Reader and Acrobat for critical vulnerabilities.

Microsoft Patch List for December 2014

Three critical updates for Windows, Office, and IE.

Sony hack included 47k SSNs

Mostly employees, including contractors, stored in unencrypted Excel format.