Current Cybersecurity Trends Articles

Sandboxie: Blocking Web-Based Malware From Your PC

October 5, 2009

There is no safe neighborhood anywhere on the Internet. Even honest reputable sites, such as The New York Times, can inadvertently serve up malware. If you don’t keep all the software on your computer patched with the latest bug fixes, you are constantly at risk – malware exploits known bugs to install itself. Now that… Read more
Consider Linux for Secure Online Banking

August 11, 2009

Do you make online financial transactions from a Windows computer? If so, you may want to re-visit that decision. It’s a given that almost all malicious software targets Windows. In my opinion, while it is possible to secure a Windows computer, the process is too hard, too time-consuming and/or technically over the head of most… Read more
Are Chinese Hackers Attacking Your PC?

July 1, 2009

Two things happened last Tuesday that, taken together, point out just how dangerous the Internet is. Cyber security was all over the news as Defense Secretary Robert Gates approved the creation of a new department in the U.S. government, called U.S. Cyber Command, to handle the security of computer networks run by the Department of… Read more
RBS WorldPay Data Breach Hits 1.5 Million

December 29, 2008

A hacker got into the computer systems of electronic payment processing services provider RBS WorldPay, compromising more than a million customers’ records. Formerly known as RBS Lynk, RBS WorldPay, which claims it has more than 20 years in the business, is the U.S. payment processing arm of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Personal and… Read more
40 Open Source Tools for Protecting Your Privacy

December 2, 2008

You don’t need to fork over big bucks – or even any bucks – to keep your online activities and identity secret. The open source community has dozens of privacy-related projects in development, and some of them have already proven themselves to be among the best privacy protection tools available. These tools are targeted at… Read more
10 Commercial Open Source Security Vendors

October 22, 2007

Can companies make money by selling a product customers can get for free? Absolutely, yes. According to IDC, organizations spent $1.8 billion on stand-alone open source software in 2006, and IDC projects that total revenues in this market will reach $5.8 billion by 2011. Eager to get in on that action, a number of software… Read more
Spoofing Googlebot

July 17, 2007

It crawls the Web without malice seeking out every possible bit of content. It’s name is Googlebot, and sometimes it gets to see things on the Web that the rest of don’t. Unless of course you pretend to be Googlebot. Superficially spoofing Googlebot, Google’s Web crawler, is not a difficult thing to do and was… Read more
Linux vs. Windows: Which is Most Secure?

March 16, 2007

Editor’s Note: A lot has changed since this article was written so we decided to take another look at the topic. Check out the new article, Is Linux Really More Secure than Windows?, to see what the findings are … you might be surprised (or not). I’m more secure on Linux than I am on… Read more
Mac vs. Linux: Which is More Secure?

February 28, 2007

In last month’s column, I said “I’m more secure on a Mac than I was on Windows XP.” Some of you asked how Linux fares in that comparison. To that, I’ll say I’m marginally more secure on Linux than on a Mac, but I prefer a Mac anyway. I can almost see my inbox filling… Read more
Open or Closed Source Code Irrelevant to Security

August 1, 2005

I spend quite a bit of time talking in front of groups of people, and oneof the things I’m often asked is whether I use open source software (OSS)because I think it’s more secure than proprietary, or ”closed source”,software. I’ll bet this same topic has come up once or twice (this week)in your office, too.… Read more