Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category
Friday, June 4th, 2010
This Financial Times article reports that Google, without question one of the Internet’s strongest influences today, has decided to ditch Windows and move employees to Macintosh and Linux PCs. This move is reportedly largely due to the January hacks on Google and many other corporations, allegedly originating from China. Windows has a long-standing perceived history of having a worse security track record than its competition, and a large part of this comes because it’s simply the largest attack surface. Not surprisingly, the same thing that makes it the most widely developed-for platform for applications keeps it the highest profile target for malware and security exploits as well.
I applaud this move toward security and productivity. I don’t think it will be a easy task for Google, but I believe it will be worth the effort in the long run.
Does your company need to consider switching away from Windows?
Posted in Business, Desktop Software, Internet, Open Source, Security | Comments Off
Monday, May 24th, 2010
The Mozilla project recently expanded their popular and successful (and free) Plugin Check service to support non-Mozilla browsers. So now, not only does this service, which scans your browser’s settings for outdated plugins, e.g., Adobe Flash Player, work with Firefox, but also with Opera, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, and even, to a limited extent, Microsoft Internet Explorer. Given that unpatched client software, especially operating systems, browsers, and browser plugins, remain the top cyber-security concern today, everyone should stop what they’re doing and go to Mozilla Plugin Check right now.
Posted in Desktop Software, Internet, Security, Web Browsers | Comments Off
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
Last week, I received this in an email from Google:
In order to continue to improve our products and deliver more sophisticated features and performance… we will be phasing out support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as other older browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.
It’s about time, and not just for those reasons. (more…)
Posted in Business, Internet, Security, System Administration | Comments Off
Sunday, January 17th, 2010
Friends and listeners to the Fresh Ubuntu Podcast will know that I frequently raise concerns about Google and the information that it acquires about all of us. My concerns normally are along the lines of “just imagine what Google can do with all of that information.” However, I’ve never brought up what could be an even bigger concern: “What if someone else were to get a hold of all of that information?” (more…)
Posted in Business, Email, Internet, Policies, Security | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
Twitter recently published a list of 369 banned passwords which it will no longer accept on Twitter accounts. Regardless of whether or not you use Twitter, it is worth a minute or two to skim this list and see if you are using one of these passwords, on any system, or something similar, which could lead to an account compromise. (more…)
Posted in Internet, Security | Comments Off
Monday, December 21st, 2009
While Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP will be supported until July 2010, the writing on the wall is fairly clear, and Microsoft is encouraging users to upgrade to IE 7 or IE 8. Additionally, we have been recommending alternative browsers for years. (more…)
Posted in Business, Desktop Software, Internet, Open Source, Security | Comments Off
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. While the majority of this 100 page book was review for me, I would recommend it to anyone who is brand new to Facebook or social networking in general.
