Are you ready for March Madness? Have you filled out your bracket selections? This is the time of year when people want to check the latest scores, follow their favorite teams and, perhaps, watch that impossible last second shot that somehow found the hoop. You even may have signed up to receive the scores from some Internet service.
The bad news is that there are reports that another popular site was hit with malware. Allegedly, some visitors to the popular Drudge Report came away with a malware infection. You see the word “allegedly” used here because there is some dispute about the actual source of the infection:
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We know that some of our readers have not jumped to Windows 7 and are staying with their operating systems. For that reason, we want to make certain that some of the best security programs remain available to you. As many Internet users remember, the Kerio Personal Firewall used to be one of the standards of firewall protection. That firewall now is offered by Sunbelt and is called the Sunbelt Personal Firewall.
Read more on Protect Your Data with Sunbelt Personal Firewall…
I recently glanced through a forum post on Geeks, where the poster was a woman talking about how Geeks are usually mean to her. She admits that she isn’t a technology Geek. While she does enjoy things like her MP3 player and cell phone, she’s not very knowledgeable about the products, nor how they work. She has felt ostracized many times over the past months in different communities, after being called a n00b – or worse!
It is really despicable. There is no low to which hackers and criminals won’t stoop to deliver malware to you. As many of you know, recently there was a tragedy at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Nodar Kumaritashvili, a luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, died in a crash during a training run. Criminals have used that incident to deliver malware through bogus tribute sites, news sites, videos and so forth.
Some of us who have been on the Internet for a while remember when spam email just wanted to sell you some junk. Some spam still wants to sell you junk, but a good portion of the spam is more dangerous. There are emails that are loaded with malware. And with Valentine’s Day coming, there will be a flood of spam mail. Valentine’s Day is an opportunity for spammers.
Today, one security firm reported that there were about 5.5 million pages infected with malware in the last three months of 2009. Some of those pages were commonly visited sites: “In those three months, sites for Fox Sports, technology blog Gizmodo, and the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, were exploited to deliver malware to unsuspecting visitors.”
One of the disheartening pieces of news recently came from PandaLabs. The security firm reported that the new strains of malware for last year numbered in the millions. That is not a typing error. There were literally many millions of pieces of new malware.
There is a malware fallacy that needs to be corrected immediately. Some students have netbooks for taking notes because the machines are light and easily carried… and some even have terrific battery life. As students, they use their netbooks almost exclusively for taking lecture notes and checking email. There is a belief that, because the little machine is used just to check email online, security software is not needed.
I came across a very interesting post a little while ago, over on Geeks. The author, Will, is asking our opinions as to what place social media should play in our educational systems. Will mentioned that his high school principal has asked students for ideas as to how social media could be incorporated into education in general. He then asks for your input and ideas. I’d love to see a high rate of responses to this thread, which is why I chose to highlight it here.
Read more on What Place Does Social Media Have in our Schools?…
Computer security people advocate layers of protection. There is no single software program that gives absolute protection. The Internet criminals and hackers simply respond too quickly, and are too sophisticated to be stopped by any one method.
Happy Holidays! If you are one of those generous Santas who is giving a computer this holiday season, please remember to protect it with some anti-virus and anti-spyware software. It seems that the hackers / criminals are going to vary and increase their attacks in the new year. It has been reported that file sharing networks will be under attack.
With the events this week on Twitter surrounding the unfortunate death of a Florida toddler, one cannot help but wonder how much social media is too much. This story has garnered national attention, due to the thousands of tweets flying back and forth between two separate “camps”. One camp – those who are friends of the woman whose son drowned – are rabid in their defense of her. Those on the other side of the issue – who feel that her social activities contributed to her possibly not watching her child – are just as rabid in their opposition. It’s enough to make your head spin, attempting to keep up with everything going on.
There are times when malware seems to be everywhere. Even a large, security conscious company like Google can be exploited. This week, Elinor Mills reported that Google Doodle had been compromised:
During the LeWeb conference yesterday, Queen Rania of Jordan was one of the featured speakers. If you aren’t familiar with who she is, you are probably wondering why she was a speaker at a technology and social media conference. Before I explain what she talked about – I have to say that she was one of the best and most motivational speakers I’ve had the pleasure of watching in a very long time. She is definitely one amazing lady.
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