Even the most upstanding of Florida’s email citizens can’t seem to avoid running afoul of good email practices, if not the law, it seems. It must be something in the tasty Florida water, which of course is not just for breakfast any more. Case in point when Jack Nolan, a…

If you use Windows XP Home Edition, you may not realize it but you most likely have a big security hole sitting on your desk. This is because Windows XP Home Edition comes with public file sharing enabled by default. [By the way, “file sharing” is not a dirty word,…

April 12th is the very last day. That’s when the clock runs, and the deadline looms. And here you thought it was April 15th. Nope, it’s the twelfth. Because we’re not talking about the day your taxes are due. On no. We’re talking about the day that your Windows XP…

As many as 35,000 Californians may have had their credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other personal information compromised when hackers accessed identification and credential verification service provider ChoicePoint’s data servers. Hacks into ChoicePoint’s system have already lead to six documented cases of identity theft in California alone. Authorities…

The security hole on which Aunty reported last week, in the processing of PNG graphic files by MSN Messenger and other Windows programs, has moved Microsoft to require that users of their MSN Messenger upgrade before being allowed back on to the Messenger network. According to a report on CNET’s…

Panda Software has announced that it has discovered a serious, and seriously exploitable, vulnerability in the way that a certain type of graphics files, PNG files, are processed and displayed by programs including Windows Media Player, Windows Messenger, and MSN Messenger. The vulnerability is such that malicious code inserted into…

A serious security flaw has hit several Symantec security products, many of which are in widespread use, says the company. The vulnerability is serious enough to have been been classified as “high risk”. According to the Symantec site, the vulnerable component “fails to do proper bounds checks when analyzing certain…

Here’s an interesting scenario: Someone somehow manages to get your credit card number (of course you would never fall for a phisher’s bait… your virus, spyware and firewall software are all up-to-date… you don’t leave your card lying around… and who uses paper credit card transaction receipts any more to…

Happy V Day to Windows users everywhere from Microsoft! However, despite the timing, the V doesn’t stand for “Valentines” as Microsoft introduces this bouquet of a dozen long-stemmed beauties to tackle thorny issues. Yes, that’s right! Twelve new security updates in one day, just for you! Happy Vulnerabilities Day! With…

Not content just to install RFIDs into your car or insert RFIDs in your passport, the newest item which is the target of the RFID craze is human cadavers. Troubled by a rash of “now you see it, now you don’t” tricks with human body parts, and indeed entire cadavers,…

Channel KOKH 25 out of Oklahoma City is reporting that somehow somebody managed to load computer surveillance software onto three computers at the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s office. According to Oklahoma Sheriff John Whetsel, whomever installed the software gained access to some very sensitive information, including not only personnel files, but…

A couple of weeks ago, Aunty reported to you that Microsoft had announced a patch for their ActiveX security flaw. However, today the anti-virus experts at GeCad Net are reporting that the patch distributed by Microsoft does not fully fix the flaw (and try saying that three times fast!) According…

A cryptographer at the Singapore-based Institute of Infocomm Research has determined that there are serious security flaws in Microsoft Word and Excel in terms of their encryption for password protection of documents. Hongjun Wu, who has written a paper on the subject, says that “A lot of information could be…

Last week Aunty told you about Internet baddies who are loading spyware, adware, and viruses (oh my!) into media files, using a loophole in Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) process, and causing the nasties to be installed on the computers of unaware users who think that they are downloading media…

Are you worried about your neighbors tapping in to and using your home wireless computer network? Or, worse, about wardrivers hijacking your wifi and using it to send a run of spam? Well, a Sunnyvale, California company has a suggestion for you: paint your house. “But,” you whine, “my problem…