security « Tim Anderson’s ITWriting

Google and the UK Citizens Advice Bureau – an uncomfortable alliance

By tim, on December 5th, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

I picked up a Guardian newspaper today and could not miss the full-page Google+ advertisement. Or was it? The advertisement stated that it was from the Citizens Advice Bureau in partnership with Google. The Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB) is a well-respected (and genuinely useful) service which runs a network of offices in the UK

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Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac: nice work but beware Windows security settings

By tim, on August 9th, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

I’ve just set up Parallels Desktop 6 on a Mac, in preparation for some development work. Installed Parallels, created a new virtual machine, and selected a Windows 7 Professional with SP1 CD image downloaded from Microsoft’s excellent MSDN subscription service.

The way this works is that you install the Parallels application and the create

…continue reading Parallels Desktop 6 for Mac: nice work but beware Windows security settings

IE9 ActiveX Filtering causing tears of frustration

By tim, on June 22nd, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

I have been assisting a friend who, she told me, could not get BBC iPlayer to work. Further, another site was telling her she did not have ActiveX, but she was sure she had it.

This was puzzling me. She described how she went to the BBC iPlayer site, and it said she needed

…continue reading IE9 ActiveX Filtering causing tears of frustration

This is why people ignore security warnings: IE9 blocks official Microsoft update

By tim, on June 16th, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

Microsoft has released a Web Standards Update for Visual Studio 2010, with new HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript support.

I look forward to trying it; but Internet Explorer 9’s Smart Filter was not keen.

What you cannot see from the screenshot is that the option to “Run anyway” is hidden by default. You have

…continue reading This is why people ignore security warnings: IE9 blocks official Microsoft update

Cloud is identity management says Kim Cameron, now ex-Microsoft

By tim, on May 13th, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

Kim Cameron, formerly chief identity architect at Microsoft, has confirmed that he has left the company.

In an interview at the European Identity Conference in Munich he discusses the state of play in identity management, but does not explain what interests me most: why he left. He was respected across the industry and to

…continue reading Cloud is identity management says Kim Cameron, now ex-Microsoft

Sony PlayStation network hacked, some disclosure, questions remain

By tim, on April 27th, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

Sony has posted information about the “illegal intrusion on our systems” that has caused the PlayStation Network (PSN) to be closed temporarily. PSN is necessary for playing online games and downloading music and videos.

Sony has disclosed that:

Between April 17 and April 19 2011 an attacker gained access to “user account information”

The

…continue reading Sony PlayStation network hacked, some disclosure, questions remain

How an RTF file can install a virus when opened

By tim, on March 29th, 2011 Follow tim on Twitter

There is an analysis by Rob Rachwald over on the Imperva Data Security Blog of how an RTF document can carry a virus, in this case a trojan executable. RTF (RIch Text Format) is generally considered safer than the Microsoft Office .DOC format since it cannot include macros; but the vulnerability in this case

…continue reading How an RTF file can install a virus when opened

Anti-virus software continues to fail

By tim, on September 8th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

I received an email from Trusteer noting that anti-virus detection rates for the latest Zeus variant are very low. This analysis shows that at the time of writing only Panda, among the major anti-virus products, picks it up. Does this mean we should all switch to Panda? No, because next time it will be

…continue reading Anti-virus software continues to fail

Setting up RemoteApp and secure FTP on Windows

By tim, on July 8th, 2010 Follow tim on Twitter

I spent some time setting up RemoteApp and secure FTP for a small business which wanted better remote access without VPN. VPN is problematic for various reasons: it is sometimes blocked by public or hotel wifi providers, it is not suitable for poor connections, performance can be poor, and it means constantly having to

…continue reading Setting up RemoteApp and secure FTP on Windows

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