In the past if you wanted to be able to use a smart phone in the work place it most likely had to be a Blackberry. Or maybe even it could have been a Palm phone. These two phones were known for both allowing the person who used them to be productive and also allowing that same person to be secure at the same time. That is the main reason why the Blackberry still holds any type of traction now. It still has that same reputation of being the most secure phone in the work place. A lot of networks around the country are already set to deal with a Blackberry connection.

But there is a problem for these offices who are Blackberry only. Employees at these offices are deciding for themselves that they are going to crash the party by bringing in their IPhones and their Android based phones. These two types of phones are the most popular phones in the industry right now. The Blackberry has been pushed to the status of a marginal player and if you have an office with a network you must be ready to accommodate for these phones now.

IT managers who control the networks at offices like this have been reluctant to allow these phones to have access to the network for security reasons. They felt like the Blackberry security features were not available on these phones. And at one point this might have been true. But that is no longer the case anymore. For the most part, these phones have the same security features as the Blackberry.

But at this point, as a system administrator, you have no choice. People are going to bring these phones into the workplace whether you like it or not. These are the two most popular phones on the market and people want to be able to use them wherever they go. And not only that, they want to be able to use them for work related activities. If you do not allow that then they are going to do whatever they can to bypass your restrictions. And that can be worse on your network in the long run.

If you run a network, it is now time to accommodate for these new generation era phones. The old excuses are not valid anymore. If you do not then you may see people do more damage to your network than before.

Bringing Smart Phones Into The Work Place is a post from: Security FAQs

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My Review Of F-Secure Antivirus 2012

Today’s 2012 antivirus review features the latest offering from F-Secure; F-Secure Antivirus 2012.

• Windows XP / Media Center / Vista / 7 (all versions)
• 256+ MB of RAM for XP / 512 MB+ RAM for Vista and 7
• 600 MB of free hard drive space
• Internet connection

On a more positive note, the program does check to see if you have any other security programs already installed. I’m still surprised how many security products don’t do this considering how running two antivirus programs together is generally frowned upon.

Once installed, you will see a new shortcut on your desktop for the new F-Secure launch pad:

You obviously have two choices here; run the antivirus program or go into the admin side of things. With the latter option you have options such as checking your subscription, support, checking for updates, etc.

When you first load up the program you’ll see the interface (scroll up a little for the screenshot). You’ll notice that the program is divided into 3 main areas which contain all of the main features.

1) Status

Under the status section you have the option to toggle Virus and Spyware scanning, DeepGuard and Scheduled Scanning on or off.

2) Tasks

Under Tasks you have several options to choose from:

• Start a scan (full scan, selective scan, spyware scan or rootkit scan)
• Turn off protection (not recommended!)
• Tinker with the advanced settings -

• Restore a program or file that has been quarantined (make sure you know what you are restoring!)
• Check for virus database updates
• Allow an otherwise blocked application to start

3) Statistics

The Statistics section is self explanatory – it gives you a numerical and graphical representation of what the program has done and what, if any, threats it has discovered.

And that is the majority of the features covered. Thats not to say that is a bad thing though – one of the main reasons why I like F-Secure products is because they are so bare bones – it makes them very easy to pick up, set up and then forget about – an ideal situation for those who want a good level of protection without having to get their hands too dirty.

In fact its so easy to use that I asked my son to walk you through some of the features in the video below:

But not F-Secure – they get it very right.

The screenshot above was taken just after the 50% mark in a full system scan and is indicative of resource usage throughout the scan. Memory usage is quite low and CPU usage remained very low indeed. I could quite happily multitask on several other projects whilst this program was running a scan and that is exactly what I’m looking for on this particular PC I’m using now.

Experience Excellent Protection With The Simple To Use F-Secure Antivirus 2012 is a post from: Security FAQs

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For teenagers these days, the main status symbol to judge each other is the mobile phone that they use. It is a surprise since not too long ago most schools had almost banned cell phones from being in school. But these days cell phones are all over the place. And it doesn’t look like that is going to change anytime soon. I guess the battle is over and the students have won.

But while for the most part, cell phones can be a good thing, they can also have a bad side as well. This is a side that can actually cause harm to a teenager (they also invite muggings – my eldest son has been beaten up twice for mobile phones now). Parents these days have no idea what most cell phones are capable of. They just think that they are used for talking and that is it. That is not the case at all. These days most cell phones have an online component to them that the parents need to be aware of. If they are not aware of it then their child can end up in a bunch of trouble.

The mini computer

A mobile phone these days is like a mini computer. And just like a computer you are able to have online access with it. And you have probably heard all of the horror stories that can happen online when a teenager meets up with an older adult. Usually when you hear these stories they are happening on computers at the home. Now they are happening on cell phones while the kid is on the go.

Just like you would check on your child when they are on the computer, you have to do the same thing when it comes to the cell phone. We are not saying that you have to hover over you teenager during every phone call but random checks will be able to help you out a lot. This way you will be able to see what they are doing and not be too invasive at the same time.

But you have to remember to check more than just the phone numbers that they call. You need to check the browsers and the apps as well. Make sure they are not contacted by anyone they are not supposed to on those parts of the device. Kids these days know how to get around parental monitoring. And they use their phones to be able to do it.

Mobile phones are nice for your kid to have but remember that they are like mini computers and you need to treat them as such.

Why You Need To Be Aware Of Your Kid’s Mobile Phone Use is a post from: Security FAQs

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When you think about security issues, the first thing that you think about is your computer. In the past when a person would think about security issues their first thought would probably be the money in their bank account. Now that is no longer the case and they think about their computer first. They know that, for the most part, a bank is a pretty secure place to keep their money. This is especially true when you compare it to past bank experiences. This is because the money is secured by the government up to a certain amount. But now the computer is the main place where you have to worry about security issues that hit close to home.

But your computer is certainly not the only place where you have to worry about security issues. There are other places that you have to worry about them as well. These days we carry around with us a lot of electronic devices. This stuff is not like the electronic devices of the past. In the past we would carry around a calculator watch or a CD Walkman. No, now we carry around with us Tablet computers, IPhones and Android devices, and sometimes even mini USB devices. All of these devices have the capability of carrying around an exploit with them. Some of these devices do not even need to be plugged into a computer to be able to cause damage.

The people who create exploits these days are very smart. Not only that but they have elite equipment that they can use to create the exploit. Some of these bad guys are even sponsored by foreign governments. This means that they have all of the resources that they need to turn your tiny device into a weapon of small destruction.

When you are dealing with devices that are a USB device, they need to be plugged into your main computer to be able to do any damage. Once plugged in they will be able to then take any information off of your computer that they want. But devices like your mobile phone and your tablet do not need to be plugged into any computer. They are themselves like mini computers and they will send all of the information that is in your phone over to the bad guys.

In this day and age, you really have to be careful with all of the devices that you use. If you are not careful then you will find all of your information exposed to the world.

Do Your Everyday Electronic Devices Have Security Issues? is a post from: Security FAQs

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With the internet all around us now there are times when we take technology like this for granted. For example, you will tend to find stores or restaurants that allow internet access on their networks. If they do not then there is a good chance that you will try to find somewhere else to go to. Well maybe not if their food is really good. At that point you might just try to make due. But if you are traveling around the city with either a laptop, tablet, or powerful smart phone then you want to be able to use it. Sure, you might have a data plan to use your device but many people do not and they do not want the device to just languish there while other people around them are able to surf the web.

But sometimes not being able to get what you want is a good thing. Not getting what you want will help you avoid unforeseen trouble. And the trouble that you can run across when it comes to using WIFI at your favorite restaurant or book store is that you can become a victim of a man in the middle attack.

What is a man in the middle attack?

A man in the middle attack is an attack that goes after a known weakness in wireless networks. When you are using the internet, the data travels back and forth between the computer that you are using and the wireless router. That data is then sent to the initial person or server that you were sending it to. It is all pretty routine. But there are ways for a black hat hacker to be able to intercept this data without you knowing. They will take the data, copy it, and then send it on its way like it never happened. They then take the data and use it for their own nefarious purposes.

There are several ways that you can protect yourself from a man in the middle attack. Your first line of defense is to make sure that you are careful with what networks you log into. Make sure that you need a password to get into the network. You do not want someone who is not in the restaurant to be able to get in the network and snoop. Also when you visit sensitive web sites on these networks, make sure that you use the “https” designation when on the sites. This means that you are using an encrypted version of the log in.

Man in the middle attacks can be dangerous but they are also easily avoidable.

Man In The Middle Attacks At Your Local Coffee Shop is a post from: Security FAQs

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The world is filled with advertising. If you go down the street and drive over the highways you will see tons and tons of advertising. From in front of stores to gigantic billboards, advertising is just hard to get away from. But it does serve a purpose. The purpose of advertising is to get the name of the business or product out there. If no-one knows that you are selling something then you will never be able to make any sales. So you have to do your best to be able to get your name out there. Also, in getting your name out, there you will be able to create a brand. A brand is important in the life of a business. The more your brand becomes known for a product, the less you will need to spend on advertising. When someone is in need for a product that you sell, they will come to you by default.

We see advertising all the time now. Its not just in our email inboxes, its on the web all of the time too. It is probably the biggest way that web sites are able to get paid. If there was no advertising, the web sites would have to charge more often for their content and the growth of the web would have probably been stunted. So now we have come to the point where people expect to see ads all of the time over the web. But some people have a tendency to take it too far. Instead of displaying your product or business to the person, they want to try and beat them over the head with it. Consumers usually do not like this type of tactic but there are people who do it anyway. They try to inject the advertising in parts of the web where it is not supposed to be at. They disguise it so that a person thinks that the advertising link is part of the normal content. This is what we call SPAM.

Spam has been a big problem ever since people found out that they could make money over the internet. And the problem is not going away. We see it more and more. It is has gotten so bad that you need special filters on social networks and your email account to keep the spam away from you. Even with the special filters enabled, when you go to check your email account you are sure to see several pieces of spam in there.

Security Threat

But spam is a twofold problem on the internet. When most people think of spam they think the problem more of being a mess more than anything else. They think that it clogs up the content that you are trying to see. And yes it does all of that and that truly is a major problem. But it is not the only problem that you will run into when it comes to spam. Spam can be a true security problem as well.

The problem that we see when it comes to spam and security is that you never know where the links are going to take you. And yes people do click on the links. They may not be web savvy and may not know that the links are spam. But they do click on them. The problem comes from where the link sends you. The practice of spam is pretty much a vilified practice when it comes to the web community so anyone who decides to do it is probably not very trustworthy. So how can you trust a link that they set up? You have to remember; just placing a link on a page is not spam. But when you do it over and over again no matter what the topic is, then it is considered spam.

The types of security problems from spam have been numerous. If you are attacked by spam then hopefully it is only a gentle one. A gentle attack would be one that simply only made you click on an advertisement without knowing. Other attacks are far worse. There are spam attacks that will harm your computer just like a virus would. As a matter of fact, in a lot of cases, spam has been the delivery method of several viruses. The world of malware writers have realized the value of advertising and spam is one of the ways that they accomplish this.

When you are surfing the net there are several things that you have to worry about. Downloading the wrong file or giving too much information is just some of the examples that you have to look out for. You should add to that list dangerous spam messages as well.

The Real Problem With Spam is a post from: Security FAQs

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When people see source code, they usually have no idea of what they are looking at. Even though they might consider themselves web or tech savvy, when they see all the weird symbols in front them they may start to feel a little lost. That is understandable because it took years for the average programmer to be able to understand most source code that they see as well. There are different levels and abilities of people who write software and not everyone is what you would consider top notch.

If a programmer is considered a good coder then he probably takes a lot of time to make sure that his source code is correct. Programmer’s put a lot of pride in their work. And if anything is wrong they want to make sure that they fix it in a hurry. This is especially true when they are going to have other professionals look at their work. Even though most outsiders will not be able to understand it they know that other professionals will be able to. So just like anyone else, their pride is on the line and they want to be able to look good. If they do not want to show that they are the top dog then at the very least they want to show that they belong in the club.

But when you are a programmer and you are thinking about the errors in your code, you are mostly thinking about bugs that will stop your program from working. If your program continues to work then you tend to think that nothing is wrong with it. That is not always the case. There are some bugs that cannot be tested until it is out in the field. These bugs that you will usually find later on are the security issue that people seem to run into. And while security issues are not always on the mind of a programmer, they probably should be. Security bugs might not be able to stop your program from working but they will cause you to lose a customer when their entire system gets taken down because of you.

Audit your source code

This is why it is a good idea to make sure that you audit your source code every now and then. And the larger the amount of source code there is to audit, the more you should have it checked. Large code bases are sometimes considered the most dangerous. This is because bugs get lost in there for years and years until there is a nasty surprise that is discovered by a hacker.

To get a good idea on how much source code is in some of the larger projects that are out there go take a look at some open source code. If you take a project like the Linux operating system you will see that there are millions of lines of code that must be accounted for. Because the Linux project is an open source project, you have thousands of people testing it. When you have a closed source project like Windows, which is probably as big or maybe even bigger than the Linux project when it comes to source code, it is hard to get good testing on it until it hits the field. Because Windows is more popular than Linux once it hits the stores you will see the testing start and patches follow suit right after.

The project that you are working on is probably a lot smaller than the two that we have mentioned. But that does not mean you do not have to test your code. As a matter of fact it probably gives you less of an excuse not to test your code. There is no reason why you should not have the abilities to test your code when it comes to a small code base. Any security holes should be easier to find and you should not have to wait until your customers find it.

But you should not mistake customers finding holes in software as developers being lazy. No matter how much you try you are not going to be able to catch every single hole. There are some that are going to be released to the public. But as long as you are making an attempt to try and catch them before they head out you should be Ok for the most part.

The bottom line is that no matter how hard developers try, there is always going to be security holes found in software. But as a developer you can limit the amount of holes found by auditing your software. This way you keep the damage to a minimum.

It Is Always A Good Idea To Do An Audit On Source Code At Least Once Per Year is a post from: Security FAQs

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Would you like to send encrypted emails over the internet?

Would you like to do it for free and without the need to download anything at all?

If so, Lockbin is the tool you may be looking for.

If you surf over to lockbin.com you’ll see that there is a Windows/Linux/Mac desktop app available, as well as a mobile app, but you can bypass all of these if you wish and just get on with sending a message right now (no account or any type of login required).

So… click on the Start Now button…

Here you can enter your email message by supplying the usual details along with a password of your choice.

When you’ve filled all of those details in and composed your message you’ll have to deal with a captcha and accept the Terms and Conditions of Use before clicking on the SUBMIT button in order to send your message.

A message submission notice will appear to confirm that your message has indeed been sent, along with the URL the recipient will be directed to when the message arrives their end.

Whoever you sent your message to will then receive notification like I did (above).

Of course this is of no use to them if they don’t know the password you appended to your email so you’ll need to send that to them in a secure manner (if you can think of any!).

The recipient will then click on the URL in the message and enter the password which you communicated to them in an alternative and secure fashion.

Bingo!

They can now read your otherwise encrypted email message.

How Can I Send Encrypted Emails On The Web? is a post from: Security FAQs

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Have you got folders on your Windows 7 computer that you’d like to disguise in order to keep prying eyes away from them?

I thought so.

Here is an ingenious way of hiding your sensitive folders in plain sight by making them look like something else.

Hide that folder full of porn distros

The first thing you need to do is get the application from The Windows Club.

Once you’ve downloaded the .zip and extracted it you’ll need to double click on the application to get started.

Running the application will open the program which looks thus:

Proceeding from this point is very easy indeed.

Firstly you will need to choose which folder you wish to disguise. Click on the Disguise folder button and navigate to that folder.

Now choose the type of disguise that you wish to apply to that folder. My personal favourite is highlighted below – the Recycle Bin!

Lastly, click that Disguise Now button.

And that really is all you need to do.

If you scroll up the page a bit you’ll note that I chose to disguise a new folder on G: (a USB drive). Navigating to that location, I was presented with the following:

which quite clearly shows that the folder in question was now masquerading as a Recycle Bin. In this instance, clicking on the icon will actually take you to the recycle bin as well! (I’ve noticed this isn’t the case with every disguise so check them all out before choosing the one you’ll use long-term).

Recover that disguised folder

Whenever you need to ‘undisguise’ a folder that you’ve previously used this application on you’ll find that is remarkably easy too.

Simply click on the Recover folder button and navigate to the folder you wish to reset. Now remember to give the folder a name (this can be anything, you don’t have to remember what it was called in the past). Now click on Recover now and the folder will be back without any camouflage.

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Some of the most bought software items in both the Apple apps stores and the Google apps stores are note taking apps. Being able to take notes is a very important use of the modern day smart phone. So much so, that most phones that are bought today already have that capability within them. As a matter of fact, most phones have come with those capabilities for a couple of years now. The reason why someone would buy a note taking app from the app stores in question is because the note taking applications available for purchase are specialized for their needs.

A lot of the different types of businesses out there need for their people to be able to take notes. It is an important way for people to be able to remember the items that they need to. One place where it is important for a person to be able to take notes is in the world of computer security. There are so many moving parts of the world of computer security that you must be able to write them down. You have to do this because there is no way you will be able to remember all of it.

If you are not in the industry, then you might be asking yourself, “What do you have to remember besides activate the firewall”. There is a lot more than that when it comes to protecting high level enterprise networks. Heck, there is a lot more than that when you are talking about just protecting a home network.

When you are protecting a large or medium size network, you cannot just set one port to be available to the outside and then leave everything else alone. No, you must be able to make sure that all of the different applications that the people who work there might need are set up correctly. This is where the note taking part comes into play. Each app that runs on the network has a different type of setting, so you must document the settings and adjust the network accordingly.

You will also need to keep notes to keep track of the attacks that happen on your network. You need to keep notes on both the successful and also the unsuccessful attacks that happen. This way you will be able to know what you did wrong and what you did right and use that information to improve your set up.

Keeping notes, no matter whether on paper or electronically, is very important in the world security. Make sure you are keeping yours.

Network Security And Note Taking is a post from: Security FAQs

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