Among the most underappreciated things in all of Internet security is the homepage. In fact, it's importance goes beyond security. It affects three things: Security Speed Sanity In this video, we discuss why setting your homepage to one specific thing is the only way to go. (And, most people have... Continue reading

It isn't every day you get to see what a real Trojan or Social Engineering attack looks like. When you do, there's seldom time to even take screenshots: you just want to get the heck out of Dodge. But, this time, in putting together material for our upcoming free workshop,... Continue reading

Whilst traversing The Tubes yesterday doing some research on credit card processing across a host of different sites, I was hit with an old school malware installer technique with a couple of new twists at one of them. (That's what it looks like above.) What's old school about it, is... Continue reading

THREE short days ago, I promised you we were working on something big. (If you missed that blog / email, here's a one sentence recap: My dear friend Mike's recent, sudden passing gave me the impetus to help our subscribers more than we are.) HERE'S WHERE WE ARE NOW... We... Continue reading

Mike was an extraordinarily talented programmer--we're talking a top 1/10 of 1% kind of a guy. He'd had been sick for some time, but his passing was a shock to us all. After he died, his business partner contacted me. "Kevin," she began, "You were the only one Mike trusted... Continue reading

Frequent readers of our blog and newsletter will know that aside from reviewing antivirus software, we also preach a good sermon about security in general and about how to make good passwords and password management. The fine folks at gigya.com, a company that specializes in identity management, know a thing... Continue reading

The bad guys are in full force this tax season. With so many people doing their taxes online this year, the phishing community is out to snag as many victims as possible. Even if you don't do your taxes online, the phishers still trick lots of people into entering sensitive... Continue reading

On Feb 18, the entire computer system at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center was locked and held for ransom. The hackers who easily infiltrated the hospital's system locked and encrypted all of the hospital's medical files and computers making it impossible to work and help patients. The hackers demanded $17,000 to... Continue reading

Since we began the site in 2006 the marketshare of the Mac / OS X has grown steadily. In terms of both competition and reducing the amount of homogeneity in the computing ecosystem. This is a good thing. In contrast, if every computer in the world were the same, it... Continue reading

Softpedia has a nice write up on the new Emsisoft tool to decrypt the DecryptorMax ransomware (aka CryptInfinite). This tool is great news for the good guys and for the consumers who've been affected by this scumware. If your PC is infected with this malware, you can download decrypt_cryptinfinite.exe (the... Continue reading

Although it may seem strange to some people, to others the very thought of using a credit card online seems pretty crazy. In fact, we talk to someone by phone at least once a week with this concern. Pam, a New Hampshire resident, called this week asking, "I want to... Continue reading

We've been getting such tremendous feedback from this story from our newsletter subscribers, I've decided to turn it into a blog, too. This "Ask the Experts" deals with a personal story from my college days and situational awareness. It's a short story. Every word is true. I hope it helps... Continue reading

Alexandra from Delaware called in asking, "I heard something on the radio about new threats from online 'spearphishing' attacks, and I'm looking for antivirus software that protects against them. "What software does that?" It's no surprise that people are starting to hear stories like the one Alexandra heard because even... Continue reading

By a bit of serendipity, Josh and I each got phishing attempts in the past few days. Granted, we get a lot of phishing and malware emails. After all, we have secret email addresses we use to intentionally collect malware and phishing attempts the bad guys are sending. It lets... Continue reading

How to go from this... to this...1 1without giving up your sanity Ah, the password. Everyone has their own technique for making a password. Most suck. Today you'll learn how to make passwords that: are easy to make are easy to remember help turn your PC into a steel-reinforced vault... Continue reading

We got a great question in Ye Olde Mailbag today from Jean-Claude in Montreal, Canada. He asks, I installed Vipre. Their SPAM FILTERING does not support SSL connections. "Here is a note from their text: "NOTE: Spam filtering will only function for POP3 configurations set to port 110, by default,... Continue reading

By the time news of most exploits hit mainstream media, the exploits have long been "in the wild," infecting computers the world over. By this time, the media seizes on the news and goes after it like a pack of sharks who've smelled blood in the water. So, are these... Continue reading

Over the past couple of years, we've gotten a lot of calls and emails from people who've been infected by fake antivirus software. I took a call myself from Joyce in Philadelphia late last week. She told me about how she had to wire money to India to get the... Continue reading

Since it was uncovered, there's been a lot of (mis)information on what Flame is, how it works, and what's at risk. Let's take a look... Continue reading

Like anything, some Firefox Add-Ons are great, some are meh, and some are crap. What we've got here, my friends, is a list of the top five Add-Ons we like most (and use.) Continue reading

Norton and McAfee are easily the two best names in antivirus software. With their 2012 versions, which one provides better protection and better value? Continue reading

A recent update to Avira is causing it to block legitimate applications, thus rendering many PCs all but unusable since even basic programs like Notepad won't start. Avira has a Knowledge Base article on how to work around the problem, but there's no word (yet) on when a full-fledged fix is due. Continue reading

In one of the finest examples of research into the workings of malware most people are likely to ever see, Alexander Gostev of Kaspersky Antivirus begins a full analysis of Flashback/Flashfake, the Mac OSX Trojan. According to Alexander's research, it looks like Flashfake began its infections via hacked Wordpress blogs, first in the form of social engineering then via actual exploits. Continue reading