Network World has posted an article yesterday on how one of the easiest ways that hackers can steal your data on an unsecure public wireless hotspot.

If you are accessing a hotspot and you do not have a proxy of some sort setup, you are putting yourself at an enormous risk through a procedure known as poisoning your web browser. Its a very common way for hackers to intercept traffic. If you aren't sure that you are accessing the right network, you won't know if your computer has been compromised.

Be very careful and make absolutely sure that you are accessing the wireless access point that you should be. Hackers can easily spoof a public hotspot and then you are open to their tools of destruction.

There are VPN servers that you can install that will give you security by routing your traffic through a safe DNS server, which everyone should use on any public acess spot.

One of the best that is available currently is HotSpotVPN. Yes it does cost money, but you can buy different packages to fit your budget and it is well worth the cost to make sure your data and your identity are protected.

Just got done reading a post on The Register about another of those pesky vulnerabilities on Internet Explorer that glorius browser people still seem to be in love with. I do work for a financial institution and we can say that there are still close to 60% of our visitors are accessing the site with some version of Internet Explorer. I find it not only frustrating to see this, but down right idiotic on the side of end-users. People would be much safer if they chose to at least access their online banking, or did their online shopping with a safer browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, or even Opera.

What I see as a glaring issue here is that there seems to be no acountability on end users to properly secure their computers. When and if there ever is any accountability placed these issues may become less of a problem. Granted it is a responsibility that software companies patch code vulnerabilities. However, when they do, people need to make sure they have the latest versions, and protect their own assets in the process.

Back to the latest "glitch", if you surf to a malicious website using Web 2.0 a vulnerabiltiy in IE exists where the site owner can effectively see the entire contents of your hard drive. How's that for a "bug"?

A security consultant at Core Security states: "Every time we reported this to Microsoft, they were fixing just one of the features," Medina said in a telephone interview from Bueno Aires. "Every time they [fixed] it, we managed another way to build the attack again."

Best advise for end users is - STOP USING INTERNET EXPLORER

Just found out about a very good new tool that Google has developed caled Namebench. What it is designed to do is scour the DNS servers available to you and find the fastest one available. It uses data from your browser history. It does require you to go out ad physically input the DNS IP information that it provides you however. This is relatively easy. You can goto Google's website to download the FREE application:

Once you have downloaded and installed the application, you pick your browser and let it run. It does take some time as it's a pretty thorough search of servers. It will come up with the servers and how much faster your browsing will be once you change to the recommended servers. Your primary and secondary servers can be input then by START/My Netwrk Places/View Network Connections/ - Right Click on your current network adapter and choose Properties. Next Scroll down in the "Connections uses the following items box" until you get to Internet Connections (TCP/IP) Highlight it and click the Properties button below. Once there at the bottom you will see "Use the folowing DNS server addresses, click the radio button and input the IP addresses you got from Namebench matching Primary and Secondary DNS servers.Clcik OK on the two open windows and you are done. I was able to speed up my connection by a whopping 36% using this tool. Thats a big help!

As the new year gets going one of your resolutions should be thinking about simple things you can do to protect your data on your computer and make it less likely that someone will compromise your computer. Here are some of the simple reminders of things you can do:

1. This is still the easiest and most costly way of having your data on your computer compromised: DON'T OPEN ATTACHMENTS ON E-MAILS OR VISIT LINKS IN INSTANT MESSAGES FROM PEOPLE YOU DON"T KNOW. Even if you think it came from someone you know, make sure by either sending that person an e-mail or calling them on the phone and asking if they sent you the link.

Why is there only one rule you ask? That's a good question. What I have found in doing my own research and observing the day to day activity of how average people access the internet is that it's very hard to keep up with security updates, new threats, etc.

Are there other vulnerabilities out there? Yes. Are you likely to encounter them in your everyday browsing? Maybe yes maybe no. Being cyber-smart will liely put you at a much lower risk. Getting a simple program installed in your browser that helps advises you on the sites you visit will help immensly in conjunction with rule #1. My recommendation is a program called CallingID which can be aqquired at: CNET's Download.com site.

As always make sure that your anti-virus, malware, spyware programs are updating. Did you buy a new PC with a trial version of software? If that trial expires and you don't purchase the software, or uninstall it and install another piece of software to protect you, then you're very vulnerable.

You can install a simple piece of software that will encrypt your valuable information on your computer. The one I would suggest is Sophos FREE Encryption. Its easy to use and can protect files on your computer as well as files that you send.

My last recommendation is to install a simple proxy server. This is one of the best ways to protect against vulnerabilities. There is a FREE proxy that is called OpenDNS that will help protect you and your family against phishing and other questionable websites. It's simple to install and I HIGHLY recommend it. The basic plan that is linked above is free. You do need to create an account to use the service.

As always we are here to help. If you need assistance or advise please don't hesitate to call or e-mail us. datasaversinc@gmail.com or 315-876-9480

Many of us don't think of the possibility of what happens if our computer gets lost or stolen. We think more in terms of the data that is stored on them. We think people should be very concerned about that piece of hardware that rests on your desk at home or at the office. If someone walks out the door with that hardware are you certain that they won't be able to get at the sensitive data that may be contained on it. There are very cost effective solutions available to prevent this from happening. Datasavers Inc. has recently become affiliated with a security company that focuses on these products. Please follow the links to the right describing these scenarios and get the product thats right for you to have full piece of mind in the event that your office or home is compromised.

There is a story circulating the internet today that some security geeks have sucessfully shutdown one of the major spam bots onn the internet. Amounting to about 12% of the junk that fills our inboxes these geeks found a way to disable the backbone of the Mega-D botnet. Chalk one up for the white hats! It goes to show you that if people of this caliber are working toward a good goal then we can eliminate or at least stall thes epeople who perpetrate all the bad things that go on on the net.

Good Guys Bring Down the Mega-D Botnet

Listening to a recent podcast by Steve Gibsen at GRC. He mentioned a report that indicates that there is a script imbedded in some 300,000 sites on the internet that load malicious code. What that means is, if you unwittingly happen to browse to one of these sites and you are not properly protected, you could very well be infected. What this code does is attempt to imbed itself and ultimately steal private data from your computer.

So, its imperative that you make sure that your computer is always up to date with the latest patches from Microsoft, as well as your Antivirus/Malware/Spyware.

If you are unsure, we can help you to make certain that:

1. You are not currently infected.

2. You have the latest updates on ALL software installed on your computer

3. That you are running the proper software to protect your computer.

Call us at 315-876-9480 or e-mail us at datasaversinc@gmail.com and we'll make sure you can rest at ease.

Adobe announced more exploits on Monday for its Reader 9.2. My suggestion to people is for quite awhile now has been to find a substitute program to open PDF files. One of the best that I have found thus far has been Foxit Reader. Its small and quite robust and the best part is its FREE.. It does an excellent job of quickly opening large files and I don't see any reason why the average computer user out there can't take advantage of this free alternative reader.

One of the best things you can do to protect yourself is make sure your computer is using the safest software, and that the software you have is up-to-date. If you would like more suggestions visit our Computer and Internet Security Page or call us (315) 876-9480 and we can discuss how to best secure your valuable data and identity.

Very interesting column from Roger Thompson Security Chief at AVG. Seems like there may be telltale signs that corporations like your bank are getting their hands on your information. There is a story on his blog that seems to indicate that either there is harvesting of data on their customers, or that Facebook is selling the data. Which is it, I'm not sure but it is a very interesting development and we all may want to take a good hard close look at this story. I'm posting the link to the story, and make sure you read the follow up post as well. Nice piece Roger thanks!

Now THIS is scary

Today I was browsing through the different security newsletters that I read, and this post seemed to be the most relevant and caught my interest. Humans as a whole are very trusting. This little experiment backs that up. It was run 2 years ago and people added friends to their facebook accounts whom they did not know in quite impressive numbers. Well, after 2 years you think people would understand that it is not a good idea to do that. Well, guess what? They still are not catching on to the risks:

46% of Facebook Users Are Happy To Reveal All Their Information To Complete Strangers