There are a lot of articles floating around the internet relating to the recent CanSecWest security hacking contest. If you have been a sleep for the last couple days now is the time to grab your coffee and click here to read about it. It is now being reported around the web, that it took a hacker only 2 minutes to remotely exploit OS X 10.5.2 Leopard! Is this for real? Not really and here’s why…….
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CanSecWest’s Pwn2Own contest returns big time this week! This time there are three operating systems being targeted; OS X, Linux, and Vista. There is also a larger financial incentive of $25,000 for hackers to try to craft a working remote exploit on any of the three operating systems. There is always an ongoing debate on which Operating System is the most secure. Perhaps this debate will never be over, but which ever OS falls first in this competition will definitely loose some security bragging points! Read the rest of this entry »
Phishing attacks fall into the realm of social engineering. You can think of this type of attack as a classic scam where the con guy tells you something and if you believe it and act on it, then you get taken for as much as he can take. Phishing attacks are extremely popular these days because they are very profitable and easy to do. However they are also easy to avoid here’s how……. Read the rest of this entry »
When I was on holiday break from school, I had the chance to catch up with some friends and family members. One of the things I noticed was how many of them do not update their Macs. That is, some even purposely avoid the software updates that Apple releases to fix bugs, security issues, and sometimes actually enhance their software. I was absolutely puzzled as to why anyone would want to avoid these updates and am hoping someone can shed some light on the advantages of not updating their Macs. I have asked several friends and family members why they do not install the Apple updates for their computers.
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By now, you may have heard all the hoopla about the new firewall implemented in OS X 10.5. Specifically how bad it is. I am not going to confirm or dispute any of it at this point until more information is revealed by Apple about their new firewall. In the mean time in between time, I will devote this tutorial on how to resurrect the previous firewall used in OS X 10.4 Tiger for use in Leopard OS X 10.5. This tutorial will also work for any one who wants to customize their firewall in OS X 10.4 too.
Special Note: Apple updates and upgrades will not disable or conflict with this script being installed on your Tiger or Leopard based Mac. The startup items space is reserved for user space similar to your home directory, so updates pretty much ignore this space.
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The Storm worm is being called the most powerful super computer on the planet. It has infected an estimated 1 million to 10 million Windows computers and growing! It is believed to be the most advanced worm ever created. Will your PC be the next Strom trooper (victim) to be recruited into its growing army (botnet) threatening the security of users and the internet?