Issue #9 for gorilla56
4/16/2008 at 10:07:32 PM - 4/19/2008 at 4:35:30 AM
Working together to fight malware By Eric Case (Official Google Blog) Submitted at 4/17/2008 1:22:00 PM
Posted by Panayiotis Mavrommatis, Google Security Team We recently began a series of posts related to online security that focus on how we secure information (with posts like these) and how you can protect yourself online. Here's the latest in the series.- Ed. As part of this ongoing security series, we'd like to talk a little about malware. The term malware, derived from "malicious software," refers to any software specifically designed to harm your computer or the software it's running. Malware can be added to your computer, with or without your knowledge, in a number of ways -usually when you visit a website containing malware or when you download seemingly innocent software. It can then slow down your system, send fake emails from your email account, steal sensitive information like credit card numbers or passwords from your computer, and more. The conventional wisdom was that you could avoid malware by learning to spot sites that were created with the sole purpose of spreading it, and by staying away from other sites that might be risky. But recent research from Google suggests that an increasing number of malware attacks are taking place on sites you'd normally regard as safe or legitimate,
but have actually been compromised. Google works closely with the security community to identify malware on the web and then share that information more broadly. We've set up a number of automated systems to scour our index for potentially dangerous sites, and we add a label to those that appear to be a vehicle for malware. If you're searching on Google and click on a link that we've flagged, a warning page will appear before you move forward. We also notify webmasters if we discover that a site is no longer secure and provide a method for webmasters that clean up their sites to request a review. And starting soon, we'll be providing more detail on sites that appear to be spreading malware, so users have a better sense of why we have flagged a given site and webmasters can more easily identify and correct issues on their sites. All this stems directly from our security philosophy: We believe that if we all work together to identify threats and stamp them out, we can make the web a safer place for everyone. Of course, we can't catch everything, so our users play a crucial part of this effort too. Below are a few tips that can help you reduce your chances of being affected by malware: • Use anti-virus software. Most anti-virus software is specifically designed to find and remove harmful software on your computer. Be sure you have anti-virus software installed on your computer
(you can get a free trial through Google Pack if you don't), keep it current, and use it to run frequent full-system checks. • Make sure your operating system and browser are up to date. Attackers typically target vulnerabilities in your operating system (OS) and your browser to install malware on your computer. OS and browser providers frequently release updates to close those vulnerabilities. Enable automatic updates for both your browser and your OS, and check for alerts to ensure you have the latest and greatest protection. • Be careful about what you download. While Google and everyone else in the online community is working hard to identify harmful sites, new sources of malware are emerging all the time. Whenever you're prompted to download an email attachment, install a plug-in, or download an unfamiliar piece of software, take a moment to think it through. You won't always be able to identify a risky download, but if you practice some reasonable caution, you'll be able to reduce that risk. If you come across a potentially dangerous site that hasn't already been flagged, please report it. To learn more about malware and how to protect yourself, check out StopBadware.org's help page.
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MacBreak Weekly 85: Wombats, Pystar, NBC's Buggy Whips, Mitchell & Webb, and hacking Time Machine (43 Folders -) Submitted at 4/16/2008 10:07:32 PM
MacBreak Weekly 85: You Look Mac Today Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, and Andy Ihnatko Wombats, Pystar clones, Back to My Mac, Aussie iPhones on Vodafone, and more. Here’s a direct MP3 download of MBW 85. This week my Audible pick is That Mitchell and Webb Sound, and my application pick is TimeMachineEditor. The former is a wonderful radio series by two British comics that I’m currently obsessed with, while the latter is a very handy app for manually setting how often Time Machine backs up your Mac. Also, Leo was kind enough to acknowledge You Look Nice Today( iTunes), the new podcast that I do with my more gifted brother Twitterers,@scottsimpson and@lonelysandwich. We also live collectively on Twitter as “ ylnt.” I’m off MBW next week, but we should all be returning from our various conferences and travels with the full crew for taping on the week after.
Links of favor for April 18 (43 Folders -) Submitted at 4/18/2008 7:06:48 AM
• NEAT Receipts Scanner - Sharp-looking receipt scanner for the Mac, coming soon. I tend to avoid one-off gadgets that have any kind of permanent footprint on my desk, but this looks pretty handy if it works. • Footers In Modern Web Design: Creative Examples and Ideas | Design Showcase | Smashing Magazine - Inspiring collection of ways to use the space at the top and bottom of a web page. The first advocate for this approach that I can recall is Derek , who always uses his footers to such lovely and functional effect. • A Pattern Language for Productivity - Gah! I feared I’d waited too long. I’ve totally been meaning to start something like this on the 43f wiki for a couple years. ( curses self ). Nice start, here. Should be useful for folks. • The Fishbowl: Twitterpated - I get a surprising amount of flack for not following more people on
Twitter . Which dumbfounds me. It’s like being angry at someone because they aren’t watching enough TV. Anyhow, some of these hyper-following people strike me as either nutjobs or cynics, e.g. “in one case, 34,000. If you were truly following all these people, and they updated only once per day on average, you would be reading a Twitter message every two seconds.” Yeah. That sounds really fun and enriching. [via anarchaia ] • Word Spy - speed mentoring - “Getting advice in a series of short conversations with experts and other mentors.” I need me more of this. • BENTWOOD by contexture design workshop - My gosh, what a lovely idea; a wooden bangle that turns into a coffee cup sleeve. Smart. [via Erika ] • Ten typographic mistakes everyone makes | Life, Tutorials - Guilty as charged on a number of these. I think the one I’m laziest
about is straight quotation marks (“ " ”) where I really mean inches (“ ”). I do love that people care this much about this stuff (most of the time). • Mac Mini Media Centre / journal / hicksdesign - Jon has been sharing how he’s setting up his Mac Mini as a home entertainment juggernaut. This post outlines his basic setup, the apps he uses, etc. He also has a companion Flickr set . I’d love to hear more from folks on workflow . How — hypothetically — an AVI from out in the wild gets downloaded, encoded when necessary, and then dropped into the “ ~/Movies ” folder. Maybe Automator? As a
new Mini owner with the same goals, I’d love to hear your tips here in comments. • Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (Event Video/Audio) | Berkman Center Clay’s book is justifiably hyped right now, because it’s just so damned good. If you enjoyed seeing the Claymeister General on Colbert , you might want to catch this swell talk, where he gets a bit more room to say his piece on a world where things get organized without organizers. • Spark | CBC Radio | Disaster Preparedness Kit for your digital life - “…Nora and Merlin Mann (of 43Folders fame) are putting together a ‘Disaster Preparedness Kit’ for your digital life. Do you have a tip, trick, or tool that puts your mind at ease and keeps you from worrying about data loss?”