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All posts tagged "security"


Thursday, August 11, 2011

Ideas For Home Protection While You Are Away

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 05:00 PM

http://lifehacker.com/5827991/how-t...while-traveling

"When you're off having fun on vacation, it's easy to forget you've left your home unattended for a pretty long stretch of time. Chances are things will be fine, but here are a few simple tips for better security-and peace of mind-while you're traveling."

There is still vacation time this summer for most people. If you are in a rush to head out for your escape, you might forget to take some precautions to protect your dwelling and belongings while you are away. Fortunately, some things can be set up long before you leave home, and then utilized while you are vacationing. Lifehacker has put together some ideas that you can consider to act on to establish a reasonable level of home protection. Some are technology-based, some are simple human-activity-based. All are good ideas that are well worth considering.


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Put That Webcam To Good Use: Home Security

Posted by Brad Wasson in "Digital Home Talk" @ 05:00 PM

http://onesite.thoughtsmedia.com/?o...form(posting)=&

"Cammster doesn't require a download or special software, and works in all browsers and platforms. Just sign up for a free account, and when you leave home, leave Cammster open in a browser window. Select the level of motion sensitivity you want to trigger the service to start taking pictures, and walk away. If motion is detected that exceeds the threshold, the service will start taking snapshots and email you with a link where you can see the images as they're uploaded."

Webcams are pretty common these days. Many monitors come with them built in, and they are not very expensive to add as a USB plug-in if you need one. How often does it get used though? For most people it almost certainly has zero use when no one is home. That could all change if you would like to consider using it for a little home security detail. Cammster is a software application that works in all browsers on all platforms. The typical Cammster use scenario is that you leave your dwelling with the computer turned on, the webcam connected to the Internet, and the Cammster program running. If movement is detected in the field of view of the webcam, the program will take photographs with the webcam and will save the pictures to the Cammster site. You can then be notified by SMS (text messaging) and/or email that a pictures have been taken due to motion being detected. Note that motion detection sensitivity can be set to take into account pet or other object movement. Pricing for the service varies depending on how you choose to get notified (e-mail alerts are temporarily free).


Thursday, June 30, 2011

Ensure Security When Using WiFi

Posted by Hooch Tan in "Digital Home News" @ 01:30 PM

http://news.cnet.com/1606-2_3-50107198.html

"Whether at a coffee shop or airport, public Wi-Fi is often available to connect your laptop, smartphone, or tablet to the Internet. But those connections are rarely secure, and hackers have found easy ways to sneak into your account. CNET's Kara Tsuboi reports."

While the video is very short on details and substance, it does bring attention to a very important issue. Security when using any WiFi network is critical and while you see articles talking about how to secure your own home WiFi networks, many people I suspect hardly spend a moment thinking about their security when at a hotspot. The safest assumption you should make is that any wireless network (and even wired networks to an extent) can be snooped, and you should always take precautions with sensitive information. This includes wireless networks that you have secured, since most any wireless network can be hacked into with enough time and determination.

Tags: wifi, security

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Microsoft Makes Things Confusing with Security Essentials

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Digital Home Talk" @ 03:00 AM

I installed Windows 7 Home Premium on a netbook I was selling to someone, and I wanted to include anti-virus protection, but didn't want to bog the little thing down. I opted to install Microsoft Security Essentials. As far as AV protection goes, it's fairly light-weight. After installing the software, I was looking in the Action Center, and was surprised to see this message:

It's a bit confusing to show users text about running two antivirus programs, then provide a link telling the user they are in fact running two antivirus programs on the computer. When you click on the link, this is what you see:

Pretty strange, no? This is the default configuration of Microsoft Security Essentials - I didn't change a thing, and this is a 100% vanilla install of Windows 7, with zero third-party apps installed. I don't know why Microsoft would have the configuration work this way, but I can see the average consumer being confused by this. Come on Microsoft, you can do better than this!


Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Phoenix Freeze Bluetooth Authentication

Posted by Chris Gohlke in "Digital Home Hardware & Accessories" @ 03:00 AM

http://www.phoenixfreeze.com/

"Often the best ideas are the simplest. A laptop which locks itself as you walk away with your Blackberry® or iPhone™ and unlocks as you return. Cool, easy, secure! Just think of the benefits: One: More security - Freeze is designed to lock an XP or Vista based laptop when you walk away from it and unlock it when you return. All you need to activate the service is a Bluetooth® enabled mobile phone. Once you step out of the "zone of safety" your laptop is locked and your data is safe."

On the surface this looks pretty cool, I've seen versions of this idea using proprietary hardware, but letting it use a Bluetooth device you already have is a unique way to deal with it. Probably more than adequate for the home user, but without some further research, I'm not sure Bluetooth security is robust enough to make this the only form of authentication used on a corporate network. However, as part of a well-designed multi-factor authentication system, it certainly has potential. Notebooks.com has a video showing how this works.


Thursday, July 31, 2008

vBulletin Vulnerability: Passwords Shuffled for Some Users

Posted by Jason Dunn in "Thoughts Media Status Updates" @ 12:51 PM

If you're trying to log into our forums and having trouble, here's why: there are some individuals going around and running scripts against vBulletin installs, specifically looking to hijack user accounts where the username and password are the same. These people then use these hijacked accounts to send our spam private messages and email messages (I've turned off the email function on our board). I was shocked to learn that we have 559 users who have done exactly that: chosen their password to match their user-name. Not only is this bad security, it leaves the door open for hacker-types to get into our board, pretending to be real users, and cause problems. To prevent this, what we've done is randomize the passwords for the 559 users who were impacted by this.

If you're one of these users, all you need to do is use the Lost Password Recovery Form to have the password sent to you - which you'll then want to reset the password to something else...something other than your user name of course. If you have any trouble with this process, please contact me and I'll manually reset your password. I apologize for any hassle this may cause, but this step was necessary to protect the security of all our users.


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