Get hold of yourself

Monday, December 28, 2009

Should Employers Ban Facebook at Work?

2009 has indeed been the year of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. But some say that social networking at work has become too costly in terms of lost productivity and too risky from a security standpoint. Is it time for a complete ban on social networking in the office, or are guidelines and productivity goals a better solution?

Should employers ban access to social networking sites like Facebook at work? If you look at the potential security risks alone, the answer would be resounding yes for most enterprises. Aside from the security risk, there's the huge hit that social networking has had on employee productivity One estimate -- from IT consulting company Morse -- figures employee use of social-networking sites cost employers $2.25 billion a year in lost productivity.
Yet even with the productivity and security challenges caused by social media, there is no still easy answer to the Facebook ban question. There are, however, plenty of opinions and guidelines that can help your company make a sound decision around the use of social networking from 9 to 5.
Read more about this @
http://www.enterprise-security-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12300AYS00HU

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Hackers block Microsoft Cofee law enforcement software

Hackers have released software designed to attack a Microsoft tool used by law enforcement agencies.

According to a report on The Register the hack known as Decaf automatically launches countermeasures to Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (Cofee), which provides tools used in the collection of digital evidence.

Last month copies of Cofee appeared on file sharing websites.

Microsoft said last month it does not expect cyber criminals to be able to use the software to their advantage. It said Cofee is just a collection of digital forensic tools which are already available.

Illegal copies of Microsoft Cofee spills onto the web

Microsoft software that is designed to help the police access encrypted data is loose on the web.

The software, known as Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (Cofee), has been put on file-sharing site, according to reports on the web. It is illegal for unauthorised people to use the software or download it.The software helps law enforcement agencies access details about crimes before criminals can wipe the information.

"Cofee brings together a number of common digital forensics capabilities into a fast, easy-to-use, automated tool for first responders. And Cofee is being provided [free] to law enforcement around the world," said Microsoft.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Twitter hacked by 'Iranian Cyber Army'

The popular microblogging Web site Twitter was hacked overnight, leaving the millions who use the site tweetless.Those who tried to access Twitter were redirected to a site that had a green flag and proclaimed "This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army."

Take a Little Care While Christmas Shopping Online

Legitimate businesses use encryption that protects your credit card data as it travels from your computer to the merchant. This means the Web address for sending in the order will begin with https instead of the familiar http. The change from http to https may not happen until you move to the page that actually processes your order.

So today we'll talk about a shopping topic where I can truly help -- showing you how to dodge some of the hazards of shopping online. This is the peak time of the year for online shopping and, for those of us who get a little dizzy just thinking about navigating mall crowds, online shopping can be an attractive notion.

There are ways to do it that reduce the chance of broken hearts and busted bank accounts.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

The world’s top 5 riskiest top-level domains

McAfee’s 3rd Annual “Mapping the Mal Web” report highlights the top-level domains with the most road hazards.

Like the auto industry, the Internet wasn’t designed with seatbelts and airbags. It took years and some determined people to get the auto industry to make safety changes. McAfee’s latest report highlight’s why so many security vendors are offering add-on safety features to protect your browsing experience. In today’s Web, attackers are poking holes in legitimate websites to set up drive-by downloads, typosquatters are waiting for someone’s fat fingers to mistype a URL and many are using search engine optimization to get their mischievous sites listed prominently in search results.

Yahoo login credentials at risk to hijacking attack

A new phishing attack attempts to steal Web hosting login credentials from Yahoo Inc. and other service providers.