Posts tagged security
Facebook Apps: You’ve been infected!
Oct 20th
Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook can already be dangerous places. Things like short links and bogus messages from friends with compromised accounts put unsuspecting and under-prepared users at risk.
Now, AVG’s security researchers have discovered a new threat on Facebook. For the first time, they’ve found hacked Facebook apps. According to AVG, the apps are being used to launch drive-by attacks which target vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash. AVG reports finding seven hacked apps, but they admit there could well be more.
First things first: if you’re not running up to date versions of either of those, download them right now. Here’s the link to Flash and here’s one for Reader. Using anything but the most current version could leave you open to attack.
The attack works like this. Visit the Facebook page for any of the hacked apps and click to install. Instead of the normal process, the page will try to push a poisoned PDF document to your machine. Once open, the infected PDF infects your system with a bogus antivirus application – which are often notoriously difficult to remove.
To keep from getting infected in the first place, make sure you:
- Have a good antivirus program installed and that it is fully updated
- Update browser plugins like Java, Flash, and Adobe Reader as soon as you are prompted to do so
install any critical Windows updates that are available
- Check comments on new apps before you install ; Others may have already been infected and left a post on the wall!
Source: Downloadsquad
3 Years Down The Road…
Apr 24th
Which do you think will have more career prospects?
1) Business
2) IT
3) Security
4) Hotel Management
Apple Promised Fix for iPhone Security Problem
Sep 1st
Apple has promised a fix this month for a security problem that enables people to access data on password-protected iPhones.
It’s not a pleasant thought if you own an iPhone. Even if you have the handset password-protected, someone with access to it can still bypass your security and access your voicmail, e-mail and texts.
It’s done by pressing the emergency call button when on the unlock screen, flowed by a double click on the home screen. That takes you to the favorites page without needing to enter the unlock code.
However, according to MacWorld.com, that’s going to be remedied very soon. Apple has promised a fix this month for the rather gaping security hole.
In an email to the site, Apple spokesperson Jennifer Bowcock wrote:
“The minor iPhone security issue which surfaced this week is fixed in a software update which will be released in September.”
In the meantime Bowcock suggested that, for security, users set their iPhones so that a double click on the home button takes them to the home screen. If password protection is turned on, that’s the unlock screen.
Source: Digital Trends
