March 30, 2007
Privacy and Security Watch: Microsoft warns of zero-day Windows attack
Never open email attachment from an unknown source.
Never open an email attachment that you were not expecting from a known
source without first verifying that it was actually sent by that person.
If you use outlook as your email client, you are especially vulnerable to this attack. In this case, even if you have wisely set your email to only accept/read text email, you still are at risk.
If you use Internet Explorer you are especially vulnerable to this attack. Firefox 2.0 is not vulnerable to this attack.
Be sure you are not visiting rogue internet sites.
From the article:
"An attacker could try to exploit the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted Web page," the Microsoft advisory warned. "An attacker could also create a specially crafted e-mail message and send it to an affected system. Upon viewing a Web page, previewing or reading a specially crafted message, or opening a specially crafted e-mail attachment, the attacker could cause the affected system to execute code."
See the full article here.
There is also an unofficial patch, since Microsoft doesn't seem to be hurrying to fix this. You may or may not want to consider this unofficial patch. You can read about it here.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
* [Please post your job openings here] *
R.L. Kuper, Inc. - Management Consulting
Never open an email attachment that you were not expecting from a known
source without first verifying that it was actually sent by that person.
If you use outlook as your email client, you are especially vulnerable to this attack. In this case, even if you have wisely set your email to only accept/read text email, you still are at risk.
If you use Internet Explorer you are especially vulnerable to this attack. Firefox 2.0 is not vulnerable to this attack.
Be sure you are not visiting rogue internet sites.
From the article:
"An attacker could try to exploit the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted Web page," the Microsoft advisory warned. "An attacker could also create a specially crafted e-mail message and send it to an affected system. Upon viewing a Web page, previewing or reading a specially crafted message, or opening a specially crafted e-mail attachment, the attacker could cause the affected system to execute code."
See the full article here.
There is also an unofficial patch, since Microsoft doesn't seem to be hurrying to fix this. You may or may not want to consider this unofficial patch. You can read about it here.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: attack, breach, bug, eeye, firefox, ie, internet explorer, microsoft, outlook, virus, worm
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March 22, 2007
Privacy and Security Watch: Stolen Data from TJX (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores) since 2003 Used in $8M Scheme Before Breach Discovery
According to recent reports in eWeek (links below), massive amounts of data, dating back to 2003, were stolen from TJX (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods stores) over an extended period of time, starting in 2005. The breach, or intrusion as TJX prefers to call it, was not discovered until December 2006.
This is just the latest story in the ongoing issue of data security. Companies need to get their acts together and ensure that they are protecting the personal and private data of their customers. It may be time for the government to step in and create financial incentives for companies to do this. Of course, the Federal government and many state and local governments are guilty of not protecting the personal and private data of its citizens either, so they would also have to fine themselves (not likely). So this problem will continue to be a major problem until the public starts making its voice heard and making this a priority for government and corporations to take more seriously.
Here are the links to the TJX story:
Stolen TJX Data Used in $8M Scheme Before Breach Discovery
TJX: Data Theft Began in 2005; Data Taken from 2003
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
* [Please post your job openings here] *
R.L. Kuper, Inc. - Management Consulting
This is just the latest story in the ongoing issue of data security. Companies need to get their acts together and ensure that they are protecting the personal and private data of their customers. It may be time for the government to step in and create financial incentives for companies to do this. Of course, the Federal government and many state and local governments are guilty of not protecting the personal and private data of its citizens either, so they would also have to fine themselves (not likely). So this problem will continue to be a major problem until the public starts making its voice heard and making this a priority for government and corporations to take more seriously.
Here are the links to the TJX story:
Stolen TJX Data Used in $8M Scheme Before Breach Discovery
TJX: Data Theft Began in 2005; Data Taken from 2003
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: breach, companies, corporations, data, data security, government, home goods, homegoods, intrusion, kuper report, marshalls, richard kuper, security, tj maxx, tjmaxx, tjx
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March 17, 2007
Is your cable TV connection only providing monophonic sound?
If you are fortunate to not need a cable box to get your cable TV, the feed directly from the cable company carries stereo sound, and connecting your TV directly to the cable will result in stereo sound on your TV. If, however, your cable service requires the use of a cable box, and you connect a stereo TV or stereo VCR or any other device using the coaxial (RF) cable wire (the typical connection made by the person who comes and connects your cable) from the cable box to your TV or VCR, you are only getting monophonic sound, not stereo.
So what do you need to do if your cable company requires the use of a cable box and you want stereo sound to come out of your stereo TV? (Note: I will address analog audio/video options here. If you have a digital TV, you may have additional choices.)
If your TV does not have any option except to connect the cable wire where an antenna would otherwise be connected, you are out of luck. No stereo for you. Your TV needs to have stereo RCA jacks for stereo sound to be fed to it. So to get stereo sound from your cable box, you need to connect the line-out jacks marked L and R (usually color coded red and white) to the line-in jacks marked L and R on your TV. But wait -- that only gets you sound. If you want a picture, you need to connect the yellow video-out to the matching yellow video-in on your TV. If both your cable box and TV have s-video, try that instead for a better picture. And if you are fortunate enough to have the option of component video out [that's 3 separate cables carrying just the video] and your TV can accept that, use that for the best picture. Now when you turn on your TV, don't panic when there is no picture or sound. That's because your input source is now Line 1 or Video 1 or some such similar choice. You are not using the TV tuner, so you are not watching through channel 3 or 4 (depending on where you live).
What if you want to include your VCR or other video-recording device in the loop? You would follow similar instructions, except that you would, in essence, be doing the same thing twice. First replace the term TV with VCR in the instructions above for connecting up the cables from the cable box. Then, pretend the VCR is the cable box and follow the instructions again. And as in the direct from cable box to TV above, you will need to remember that you are now watching through Line 1 or Video 1 or whatever it is called on your TV. One other thing. In order to watch TV you will need to also turn on the VCR.
There are more complicated options, but I've opted to not address them here.
And again, the above addresses standard stereo TVs and VCRs. Connecting digital and high definition (HD) TVs and other digital devices will require different cabling and connections to get the best picture and sound. But even on the HD cable boxes, the RF cable-out only provides monophonic sound.
You may want to share this article with your friends and family, who may not know that they are probably watching TV and recording programs in glorious monophonic.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
* [Please post your job openings here] *
R.L. Kuper, Inc. - Management Consulting
So what do you need to do if your cable company requires the use of a cable box and you want stereo sound to come out of your stereo TV? (Note: I will address analog audio/video options here. If you have a digital TV, you may have additional choices.)
If your TV does not have any option except to connect the cable wire where an antenna would otherwise be connected, you are out of luck. No stereo for you. Your TV needs to have stereo RCA jacks for stereo sound to be fed to it. So to get stereo sound from your cable box, you need to connect the line-out jacks marked L and R (usually color coded red and white) to the line-in jacks marked L and R on your TV. But wait -- that only gets you sound. If you want a picture, you need to connect the yellow video-out to the matching yellow video-in on your TV. If both your cable box and TV have s-video, try that instead for a better picture. And if you are fortunate enough to have the option of component video out [that's 3 separate cables carrying just the video] and your TV can accept that, use that for the best picture. Now when you turn on your TV, don't panic when there is no picture or sound. That's because your input source is now Line 1 or Video 1 or some such similar choice. You are not using the TV tuner, so you are not watching through channel 3 or 4 (depending on where you live).
What if you want to include your VCR or other video-recording device in the loop? You would follow similar instructions, except that you would, in essence, be doing the same thing twice. First replace the term TV with VCR in the instructions above for connecting up the cables from the cable box. Then, pretend the VCR is the cable box and follow the instructions again. And as in the direct from cable box to TV above, you will need to remember that you are now watching through Line 1 or Video 1 or whatever it is called on your TV. One other thing. In order to watch TV you will need to also turn on the VCR.
There are more complicated options, but I've opted to not address them here.
And again, the above addresses standard stereo TVs and VCRs. Connecting digital and high definition (HD) TVs and other digital devices will require different cabling and connections to get the best picture and sound. But even on the HD cable boxes, the RF cable-out only provides monophonic sound.
You may want to share this article with your friends and family, who may not know that they are probably watching TV and recording programs in glorious monophonic.
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
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March 10, 2007
The Daylight Saving Time (DST) Change
If you are a corporation with lots of computers, hopefully you have already addressed this matter and secured and rolled out the appropriate patches. This article is for those with individual computers or other equipment that will be affected by the new "spring forward" date of March 11, 2007 at 2am.
If you are running Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2 and have automatic updates turned on, supposedly the patch has already been applied. If you don't have automatic updates turned on, you need to go to the Microsoft website downloads section and download the patch.
If you have older versions, the following link might make your life simpler than trying to follow the complex instructions from Microsoft for those older versions:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/Downloads.htm
(scroll down to the Freeware section and find your windows version and click on the appropriate link.)
If you have Apple computers, the patches can be found on the Apple website.
Too bad I can't do that for my VCRs. Since my cable company requires a cable box, the new feature on some VCRs to change automatically based on a signal does not work. So for those of you who have VCRs that are in this state, turn off the Daylight Saving Time (DST) feature and change them manually after 2am Sunday morning. And if your cable company has the same problem as Time Warner does here in NYC, then you will also have to reprogram all of your program record settings, as I have to do every time the clocks get changed. It's a lot of work and very frustrating. When I have told them about it they acted like they had no clue that it happens every time the clocks change. Ugh!
Well, at least we'll have longer days and more daylight. That should, um, brighten things up a bit :)
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
* [Please post your job openings here] *
R.L. Kuper, Inc. - Management Consulting
If you are running Windows Vista or Windows XP SP2 and have automatic updates turned on, supposedly the patch has already been applied. If you don't have automatic updates turned on, you need to go to the Microsoft website downloads section and download the patch.
If you have older versions, the following link might make your life simpler than trying to follow the complex instructions from Microsoft for those older versions:
http://www.intelliadmin.com/Downloads.htm
(scroll down to the Freeware section and find your windows version and click on the appropriate link.)
If you have Apple computers, the patches can be found on the Apple website.
Too bad I can't do that for my VCRs. Since my cable company requires a cable box, the new feature on some VCRs to change automatically based on a signal does not work. So for those of you who have VCRs that are in this state, turn off the Daylight Saving Time (DST) feature and change them manually after 2am Sunday morning. And if your cable company has the same problem as Time Warner does here in NYC, then you will also have to reprogram all of your program record settings, as I have to do every time the clocks get changed. It's a lot of work and very frustrating. When I have told them about it they acted like they had no clue that it happens every time the clocks change. Ugh!
Well, at least we'll have longer days and more daylight. That should, um, brighten things up a bit :)
Richard Kuper
The Kuper Report
http://TheKuperReport.com
Labels: apple, daylight, dst, pc, saving, time, vcr
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