----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----
Below is a quote from Brian
Cooley’s column on ZiffDavis.net toward the bottom of the article. (http://www.zdnet.com) In it, he references you to a security
article by an expert. It seems to
be a very good article.
Recommended.
If you decide to switch
away from Microsoft products to improve your safety, way down at the bottom of
this letter are some alternatives and other information.
Ed
Burkhead
http://edburkhead.com/
ed -at- edburkheadQQQ.com (change -at- and remove the QQQ)
I know you believe you understand what you
think I said, but I am not sure if you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
By Brian Cooley
Editor at Large, Reviews
Thursday, December 16, 2004
December 13, 2004
Read this security article--twice
Bruce Schneier is a really smart guy. In fact, he's one of those
guys who is so smart, he makes you feel kind of stupid. I've chatted with him a
couple of times in my years at CNET, and while my mouth might be saying,
"Bruce, how do we defend against the symbiotic threats the ubiquity of the
Microsoft code base has created?" my mind is thinking, "What in the
hell is an English major with a very average GPA doing wasting this guy's
time?"
Bruce answers crisply and thoroughly, staring back at you with
what the Marines call the "thousand-yard stare." But it's not because
he's shell-shocked. He's probably solving two other meaty problems in the back
of his mind while he's talking to you. He's intense and engages in demanding
conversations.
Luckily for Bruce, he didn't aspire to be a maître d' or Bette
Midler's opening act: He's a security guy. One of the best. CTO of Counterpane.
And he just wrote one very good piece on how to compute safely. You'll
find it at News.com. Go read it now--I'll wait for you.
http://news.com.com/Who+says+safe+computing+must+remain+a+pipe+dream/2010-1071-5482340.html?tag=txt
or
http://tinyurl.com/6hgvo
See, he's talking about a very simple set of behaviors and
technologies, the kind of thing average computer users ask me for all the time,
with questions such as, "Do you think I'm safe from that Internet problem
I heard about on the news last night?" From now on, I will e-mail them
Bruce's piece. He understands that user behavior and knowing what you're doing
is as important as any piece of software or firewall setting.
I would like to see the FTC mandate that a printout of his piece
be included with every PC sold, waiting right there with the quick-start guide
when you cut the tape and open the box. Oh, that's right, I hate government
meddling.
________________________________________
By Ed
Netscape 7.2 is my
current prime browser. This free
package includes browser, e-mail program, address book, web-page composer and
instant messaging program. These
work pretty well and I’ve used them all, except for the instant messaging. When you install Netscape (or Firefox),
it’ll get all the information from your Internet Explorer and Outlook or
Outlook Express programs and set itself up including your favorite
bookmarks/favorites.
Mozilla Firefox This is new, free product that is
taking the advanced amateur and professional computer world by storm. It seems to be a very good web
browser. Easy to use. Though Mozilla is the company that
wrote Netscape’s product, I’ve heard that Firefox was mostly written by a now 15
year old kid – I saw the kid interviewed on TV and was impressed. At any rate, it’s well done, easy to
use and stable.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Mozilla’s new e-mail
program is Thunderbird – this just was released after a good, long beta test
period and I haven’t tried it yet.
From Mozilla, I’d trust it.
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
Eudora e-mail
program. Free. Recommended by many for ease of use,
quality and security. I haven’t
tested it personally.
Couple of notes about the
first two packages above:
I switch back and forth
between using Firefox and Netscape as my default browser. Both are excellent. Most of my links transferred over
automatically but I have some tucked away in Netscape in a weird place that
didn’t get moved over in the automatic process. After I get those moved, I may settle on Firefox as my
browser.
I use Outlook for my
e-mail in spite of the many correct warnings about it. It is dangerous to do so but I feel I
need to stay current with it for professional reasons. If it weren’t for that, I’d probably
dump it in moments. Having said
that, I’ve stayed virus free by having a good antivirus program, a firewall and
keeping my operating system up to date with Automatic Update.
__________________________________
For checking to make sure
you’re on a secure website, in the Internet address in the window at the top of
the browser (the Universal Resource Locator), make sure it starts with https:// The “s”
in https assures you that you’re on a secure page. But, as the security guy says, be sure you’re on the RIGHT
secure page.
Phishing (pronounced
fishing) is the crime of sending out e-mails that really look like they came
from a company and ask you for information about you they can use to steal from
you. It becomes a crime of theft
when they use your information to steal from you. They can make both their e-mail and their website look
really official by stealing the logo and appearance from the company’s real
website.
I don’t give out my
information to websites I get to by clicking on e-mail or web page links unless
I have reason to be confident it’s the real site of that company.
I keep a disposable
e-mail address on Hotmail.com and netscape.net to give out to web sites that
demand an e-mail address for access.
I usually lie about all my personal information to those obnoxious
websites, too. Those disposable e-mail
boxes get lots of junk mail and I clean them out monthly but my prime e-mail
mailbox gets none because I don’t give out that address to businesses.
============================================================================== To leave this forum go to: http://ercoupers.com/lists.htm Search the archives on http://escribe.com/aviation/coupers/
