Updated Safe Gadget Internet Security Tutorials – Security Alerts 2013

SafeGadget — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:50:23 +0000

The following articles have been updated in 2013 to reflect new and important security protection schemes:

6/17/2013: Microsoft Azure, Linkedin, Twitter, Evernote have now added 2 factor authentication. Be sure to take advantage of this.

4/15/2013: ID Thieves are using the IRS and filing fake tax returns. Remember that the IRS never calls or sends email to you. They use old fashion US mail.

3/24/2013: Vudu got hacked. Again, if you use the same password elsewhere, change it. Each site’s login password should be unique, so if one site gets hacked, hackers won’t be able to access all your other accounts.

3/21/2013: Apple introduced two-step verification for Apple IDs. You need 2 forms of proof to access Apple. Please turn this on right away.

3/4/2013: Evernote got hacked and reset everyone’s password. Again, if you use the same password elsewhere, change it. Each site’s login password should be unique, so if one site gets hacked, hackers won’t be able to access all your other accounts.

3/1/2013: Mobile payments systems lead to privacy issues and major concerns. The systems are becoming more sophisticated with the ability to collect more information about the user transactions and shared with more people.

3/1/2013: Determine if a website is safe or not before visiting it with sites like:

safeweb.norton.com
Onlinelinkscan.com
google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=[INSERT SITE URL]
Read How to Secure: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox for more web safety tips.

2/28/2013: Microsoft has been running advertisements educating people that Google’s Gmail reads your email to generate ads, eliminating your privacy. You can read more about it at scroogled.com.

2/25/2013: Apple employees have been hacked. This goes to show that the Mac is not invincible. The attack vector is believed to be a vulnerability in Java. Be sure to turn off or uninstall Java unless you need it.

2/2/2013: Twitter was hacked and 250K users were affected.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

1/14/2013: Department of Homeland security suggests people turn off Java. We suggested that a while back..

12/23/2012: Adobe Shockwave continues to have a major vulnerability with a fix coming in February 2013. Disable it if you don’t need it. Most people do not need it.

12/17/2012: Logmein and DocuSign appear to have been hacked as user complaints filter in.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

12/14/2012: Facebook updated privacy controls again. Most make it easier to control privacy, but they did remove the option for you to hide from Facebook search.

12/2/2012: We’ve covered Facebook security in the past. Here is a video that covers most of our tips.

11/14/2012: If you use a fingerprint reader employing UPEC Software, be aware that there is a hack to recover your login information.

10/11/2012: Added information about Google Takeout and Data Liberation to How to: Anonymous Browsing, Internet Privacy.

10/7/2012: NFC is a new frontier in security headaches. Researchers can use a smartphone to skim a credit card and reuse it. Disable it now, see our Android Smartphone Security, How to securely use your Android Smartphone or Tablet article.

9/18/2012: There is a new Internet Explorer bug that is being exploited, with no fix currently available. Microsoft suggests you use their EMET tool, or you could simply switch to Chrome or Firefox browsers. On 9/21/2012, this patch made its way into Windows Update.

8/27/2012: Dropbox now supports 2 factor authentication. Enable it now!

8/10/2012: Blizzard’s BattleNet got hacked, Diablo 3, Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, etc.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. We suggest that you buy their two-factor authentication device. The answers to security questions also got compromised. If you use these same questions and answers on other sites, we suggest you change them on other sites. We have been recommending that users use unique answers to every security question on each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

8/8/2012: A Wired writer got his world hacked and computer erased quickly. This could happen to you! He did not use 2 factor authentication which probably could have prevented the problem. Turn on 2 factor authentication for gmail right away.

7/31/2012: Dropbox got hacked.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

7/16/2012: Social Network Formspring got hacked.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

7/12/2012: Yahoo mail has been breached.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords
Turn on 2-factor authentication for Yahoo Mail

7/6/2012: Updated the article How to: Anonymous Browsing, Internet Privacy to include privacy information on eReaders such as the Kindle.

7/5/2012: The US Government’s patch to keep people infected with the DNS Changer virus online, ends Monday 7/9/12. Thereafter, people infected will not be able to get online. Be sure to run anti malware software to ensure you are clean. Help your friends and relatives too!

7/1/2012: Updated the article Major Wireless Network Security Breach – Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS Bug) PIN Brute Force Vulnerability – Reaver to reflect firmware fix to Linksys E1200 v2, E1500, E3200, E4200 V1 routers.

6/29/2012: Updated the article How to: Anonymous Browsing, Internet Privacy, to cover HTML5 local storage privacy issues.

6/26/2012: Microsoft has a Fix It patch for a XML bug that is being exploited in the wild. Windows update patch has not been released yet.

6/25/2012: Adobe has quietly released a Photoshop 12.0.5 patch and Illustrator for their outdated Create Suites CS5.

6/8/2012: Added information on Tails bootable Linux distribution.

See: How to use Linux for more Secure Computing

6/6/2012: Linkedin, Last.fm, eHarmony got hacked.

Change your passwords immediately and use a different password for each site. Lastpass has an option to check whether your password was compromised. If it was, you definitely need to change all sites where you used this password. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

6/5/2012: Gmail is now warning users when hacking is occuring

Change your password immediately, enable 2-factor authentication, and use a different password for each site. Read – How to create, store, and use secure passwords

5/30/2012: How to: Anonymous Browsing, Internet Privacy