Softsound - CircleWebWorks

Great in-depth article about how attackers get your passwords. The moral of the story? Be careful about what you click on, what network you are on when you manually enter a password, never reuse them, update them at least every six months, and always - always - always use long, random passwords.

Studies have shown that two factor authentication prevents 99% of attacks. Enable it on everything important!

Common Ways Attackers Are Stealing Credentials A few weeks ago, we reviewed some of the worst website hacks we’ve ever seen. Every one of them started with poor password choices and escalated into a disastrous event for the site owner. Strong passwords and good password hygiene are often the first line of defense. On September 29, 2020, the Wo...

Cool new thing computer display technology. I just had to share...
Watch out if you're at work, the ad on the page makes noise.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2024879/displair-gives-you-a-touchscreen-out-of-thin-air.html?%23tk.out_mod?=obnetwork

Displair gives you a touchscreen out of thin air (video) | PCWorld Displair uses air flow and two microns of water drops to create an interactive display.

If you haven't seen this, you should. It was recorded IN SPACE by Chris Hadfield (using Cakewalk Sonar recording software I might add). IN SPACE.

http://youtu.be/KaOC9danxNo

Space Oddity A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station. With thanks to Emm Gryner, Jo...

Automatic Internet Explorer 10 upgrades are causing compatibility issues with some websites. (I'm not expecting issues with any of my client websites -- but problems are being reported especially with websites hosting software applications).

Should you experience an unusual problem with a website you frequent after upgrading to IE 10 try clicking your ALT and T keys together to bring up the tools drop down menu. Make sure you have a check mark next to Compatibility View.

I think you all know I don't bother any of you with really technical stuff usually, but this is important, and pretty darn technical, so try to stick with me. It's important you read this and understand it.

If you use Java on your system you will need to be informed about a vulnerability in your browser's Java functionality. At this time this only applies to Java used in conjunction with your browser or the internet, not Java used locally on your machine. Here's an article about it (below). You should read this article! Anti-Virus software won't protect you from these potential problems.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57563671/new-malware-exploiting-java-7-in-windows-unix-systems/

Minimally, you should disable Java functionality in all of your browsers. Here's an article about how to do that:
http://krebsonsecurity.com/how-to-unplug-java-from-the-browser/

Note! JavaScript is not the same as Java. JavaScript is fine, and if you disable it a lot of things on the web will stop working correctly.

It's also being recommended that you remove Java from your Windows machine entirely. First make sure you don't rely on any software that makes use of it to be able to function.

How do you know this? If you have a Java updater popping up with any frequency you have Java installed and it's probably because some of your software uses it.

The main app I know of that uses Java is Apache Open Office.

If you use Apache Open Office as a substitute for Microsoft Office, you may think that Java is involved in the complete functioning of that program, but it is not necessarily the case. Users of Apache Open Office (and I'm one of them) are only using Java if they use the Open Office "Base" Database Software. The Calc and Writer apps only use Java for specialized functions you probably don't use. So you can probably safely uninstall Java entirely and these applications will continue to function. Here's an article about that: http://www.openoffice.org/download/common/java.html .

You uninstall Java from the control panel in Windows, just like you uninstall any application. Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features > Uninstall a program .

For additional information just google "Java" or "How to remove Java."

Additionally this could potentially be a pretty big deal for businesses, as many of them rely heavily on custom apps coded in Java. This situation is likely to continue to develop in interesting ways over the next few days.

CircleWebWorks clients should let me know if they have questions.

New malware exploiting Java 7 in Windows, Unix systems Mal/JavaJar-B is a cross-platform exploit of a new zero-day vulnerability in the latest Java runtimes