Today I want to talk about computer security and common sense.  While there is a lot of truly clever attacks that take advantage of obscure knowledge on the Internet for the most part computer engineers are making the role of the attacker way too easy.  While the benefits computers can add to almost anything has huge advantages there is a dark side if the systems are connected to the Internet.  When you connect anything to the Internet...

According to The Daily Yomiuri Online newspaper from Japan the Japanese Defense Ministry is developing a cyber defense virus!   You can read about it at here. This system is supposed to be a new wonder defense that will be able to track attacks back to the original source of the attack and disable all systems involved along with gathering information on the attack.   Development work is said to be done by Fujitsu Ltd and started in...

The issue of trust is difficult.  Who do you trust and whom do you not trust?  Actually, it may seem like a simple answer in that you trust those you know are trustworthy but in the digital world of the Internet that answer fails. There are many reasons that trust is difficult to understand on the Internet including the problem of inherited trust.  Here are two example of inherited trust.  In the first example someone, lets say you,...

A fantastic but little known source of knowledge about foreign spy activities on the Internet is the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive’s Report to Congress on Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage.  The latest report, which covers the period of 2009 to 2011, is available at http://www.ncix.gov/index.html There is a lot of good information in this document and even if I published just the most...

With the start of the New Year I think it is a good idea to review some of the computer crime procedures and methods of protection that I wrote about last year.  I also want to once again warn people that smart phones are the new frontier of computer crime and people that use smart phones need to be especially careful.  Do not open programs or programs disguised as photos or videos unless you are certain of the source.  An instant...