Trusting the Social Security Administration?
The US Social Security Administration does a poor job of computer security. Surprised?
Stories by Michael Horowitz
ISP outage: my personal disaster recovery
My ISP goes offline in the middle of the night, but there is work to do that can't wait...
More Adobe mistakes with Flash
Adobe's Flash mistakes are not limited to software bugs, their documentation is wrong too.
Sub-optimal computer advice from the New York Times
Small businesses are hit by ransomware. The New York Times says they should increase their computer security. I say this misses the real problem: backup, backup, backup.
Wi-Fi at DEF CON - dealing with the worlds most dangerous network
Wi-Fi can be done securely, even at a hacker conference like DEF CON. Just avoid open networks and Android.
Flash click-to-play on Chrome breaks Ticketmaster
Chrome users can not buy tickets at Ticketmaster if they did the Defensive Computing thing and configure Flash for click-to-play.
Web browsers are also to blame for Lenovo's Superfish fiasco
Lenovo pre-installing Superfish software was a security disaster. Whether Lenovo was evil, or, as they eventually claimed, merely incompetent, it's hard to trust them going forward. If nothing else, their initial denials that anything was wrong, leave a lasting impression. Of course, Superfish, along with the software that they bundled from Komodia, also deserve plenty of blame for breaking the security of HTTPS and SSL/TLS.
Recovering lost bookmarks in Chrome
I recently responded to a prompt from the Chrome browser (on Windows 7) without fully understanding the question. Lesson learned, the hard way. This carelessness wiped out my carefully curated bookmarks, which had never been backed up.
What's new with Java
I'm sick of Java, as you probably are too. That said, there have been a number of changes to Java lately that may have flown under the radar. So, here is what you need to know about where things stand.