In the slight chance you haven't seen this yet, Microsoft just released a Malicious Software Removal Tool targeting some of the most prevalent malicious software. For a list of the tool targets, check its official page. The tool will be updated on the second Tuesday of every month. If you turn on Automatic...

Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1 was released to the web. You can download it here .

Unfortunately, everything is a target nowadays. Malware for Mac: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5424883.html RedHat security update email scam: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/65033/red-hat-hit-by-securityupdate-email-scam.html Slashdot discussion: http://it.slashdot.org/it/04/10/24/2352234.shtml?tid...

There are lot of people that think the new Google Desktop is great and revolutionary. However, there are several things wrong with it that make me stay away from it. Here's the short list (in no particular order): It hooks up WinInet.dll. Hooking up system level component and intercepting all incoming...

Tim Rains and Robert Hensing are members of the Microsoft Product Support Services Incident Response team. Their blogs are a must read, especially if you are interested in investigating system intrusions and compromises.

If you use the PortReporter ( download , KB article ), there is a nice log parser for it. Go ahead and snatch a copy of Port Reporter Parser while it's hot. Here's straight from the horse's mouth a short list of what the tool is capable of: The Port Reporter Parser (PR-Parser) is a tool that parses the...

Aaron Margosis has excellent set of posts on why and ho to run as LUA (non-admin). If you wander what's in it for you or have particular problem while running as non-admin, you owe it to yourself to read his blog. Here's a short list of Aaron's posts on the topic: First the “Why” posts: Why you shouldn...

The new FirstTech Credit Union page puts the logon dialog on an unsecured page. Their explanation [1]: Why This Is Secure Using the Online Banking Login on the 1sttech.com pages is safe, even though you do not see the lock in your browser as your Account ID and PIN (Personal Identification Number...

Recently I stumbled across a posting named “Why I run as an admin” . As you can deduct from the title, it is a small rant from a guy about why he runs as an admin. There are lot of rants like this flying aroun in the blogosphere (and not only there), so what makes this one interesting? ...

I'll make this one short. If you are doing all you stuff on the computer as admin - stop it now! Get through the pain and switch as a regular user once and for all. Here are the reasons why and some tips on how to ease the pain .

Have you ever wanted to find out about any of the following: The ports that are used The processes that use the port Whether a process is a service The modules that a process loaded The user accounts that run a process Yes? Good. Because Microsoft has a new toy for you - PortReporter...

Another great tool to have handy - Security Readiness Kit. Here's what TechNet says about the tool: “The Security Readiness Kit (SRK) CD and its companion web site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/readiness are designed to give you easy access to the documentation and tools you need...

Check out the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser site . There is new version available for download - MBSA v1.2. The tool is now localized in couple other languages, support for additional products was added, IE custom zones support and few other things were thrown in.

Everybody has printer at home. Well, mostly everybody. Chances are if you have computer at home, you most probably have a printer as well. It is just sitting there on the shelf or on your desk and silently (or not so - depending on the model) waits for you to use it. You open an email from your significant...

My wife and I spent the holidays in L.A. Turns out after three years, the place we lived is exactly the same. It's like we left yesterday... Anyway, the post is not about this. It's about the airport security. You know, all the lines and the endless waiting and the strip search... oh, wait, that's...

[Disclaimer: I am not a security expert. 'Nuf said...] Ivan Medvedev (test lead on CLR security team) has a great article about the security and psychology . Its main topic - people as the weakest link in any security system. In the article Ivan says the following: What can you do to make...