Tim Berners-Lee on the Internet as a human right
Tim Berners-Lee on the Internet as a human right

I heard about the UK’s “Snooper Law” just the other day on Jupiter Broadcasting, and the most surprising part is that it “sailed through” parliament. Where is the uproaor?

Older But Geeky has a write-up on it in “UK Officially Gives Up Any Pretense That It Is Not George Orwell’s Nightmare Come True”.

Apparently, spying on all of your activities has become a priority for many “freedom loving” nations and forget about any notion of privacy. Do you still believe you live in a democracy?

“This snoopers charter has no place in a modern democracy – it undermines our fundamental rights online. The bulk collection of everyone’s internet browsing data is disproportionate, creates a security nightmare for the ISPs who must store the data – and rides roughshod over our right to privacy. Meanwhile, the bulk hacking powers in the Bill risk making the internet less safe for everyone.”

~ Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as quoted by the BBC News in “‘Snoopers law creates security nightmare’

Ironically, I recently had to do just this. I had to reset WordPress admin password on a backup copy of an archived website, for which I had long forgotten the password. Since it was not a live site but only a local copy (i.e., running on localhost), I could not do the email reset. However, the stored password is hashed, so how is this supposed to work?

Fortunately, WPBeginner filled in the missing pieces on doing a password reset on a WordPress site running only on localhost:

Do you want to reset WordPress admin password on localhost? In this tutorial we will show you how to easily reset WordPress admin password on localhost.

Source: How to Reset WordPress Admin Password on Localhost

Some scary stuff that affects all versions of Windows since at least XP!

This week there has been a lot of news about a flaw in Windows that could be used by web sites to easily gain access to a visitor’s Windows login name and password. This article explains how this flaw works and how you can prevent it.

Source: Understanding the Windows Credential Leak Flaw and How to Prevent It

Summary write-up comparing Seafile vs ownCloud, both are online cloud storage platforms (can be hosted on a LAN or a public server). However, digging into it, I have security concerns around ownCloud. Would I put my finance information out there using it? Looks like it might not be such a grand idea.

Source: Seafile vs ownCloud: Comparison and Review

From The Joy of Tech
From The Joy of Tech

In a very unsurprising article, Older But Geeky recently posted that “Users Turning Off Critical Updates To Avoid Windows 10”. This is what I’ve predicted all along. It is the logical reaction to heavy-handed tactics used by Microsoft to make users move to Windows 10, even if they and/or their computers are not ready for it. People are willing to take the risk in turning off Windows updates just to not get beat over the head with Windows 10.
Continue reading “Turning Off Windows Updates: Windows 10 Gets No Love”

OS X logo

You’ve heard it more than once, I’m sure: “I cannot get infected because I have a Mac.”

Well, not only is it not true, but my experience has been that while Mac viruses and other malware are far fewer in number, they are often as bad or worse than the garden variety you encounter on Windows. The reason? There are far fewer of them. Malwarebytes tackles this in a recent article.

One tall tale is Macs are impervious to malware, so you needn’t worry about cybersecurity solutions. Antivirus and anti-malware protection is for the PCs. We’re here to bust that myth.

Source: Anti-malware for Mac | Malwarebytes Labs

LinkedIn logo

The story that LinkedIn was hacked broke yesterday, but how does it affect you?

Yesterday, Motherboard broke the story that LinkedIn was hacked. However, it turns out that it was actually four years ago, so why is it news today? More to the point, should you run out and change your password? Turns out, maybe, maybe not.

Continue reading “LinkedIn Was Hacked, Should You Change Your Password?”

spy silhouette

Technically, I would definitely call this “spyware” rather than the run-of-the-mill adware if the adware uploads screenshots!

A new adware has been discovered that performs a severe privacy breach by uploading a screenshot of the user’s active windows to a server under their control. This means that any info on the screen, whether it is a tax return, password manager, or corporate secrets is now available the adware company.

Source: Adware uploads Screenshot of your Active Windows without your Permission

The nastiness just keeps getting worse.

Macs have joined the ransomware party, Petya gives us a new twist on an old attack, and now ransomware targets hospitals. On top of that, the US and Canadian authorities have issued a joint cyber alert that things are only going to get worse. Continue reading “Malware News: Hospital, Petya and Mac Ransomware”