September, 2013 | Database Doctor

How to Implement Security Sandboxes

You may not know it, but ALL your programs can access your Quicken data. Not good. So, what can you do?

One solution to this nasty problem is to run all programs in a security sandbox. Unfortunately, the sandboxes in Windows 8 and Mac OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) are voluntary. Programmers can choose to […]

All Your Programs Can Access Your Quicken Data

Note: The issue discussed on this page affects you if you use Windows or Mac OS X, unless you have taken the following precautions:

For Windows: You are running Windows 8 or later, and only purchase and run programs from the Windows App store. For Mac OS X: You are running Mountain Lion (10.8) or […]

Security Sandboxes and Virtualization

The easiest way to take advantage of the new security sandbox technology is to upgrade your hardware and software. Not everyone can afford to do that. What other options are there if you want a security sandbox? Sandboxing is closely related to virtualization. Virtual computing is a good way to get some of the benefits […]

How to Use Facebook Securely

There’s a lot of routine activity on Facebook that I bet people would think twice about if they considered it from a security perspective:

How many times have you seen posts like, “I’m out at Starbucks getting my morning coffee and reading the paper…” Great! All a burglar (or the NSA) needs to know is […]

Targeted Advertising

Ever been interested in a certain product, and done some Google research about it? Then, for days afterwards, whenever you go to a website, you see ads for that very same thing? What a coincidence! Well, actually, it is not a coincidence. It is called Targeted Advertising. Whenever you browse to a certain site, the […]

How to Strengthen Your Passwords

Don’t use the same password for everything. If a hacker penetrates one website, and discovers your password, they could try the same password on another site (like your bank’s website). If it works, the hacker could get rich quick and you would be out of luck.

So, how should you deal with passwords? Download KeePass. […]

How to Make Your Browser More Secure

Indulge me in a little test. Create a text file on your PC. Copy and paste this into it:

<html>

<body>

<br>My secret plans to become the next billionaire.

<br>My secret recipe for killer scones to sell to Starbucks.

<br>My password to all my websites.

[…]

A GREAT Book on Security

A while ago, there was something called the Trusted Computing initiative. Here is its marketing message. Sounds great, right? I think the truth is probably closer to these Trusted Computing FAQs. Just to make matters more confusing, there is also a Trustworthy Computing initiative. According to Wikipedia, “More recently, Microsoft has adopted the term Trustworthy […]

How to Opt Out of Junk Mail

Data Marketers have lots of data about you. Acxiom’s latest ploy is for them to show you what data they already have on you. I checked at https://aboutthedata.com/portal. It really wasn’t that interesting, and much of it was wrong. The Acxiom website allows you to correct the information that is wrong. You can do that, […]

How to Download Software Safely

There is no such thing as free. “Free” software, music, video, and toolbar downloads are some of the the most common culprits for malware infection.

If you want to run software on your computer, you have to trust the software vendor not to do anything stupid, malicious, or sneaky on your computer. Most software […]

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