Thursday, June 07, 2012

LinkedIn and Windows…More Holes Than Swiss Cheese

I am sure many of you use use the LinkedIn social media service. I know I do, but not a whole lot lately as it is really for folks in the trades…so to speak…and I am retired. But, they announced that over 6 million of their customer’s passwords were hacked and are loose in the wild. So, if you are a LinkedIn user, you need to immediately go to their site and change your password.

I did, even though I am not a major user and my password would more than likely never be unencrypted...it’s a beauty.  But, it might be a good time to change your passwords everywhere, especially if you use the same password on multiple accounts. I suggest you use LastPass to store all your passwords as it can suggest obscure, difficult to decrypt passwords. And, by the way, as we were going to press, the music site LastFM has announced their user passwords have also been compromised.

As for Microsoft, their monthly update, known as Patch Tuesday, will have lots of important fixes so make sure you get them when they are released. Most of us have our computers set for auto updates so you don’t have to do anything. If you don’t, you should.

OK, let’s get on with this show. I think you will find some good things here to peak your interest. Thanks for reading. -JRC

LinkedIn confirms passwords were 'compromised'

LinkedIn said today that some passwords on a list of allegedly stolen hashed passwords belong to its members, but did not say how its site was compromised.

Microsoft to fix dangerous IE, Windows security holes

A total of 7 security bulletins will be released to address at least 28 documented vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer, Visual Basic for Applications, Dynamics AX, and the .NET Framework. Patch Tuesday is next week.

It's war: Google + Quickoffice vs. Microsoft Office everywhere

Quickoffice, just acquired by Google, may give Google a needed competitive hedge against Office 15 on Windows tablets and possibly iOS and Android devices.

iOS: Apple to Google Maps: Get Lost

Apple reportedly plans to kick Google Maps to the curb and put out its own mapping application for iOS. The friction caused by the companies' smartphone rivalry may have caused Google to limit Apple's use of its mapping technology.

Google Maps Travels Off-Road, Into the Sky, and Into the Pocket

Google has revealed a few new features for its Google Maps service. 3D views of various cities will be available, and Android users will be able to access a certain amount of Google Maps data offline.

Bing Gets Smarter, Partners With Encyclopedia Britannica

Microsoft today announced that it has partnered with Encyclopedia Britannica and will start to prominently feature answers from Britannica Online on the search results pages of Bing.

What Ever Happened To... Start Pages

The short answer is that there is no real consumer appetite for start pages anymore. Social networks and browsers that sync with the cloud have taken over as modern day start pages.

Internet lights up with new IPv6 connections

IPv6, aka Internet Protocol version 6, provides vastly more network addresses than IPv4, which is running out of them.

471 Places for Free eBooks Online

Originally, the list was for 50 sites (hence that number in the link) and I thought that was a lot. I expect that this list will cross 500 sites in the near future. Given the large listing, you may want to check out the various Genre pages that I have put together.

Interclue For Firefox - Free

Interclue is a Firefox extension that displays a snapshot of every webpage when you mouse hover an icon that appears over a link. Hence it creates a tiny replica of what's actually hiding inside a link, and lets you preview a text summary of a webpage without actually having to open it, saving you various mouse clicks and your precious time.

No comments: