Two security issues that everyone should be aware of. First, some context: I don't know about you, but I have so many username/password combinations, that I tend to use the same one(s) for several purposes. Also, we have some expectation that when we type in a password, it's kept secret, and only checked by a program.
It's true that ethically written programs such as blog and forum software that are commonly available do not reveal users' passwords to the people running the software. But we should all be mindful that there is NO guarantee that this is going to be the case on an unscrupulous site. Register at a site with your email address, and use the same password as that email account, and you're totally asking for trouble. Don't assume that your password is kept secret just because it appears as "********" on your screen. Remember, getting access to your email account is key to getting more passwords, even if they're different, using the "forgot password" feature.
Secondly, be aware that even with ethically written software, if you type your password into the wrong place, it may become visible to the operators. I have been aware of an instance where a user entered his username and password, but failed to click correctly on the password field. It was listed as a failed login attempt, with "usernamepassword" as the user who had attempted the login. Obviously, since the username and password were typed concatenated into the username field, even the ethical software I was using, showed me both the username, and his password.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Humyo broken?
OK, I don't know why the Humyo things are not appearing... if they stay absent, I'll take a look at it.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
2009-03-29 Practical Computing
This is a reduced version of the podcast; it should be streamable for those on dialup. Please comment on OttawaForums.com
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Scary thought for the day
Here's a scary thought: a photo taken with an average camera today, won't even fit on a floppy disk.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?
Recently, my copy of Windows XP started giving me this error, when I tried to run an executable program, even after I'd checked its source, firefox had virus scanned it while downloading, and I'd tested it with my installed virus scanner:
"The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?"
Although I could disable this message for one program, there wasn't an obvious way to delete the feature. I went down a horrible rathole of trying to get the group policy console working on my XP home. Five megabytes of downloads and error messages later, I discovered that there's a registry entry that you can set, which prevents this nanny message. Here it is:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Associations]
"LowRiskFileTypes"=".exe"
You can either add this manually, or save that text as a text file, change its name to "something.reg" and double click it to add it to your registry. It may not take effect until you restart your computer.
"The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?"
Although I could disable this message for one program, there wasn't an obvious way to delete the feature. I went down a horrible rathole of trying to get the group policy console working on my XP home. Five megabytes of downloads and error messages later, I discovered that there's a registry entry that you can set, which prevents this nanny message. Here it is:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Associations]
"LowRiskFileTypes"=".exe"
You can either add this manually, or save that text as a text file, change its name to "something.reg" and double click it to add it to your registry. It may not take effect until you restart your computer.
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