Secure IT Alert: CERT Issues Security Recommendations to Prevent Cyber Intrusions

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, July 21st, 2011 The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team has issued their recommendations for protection against network intrusions.  I have included the entire document below, but the most current version of the document can be found here.  Please keep in mind that these recommendations are not related to any one platform. These are …

SECURE IT ALERT: Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for June 2011 #patches

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, June 09, 2011   Microsoft Patch Tuesday will soon be upon us again, and Microsoft has not let us down!  A little something for everyone…. The following is directly from their Advanced Notification for June 2011, released today:   ******************************************************************** Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for June 2011 Issued: June 9, 2011 ********************************************************************   This …

SECURE IT ALERT: Usama Bin Laden Death Email Scam Warning Issued by the FBI

  Homeland Secure IT Alert Homeland Secure IT Alert for Friday, May 13 2011   On May 04, the FBI issued a warning about links related to the death of Usama bin Laden. The text from the FBI site follows:   Malicious Software Features Usama bin Laden Links to Ensnare Unsuspecting Computer Users  The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) urges computer users to …

Secure IT Alert: Adobe offers Zero Day Flash exploit patch for Apple Mac OS X, MS Windows, Google Chrome & Android

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, March 23, 2011 Adobe has released out-of-cycle updates earlier this week that affect Flash Player, Reader and Acrobat across many platforms such as Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, Android and Chrome… Here is the summary from the WatchGuard Security Center: Severity: High 21 March, 2011 Summary: These vulnerabilities affects: Recent versions of Adobe …

Secure IT Alert: Apple Mac OS X Update Patches 57 Vulnerabilities #mac #osx #security

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Tuesday, March 22, 2011 Apple Mac OS X owners will be happy to know that they have not been forgotten and that 57 vulnerabilities that affect all current versions of OS X 10.5.x (Leopard) and OS X 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) are addressed in this major security update. A total of 26 components that ship as …

Secure IT Alert: Microsoft Patches Coming along with Mozilla Firefox Update for Windows, Mac & Linux

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, March 3, 2011 Microsoft issued the Advance Notification for March 2011 and today… The full version of the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for March 2011 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms11-mar.mspx. The advanced notification will be replaced with the March bulletin summary on March 8, 2011. On the Critical list are updates for remote code execution …

Why do you need Microsoft Windows 7 SP1?

I am hearing that many people are opting to not install Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 which was released back in February 22, 2011. The reasoning is that it is a large download (750MB or 1GB depending on whether you need 32bit or 64bit versions), a long install process, and there are no enhanced features. So what does the Service Pack …

Secure IT Alert: Microsoft Security Bulletin Re-Releases & AutoRun Advisory

Homeland Secure IT Alert for Thursday, February 23, 2011 Microsoft has released Security Advisory 967940, titled “Update for Windows Autorun”, and it covers an issue that has long plagued Microsoft Windows Operating Systems. When you insert a USB flash drive, or USB hard drive, Windows has attempted to treat them like CD/DVD material and perform an autorun on it. While …

Secure IT Alert: Microsoft Unleashes a Slew of Updates for Windows & Windows Server & IIS FTP

Secure IT Alert for Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 The February 2011 Patch Tuesday was not boring…   Updates include something for everyone.  Basically every current Microsoft Windows OS version was addressed. The big one was the IE Update that fixed four code execution holes in the popular web browser. In addition to fixing thumbnail and font vulnerabilities which mainly affect …