Copy Link
Add to Bookmark
Report
Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 17 Issue 29
Volume 17, Issue 29 Atari Online News, Etc. August 7, 2015
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2015
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
Fred Horvat
To subscribe to A-ONE, change e-mail addresses, or unsubscribe,
log on to our website at: www.atarinews.org
and click on "Subscriptions".
OR subscribe to A-ONE by sending a message to: dpj@atarinews.org
and your address will be added to the distribution list.
To unsubscribe from A-ONE, send the following: Unsubscribe A-ONE
Please make sure that you include the same address that you used to
subscribe from.
To download A-ONE, set your browser bookmarks to one of the
following sites:
http://people.delphiforums.com/dpj/a-one.htm
Now available:
http://www.atarinews.org
Visit the Atari Advantage Forum on Delphi!
http://forums.delphiforums.com/atari/
=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1729 08/07/15
~ What's Safer, PC or Mac? ~ People Are Talking! ~ Firebee, Continued!
~ Firebee News, Online! ~ Macs Are Not Immune! ~ Farewell EasyMiNT!
~ Firefox Security Flaw! ~ Right To Be Forgotten! ~ 2015 ACEC Swap Meet!
~ Mac Users, Don't Freak! ~ Win 10 for Xbox One! ~ Next WoW Expansion!
-* Bushnell: Why Life Is A Game *-
-* Facebook Rolls Out Security Checkup *-
-* School District Monitors Students, Teachers *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Sorry, as usual, I'm running late again this week - so I'll keep it
short. Did you catch the GOP "debate" the other night? I was working,
so I missed it. I hope to see some highlights on the news over the
next couple of days. I heard that Donald Trump was his typically
outspoken self again! While I don't know what his chances might be to
get nominated, it is refreshing to hear a candidate speak out candidly
rather than try to "act" like a politician! I may not agree with all
that he has to say, I'll give him credit for speaking his mind!
What a weird day we had this past Tuesday as far as the weather was
concerned. Early in the afternoon, I had one of my dogs outside to
do her business. All of the sudden, the sky got very dark; and I
started seeing spots appear on the walkway - it was starting to rain a
little. Then the rain increased a bit; and then I noticed that the
spots were starting to "splatter". And, I was starting to feel
something other than raindrops hitting me - it was starting to hail!
I got the dog inside just in time, because the skies were flashing
bright white, the thunder was raoring, and the skies opened up with
rain and dime-sized hail stones! What a racket! The storm lasted
about 10-15 minutes, but that was enough. I looked at my yard and all
I could see were small lakes everywhere! The sky cleared for awhile,
but we got a repeat storm shortly after I got to work. I missed
getting soaked by about 5 minutes! We haven't had a storm like those
in my area for quite some time! Fascinating, as long as you didn't get
caught outside in it!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
Farewell EasyMiNT
EasyMiNT 1.90 Final Version
7/28/15
After much of thinking about it, I have decided to quit the EasyMiNT
project, the 1.90 will be the last version. Because my interests are
going in another direction and I'm a little bit tired of programming
EasyMiNT I take this step. Furthermore the feedback on the last beta
version was very low and it seems rpm isn't developed anymore and most
of the rpm packages are outdated. The freemint community is a little bit
chaotic and several guys are working on it but not very good together.
It was not very easy for me to make this decision after about 15 years,
but it has to be.
I will not give any support anymore and will not answer questions about
EasyMiNT it's final-take-as-is software. But the website will be still
online for now.
So I wish to thank all people who helped me with this project, without
them it never were realized.
Have fun!
Playing With The Firebee, continued
In my last submission I was discussing my research into the latest Atari
Clones and my experience with using the Raspberry Pi System. This brings
me to the one Atari Clone I was researching the whole time but didnt
discuss much until now. That would be the FireBee. This is the over
decade long Atari ColdFire Project the resulted in the FireBee.
http://acp.atari.org/ The site is worth a look at and read. It truly is
amazing the amount of time and effort that the group of people went
through to dream, design, and produce a machine to sell to the public.
What is even more impressive is that as far as I am aware all the people
volunteered their time to the project. It is one thing to dream of
something that ambitious. Then another to actually follow through but
at the end of the day some one has to purchase the machine to pay for
all the Research and Development. Maybe not so surprising is that there
are enough demand from Atari Computer Enthusiasts out there that are
willing to pay for such a machine. Though very small in numbers to the
general Windows, Mac, and Unix there are still Atari Computers used for
production work. Then there are the folks like myself who prefer
running on real hardware instead of emulators. Emulators are great but
if a real machine is available and affordable that is my preferred
choice.
Medusa Computer Systems is producing and selling the FireBee System.
Medusa has a long history with working with Atari TOS Computers as they
had produced the T40 and Hades Atari Clone Systems over the years. The
specifications on the FireBee can be found here:
http://medusacomputer.com/firebee.html You may look at the specs and see
266mhz CPU with 512MB of RAM and think this is nothing compared to the
multi core, multi ghz CPUs of a modern computer and more RAM than an
Atari Computer Users entire hard drive or floppy collection. Guess what
you are right! But compared to an Atari ST, TT, or Falcon this is an
amazing leap forward. For the Atari Computer users out there they are
aware that Atari programs have very small memory and storage
requirements. The system board costs 599 Euros, the cool looking case in
multiple colors 79 Euros, and FreeMiNT preinstalled on a 16GB CF Flash
Card is 15 Euros.
In Mid 2014 I contacted the Atari Coldfire Project (ACP) about the
availability of a Firebee system. At that time there were none available
and that a run was being planned for the end of 2014. In December 2014
I contacted ACP again and was told that the production run did not happen
as there were some revisions that were being planed to be done on the
system and that they wanted those completed and tested before any new
systems were to be produced. I didnt think a whole lot about the
FireBee for a long time after that. I started back into working with
the Raspberry Pi but still had no luck with networking. Did a little
more with Aranym but still didnt get exactly what I was after. Then
in May 2015 I contacted ACP again inquiring about the status of a
FireBee. I was told the same thing as in December 2014 but if I wanted
there a board available that everything worked on it but the PCI
bus/slot was defective. Since I would never be adding a video card to
the system I agreed to purchase this unit. I sent payment via Paypal
and then waited. I was told that assembling, testing and shipping
would take about 30 days before I would see the unit.
Well on June 30 the FireBee arrived. I opened the box and looked quickly
at the Basic Information Sheet on the FireBee and other paperwork on the
unit. Then went off to the basement with the FireBee and put it on the
desk that doesnt get used much so I set it up and could leave it there
for as long as I wanted. At that desk was already a Mac G5 Tower so I
used that USB mouse and keyboard. The monitor there was a HP 15 inch LCD
capable of 1024x768 resolution. Also at that desk was an old 10MB Hub for
networking. I found a DVI to VGA adapter in my box of parts and hooked
everything up and turn it on. After about 30 seconds the Fuji Symbol was
on the screen and MiNT started loading. After a few more seconds the
First Boot Menu came up and asked which Desktop I wanted to run. Choices
are Thing 1.27, Thing 1.29b (German only) and Teradesk. Then I noticed
that the mouse and keyboard appeared not to be working. I powered the
FireBee off and looked at the connections and they looked good so I went
found another keyboard and mouse which also happened to be another Apple
Mac keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse. Same thing when I booted the mouse
and keyboard appeared to not work. I went and found another set this
time a Dell keyboard. Success finally I was at the Desktop choice menu
again. Personally I think Thing looks nicer but I chose Teradesk as I
have been using it more recently with my Aranym setups and like having
the Right Mouse Click as being a double click like Ease Desktop that I
had on my TT many years ago. Plus I can always choose Thing at anytime
if I want. After the Desktop selection a message comes up and tells
you to run the Video Setup program to select the best resolution for
your monitor as the initial boot resolution is 640x480. I ran the
program and it suggested properly 1024x768 for my monitor. I ran the
option to Test the resolution and got a set of horizontal rainbow color
bars. I thought something was wrong so I didnt select that resolution
and left it at 640x480 for the time being. Since I was now at the
Desktop I clicked on the included Web Browser called Netsurf just to see
how fast the FireBee was on the Web. I typed in an address to a Web
Site and got the message No route to Host. Which basically meant that
the FireBee did not get an IP Address from my router. I did notice on
the Hub though that there was a lot of activity on the FireBee port and
that the Hub had an Error. I shut the FireBee down and checked all
connections and switch monitors to a 17 inch CRT monitor. I turned the
FireBee back on and ran the Video Setup program and got the same
horizontal colored rainbows. I left the video at 640x480 still and also
still did not get an IP Address from DHCP from my router. I had seen
the Hub exhibit the exact same behavior many years ago while working on
at that time a high end server. What the issue was with the server was
that the Network Card could only support 100/1000MB and did not go as
slow as 10MB. I switched the Hub to a 10/100MB Switch. When I tried
after that the FireBee was able to get an IP Address and I was able to
connect to the Web! At this point it was late in the evening so I shut
everything down.
I contacted Mathias Wittau over at ACP and was told that the horizontal
colored rainbow bars was actually the good video test pattern. It never
dawned on me that this was a good test as almost every video test program
screen I have come across had some text on them to inform you what you
are looking at. The initial Apple Keyboard failures were clearly listed
in Basic Information Sheet that USB Hubs and Apple Keyboards would not
work with the FireBee. Apple Keyboards have additional USB ports on them
which basically makes them hubs. I was in a hurry and didnt pay much
attention to the warning.
To Be Continued
Firebee News
Good morning my beloved FireBee crowd,
For the speed and tech nerds below us, there are some interesting news
online now. Have a look at http://acp.atari.org
Happy discussion! ;)
Mathias
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE User Group Notes! - Meetings, Shows, and Info!
"""""""""""""""""""""""
ACEC 2015 Vintage Computer and Video Game Swap Meet
COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAME FANS:
(The years change, the event doesn't)
(We regret a number of you will be attending another event scheduled the
same day. Next year should be the same weekend in August.)
Reminder: The Atari Computer Enthusiasts of Columbus will yet again be
holding their annual vintage computer and video game swap meet, Saturday
August 29th 2015. This will be the fourth(?) year at the new location:
Maynard Ave. United Methodist Church
2350 Indianola Ave.
Columbus, Oh.
This church is located on Indianola Ave several blocks south of Hudson St.
The Swap is held in the downstairs of the facility.
Time for the meet is 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Admission is **FREE** for vendors and shoppers. Vendors: please contact
Club Prez Charles Brown to reserve tables. Tables are first come, first
serve. There is an initial limit of 2 tables per dealer due to space
restrictions. However, Charles is willing to listen; at the very least
any remaining tables will be distributed if slots are still available
just prior to the day. Reserved tables may be also be released for
no-shows at 8:30 a.m. the day of the show.
This is not an exclusively Atari show. All vintage and classic computers
and video games, systems, accessories, games, and software are welcome.
Charles Brown will create a floor plan page which vendors may use to pick
the table(s) that they desire. Please contact Charlie
[colonelatari@hotmail.com] for details. (614) 447-9789
Please check our web site often for updates:
http://www.angelfire.com/oh4/acec/acec.html
V/r,
R. Wayne Arenz
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - Next WoW Expansion Introduces New Class, and More!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 'Gears of War: Ultimate Edition'!
Windows 10 Is Coming to the Xbox One!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Next WoW Expansion Introduces New Class, Raises Level Cap, and More
Today during a special video presentation at Gamescom, Blizzard
Entertainment announced the sixth expansion for World of Warcraft, called
Legion.
The expansion adds a new continent named Broken Isles. It's never been
playable in World of Warcraft before, but was referenced in Warcraft 3.
What's more, Legion raises World of Warcraft's level cap to 110 and
introduces a new class called Demon Hunter (see below for more details on
the new character). There are also new dungeons and raids to explore, as
well as new artifact weapons and an Honor System.
The new Demon Hunter
Here's a quick rundown of the key points for Legion, as provided by
Blizzard:
New continent: The Broken Isles
New class: Demon Hunter
Artifacts: customizable weapons that grow in power as you do
Class-specific Order Halls and followers
All New Dungeons and Raids
New World Bosses
Level cap raised to 110
Revamped PvP progression system
Improved transmogrification system
Improved social features
Character Boost--immediately raise one character to level 100
Beta starts this year--you can opt in here
New Class: Demon Hunter
The Demon Hunter (no connection to the band of the same name) sounds
totally badass. The character can double-jump, and, its creepy-looking
wings let it perform gliding attacks to surprise from above. In addition,
Demon Hunters are blind, so they rely on "magically augmented sight" to
see.
"Dominate your foes as a Demon Hunter, an elven outcast shunned for daring
to wield the terrible powers of the Legion," Blizzard said. "Exhibiting
superior mobility and a preternatural sense of awareness, Demon Hunters
can tap into forbidden powers at times of dire need, metamorphosing into
terrifying fel forms. Focus on Havoc to demolish any who stand in your
way with fiery demonic attacks, or specialize in Vengeance and go toe to
toe with even the most powerful demons, withstanding massive punishment
as their attacks fuel your hatred."
New Map: Black Isles
Broken Isles has forests, mountain ranges, and elven cities. There's quite
a bit of danger, too.
"Twisted satyrs, savage drogbar, and cursed Kvaldir prowl the Isles
alongside the Legion's marauding army," Blizzard said. "To overcome these
threats, you will claim an Order Hall unique to your character class and
lead your followers on a hunt for the Pillars of Creation--the secret to
Azeroth's salvation."
More information about Legion is available on the World of Warcraft
website, while Blizzard will hold a developer discussion this coming
Sunday, August 9, to talk more about the expansion.
Blizzard has not announced a release date for Legion. Check out some
screenshots and concept art images from Legion in the gallery below.
Previous World of Warcraft expansions have included: The Burning Crusade
(2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria
(2012), and Warlords of Draenor (2014).
With World of Warcraft subscribers sliding, a new expansion could help
bring people back. After all, history has shown that new expansions tend
to do just that.
'Gears of War: Ultimate Edition' Includes Full 'Gears' Collection
Gears of War fans who purchase the Ultimate Edition or Ultimate Edition
Bundle for Xbox One will be rewarded with the entire Xbox 360 Gears
collection for use on the next-gen console.
Players can tap into the new game on Xbox Live between Aug. 25 and Dec. 31
to gain access to the original three titles, as well as Gears of War:
Judgment.
The Ultimate Edition standard and deluxe versions are available now to
pre-order for $39.99 and $59.99, respectively.
"In Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, you'll get the complete remastering of
the original gamepainstakingly reimagined from the ground up with
stunning next-gen graphics, recaptured and rebuilt cinematics, new
achievements and modernized gameplay for an even better experience," the
Xbox Team wrote in a blog post.
The news is part of the Xbox 360-Xbox One backwards compatibility that
Microsoft announced at E3. By this fall, 100 Xbox 360 titles will be
playable on Xbox One. Select titles were made available to Xbox preview
members in June, while everyone else will get a taste in time for the
holidays.
So if you already own Gears of War 1, 2, 3, or Gears: Judgment on Xbox
360, save your cash and play them for free on Xbox One. Backward
compatibility also works with new features like Game DVR, Snap, and
screenshots. Plus, keep previously saved files, add-ons, and
achievements, and play with friends via Xbox Live, no matter which
Microsoft console you own.
Gears of War: Ultimate Edition also comes with new maps, modes, and
missions, early access to the Gears of War 4 multiplayer beta, new
achievements, improved haptic feedback, and an additional difficulty
level.
"It's a must-have for every Gears fan and part of the greatest games
lineup in Xbox history," the blog said.
The original Gears of War is available today for Xbox One preview program
participants. More Xbox news is expected from Microsoft during this
week's gamescom event in Cologne, Germany.
Windows 10 Is Coming to the Xbox One in November
Microsoft first revealed its redesigned Xbox One dashboard back at E3
earlier this year, and now the company is announcing that it will arrive
on consoles in November. Powered by Windows 10, the new dashboard
includes features that focus on speed and performance, and a design
that's a lot more simplified.
One of the key new features in the Xbox One dashboard update is Cortana
integration. You can say "Hey Cortana, record the last minute and share
it to my activity feed" and it will publish a game clip straight away.
Likewise, "Hey Cortana, start a party and invite Amanda" will invite a
friend into a voice chat all without having to lift your fingers from
your controller. Cortana will require the Kinect sensor for audio
controls.
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE Gaming Online - Online Users Growl & Purr!
"""""""""""""""""""
Atari Founder Nolan Bushnell on Why Life Is 'A Game'
"I have made so many massive mistakes of ego, I can't tell you," says
Nolan Bushnell leading the way into his crumbling office two floors above
a slightly decrepit Los Angeles row of shops.
Inside the offices of Mr Bushnell's latest start-up - Brainrush - a
handful of young men are eagerly banging away on keyboards late on a
Saturday afternoon. Ego doesn't seem to be much in evidence here - at
least yet.
While the firm, which was created in 2010, has grand ambitions to
transform US education via games, Mr Bushnell remains best-known as the
man behind a very different gaming enterprise - Atari.
Now 72, he co-founded Atari - the world's first video game company back in
1972. It introduced the concept of personal computing, albeit in game
form, to millions of households around the world.
Mr Bushnell is also the man who was initially behind Chuck E Cheese's, the
ubiquitous pizza and gaming restaurant chain that has been the site of
many a US child's birthday party (this author included).
But despite all of those early successes - and actually, partly as a
result of them - the crumbling office that Mr Bushnell now finds himself
in is no deliberately shabby-chic LA decision.
After his breakout success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr Bushnell
made several missteps that eventually led to some entrepreneurial
failures and financial ruin.
"When I was 35, I was insufferable. I thought I could do no wrong and I
got really sloppy," he says.
Now, Mr Bushnell has a habit of referring to his own entrepreneurial
journey as if it were a never-developed Atari game.
Mr Bushnell has been a serial entrepreneur from a young age.
He founded a television tube repair business as a teenager that was
successful partly because he took advantage of his older customers'
penchant to underestimate his technical prowess by undercharging them for
his services - but overcharging them for parts.
Later, he worked at amusement parks while putting himself through
university to get an electrical engineering degree.
He chalks the creation of Atari up to a bit of good luck: "I was probably
the only electrical engineer that understood television, and understood the
coin-operated game business [from the amusement park] in 1969," he says.
By combining the popularity of arcade games as well as the nascent personal
computer industry, Mr Bushnell and his partner Ted Dabney found success
with games such as Pong, Asteroids, and Centipede, which were played,
initially, on the Atari 2600 console.
And unlike today's efforts - in which blood and gore in games is both the
norm and a scourge - Mr Bushnell said the company believed firmly that it
could be successful without resorting to murder.
"We felt that, you could blow up a tank, you could blow up a plane, but we
didn't want violence against a human being," he says.
Mr Bushnell also emphasises that the popularity of Atari's games was
primarily due to his ability to find and hire talented, creative workers,
including one you may have heard of - Steve Jobs.
"I've always valued passionate employees over anything else, and, it turns
out that there's a huge percentage of the population that are actually
dead - they don't know it, but, in terms of their processes, they're just
waiting to be buried," says Mr Bushnell.
But Mr Jobs, like a lot of his earlier employees, had passion and as a
result, "was an extremely hard worker".
"He would sleep under his desk at night, and wake up in the morning ready
to go," Mr Bushnell remembers.
That unfortunately did come with a bit of a downside: "I think part of the
reason [Steve] smelled bad was 'cause he wouldn't necessarily go home
every day."
When Mr Bushnell decided to sell Atari to Warner Brothers in 1976 for an
estimated $30m (£19m), (a move intended to expand the firm's offerings,
but one Mr Bushnell says he now regrets), he carved yet another path,
becoming the first of a still-growing list of 20-something Silicon Valley
millionaires.
"I want Jobs and [Bill] Gates and [Mark] Zuckerberg and all of these guys
to thank me for blazing some of [those trails], because it was much easier
once there were several notable successes from [people] in their
twenties," he says.
But with that success came hubris.
By the mid 1980s, both Chuck E Cheese and Atari had basically imploded -
as had Mr Bushnell's fortunes. Later efforts, including uWink, an
entertainment complex featuring food and games as well as robotic
assistants, failed to take off.
But Mr Bushnell remains undeterred, and says he still thinks he has
another successful effort in him. He says he's taken inspiration from his
children - some of whom have eschewed university in order to immediately
start their own entrepreneurial endeavours.
"How many companies have you started by the time you're 18? If the
answer's zero, I wouldn't invest in you," he says of their entrepreneurial
verve.
He thinks that biotechnology and virtual reality will be game changers -
in addition to his efforts to revolutionise schooling in the US by
capitalising on research into cutting edge brain science in order to both
personalise education and to make courses more adaptable.
He basically wants to make education as addictive as Atari's old video
games.
"An interesting life can't be all violins and flowers," he says.
"When you lose a game of chess, you don't go and jump off a bridge, you
reset the pieces and do it again.
"It's a game!"
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
Facebook Rolls Out 'Security Checkup' Tool to All Desktop Users
Facebook wants you all to have a safe experience on its social network,
says Product Manager Melissa Luu-Van who, late last week, revealed how the
Menlo Park firm was introducing a new security notification for its
web-based users.
After a few months of testing with a limited pool of users, the company
has begun rolling out a new "Security Checkup" tool to half of the
world's online population.
If you are one of the estimated 1.5 billion people who log in to the
social network at least once a month you will, over the coming weeks, be
met with a notification at the top of your desktop newsfeed (Security
Checkup for mobile applications is expected to roll out "soon").
A distinctive box, labelled "Stay Secure on Facebook," will urge you to
look at three ways you can improve your security on the social site.
While the prompt offers nothing new - its simply a rehashed way of
looking at the options under Settings > Security - I would suggest running
through it to ensure that your account is as safe as possible.
The three areas covered by the Security Checkup tool are connected
devices, login alerts and passwords.
1. Log out or delete unused apps
The first step will present you with a list of previously used browsers
and apps that have not been used to connect to the social network for at
least a month. By reviewing this list you can ensure that you are only
logging in to Facebook from devices and apps that you are still using.
You can either log out of all unused apps at once or select specific ones
to terminate.
I urge you to go further than that though and cultivate the habit of
logging out of anything you aren't using. If you're logged in to
something but you aren't using it you're leaving yourself vulnerable to
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) attacks.
2. Get warning of attempted account hijacks
The second part of the checkup will prompt you to enable login alerts if
you haven't already done so. When login alerts are enabled, you will
receive a notification via your chosen delivery method (the Facebook app,
email and/or phone) which will let you know if someone subsequently tries
to hijack your account by logging in from a new device or browser.
3. Choose a strong password
Lastly, Facebook uses its new tool to offer up some password tips, such as
not reusing login credentials, avoiding the use of names and other common
words, and not sharing passwords with anyone else.
This last aspect, while useful, is pretty basic so if you now feel
compelled to beef up your password security, the following video is just
what you need:
If you haven't received a notification at the top of your newsfeed yet you
can still run the Security Checkup right now - it only takes a couple of
minutes.
While I think Facebook's decision to encourage its users to consider the
security implications of how they use their accounts, as well as previous
efforts to educate on the topic of privacy via its lovable blue cartoon
privacy dinosaur, are a great step in the right direction, the advice on
offer is still pretty basic.
Sure, it's better than nothing, but you may want to do more to protect
your account and control your privacy. In which case, you can visit the
full set of security and privacy tools via your General Account Settings
page.
Or check out our own detailed tips for enhancing your privacy and making
your Facebook account safer.
How One School District Is Monitoring Social Media of Students and Teachers
Does your child ever tweet that she "hates" her math teacher?
Does he write that he's so embarrassed he could jump off a bridge?
Do her posts ever mention being bullied, or does she use them to make fun
of other kids?
Are you, as a parent, even aware of everything your kids post?
Even if you aren't on top of everything your child posts, your kid's
school well might be, given all the social media monitoring software on
the market.
If you live in Florida's Orange County, those kind of posts could mean
school officials come looking into whatever's going on.
That's because Orange County is one of the latest school districts to
start monitoring all of the thousands of social media posts made by both
students and teachers.
It's doing so with a new monitoring software called Snaptrends that
monitors social media posts from all accounts in its location.
The school district reportedly paid $14,000 for a one-year Snaptrends
license.
That buys the district's schools the ability to search thousands of posts
on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, hunting for keywords that
might indicate trouble.
School officials say that the goal is to flag potential dangers including
cyberbullying, suicide and crime.
Joie Cadle of the Orange County School Board told WESH TV that the
monitoring will alert school administrators to kids sending potentially
serious threats via social media:
If they are sitting in a classroom and they are tweeting because they are
mad at their teacher or their girlfriend for whatever reason, and there
are some threatening words there, we need to be able to know if it is
credible.
It's not like the posts are private. As Snaptrends' privacy policy notes,
the technology only sifts through public posts.
But opponents of the school's new snooping effort, which was announced
in April, say it's not the fact that their kids are being surveilled
that's disturbing them.
Rather, it's the unanswered question of just what, exactly the school
district plans to do with the information it collects.
WESH TV quotes Cindy Hamilton, co-founder of Opt Out Orlando:
My privacy issues aren't with the fact that they're just out there looking
at it, because frankly, with social media it's not private. But what are
they going to do with the information they look at? That's what we're
concerned about.
When it announced the monitoring, the school district said it will:
[U]se the software to conduct routine monitoring for purposes of
prevention or early intervention of potential issues where students or
staff could be at risk to themselves or to others.
The company will assist district law enforcement and security personnel in
monitoring publicly available social media communications that are
relevant to school operations and personnel.
Florida isn't the only state to turn to monitoring in the face of school
shootings, violence and bullying.
As CNN reported last year, the school system in Huntsville, Alabama, hired
a retired FBI agent for security work, which included reviewing social
media "when a high priority tip is received about an emerging threat to a
school, student or staff member," as a school district spokesman said.
As well, the Glendale school district in Los Angeles in 2012 made the
controversial decision to pay the firm Geo Listening $40,500 to monitor
its students' social media activity on sites like Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram.
The impetus to look into the technology was the suicides of two students.
The final decision to pay for the monitoring was made after a pilot
program helped administrators step in when yet another student used
social media to talk about "ending his life."
The Orange County School District hasn't detailed how officials will
decide what, precisely, to review.
Some technologies might just search social media posts, but others are
more akin to tools you might expect to see in the arsenals of government
surveillance agencies.
Safe Outlook Corporation's monitoring software CompuGuardian, for example,
gives school administrators not only the ability to search keywords
connected to cyberbullying and drug use, but also to delve into students'
search histories to see if they're researching topics about dangers such
as school violence.
CNN quotes Safe Outlook President David Jones:
You can identify a student, and you can jump into their activity logs and
see exactly what they've typed, exactly where they've gone, exactly what
they've done, and it gives you some history that you can go back to that
child and use some disciplinary action.
You can bring in the parent and say, 'Hey, look, this is what your child's
doing. You need to talk to them about it.'
Interestingly enough, and hardly surprising, is the fact that Snaptrends
is reportedly also in use by the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange,
which is the local law enforcement Fusion Center.
A Fusion Center is a center set up to "analyze information and identify
trends to share timely intelligence with federal, state, and local law
enforcement including [Department of Homeland Security], which then
further shares this information with other members of the Intelligence
Community."
As such, it's not surprising that, just like with the Feds' propensity to
amass vast troves of surveillance data about citizens, so too are
opponents pointing to monitoring software's collection of anything and
everything, including both potentially threatening or perfectly innocent
content.
From a post against the surveillance, written by Florida attorney Scott
Martin:
Snaptrends is a type of social media scraper/aggregator that collects
social media information in mass. The data are scooped up by an automated
process without regard to the nature of the content - good, bad, or
indifferent.
But what guarantees are there that the social media information collected
by the District will be limited to ... benevolent purposes? What policies
are in place? Who can access the data? What conclusions are being drawn
from the data? Who is drawing those conclusions? What standards are they
using in making decisions based on captured data?
All these questions should be answered before any such tool is put in
place, Martin says.
I agree.
Right To Be Forgotten Online Could Spread
More than a year ago, in a decision that stunned many American Internet
companies, Europes highest court ruled that search engines were required
to grant an unusual right the right to be forgotten. Privacy
advocates cheered the decision by the European Court of Justice, which
seemed to offer citizens some recourse to what had become a growing
menace of modern life: The Internet never forgets, and, in its robotic
zeal to collect and organize every scrap of data about everyone, it was
beginning to wreak havoc on personal privacy.
Under the ruling, Europeans who felt they were being misrepresented by
search results that were no longer accurate or relevant for instance,
information about old financial matters, or misdeeds committed as a minor
could ask search engines like Google to delink the material. If the
request was approved, the information would remain online at the original
site, but would no longer come up under certain search engine queries.
Search engines and free speech advocates, calling the ruling vague and
overbroad, warned of dire consequences for free expression and the
historical record if the right to be forgotten was widely enacted. Now,
they say, their fears are being realized.
Recent developments including a French regulators order that all of
Googles sites, including American versions, should grant the right to
be forgotten suggest the new right may not end with Europe. Under the
banner of privacy, some free-speech watchdogs say, a huge and unwieldy
eraser is coming for Google results across the globe even the ones in
the United States.
When were talking about a broadly scoped right to be forgotten thats
about altering the historical record or making information that was
lawfully public no longer accessible to people, I dont see a way to
square that with a fundamental right to access to information, said
Emma Llansó, a free expression scholar at the Center for Democracy and
Technology, a tech-focused think tank that is funded in part by
corporations, including Google.
Proponents of the right to be forgotten argue such claims are overblown.
They point out that the number of removals so far has been relatively
small. Since May 2014, Google, by far Europes most popular search engine,
has received requests to forget about a million web links, and has removed
about 41 percent of those from certain search results. Thats hardly
alarming considering the billions of pages online, its difficult to
shed many tears for the mere 400,000 or so that will no longer show up.
Some British news organizations, including the BBC and The Telegraph, have
criticized the law for allowing the erasure of hundreds of Google links to
news articles, including an excerpt from a mass shooters rambling
manifesto and a slide show entry that called a reality TV star an
annoying, unbearable nag. But proponents note that delisted news articles
are most likely in the minority of links removed. According to The
Guardian, which dug into the source code in a recent Google report to
investigate the basis for the removals, more than 99 percent of the links
removed were those that showed off private personal details, and were not
about public figures or news about serious crimes.
Yet all of this may simply be a prelude to a more expansive, and far more
worrisome, adoption of the right to be forgotten. Since Europes decision
last year, several countries in Latin America and Asia have pushed for
their own delinking rules, and some of these may elide the protections for
free speech outlined in Europes version of the law. A more troubling
prospect for search engines is the potential for the new laws to be
applied beyond local jurisdictions.
In response to the original European ruling, search engines began
removing links only from European versions of their sites. For instance,
if a French citizen requested the removal of links about his bankruptcy
proceedings, Google would delete the results from its European sites
like the French Google.fr and the German Google.de but not from
Google.com, which the company considers its American site.
The overwhelming majority of Google searches in Europe take place on
country-specific sites, but because Google.com is still accessible to any
European, the French data protection authority, known by its French
acronym the CNIL, has ordered Google to remove links from its database
entirely, across all locations.
Google has so far refused, and the dispute is likely to end up in European
courts. If the French understanding of the law prevails, the regulation
could have far-reaching, even chaotic, effects.
France is asking for Google to do something here in the U.S. that if the
U.S. government asked for, it would be against the First Amendment, said
Jonathan L. Zittrain, who teaches digital law at Harvard Law School. He
pointed out that, if enacted, the French regulators order would prevent
Americans using an American search engine from seeing content that is
legal in the United States. That is extremely worrisome to me.
If other countries that have established a right to be forgotten also push
for global adoption, Google says it might need to remove links everywhere
to satisfy regulators. We believe that no one country should have the
authority to control what content someone in a second country can access,
Peter Fleischer, Googles global privacy counsel, wrote in a blog post
last week.
A host of free speech advocates have sided with Google. If were asking
Google to comply in every version of Google worldwide, it becomes very
hard to say where we want Google to draw the line, said Jimmy Wales, the
founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which has counted about 100
requests for links to its site to be removed from search engines in
Europe. Its a race to the bottom. Governments all around the world will
immediately say, Great, well ask for things to be deleted worldwide.
Representatives for the CNIL, which has two months to answer Googles
refusal to adopt a worldwide takedown, declined to discuss the case until
it devised a formal response. But legal experts in France said the French
demand was likely to be upheld, because the original 1995 law on which the
right to be forgotten is founded has no territorial restrictions.
Proponents of the law also reacted skeptically to the claim that the right
to be forgotten would be used by other countries to force content
restrictions beyond those involving privacy.
Thats nonsense, said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the
Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy advocacy group. He
argued there were ways to limit access to private information that would
not conflict with free speech, and he noted that Google already had a
process for global removal of some identifiable private information, like
bank account numbers, social security numbers and sexually explicit
images uploaded without the subjects consent (known as revenge porn.).
A global implementation of the fundamental right to privacy on the
Internet would be a spectacular achievement, said Mr. Rotenberg. For
users, it would be a fantastic development.
Mr. Zittrain, of Harvard, pointed out that Google also removes content
globally to abide by copyright law. When Google receives a takedown
notice for linking to infringing content, it removes those links from all
of its sites across the world. Couldnt it do the same for private
information?
The trouble with comparing copyright law to privacy, though, is that the
United States and Europe broadly agree on what constitutes copyrighted
content, but private information is far more nebulous.
In an interview last year, Larry Page, Googles chief executive, told me
that he found the right to be forgotten ruling impractical because it
forced Google to decide what constituted private information and what did
not. You guys are now in charge of editing whats out there in the
world, he said, describing the courts guidance to Google. In the past
thats not a responsibility we felt we had.
Is an article about a British reality TV star about a private person, or
is it about a public figure that you and I should be able to search for?
Thats hard to answer but a French regulator may soon decide for you,
regardless.
Firefox Users, Here's A Security Flaw You'll Need To Fix
Another day, another security flaw - this one affecting Mozilla's Web
browser, Firefox. But this one is easy enough for you to fix.
On Thursday, Mozilla revealed a vulnerability in its browser that was
discovered by a Firefox user. An ad on an unnamed news site in Russia was
able to tap into the vulnerability to upload certain files from a user's
computer to a server apparently based in the Ukraine. Exploiting
Firefox's PDF Viewer and its use of the widespread JavaScript code, the
hack seems to capture only "developer focused" files - think FTP (file
transfer protocol) - at least in Windows. Your personal files and data
aren't caught in the attack, but the hack is still alarming.
Has the world grown weary of security hacks and exploits at this point?
Each day, those who browse the Web or use Windows or Adobe Flash or
numerous other products seem to face yet another security worry. Even the
Mac OS, which has long held a reputation as being secure, isn't immune.
Software is imperfect, and hackers are always going to find a way to
exploit certain weaknesses. So what do we do? Protect our computers with
security software. Be careful of where we go and what we do on the
Internet. Hope that vendors quickly find and fix the vulnerabilities.
And Mozilla had done just that.
Released on Thursday, the latest version of Firefox - version 39.0.3 -
contains a fix for the security hole. Mozilla is urging all Firefox users
to upgrade to this latest version.
To update Firefox to the latest version, click on the Help menu from the
Menu Bar or the Firefox button in the upper left corner. Then click on
the setting for About Firefox. If you don't already have the latest
version, you should see a button that reads "Update to 39.0.3." Click on
that button, and Firefox will automatically update itself to the new,
secure version, and then prompt you to restart it.
The vulnerability affects both Windows and Linux. It does not affect the
Firefox mobile app for Android as that program does not contain the PDF
Viewer. It has not affected Macs as of yet, but Mozilla said that Apple's
OS X would not be impregnable if someone were to target it. People who
use software that blocks ads on the Web may have been protected from the
security flaw, but that depends on the specific program and filters in
place.
Mozilla expressed surprise at the types of files that were targeted.
"The files it was looking for were surprisingly developer focused for an
exploit launched on a general audience news site, though of course we
don't know where else the malicious ad might have been deployed," Mozilla
security lead Daniel Veditz said in Thursday's security blog.
Veditz added this sobering thought: "The exploit leaves no trace it has
been run on the local machine."
Why You Shouldn't Freak Out About This Week's Scary-sounding Mac Exploits
One set of researchers explains how a modification to your Macintoshs
boot-up firmware can persist undetectably and spread through peripherals
to other computers. Another researchers work from a month ago is found
in the wild, installing adware through a hidden escalation in user
privileges. Both sound terrible, but neither is quite what it seems.
A month ago, a security researcher who has found previous flaws in iOS,
Stefan Esser, documented a problem in OS X about which he didnt warn
Apple in advance. Starting in Yosemite, OS X allowed software to log
errors to an arbitrary file. Esser discovered that this could be used
maliciously to write to files that only a root user should be able to. He
took that weakness to demonstrate how one might escalate privileges,
allowing a regular user without administrator or root access to run any
software he or she wishes.
I didnt cover this back when it was announced for three reasons: First,
Id prefer to not give attention to researchers who opt out of following
the industry standard of revealing zero-day (immediately exploitable and
unpatched) security flaws to the company or organization responsible for
updating the software. This is unavoidable when its severe enough,
because people need to be informed about risks and mitigations.
Revealing zero-days injures end users at the expense of making a point
about ones frustration with a firm, or for those who simply dont care,
it demonstrates a lack of ethics about ones actions. If the motivation
is disgust with Apple or another companys responsiveness to security
flaws, Ive seen other researchers just as effectively make the point
by disclosing 60 days or several months after an initial flaw goes
unpatched if the software maker is truly avoiding the problem. This was
the case with NetUSB in May, a flaw that affect millions of routers, and
which only some affect companies chose to act on.
Dont install software from any old place on the Internet.
My second reason: To exploit this flaw, one has to have a way to run
software as a local user. This requires a separate zero-day that acts as
a trigger, or relying on the naiveté of a user who installs software from
random sitesnot from Apple or known third-party developers.
The flaw isnt insignificant: its truly dangerous and severe. But
because exploiting it almost certainly requires users to engage in
behavior that is already extremely risky, a privilege escalation isnt
per se more severe than them installing software from download sites,
via torrents, or through other untrusted sources and using an
administrator password when prompted.
Third, I assumed it was the sort of thing that would be quickly patched,
because its such a trivial error, rather than a deeply nested part of
OS X that would require new plumbing. In fact, Apple had received a
report well before Essers disclosure, and was already working on the
problem.
Apple tells me that the latest developer beta of 10.10.5 contains the
fix.
Unfortunately, before Apple made the fix, malware was discovered in the
wild this week in an adware installerthats an installer for legitimate
software that also adds adware with affiliate programs. These malicious
installers dont hack a computer, so much as provide a revenue stream
for those who release them.
Apple tells me that the latest developer beta of 10.10.5 contains the
fix, which Esser confirmed a few days ago; OS X 10.11 El Capitan
approaches this particular feature differently, and didnt suffer from
the flaw. The date for 10.10.5s release wasnt disclosed.
Did Apple patch that flaw yet? Can I stop hiding now?
The adware installer found in the wild that exploits this flaw used a
signed developed certificate, which Apple has revoked. Apple has further
added a signature to XProtect, its anti-malware database, which should
be updated by this writing to prevent the original installer and ones
using similar code from running.
Esser isnt wrong to be frustrated at the uneven pace by which Apple
fixes system flaws. The company is sometimes lightning fast, and
sometimes lets issues lag for months or longer. But its hard to support
this form of disclosure unless one is certain Apple is ignoring the
problem because Apple certainly isnt harmed in any substantive way by
being punished with no advance warning. Users are.
Also this week, researchers said they had found vulnerabilities in
Apples bootloader software, EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface),
different forms of which are widely used for all modern personal
computers, whether they run OS X, Windows, or a Unix variant. EFI resides
in firmware, and launches when a computer is powered up or restarted,
initializing hardware and loading the operating system. (In the
not-that-long-ago days, the PC world used BIOS, for basic input/output
system, which EFI replaces.)
One of the two researchers demonstrated Thunderstrike earlier this year,
a way of modifying EFI firmware through Thunderbolt hardware, which can
contain the equivalent of firmware extensions via built-in option ROMs.
Option ROMs are designed to extend EFI to support specific hardware
featureshence the term extensible in EFIs name. Not enough checking
was done to prevent malicious software from running and patching EFI. The
10.10.2 update closed the hole that allowed Thunderstrike to work, but
researcher Trammell Hudson said months ago that other vulnerabilities
remain if one can gain physical access to a Mac.
He and Xeno Kovah plan to show a demonstration of Thunderstrike 2 this
week in Las Vegas at the Def Con computer security conference. This
variant takes a different approach to the same sort of attack, and more
worryingly can spread as a worm among infected devices. However, it
still requires several steps to accomplish its task.
The worm has to be delivered, which requires either physical access
(through a malicious or innocent party with an infected device) or via a
separate exploit to install or a way to convince a user, as with the
escalation flaw discussed above. Once the malware is loaded, the malware
copies itself to any other attached Thunderbolt devices option ROMs,
including peripherals as simple as a Thunderbolt gigabit ethernet adapter.
"Any worms in here? Do not want."
When a Mac is next restarted with an infected option ROM, the malicious
software is added to its EFI firmware, providing a new vector. Any
infected peripheral thats shifted from that Mac to another spreads the
malware. While Apple checks for the integrity of firmware updates before
theyre installed, it doesnt otherwise check option ROMs or EFI firmware
at other points.
Apple says that as of 10.10.4 (released in June), the demonstration that
Kovah and Hudson plan to show will not work, as theyve patched the
vector used. Via email, Hudson pointed me to an update on his site on
Wednesday that acknowledges one avenue of attack was shut down, but
others remain, including using option ROMs to spread their worm. Apple
says its investigating these other reported weaknesses.
Apple says that as of 10.10.4 (released in June), the demonstration that
the researchers plan to show will not work, as theyve patched the vector
used.
But its crystal clear from the researchers work that more fundamental
changes need to be made to ensure that holes arent just plugged. Two
months ago, yet another EFI flaw was foundand quickly patched by Apple
as part of the 10.10.4 release.
A rethink of firmware integrity is needed, and not just by Apple. The two
researchers more broadly found problems across the industry in EFI
bootloaders. As I noted two months ago, peripheral firmware appears to
already have been exploited by national-security agencies, and would thus
also be a likely target for criminals as well. This kind of attack isnt
theoretical nor just a good demo. Computer vendors need to step up to the
new state of firmware risks.
No, Your Mac Isnt Immune to Malware
Mac users have always been a little bit smug when it comes to
cybersecurity. Apple even brought up its product's resistance to viruses
and malware in the famous line of Mac vs. PC commercials from the mid
2000s. "You're lucky you don't have to deal with this stuff, Mac," John
Hodgman's biohazard suit-clad PC tells a Mac played by Justin Long.
But a new worm could end the myth of Max invincibility. The hack
developed by researchers Xeno Kovah and Trammell Hudson can attack the
firmware of Macs and all top PC makers, according to Wired. This malware
was created not by hackers but by the researchers to show that it could
be done.
Firmware is code that starts running as soon as a computer is turned on
and starts to load its operating system. That makes the malware
particularly hard to detect and fight: Even reinstalling an operating
system could leave the worm nesting in the firmware, untouched.
The worm relies on a collection of firmware vulnerabilities that the
researchers found in both PCs and Macs. More about the research will be
revealed at a cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas later this week,
according to Wired.
Wired also reported that the researchers notified Apple of the firmware
vulnerabilities that affect Macs and that the company has patched some,
but not all, of the issues. The worm will not work with the latest
version of Apple software, according to a person with knowledge of the
issue.
Apple declined to immediately comment on the report.
But this isn't the first time security vulnerabilities have affected Apple
users. Last year Apple admitted that its version of SSL, the encryption
that protects much of online communications, had a flaw that could allow
hackers to intercept and modify traffic thought to be secure. The problem
affected both its mobile operating system iOS and its laptop and desktop
suite OS X. And in earlier years, some OS X users fell prey to a Trojan
malware known as Flashback.
Whats Safer From Hackers: A PC Or A Mac?
Mac vs. PC. (Images by Thinkstock/Apple/Microsoft, modified by Yahoo Tech)
Apples vaunted reputation for safety and security has taken some hits
recently. Just this week came news of DYLD_PRINT_TO_FILE a bug in
Apples OS X operating system that has allowed a malicious program to
take complete control of Macs. Apple has known of the flaw for a few
weeks but hasnt gotten out a patch yet. Then there were reports of a
vulnerability in the Macs firmware that could allow infections to pass
among Macs via Thunderbolt accessories.
This isnt to pick on Apple too much. Microsoft Windows has obviously
suffered from regular security flaws over the years. But Apple is the one
thats historically claimed to have the safer, more secure platform. Is
that claim true?
Before you compare OS X and Windows, you have to remember that security
is about more than just the operating system: The biggest threats can run
on both platforms. Just last month, for example, researchers learned of a
big flaw in Adobe Flash that would allow an infection from a website to
take complete control of any computer, Windows or Mac.
So we decided to take a look at the big picture, comparing Windows and
OS X on overall hackability. Overall, Apple OS X is still a bit more
secure than Microsoft Windows, but the gap keeps narrowing. Ultimately,
the safest operating system is the one run by an informed user who knows
how to keep it up to date, knows what to install, and knows what to
remove.
When it comes to security flaws, Windows and OS X are now about tied, says
Morey Haber, VP of technology at corporate security software maker
BeyondTrust. Combing through security alerts and updates, Haber
calculated that for 2014, Windows had 142 vulnerabilities while OS X had
147.
But operating system vulnerabilities accounted for only 13 percent of all
reported computer security issues in 2014, according to Haber; software
that runs on both systems accounted for 80 percent. Most hackers arent
even targeting the operating system anymore, says Haber. They go after
software like Adobe Flash, a platform for Web-based videos and games
(more about Flash later).
Macs biggest security asset is basic economics. Ill stick on my Mac
over my Windows box, and the simple reason is statistics, said Haber.
Hackers are targeting Windows because there are more devices out
there.
The winner here: OS X?Macs are a scoche safer simply because they are
less likely to be targeted in cyberattacks.
Your Web browser is not only the front door to all the charms of the
Internet, its also a backdoor for attackers. A particularly nasty attack
method is called a drive-by download: Simply visiting a website running
malicious code can infect your computer. Ive seen upwards of 50
different exploits in the one link, says Chase Cunningham, threat
intelligence lead at security firm FireHost. It just tries everything
it can. But it gets worse. You can get infected by visiting a perfectly
legit site with booby-trapped animated ads that slip into the automated
networks that place ads on Web pages.
In 2014, Internet Explorer was found to have 220 vulnerabilities rated as
high, Chrome had 86, and Firefox had 57, according to Haber. He cant
get an exact count of flaws in the Apple Safari browser, says Haber,
because Apple generally doesnt provide detailed descriptions of
vulnerabilities and fixes, as other software makers do.
Other major dangers are the powerful plugin programs that extend the
functions of the browser. In 2014, 65 security vulnerabilities were
discovered in Adobe Flash; Oracles Java plugin had 50. Many attacks are
on older versions of plugins because they generally dont update
automatically or prod users as aggressively to install new versions.
All of the operating system [and] the browser vendors realize that
plugins are problematic, said Haber. [They] are a bad user experience,
and [companies] are turning them off.
OS X has been more active in choking off the vulnerable plugin problem.
Apple stopped installing Flash on its computers in 2010 (although Mac
owners can manually
install it). You can often get by without Flash, as
many sites are replacing it with alternatives built into the HTML 5 Web
programming standard. Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, YouTube and Vimeo,
for instance, have already switched over or are switching over.
Java can be installed both as a standalone app and as a browser plugin.
Apple stopped preinstalling Java with OS X Lion (10.7) back in 2011. In
2012, it issued an update that removed the Java plugin from all installed
Web browsers. (Mac owners can install Java on their own.) Java has been
falling out of favor for years. I dont have it enabled in any of my
browsers, said Guillaume Ross, senior consultant at security company
Rapid7. Im trying to remember the last time I needed Java.
Microsoft has removed plugins from its successor to Internet Explorer,
called Microsoft Edge, which comes with Windows 10. (Though a future
version of Edge will bring back some kind of plugin compatibility,
Microsoft has said.)
The winner here: OS X?Both Apple and Microsoft are pulling out browser
vulnerabilities, but Apple has been working on it longer.
Other programs are less likely targets for hackers, but they may have
security flaws. Any application that you install will increase your
attack surface, said Ross.
Apple and Microsoft have responded by creating app stores. Not only have
they evaluated the apps to insure that they are genuine, but they also
require security measures called sandboxing, which limit a programs
access to the operating system and other applications. Versions of the
same program offered as a download from, say, the vendors website
may not have sandboxing measures, however. I would definitely pick the
app store application when there are two, said Ross.
If a program isnt in an app store, the next line of defense is to check
if its digitally signed by the software maker. By default, OS X allows
only apps from the App Store or those that have been signed by known
software makers.
The winner here: OS X! Apples automated security for programs protects
users better.
Apples security edge is based largely on what the operating system does
by default. But you can do a lot to make either system much safer.
Install those updates your computer keeps nagging you about, or enable
auto updates. Microsoft currently provides security updates for Windows
Vista, 7, 8/8.1 and 10 (there is no Windows 9). Apple tends to support
the latest two or three versions of OS X. Right now, thats 10.8
Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks and 10.10 Yosemite.
As earlier explained, Flash has been on the wane for years. Whether you
have a Mac or Windows computer, you can easily flush it from your system
or keep it disabled until you need it.
Java is of even less use nowadays. Oracle offers instructions for
uninstalling Java from Windows computers and more-technical instructions
for removing Java from a Mac.
Get programs from the app stores in Windows and OS X whenever you can.
If a program isnt in the app store, make sure its genuine by going to
the vendors own website instead of some generic download site (or
pirate site).
In Windows, check the digital signature: Right-click the program
installer you have downloaded and click Properties to see if the name on
the signature is the same as the maker of the software. On a Mac, go to
the Security and Privacy preferences; under Allow apps downloaded
from: click the button labeled Mac App Store and identified
developers.
If you do download a bogus app, encounter a website that exploits a
Flash or Java vulnerability, or forget to update your OS, security
software acts as a safety net. This is a competitive product category,
so most packages do a good job, and many are free for personal use. For
an in-depth comparison, check the latest rankings on AV-Test.org.
The overall takeaway is this: All computers can be hacked. Apple, by
shedding default plugins and blocking automatic installation of unsigned
third-party apps on Macs, has traditionally made it easier for average
folks to keep themselves safe. But on the flip side, Windows, running on
almost 90 percent of all computers operating today, has always been a
juicier target for virus and malware makers. Most attacks now work
equally well on both operating systems. So staying safe isnt so much a
matter of what computer you buy, but rather how well you understand and
avoid the security pitfalls on it.
=~=~=~=
Atari Online News, Etc. is a weekly publication covering the entire
Atari community. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted
at the beginning of any article, to Atari user groups and not for
profit publications only under the following terms: articles must
remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of
each article reprinted. Other reprints granted upon approval of
request. Send requests to: dpj@atarinews.org
No issue of Atari Online News, Etc. may be included on any commercial
media, nor uploaded or transmitted to any commercial online service or
internet site, in whole or in part, by any agent or means, without
the expressed consent or permission from the Publisher or Editor of
Atari Online News, Etc.
Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. All
material herein is believed to be accurate at the time of publishing.
