Defensive Computing

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Defensive Computing is aimed at people who depend on their computing devices for work rather than for play. Rather than focus on the latest news or devices, this blog aims to be educational. Heavy on facts, light on opinions.

Research

VPNs on a Chromebook: a scorecard of VPN providers

Interested in using a VPN on a Chromebook? Here is a scorecard of VPN providers that do and do not support Chrome OS.

04/06/17

How-To

Triple your privacy with a Chromebook and two VPNs

In response to privacy invasions by internet service providers, a Chromebook and two VPNs should offer great security, privacy and anonymity.

03/31/17

Opinion

Ubiquiti called out for security flaw

SEC Consult reported a flaw four months ago. Still no fix.

03/19/17

Best Practice

Defensive Computing for email attachments

Email attachments are the modern Trojan Horse and need to be treated as such.

03/15/17

Opinion

Computers in the news -- how much can we trust what we read?

A big part of Defensive Computing is knowing who to trust. Oftentimes, when reporting on technical computer issues, the media does not deserve that trust.

03/09/17

Opinion

A hard learned lesson in VPNs and secure websites

My personal information was potentially exposed while using a credit card online. A secondary website, invoked to provide extra identity validation, was triggered by using a VPN. Unlike the primary payment processor, this secondary...

03/06/17

Opinion

Defensive Computing and the Academy Awards

Sunday nights screw-up naming the Best Picture at the Oscars offers a lesson in defensive thinking, if not exactly in Defensive Computing.

03/02/17

How-To

How to immediately update Flash in Chrome

Chrome can take a while to update its embedded copy of the Adobe Flash Player. On days like today, when Adobe released a new copy of Flash, this can leave you vulnerable. A simple procedure forces the update.

02/14/17

Opinion

President Bannon Chrome Extension is a security problem, not a joke

Pretending that Steve Bannon is really the President was funny when Saturday Night Live did it on their opening bit. Then today, Business Insider wrote about a Google Chrome extension that replaces every mention of "Trump" with "Steve...

02/06/17

Opinion

Spyware on a Chromebook

Two more cases of Chrome extensions that have way too much latitude.

01/25/17

Opinion

The Netgear router flaw post mortem -- plenty of blame to go around

In the recent Netgear router flaw, its easy to blame Netgear for ignoring the initial report of the vulnerability. They have since admitted that it fell through the cracks. But there appears to be plenty of blame to go around.

12/24/16

Opinion

Updates and more on the Netgear router vulnerability

On December 9, 2016 we first learned of a command injection vulnerability in some Netgear routers. In the worst case, simply viewing a malicious web page could result in your router being hacked. What follows is a recap and expansion...

12/17/16

News

Easily exploited Netgear router flaw discovered

At least two Netgear routers, the R6400 and R7000 are vulnerable to a command injection flaw that is easy to exploit and could lead to the total takeover of the routers. This was disclosed yesterday, December 9th, and there has, as...

12/10/16

Opinion

Blame the ISPs rather than the routers

The latest attacks on routers show Internet Service Providers failed in multiple ways.

12/03/16

Opinion

Getting started with the Ubiquiti AmpliFi mesh router

I set up and poke around with my first mesh router system.

11/23/16

Opinion

Bloomberg says Apple is getting out of the router business

Bloomberg reports that Apple will no longer makes routers. Apple has not yet commented. But, Bloomberg has dropped the ball.

11/21/16

News Analysis

Another HNAP flaw in D-Link routers

Some D-Link routers are vulnerable to a flaw in the HNAP protocol. D-Link has released updated firmware for some of them. Whether you own a D-Link router or not, it is good to test for HNAP to insure it is not installed on your...

11/11/16

How-To

Windows Update on Windows 7 is fast again

Relief is finally at hand for Windows 7 users. Following the advice of InfoWorlds's Woody Leonhard, we can patch Windows Update and install bug fixes in a manner of minutes rather than hours.

11/06/16