Digital Samurai

How Vulnerable Is Your Computer System?

Ever wondered just how exposed your computer system is to the most common vulnerabilities? Now there is any easy and free way to find out.

Secunia, a great online security resource, now offers an Online Software Inspector (OSI) that quickly scans your PC for the most common programs and vulnerabilities. The scanner supports the inspection of about 100 or so programs including Adobe Acrobat Reader, all the major web-browsers, Microsoft operating systems and commonly found media players. This basic scan is certainly not complete, but will still give you a good overview of your computer’s security.

Once the scan has finished, if any insecure versions of software or vulnerabilities are found, the results window contains instructions and download links to fix the problems.

You can have your computer scanned by Secunia’s OSI by visiting their web site here: http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/online/.

- John and Mike

(703)359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com 

Is a Tablet Device Apple’s Next Big Idea?

If you have been online in the past few weeks, then undoubtedly you’ve come across a story regarding Apple’s next big device, rumored to be a tablet/e-reader device.

Now we aren’t ones to speculate on what Apple may or may not announce during tomorrow’s Apple event, but many industry insiders believe the tablet will be Apple’s next big device. Is there room for another tablet device with the Kindle and Nook already available? Only time will tell.

We all know just how much Sharon loves her Kindle, so don’t expect her to buy one.

For those Apple fan boys that just can’t wait for the daily news cycle, live streamed coverage of the event can be found online at: http://live.twit.tv and http://livetechevents.com starting tomorrow at 1 PM EST.

We know that we won’t be watching.
 
- John and Mike

(793)359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Boot Camp Update

Those readers with a military background probably don’t need to be reminded of their days in boot camp. This is not a new and improved version of the past experience. Boot Camp is an Apple alternative to allow the running of Windows on a Mac and they just released an upgrade that adds Windows 7 support.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Google Docs Gets an Upgrade

Are you looking for a way to replace all of those USB thumb drives that you carry around? Google hopes that you are.

Google has just announced an increase in the size limit of individual file uploads (except for Microsoft Word docs) and the different file types that users may store on Google’s servers. Users may now upload files that cannot be converted into the Google Docs format such as photos, music and movies, and are provided with 1 GB of space to store their data. Google does allow users to rent additional storage space at the cost of 25 cents per year per GB.

While convenient (assuming your computer has an Internet connection), we don’t think that this service is going to have any effect on the popularity and usage of USB thumb drives, and instead we will continue to use our Ironkeys.

-John and Mike

(703)359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Encrypted USB Drives at Risk

SC Magazine reported that encrypted USB drives from SanDisk, Kingston and Verbatim can be read despite being encrypted. Each manufacturer has issued a warning that certain secure drives can be compromised if a skilled person has the proper tools and physical access to the USB stick. That doesn’t make them very secure does it?

Affected devices include:

• SanDisk's Cruzer Enterprise USB flash drive, CZ22 (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB)
• SanDisk's Cruzer Enterprise FIPS Edition USB flash drive, CZ32 (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB)
• SanDisk's Cruzer Enterprise with McAfee USB flash drive, CZ38 (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB)
• SanDisk's Cruzer Enterprise FIPS Edition with McAfee USB flash drive, CZ46 (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB)
• Kingston DataTraveler BlackBox (DTBB)
• Kingson DataTraveler Secure – Privacy Edition (DTSP)
• Kingson DataTraveler Elite – Privacy Edition (DTEP)
• Verbatim Corporate Secure USB Flash Drive (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB)
• Verbatim Corporate Secure FIPS Edition USB Flash Drives (1GB, 2GB, 4GB, 8GB)

Apparently the problem is not with the hardware or firmware, but the actual computer application that accesses the device. SanDisk and Verbatim have updates to address the issue, but there’s nothing from Kingston at this time.

Boy are we glad that we use IronKey USB sticks for our secure encrypted storage.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com

Incentive for Upgrades

Our friend and colleague, Dennis Kennedy, just wrote an article in the ABA Journal, where he predicts that Windows 7 will be a non-starter for law firms. Of course we are paraphrasing Dennis’ article, but you get the drift. We have always held the position that you want to buy any NEW computer with Windows 7 rather than going through the pain of an upgrade, especially since there is no direct upgrade from Windows XP. That’s essentially Dennis’ advice too, but we amiably disagree with our good friend that Windows 7 will not get traction because of the upgrade pain.

We grant that our opinion has also shifted a bit, particularly since Microsoft just announced a 50 percent discount for users of Windows XP and Office XP as an enticement to upgrade. Of course there are some restrictions (e.g. applies only to the Professional versions of Windows and Office), but generally we would expect that a lot of our clients will take advantage of this new program. Up until the release of Windows 7 we have specified computers with sufficient “horsepower” to run the latest operating system, but had them loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista. The 50 percent upgrade price may make the reinstallation of the operating system more attractive since the hardware base is just fine.

It will be interesting to see if Dennis rethinks his position given Microsoft’s announcement.

- John and Mike

(703) 359-0700
digitalsamurai@senseient.com
www.senseient.com