Interpol Seeks Public Help to Find Pedophile

Interpol is seeking the help of the public in the search for a pedophile whose face can be seen in many pictures with children. His face was blurred in these pictures, but Interpol technicians managed to “unblur” him. His picture can be seen on the web site linked at the beginning of this paragraph.

Intego Content Barrier protects children from the dangers of the Internet, including pornography, and the types of pictures this person had taken and distributed over the Internet. We feel that protecting our children includes not just shielding them from offensive content, but helping eliminate this content from the Internet, as much as possible.

Should you have any idea who this person is, contact Interpol using the links on their website. Keep the Internet a safe place for all.

QuickTime Update: No Mac Users Need Apply

Apple has released a QuickTime update , but this one’s only for Windows XP and Vista. Mac users are familiar with QuickTime, but may not realize that it is also part of iTunes on Windows: it’s what iTunes uses to play back audio and video. So while Mac users don’t need to worry, anyone who runs Windows on their Mac should make sure to get this update, which fixes:

A command injection issue exists in QuickTime’s handling of URLs in the qtnext field in files with QTL content. By enticing a user to open a specially crafted file, an attacker may cause an application to be launched with controlled command line arguments, which may lead to arbitrary code execution.

Don’t you just love the way they explain these security issues?

Note that, just in case, Intego Virus Barrier X4 can spot and stamp out this exploit. So if it does eventually have an effect on Macs, you’ll be safe.

Make Sure to Save Your Boot Camp Data

If you’re using Apple’s Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac, Apple’s warning you that it’s time to pay attention to the software’s potential expiration. Boot Camp is, you may recall, beta software that lets you boot a Mac into Windows. Version 1.2 expired on September 30, and versions 1.3 and 1.4 will expire when Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is released. So if you’ve been using version 1.2, you should upgrade now to the latest version. And, in any case, make sure to back up any files you’re working with under Windows, because the day Leopard is released (does Boot Camp check over the Internet?) it will no longer run. Unless you upgrade to Leopard immediately, you’ll be stuck.

And, of course, if you’re running Windows on your Mac, make sure you’ve got appropriate security solutions for your Windows installation. Intego VirusBarrier Dual Protection, for example, gives you protection for both Mac OS X and your Windows installation.

Are iPods Security Risks?

Much has been said about iPods as security risks - not that they can catch viruses, but that people can carry files on them and bring them into the office. This article suggests that:

iPods pose a particularly high risk to corporations that let employees wander into work with these devices strung to their ears. Those same devices that entertain workers during their commute can be used to copy personal or financial data, intellectual property and other sensitive information from corporate PCs, often without a trace.

Well, this is both true and an exaggeration. iPods are no more of a risk than, say, cellphones that let you store files, or USB key drives, that people commonly use to carry files from home to the office. And there’s always e-mail to send files from the office…

As long as information is digital, there will always be a way to slip it through a crack. It doesn’t seem to make sense to pick on iPods, because they are just one of the many devices that employees may own that they can use to copy files if they want. So keep on listening to your music!

Learn About Phishing

Do you know what phishing is? As its name suggests, it’s a way to “fish” for dupes, or people who fall for a scam. Generally, phishing attempts come by e-mail; you know, those messages claiming to be from your bank, or from eBay or PayPal, asking you to log in and update your payment information. In some cases, the “phishers” are good; the URLs they use may look real, but what you see is actually masking a different URL, perhaps leading you to a server in China or Russia.

Phishing is all about getting your credit card to steal money from you. It’s not small-change scamming, but rather organized crime. It’s mighty effective, too. Intego Personal Antispam has built-in filters to protect you from phishing by sorting these e-mails into your spam folder, and Intego Internet Security Barrier Dual Protection offers this type of filtering both for Mac OS X and your Windows installation.

But it’s a good idea to understand what phishing is, and become savvy enough to spot a phishing URL when you see one. Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a game called Anti-Phishing Phil, where you can learn exactly how phishing works and how to protect yourself from these bogus web sites.

Remember one cardinal rule: neither your bank, eBay, Amazon or any other company will ever ask you by e-mail to log in to your account and enter your credit card information. In some cases, if your credit card has expired, they may ask you to update your information, but you’ll know that the card is no longer valid. When in doubt, log in normally (not using a URL you get in an e-mail) and go to your account settings. You can be sure that you’ll be on the right server that way.

Don’t Be Like Francis Ford Coppola

Anyone involved in computer security knows that the first rule of security is to back up your data. Many people will then go on to say that the second rule is to back up your data, and the third rule is to back up your data as well. In some cases, you can never have too many backups.

Film director Francis Ford Coppola recently had a theft in his home, and lost his computers, his backup drives, and all their contents. He lost the script of a film he’s working on, but, worst of all, he lost 15 years of family pictures. He has sent out a plea to get them back, but there’s a good chance those photos will be lost for good.

What would you do if you lost all your baby pictures, all those pictures from your wedding or your kids’ graduation, or all your vacation pics? You’d be mighty upset, with no way to replace them. Unless, of course, you had backups.

Now that photos are mainly digital, theft or a few rogue electrons can wipe out your entire photo library, and it’s essential that you have multiple backups. Backing up to a hard disk is the best way, but for essential files, you should also back up to DVDs, or even to an off-site server, such as an FTP server or an iDisk. Intego Personal Backup lets you do all these kinds of backups, and much more. You can be sure that your data is protected, and, if theft or lightning come your way, you can still have copies of your most important files.