In the words of retired pro wrestler Lance Storm, “… if I can be serious for a minute.” No pics of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating or taking the Browns to the Super Bowl in this post. Serious topic.
You may have read that Google and 20-30 other large corporations were targeted by very sophisticated hackers in China late last month-early this month. It is unlikely that your personal computer was directly affected by that attack, but, it happened through a vulnerability whose code has since been exposed. So, if your system remains unpatched, you could be at risk. Here’s what you need to do:
1) Since Google was targeted and its data compromised, change your Gmail password.
2) Internet Explorer 6 has a vulnerability that was a major entry point for the hackers. If you’re using IE6, upgrade immediately. Better yet, get rid of IE altogether, and download and install Firefox, which is a better, more secure browser.
3) Download the latest update to your anti-virus software, and run a full scan on your home computer.
4) If you’re running Windows, make sure you’ve installed all the latest updates.
Sorry to scare anyone but this appears to be pretty serious.
I think we’re also getting our first look at how war is going to be waged in the 21st century. After the alert was sent out here in the office, I did a little investigation. The Chinese hackers that attacked U.S. businesses may have ties to the Chinese government. (This is why Google is considering pulling out of China.) Chinese hackers then attacked Iranian sites, supposedly in retaliation from an earlier Iranian hack attack on Chinese sites. Now it’s being reported that sites in India have been attacked by Chinese hackers. Keep your eye on the news. Looks like 2010 may be the year of the hacker on a scale never seen before.
I still have more posts to do and a little time left in my lunch break… but, I want this post to stay up top for a while. Remaining posts will go up tonight or tomorrow.