Knowledge, due diligence are the keys to using the cloud

From infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas) all the way up to software-as-a-service (SaaS), more and more companies are heading into the cloud.

There are plenty of good reasons. Using a cloud offering can often reduce a company's technology capex, and pay-as-you-go pricing is an attractive proposition for companies burned in the past by large, expensive technology initiatives.

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Posted 20 April 2012 17:38pm by Patricio Robles with 3 comments

Hack attack: how to protect and prepare your company

Another day, another hack.

From Sony to the IMF, the internet is starting to resemble the wild wild west as hackers assault high-profile companies and organizations.

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Posted 15 June 2011 15:41pm by Patricio Robles with 1 comment

Is the age of innocence over for the Mac?

If you own a Windows-based computer, it may be hard to believe that many of your Mac counterparts don't run antivirus software.

Viruses and malware are a fact of life for Windows owners, and as a result, there is a sizable ecosystem of security software vendors whose mission in life is to protect PC owners from the constantly growing number of threats.

But Mac owners may be getting a taste of the hassles PC owners have become accustomed to...

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Posted 23 May 2011 16:02pm by Patricio Robles with 2 comments

Five lessons from the Gawker, McDonald's data breaches

What does online gossip rag Gawker have in common with fast food restaurant chain McDonald's? In the past several days, both have fallen victim to hackers who gained access to user databases.

The Gawker hack, in particular, has garnered a lot of attention because the hackers seem most interested in humiliating the popular blog. They have released the emails and passwords of more than 1m of Gakwer's registered users.

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Posted 14 December 2010 14:13pm by Patricio Robles with 1 comment

SEOs are not spammers, evildoers, or opportunists

It seems like every few months, somebody has to write a blog post calling SEO a 'scam' of some sort. It's a meme that always works and this time around, it's coming from a guy named Derek Powazek, who calls SEOs "spammers, evildoers, and opportunists".

It's a great linkbait, which, ironically, is sure to help Powazek's SERPs.

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Posted 14 October 2009 15:53pm by Patricio Robles with 12 comments

The New York Times falls victim to a sophisticated ad scam

When visitors to The New York Times website began falling victim to a fake anti-virus ad that attempted to install malware on readers' computers, some, myself included, suspected that the ad was probably being served through an ad network.

According to The Times, about half of the ads that are served on its website come from ad networks and they are an obvious target for scammers looking to distribute rogue ads that deliver malware.

But as it turns out, the rogue ad that was wreaking havoc with some Times readers was actually sold by The New York Times itself.

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Posted 15 September 2009 09:03am by Patricio Robles with 2 comments

WordPress attack catches bloggers off guard, but it shouldn't have

Over the weekend, reports surfaced of a seemingly widespread attack targeting older versions of the popular blogging software WordPress. The attack leaves WordPress installations severely compromised and appears to be part of a campaign to spread spam and malicious code.

Numerous bloggers found themselves victims. One of those bloggers was popular tech personality Robert Scoble. He claims that two months of his blog's content was lost and that his site was booted from Google's index because of malicious code that had been inserted (ouch).

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Posted 07 September 2009 09:02am by Patricio Robles with 6 comments

Serious security vulnerability hits Adobe Acrobat Reader 9 and earlier

Adobe Acrobat Reader is as close to ubiquitous as it comes. Most new Windows-based computers come with installed and many websites offer up documents in PDF format.

That makes Acrobat Reader a juicy target for hackers and a critical vulnerability has been discovered in Acrobat Reader versions 9 and earlier that could expose users to serious risk.

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Posted 20 February 2009 16:15pm by Patricio Robles with 4 comments