Miles Associates LLC

Adobe Admits Users Are Vulnerable After Downloading Reader.  From CIO Magazine.

Adobe leaves vulnerable versions of Reader (For example version 9.1) for download on its web site, and the user can only update (to, say 9.1.2) by patching.  But the automatic patching mechanism, for many users, does not run at first execution and may not update Adobe Reader for days or weeks, leaving those users unknowingly vulnerable.  Meanwhile, “Hackers continue to hammer Reader. According to New York-based CA today, there are “a vast number of malicious PDF files in circulation on the Internet,” many of them pitching multiple exploits at Windows users”.

Adobe is reevaluating its practices for updating Reader.

I have concerns about touch-screen keyboards (but then, I am such a poor typist I wonder why I care? )

The rules of notebook design and the components that go inside are being rewritten to make the road a better place to work and play.

“Between now and 2015, we expect to see a series of big changes that will redefine what a notebook is and what it looks like” — Intel

via Meet the Laptop You’ll Use in 2015.

Microsoft has taken aim at a rogue antivirus program called Internet Antivirus Pro.

The company’s latest update to its Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, MSRT released Tuesday, adds detection for this dubious program, which masquerades as security software.

via Microsoft Update Removes Rogue Antivirus Program.

Watch out for “TwitterCut”…

Twitter users have been tricked into divulging their login and password details to a Web site that then spammed their contacts.

via Twitter Gets Targeted Again By Worm-Like Phishing Attack – CIO.com.

May 15, 2009:

A new round of Web sites hijacks is attempting to install malicious, Google-focused software on unpatched PCs, …cementing the drive-by-download approach as a bad-guy tactic of choice.

The attack, dubbed “Gumblar” by ScanSafe, starts by hijacking legitimate sites and inserting attack code. The more than 1,500 hacked sites, including Tennis.com and Variety.com, don’t represent an especially huge number, but its growing rapidly. Since last week, the attack has grown by 80 percent, according to the company, and has spiked 188 percent since yesterday.

The attack code has largely gone after PDF and Flash flaws discovered in the last year … these particular assaults can be largely neutered by making sure you have the latest versions of the Adobe software.

… The PDF attack approach is more bad news for Adobe, whose programs have become a favorite target of late.

via Gumblar Hacked Sites Install Google-Targeting Malware.  (CIO Magazine)

Downturn or no downturn, it’s nice to upgrade your tech gadgets now and again, especially when they are so old that your colleagues are looking at you sideways. But once you’ve bought — or been given — that great new digital camera, or smartphone, or laptop, what do you do with the old one?

You know you shouldn’t just throw it in the garbage — the environmental hazards of simply discarding electronics have been well documented. But many of us haven’t the vaguest idea how to dispose of the stuff safely.

via Smartphones to Laptops: Recycling Your Tech Gear is Easy.