Category: Secure

Tethering – Should it be a Fundamental Feature in Smartphones?

Tethering with mobile phones has been around for a while although back in the early days of GPRS it was often worse than dial up (not to mention an order of magnitude more expensive). These days with USB, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity it seems odd that some smartphones have been slow to allow users the …

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Intel Buys McAfee… But Why?

Just a quick one for tonight. A few days ago, it was announced that Intel had bought McAfee for under $8 billion. McAfee was not in any financial trouble despite sending out an update to its antivirus software that rendered computers inoperable when a critical system file was quarantined. The question here is what is …

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Full Speed 802.11n Needs WPA2 + AES

This is  a quick tip for those of you looking to invest (or already have invest) in the latest 802.11n wireless routers and access points that are making their way into the digital mainstream. The final specification (802.11n-2009) allows for a theoretical maximum of up to 600Mbps on a 40MHz channel which is a whopping …

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Use Your Mobile as a Modem and Save Money

Some of us are regular users of mobile broadband services and normally rely on a mobile broadband modem of some description to get an internet connection whilst we are on the move or away from home. Dialup access once reigned supreme for mobility and availability but mobile broadband has pretty much put it to rest. …

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Check Your Voting Enrolment Online Now

With the Prime Minister of the day expected to call an election tomorrow for late August, I thought it was important to remind everyone to check their voting enrolment. Every vote counts and ensuring that you are correctly enrolled is especially vital this election. To check your electoral enrolment, go to the Australian Electoral Commission …

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Check Your Firewall Security with Shields Up

Just a quick one tonight. You can never be too careful with security and your connection to the Internet. One way the bad guys can try and get into your computers or your router is when you have open ports exposed to the outside world. For those that don’t know, a computer has two sets …

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No Static IP? Use DynDNS!

Some of us aren’t blessed (or perhaps cursed depending how you look at it) with a static IP address. For me, it’s a blessing that I do have one because I can run a whole bunch of servers (for VoIP, web servers, TF2 and VPN for instance) without having to keep updating an IP address. …

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Are You Comfortable with the Government Recording Your Browsing Activity?

Having read an article at ZDNet today, I became aware of a confirmation from the Attorney-General’s department that it had been investigating a mandate for ISPs to record the browsing history of its customers. This comes after the introduction of similar laws in the EU back in March 2006 which required carriers in specific  member …

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Voluntary “Zombie” Code of Practice – Will it Work?

In an article covered by ZDNet today, the Federal Government is temaing up with the Internet Industry Association to curb the number of trojan or worm-infected computers (otherwise known as “zombies”) on the Internet. What’s more, the code originally drafted last year in September will be voluntary for each and every ISP to implement. A …

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Xmarks – Browser Bookmark and Password Syncing

If you use multiple computers you might find it annoying that you have to maintain your bookmarks across them all or having to re-enter your credentials to login to various websites. At home I use Firefox and Chrome as my primary browsers as well as a portable version of Firefox when I am out and …

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