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The latest ways in which your computer is vulnerable to attack

Molly Wood Jan 19, 2011
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The latest ways in which your computer is vulnerable to attack

Molly Wood Jan 19, 2011
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The security firm Sophos released its annual Security Threat Report this morning. It reveals a major push by the bad guys (and I’m just going to go ahead and call them the bad guys) to gain access to accounts and computers through social networks.

Sophos’s Chet Wisniewski is a frequent guest on our show and today he tells us about the Koobface worm. The name is a play on “Facebook”. It’s a worm that can infiltrate your account and then pose as you, sending messages to your friends, even going on the instant message service. Often it hits people up for money through a fake emergency. Guess where the money goes.

Chet says the mobile phone space is new enough that people are less likely to spot a scam on a tiny screen than they would be on a regular computer. He says the best way to protect yourself, as always, is through common sense. How could you have WON a lottery in Ghana if you never ENTERED a lottery in Ghana?

Also in this show, we hear from Susan Crawford of Cardozo Law School about the strings attached to Comcast’s newly approved purchase of NBC Universal.

Plus, a new innovation in video games lets you smell along as you play. Smellable video games. You heard me.

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