Security

Free Wi-Fi while you're waiting for your flight? Sounds like a great way to save money, and kudos to Google for offering it at many U.S. airports during the holidays. Unfortunately, Google's generosity may also lure identity thieves and nefarious hackers to the nation's terminals to prey on clueless travelers.

A mischievous iPhone worm that targets Australian jailbroken phones is changing the phone's wallpaper to an image of Rick Astley.

It's one of the basic tenets of online security: Never use the same password/username combo for every website that requires one. The logic is sound, of course. A single security breach could expose your most private information -- such as banking and credit card numbers -- to the bad guys.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have had opportunities to sit down and talk with risk management professionals from two perspectives; analysis and data. From the analytical perspective, I spoke with risk management practitioners and, on the data side, it was data warehousing experts. The question I posed was given the events of the last 18 months, what is the one issue that confronts you today in evolving your risk practices?

Microsoft says Windows 7 is the most secure version of the Windows operating system ever developed. Big deal, right? I am pretty sure that Microsoft has made that claim for every new version of Microsoft Windows in the past 15 years, and that it is a valid claim.

Has Google started following us around? It's new Google Social Search feature, going live today, sure feels like it. And hints at what Google can do both for and to you with all the information it has collected.

For a while there it looked like 2009 would be remembered as the Year of the Dead Celebrity. But Michael, Farrah, Walter, Ed, and all the rest may have to move over. This is rapidly becoming the Year the Data Died.

It's National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and Google wants to remind you of a basic tenet of online security: passwords. Considering that October started off with a security breach that struck more than 10,000 Hotmail accounts, a security review may not be such a bad idea. Michael Santerre, Google's Consumer Operations Associate detailed Google's password advice in a recent blog post.

United States and Egyptian authorities began rounding up 100 suspects indicted in connection with a two-year investigation dubbed "Operation Phish Phry."

Microsoft has released its free antivirus software, Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE). As the name implies, Microsoft's new security software removes the bloated bells and whistles found in other products, like Microsoft's discontinued Windows Live OneCare, and provides only the essential protection.