Show us something plaid.
Submitted by Soup.
I have updated the Title and Tag line to better reflect what the blog is covering. I feel you should pursue those things you are passionate about. This being my blog is about those things I am passionate about or am an expert on. The one topic that I am the foremost expert in the world on is my opinion so there will be plenty of that here.
Hopefully my life slows down so I have the time to actually put my thoughts and opinions into words that can be shared. At the very least I will try to post updates for the family members so they know what is happening in my corner of the world.
Enjoy.
Okay, So my Norton security suite was pinging me everyday for the last month reminding me that my subscription was about to expire. I was putting it off because I really didn't want to spend the money to renew and I wasn't exactly satisfied with the product. So fate steps in and Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson interviewed one of the people at eEye on the latest Security Now podcast. Steve had mentioned the people at eEye before on the podcast in regards to research into computer vulnerabilities.
A portion of the interview turned into product plug discussed some of eEye's products but of most interest to me was their security suite Blink. The part that really caught my attention was they had made a personal version available for free for the first year so I figure what the heck I will try it out. So this morning I downloaded the free software and for those super privacy conscious out there, yes, you do have to register an email address and yes it phones home. The phone home feature is explained in the license and privacy agreements as how they gather information on new malware and is your cost of getting the free use of the product. For me it is a worthy reason and a way to help contribute to the safety of all that are online.
My impressions so far are very favorable. It has replaced at least 4 programs on my system freeing up quite a bit of hard drive real estate. It runs much more smoothly than Norton ever did. I also ran the included retina scan and found a few vulnerabilities I was unaware of. The Scan found more than 40 possible vulnerabilities on my computer though many really didn't apply as retina is a corporate system vulnerability detection software.
More disturbing though was the 5 malware programs found on my system that had gone undetected by Norton including an IRC worm, a hijacker program, 2 surveillance programs and an adware program. Now to give Norton a little credit (just a little) looking at the malware found I do not believe any had been triggered so they were on the system but had never run. It is great to know they have been found and removed before they could do any damage.
My philosophy to internet and computer security has not been a matter of whether or not I am paranoid but rather whether or not I am paranoid enough. It has become obvious to me that I have not been paranoid enough.
