Ignorant Utopia

It was a cold, rainy day in New York City. There was a traffic jam on the Brooklyn Bridge (1). Mark Twain was lobbying Congress to pass a new Copyright Bill (2). And unnoticed at the time, a girl was born to Walter and Mary Murray whom they named Grace. The year was 1906. Grace [...]

During the month of December, I’ll be posting each Friday about a pioneer in the field of computer science. I’ll tell you know that you will not find Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Ray Norda, or any of their contemporaries on this list. These men built upon what had come before them – work [...]

Some of you may have noticed that it’s been a little longer than normal since my last post. And that the theme has changed. And that comments have been disabled. There are a few reasons for this. Ignorant Utopia started off very broad. I had originally intended to cover some of the most bizarre news [...]

Welcome to the fifth (and final) article in my series of articles discussing Information Security. This time around we’re going to discuss something that you might not normally thing about: PIN Codes and Passwords. How many of you leave your house unlocked so that anyone can just walk in? Or have a safe but leave [...]

Welcome to number four in my series of articles discussing Information Security. This time around we’re going to look at how to back up your data securely while still allowing you to recover the information in the event of a disaster. I strongly recommend that you read our previous articles so that you understand just [...]

Welcome to number three in my series of articles discussing Information Security. You may find it helpful to read previous articles in this series to familiarize yourself with the topics we’ve covered so far. Encryption is the word of the day, and we’re going to explore what it is, why you need it, and what [...]

Some of you may have noticed that this article is not called anti-malware. That’s a very deliberate choice, because malware protection is much more than just installing an anti-malware product. But before we get into details, it’s worth taking the time to define what malware is – and what it isn’t. Malware is a broad [...]

When most people hear the word “security,” they think in terms of protecting a physical object like a car or house – or protecting your family. Many other people think of financial security – making sure there is money to take care of unexpected things now, and being able to retire comfortably in the future. [...]

First it happened to F-Secure. Then it happened to Kaspersky Labs. RSA was the third victim. And this week it happened to Microsoft’s Security Center. What I’m talking about is the compromised integrity of security organizations. For F-Secure, Kaspersky, and RSA, vulnerabilities in their web site’s allowed hackers to access to information. And while this [...]