The Biggest Security Hole on the Web?
Two weeks ago, Adobe released a critical patch for Flash Player and Acrobat Reader. According to online security company Trusteer, about 80% of users are still vulnerable, and perhaps more startling, the company views this as being possibly the biggest security hole on the Internet today.
That 80% figure is based on Trusteer’s installed base of over 2.5 million online banking users of the company’s security service.
IBM Calls Internet Wild West
There has been a 508 percent increase in the number of new malicious Web links discovered in the first half of 2009, according to IBM’s X-Force 2009 Mid-Year Trend and Risk Report.
The report found an increase in the presence of malicious content on trusted sites, including search engines, blogs, bulletin boards, personal websites, online magazines and mainstream news sites.
Google Shares Interesting Malware Stats
Google is sharing some interesting statistics on malware, such as the number of entries on the Google Safe Browsing Malware List that have occurred over the last twelve months, and search results containing a URL labeled as harmful.
"We’re glad to share this sort of data because we believe that collaboration and information sharing are crucial in driving anti-malware efforts forward," says Niels Provos of Google’s Security Team.
Sticking an Ad Where Users Are Already Engaging
There’s one area of your site that if you include it, users have no choice but to engage, if they wish to continue with the task they’re trying to complete. That would be the CAPTCHA, other wise known as that annoying, (often times barely legible) word you have to recreate in a box, so that the site knows you’re human.
Google Book Downloads Compatible on More Devices
Google is now offering downloads of public domain books in Google Books in the EPUB format, which is an open and free industry standard for electronic books. This format is supported by a wide variety of different applications, so it should be easy for many people to access literature this way.
Users can download the public domain books by simply clicking the "download" button in the Google Books Toolbar, which provides a drop-down menu to choose the file format.
YouTube Relaxing Its Partnership Program Limits
This week, Google announced that YouTube is extending its Partnership Program.
Google Lets Businesses Speed Up Videos
Google has introduced a feature for Google Video for Business that allows viewers to adjust the playback speed. There is a speed control button/slider on the video player that can be used to speed up or slow down a clip.
If you’re unfamiliar with Google Video for Business, it’s part of Google Apps Premiere and Education editions, and lets users share rich video information, keep videos secure and private, and collaborate on videos.
Teens: Tweeting Or Not?
While the subject is often debated, there is mounting evidence that the Internet community’s desire to pin the label of ‘early adopter’ for new technology advances on the youngest users may be misguided. Earlier this month we asked the question as to whether teens use Twitter and it looks like the answer is, for the most part, not so much.
Twitter Has Evil Pop-Up That Could Hack Your Account
If you ever see a Twitter pop-up message that looks like the following:
RUN! Close down your browser, turn off your computer, do not pass “Go”, do not collect $200!
Ushering In a Whole New Era of Linking Questions
Update: Tr.im has apparently had a change of heart, and decided to remain functional. On the company blog, Tr.im’s founder says:
We have restored tr.im, and re-opened its website. We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the popular response, and the countless public and private appeals I have received to keep tr.im alive.