I have read over Cisco's 2009 Midyear Security Report several times now and am pleased to report that I was not disappointed by what I read.  Cisco put together a great document that I strongly encourage all of you to read - this document is full of easy-to-read technical information that every computer user should know about.  Since I know that many of you are busy, I am going to write some very quick articles about some of the recommendations contained within the report.

For the first article in the series, I would like to start off with a very important concept that I know you have heard of before.  Most of us know to be very careful about opening executable (.exe) files - that is a very common piece of advice designed to protect people.  The idea is that you really do not know what you are opening, so you should be extremely careful to avoid getting infected with a particularly bad virus.

I have some great news for all of the SmartSwipers out there.  SmartSwipe version 1.6.6 has been released and is available for download from our web site and via automatic updates.  SmartSwipe v1.6.6 is a positive step forward for our team - it is faster than previous versions of SmartSwipe and should make online shopping even more convenient than our previous versions.

If you already have SmartSwipe installed, you will receive a prompt to download the latest version of the SmartSwipe software.  However, if you missed that, you can download the SmartSwipe software by following these steps:

Check this out! KABC in Los Angeles did a feature on SmartSwipe. Enjoy!

Web services provider, Akamai recently recently its State of the Internet  report for the first quarter of 2009.  Akamai's State of the Internet reports contain loads of useful information, presented in an abnormally readable format.  As such, I highly recommend them to anyone interested in the web.  In fact, I suspect that one day, historians will consider these reports as source materials when they write about the social history of the web.

/fanmail

Cisco will be releasing its 2009 Midyear security report sometime today.  Cisco is another one of those rare companies capable of writing extremely technical information in a way that is accessible to mainstream readers.  As such, I highly suggest that everyone even remotely interested in internet security download and read the report.  But don't worry, if you don't want to read the whole thing, I will and I will report back on findings I find particularly interesting.

Since I am (im)patiently waiting for the 2009 Midyear Security report, now seems like a good time to look back at Cisco's 2008 Annual Security Report - specifically the section in which Cisco made some predictions for the top trends of 2009.   In the 2008 Annual Report, Cisco identified four major trends to watch for in 2009.  These trends are:

Yesterday, I wrote about the most recent privacy problem to emerge from Alberta, Canada.  The Alberta health department, long considered a leader in moving medical records online, admitted that a virus had possibly stolen over 11,000 medical records.  The political/public-relations side of a privacy crisis is always intensely interesting and this crisis is no different.  In response to the latest problem to emerge from Alberta, another province (which is also leading the way to putting our medical records online) chimed in to say that their records are completely safe.

Deanna Allen, a spokesperson for eHealth Ontario, told the Toronto Sun that her organization is, "fully patched for all five known variants of this virus."  Allen also reassured Ontario-ans (is that a word?) that eHealth has "a bevy of staff charged with keeping information secure and updates its protections routinely."

In June, I wrote an article about how using social networking sites (like Facebook) can make you more vulnerable to identity theft.  On Saturday, I was delighted to read that the government of New South Wales, Australia has proposed legislation to combat this growing problem.

If this legislation passes, police in New South Wales will have the ability to arrest and charge online fraudsters without having to wait for them to steal money.  Under this proposed legislation, it will be illegal to use or trade any information that identifies a person, (such as name, driver's license number, social insurance/securtiy numbers, PIN numbers, etc.) for the purposes of committing a secondary crime.

If you live in Alberta, Canada, you may be in for a rather troubling letter from Alberta Health Services.  The agency recently acknowledged that a virus which infected their systems may have stolen thousands of personal health records.

Alberta Health Services examined all their logs and compiled a list of 11,582 people whose medical records may have been stolen between May 14 and May 29. Those people are going to get a horrible letter in the mail, informing them that their personal health records may not be so personal anymore.