Steven Pressman

You've heard it before -- from us and from, well, pretty much everyone who values security. Patch your systems. If you don't, you are not secure. It's as simple as that. As if we needed more reminding of this global truism, Microsoft just released a new patch for a critical vulnerability in their DNS service. To an average Joe, if they even know what DNS is, this is an entirely unimpressive patch. But to those in the know, this is huge! Nerdy Version: This is a remote code execution vulnerability. The attacker can execute whatever they want on the affected…

In my previous post on IoT, I wrote about how networks of Internet-connected devices aimed at making our lives better are the next monster wave of technology being created. I made it a point to say that the future is here but added that there was a cautionary element to the message. As we have noted time and time again, there is a constant battle between convenience and security. As more products are made and marketed to consumers and businesses with the angle that they will make your life easier, better, simpler, faster or , the value that these devices offer to the consumer…

In five to ten years we'll be reminiscing about what it was like to have to remember to pick up a gallon of milk at the store. Why? Picture this... You get in your car to drive home from work and your car alerts you that you should take a different route than usual. You see, you should go to the supermarket slightly out of your way because they have your preferred brand of almond milk on sale and your refrigerator detected that your current supply wasn't enough to make the dish your spouse looked up on her phone just…

Last week, Jeremy Wheeler blogged about the perils of public charging stations. This got me thinking about some of the other ills of convenient, public life. One glaring convenient evil jumped out at me -- public WiFi. We have all been there. You're on your laptop or tablet, and you have to get some work done. Or you desperately need to set your fantasy football lineup. Or you need to get an e-mail out. Whatever the circumstance, your only choice for connectivity seems to be the coffee shop's free public connection. So you do what's natural - you connect, get the…

OK - this one is simple. Just like you wouldn't trust anyone with your passwords, don't trust any machine or device that you don't explicitly own. A little background... I was traveling this past week for business and I happened upon a machine billed as a 'rapid charger' for your mobile device. I took notice of the 12 cables of varying connectors protruding from the front of it and thought to myself, "Hmm... I wonder what they're connected to on the other side?" And as I was completing that thought I immediately jumped to, "Nope - I wouldn't trust this…