When testing the included unmanaged anti-virus in Windows 8 I ran across an odd quirk. It doesn’t detect EICAR properly. I present my results and what to expect in this article.
Poll: Do you find LulzSec’s activities amusing?
The members of LulzSec say that they’re doing it for the “Lulz” and their mission is to spread “fun, fun, fun”.
How are they spreading “fun” into our drab IT lives? By hacking into company websites, exposing personal information and launching denial-of-service attacks against online games.
So, our question is this – are they succeeding in amusing you? Or are you just not getting the joke?
Sorry, the poll is now closed. But thanks to the 1500+ of you have shared your opinion.
It may be true that some companies have not defended their webservers properly, and are careless with their customers’ data. But that doesn’t make it right to act irresponsibly or break the law. There are better ways of getting issues like that resolved.
Even if the company isn’t responding to your concern that their defences are weak, you could approach a journalist and demonstrate the vulnerability to them. They could then publicise the security hole in a responsible way – without putting innocent folks at risk.
Personally, I find it disturbing that so many internet users appear to support LulzSec as it continues to recklessly break the law.
If you still have something to say on the topic, leave a comment below. Whether you believe LulzSec are providing a valuable service by exposing weak security or if you think that their behaviour is irresponsible, we’re interested in hearing your opinion.
89% say they would tell Mac-using friends to install anti-virus, poll reveals
Just over a week ago we ran a poll on the Sophos Facebook page asking folks if they would now recommend that friends and family install anti-virus software.
89% of the 968 people who answered the poll said yes, they would recommend friends install anti-virus software on their friends’ Macs. Just 104 respondents answered no.
Now, of course, people who have joined Sophos’s page on Facebook are likely to have a higher-than-average interest in computer security, and we can’t claim it’s a scientific poll – but it’s worth realising that we asked this question before the latest revelations about how the latest Mac fake anti-virus malware has evolved to not require users to enter their passwords.
From what I’m seeing in comments online, and the increasing number of home users downloading Sophos’s free anti-virus for Mac, there’s a real sea change taking place, and the recent attacks have woken up Mac fans to the advantages of running anti-virus software.
More and more Mac users are realising that they do need to take the security of their computers seriously, and anti-virus is part of that.
Of course, there is much less Mac malware than there is on Windows – but that doesn’t mean it’s non-existent.
As MacWorld said when they awarded Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition its highest accolade of “Editor’s Choice”:
"Frankly, there's no reason not to try it as it provides precisely the protection a home user needs without the added bells and whistles that often serve to slow down your system. It's simple to install and use and needs just a few megabytes of disk space. Running quietly in the background, it's hard to tell that the software is active at all, aside from a small icon in your menu bar."
"Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition is full-featured, flexible and completely free. That's hard to beat."
Free Anti-Virus for Mac
Download Sophos Anti-Virus for Mac Home Edition
