News

A new report from security research firm, Aspect Security confirms what we have been saying for years: developers simply do not know how to secure their applications. In a recent study where a group of developers were asked questions on security Aspect found that about 80% of them did not know how to protect sensitive data. This is something that we have found in our experience in dealing with vendors and other application developers.

Almost two weeks ago we wrote an editorial about how security issues are more about the corporate culture than just weak passwords. In it we described a problem that exists in far too many companies where executives and/or vendors are the ones that are setting the security policies instead of the IT or IT security teams. This situation can be exceptionally frustrating when you are trying to keep the “bad guys” out, but not everyone really believes that this is how things work. Now, after New York Times article describing how the Home Depot ignored their own security staff, people might be forced to finally get the bigger picture.

I sometimes think that there should be some sort of intelligence test before we allow people to use certain technologies. I know it is not the most “PC” thought to have, but after reading about how often people are duped with what are obviously scams, hoaxes or other, you really have to wonder about the people that are online. The latest hoax to snare people is aimed at a “hidden” feature in iOS8. This feature is supposed to allow you to wirelessly charge your iPhone using the Microwave and all you need to do it upgrade to iOS8.

There is a subtle art to influencing people’s opinions and the way that a particular topic is viewed. We have seen multiple attempts at this, some good, some bad. For the marketing savvy it seems that nothing they (or their charges) say can ever be negative. For those that are… less competent the message come out all wrong and often changes the intended push into something very negative. The MPAA and others in the anti-piracy community seem to be in the latter group.