Check that SMS really is from your sweetpea
A woman who had her handbag and cellphone stolen recently was in for an even nastier surprise when she phoned her husband to let him know. "I've just replied to your SMS," he said, "and I sent you your bank card PIN."
The phone thief had sent an SMS to her husband requesting the PIN of one of the purloined bank cards and the husband had dutifully replied with the information. Needless to say, the bank account was cleaned out before they could react.
Moral: double-check the identity of someone who is sending you an SMS when they're asking for personal information.
Cracker cops
After eighteen months and an R800 000 security audit bill, the Johannesburg City Council has yet to suspend five Metro Police officers who illegally accessed council computers and networks, downloading copious amounts of copyrighted music and pornography in the process.
At least fifteen computers were accessed when the traces of unauthorised access were discovered by two IBM consultants. I knew my electricity bill was too high - now I know why...
Symantec supports Vista
People entrusted with US national secrets should be OK to travel on aircraft, yes?
Paul Furber, senior group writer, ITWeb
Symantec has announced AntiVirus Enterprise Edition 10.2 with anti-virus and anti-spyware client support for the Vista platform.
The company says in addition to offering adware and spyware protection for enterprise workstations and network servers, Symantec AntiVirus Enterprise Edition now includes Symantec Client Security 3.1, which provides proactive client protection from complex threats by integrating anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and intrusion prevention technology under a single console.
Is government security clearance enough?
Bruce Schneier's thoughtful piece on airport security this month in the latest Crypto-Gram asks whether screening people at airports with government security clearance is a waste of time.
After all, people entrusted with US national secrets should be OK to travel on aircraft, yes? But this "perfectly reasonable question" deals with a tricky issue of trust that's not so different from the poor husband who blindly gave away his wife's PIN.
Thanks to CounterPane, the Star, Symantec and the Information Security Group of Africa.
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