Had a few problems with some of the web sites over the weekend. So did a bit of hardening of the hosting accounts, and the web sites. Took a bit of time, but there should now be less of a vulnerability profile. There will be some more hardening happening over the next few days, but nothing the casual visitor will notice. The ‘un-casual’ visitor won’t notice either, since they won’t be visiting soon.

But that brings to mind some things that need to be done by all. You’ve heard it all before: regular changing of passwords, updating applications, etc. One thing you might try is Secunia’s Personal Software Inspector (see http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/ ). A free program, a quick download, and it checks to make sure that all the programs on your computer are current. It has the capability to do automatic updates of most programs, and helps with the non-automatic updates. It’s very non-intrusive on your system resources. Highly recommended.

If you have that program, Windows Updates set for automatic, and Microsoft’s Security Essentials, you will be well-protected against attacks. You still need to be aware, and do the basics (it’s time to change those passwords), but those three things will help.

Go change your passwords now. I’ll wait.

Good job!

And speaking of earthquakes, as a former Californian, I’m not impressed by the little 5.9 one today on the ‘right coast’. As my good friend said: “Come on East Coast it was only 5.9, In California we fart harder than that!” 

Heh.