Promoting the highest standards of client service and professional and ethical conduct since 1985.
Member-Submitted Links to Articles of Interest
Eighteen extensions had a “squeaky clean” codebase, sometimes for years, until a version bump turned them into dangerous trojans without any user input.
This is a blog I wrote after presenting on this topic at the July, 2025 meeting. It lists all the tools covered during the meting with some additional ones that AI suggested!
This document provides a basis for discussion at the June 2025 OCCA meeting
A good explanation of passkeys and why they are both easier and more secure than traditional passwords.
Several links to recent articles on AI and Robotics, including a funny AI-created video, curated from "Superhuman" an AI newsletter.
Windows 10 support ends in October -- or does it? Read about Windows 10 Extended Security Updates to keep your computers secure.
This is background material for the April 2025 OCCA presentation on Intel processors. More will be discussed than is presented here.
Great book. Follow the development of the fundamental ideas of packet switching, to Arpanet, then TCP/IP and the battle with OSI.
ArsTechnica article reviewing Backblaze report on Drive failures. Backblaze has thousands of drives and 5 years of data.
Backblaze backup compare 13 SSD drives over 4 years for reliability
Experian makes it fairly easy for anyone to hijack your credit bureau account by simply adding a new one for you. No check is made as to whether the account already exists!
Ars Technica article explains how malware starts with the router and takes full control of Windows, Mac, or Linux.
2021 has seen a growth of 150% in the reported vulnerabilities compared to the previous year, while 29% of the critical flaws in WordPress plugins never received a security update.
The 2022 update to the famous Hive Systems Password Table uses up-to-date hardware and algorithms to explain how password hashing tables are made.
Read about the major changes in how you consume and pay for Microsoft 365 and Office 365 and about the New Commerce Experience (NCE).
As an option for some users Norton Antivirus offers a cryptomining pool for a substantial percentage. Interesting article.
If you like the idea of a thin web-connected operating system but don't want to sell your soul to Google, there's finally a good, pure Linux way to do this using Ubuntu Web.
This is a review of an excellent alternative to Quicken. MoneyDance is a superb personal finance manager
A tech blogger, disgusted with Facebook's policy changes, increased sluggishness, and ridiculous content publishing rules, removes their presence from the social media platform.
Windows Ease of Access settings offers some useful adjustments as well as some possible thorns. Here are some I change for myself and clients.
How does the company make money without storing or sharing any personal information on people using this search engine?
Recorded presentation of Joe Kiniry from Galois and Free & Fair to the OCCA, Jan 28, 2020
Terry Collins my Equus Rep sent me this: Microsoft Hid The `Use Offline Account' Option For Installing Windows 10, Here's Where To Find It
Article documents the movement of the search term "Federal Reserve" to special list to purify the results.
Notes from the presentation Baltazar Ruiz, Intel Application Engineer, gave at the April 2018 OCCA meeting.
Here is my interview on Tualatin Valley Cable Access with Julia Anderson and Joe Smith about a variety of security issues.
A non-technical guide to having a better relationshipwith your battery. Like many relationships, if you treat it better, it will treatyou better.
Gibson Research just wrote software to test for Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. Simple clean understandable. Has good information.
Fortunately, the keylogger is deactivated by default. Fortunately, HP has released a patch. The article includes links to the list of HP models and the patch.
Quad9 a new free DNS server designed for security and privacy. Combining 19 Security groups, over 100 server clusters. How to use it.
In looking for the recipe to solve a syskey lock, see what turned up. This would be a good reason for some people to upgrade to version 1709.
Fantastic open source meta search engine Searx reviewed. Privacy. No tracking. Excellent results.Includes configuration help.
12 privacy respecting search engines without tracking. All give excellent results. Many better than Google or Bing.
I was rather surprised to find 75 instances of svchost.exe on one user's Win10 system and 66 on another. So I went hunting. It's legit.
An extensive review of steps you can take to improve your privacy. Many links.
Huge study of https interception by antivirus products & corporate middleboxes. They generally reduce security, make mistakes doing TLS.
Kaspersky Sytem Scanner. Portable, free, checks much and gives a good system info report. It even checks for programs that should be updated.
The new Windows 7 and 8.1 Update scheme explained: security only quality rollup, security monthly quality rollup, "preview", IE patching, and strategies.
This is what worked for me, step by step, starting with a refurbished Dell with bare Windows 7 - no service pack installed.
Windows Updates will shift to rollups instead of individual patches. They say this will speed things up. We'll see.
Effective Sept. 1, 2016; Web Browsers and Systems will be Required to Support TLS 1.2 for accessing various federal agencies.Also see howsmytls.com.
The Draft Burr-Feinstein Bill makes strong security illegal. This article explains the issue and links to simple action to stop it.
1+ hour video class: Russinovich describes how to use his Sysinternals tools to find and remove malware. Over 2 years old, but really good.
EFF produces a report each year on which companies are or are not protecting your privacy.
Setup your MySocialSecurity Online Account now, though it could be hacked. Otherwise, someone else may set one up using your name and steal your benefits.
The privacy impact of Windows' telemetry features continues to be scrutinized.