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'Users just don't learn'

As a computer tech, Jack's used to helping families evict unwanted malware.

What he's not used to is having to perform the same service three times in as many months for the same family. Is malware overpowering their defenses, or is the family relying too heavily on professional services as their safety net for chancy online behavior? Find out in this week's Spyware Horror Story.

Gone in 30 minutes

William is philosophizing to his toothbrush one minute and contemplating practicing shot put with his computer the next. What burst his bubble?

William blames a virus, and in his tussle with the malignant malware, he learns a few lessons about the risks of sharing a computer with family and friends. But was it actually a virus that got him, and are the lessons he learned the right ones?

After the frustrations of dealing with damaged data, it's easy to generalize about past and future behavior. Set the record straight in a thrilling malware true-and-false in this week's Spyware … Read more

Security researchers warn of LinkedIn exploit

Sometimes, it pays not to be linked in. Ignorance is bliss.

Security researchers are reporting a public exploit has been designed that could take advantage of critical security flaws in the LinkedIn Internet Explorer Toolbar.

The vulnerabilities do not apply to the Linkedin.com Web site, only the LinkedIn IE toolbar.

Users of the LinkedIn social-networking site that have the IE toolbar installed on their computers could be at risk of a remote attack, should they visit a malicious Web site, according to a posting by VDA Labs' Jared DeMott and Justin Seitz, who discovered the flaws.

The security flaws … Read more

A hub of activity in Wireless USB

As promised, more gadgets have been approved as official Wireless USB devices. D-Link and IOGEAR both announced Wireless USB hub and adapter kits Monday.

D-Link's Wireless USB Adapter & 4-Port Wireless USB Hub and IOGEAR'S Wireless USB Hub & Adapter Kit are both backward compatible with wired USB and have bandwidth capabilities of up to 480 Mbps at a distance of 10 feet, and 110 Mbps at 30 feet. While Wireless USB does free you from using cables, the signal does not go through walls, so make sure your laptop and the peripherals you want to connect have … Read more

The Wrong Way to Build Links from Blogs

I'm an evangelist when it comes to blogging as a way to build brand, thought leadership status, and links. Heck, I've written a lot about making blogging pay off in terms of SEO (here, here and here, for example). However, my enthusiasm does not carry over to spamming the blogosphere. Not through comments. Not through trackbacks. Not through spam blogs (a.k.a. splogs). Not through payola.

There are firms out there that hang out their shingle as "blog marketing firms," that take your money and promise many links from other blogs to your site or … Read more

Digg Bait and Switch

Getting onto the front page of Digg.com is a lofty goal for many SEOs. They know that hundreds of links will ensue -- from blogs, Digg mirrors, individuals' del.icio.us bookmarks, etc.

Search marketer Alan Rimm-Kaufman's first successful Digg bait, conducted last month, was centered around a 120 foot long water balloon. Indeed Alan made it onto the Digg homepage, receiving 22,694 visits in the first 4 hours after being dugg, and 33,072 visits in the first 24 hours. With the Digg effect, the traffic spikes dramatically -- to the point that it often brings … Read more

GE phones home

There are so many products announced at the January Consumer Electronics Show, a few of them always manage to slip off your radar. For me, one such product was the new line of GE-branded cordless phones from Thomson. I know what you're thinking--"Thomson" and "GE" are yawner brands that have no place among your carefully groomed hipster-approved gadget lineup. Well, think again: I was able to spend some quality time with the new GE phones last night, and each of them offered at least one compelling leg up on competing products. Each model is a DECT 6.0 product (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology), meaning it operates on the 1900Mhz wireless band that's free of the interference issues that can occur on the more-crowded 2.4Ghz band (which competes with everything from microwave ovens to Wi-Fi to wireless speakers). A quick roundup of the key models follows: … Read more

LinkedIn reportedly jumping on the platform bandwagon

You've probably heard it by now--LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman hinted to Dan Farber at our sister site ZDNet that within the next nine months, his site will be opening itself up to developers, Facebook-style. There's not a whole lot else to report now aside from speculation--and the speculation thus far has indeed been rampant.

This is especially interesting, because over the past few months I've seen a few trends: first, a more professional crowd gravitating toward Facebook; and second, that recent college graduates entering the work force haven't pounced on LinkedIn the way … Read more

Should LinkedIn do battle with Facebook?

Dan Farber, over at ZDNet, is reporting that LinkedIn's founder, Reid Hoffman, has made their plans clear to open up API's and create a developer platform. I am not exactly sure whether this means that developers will now be able to create applications, using LinkedIn's data to be displayed on their own site or if it will take the form of widgets on LinkedIn's own site like Facebook has done with their platform.

First off, let me make something clear. I do not think that LinkedIn can be the same type of social network that Facebook … Read more