The holiday season is upon us, and now more than ever that means shopping on the Internet.
This past Black Friday saw $595 million in online sales, an 11 percent increase compared to Black Friday 2008, according to online market tracker comScore.
But with the comfort and convenience of buying presents from your couch comes with security risks that even the most vigilant shopper can take for granted.
The browser used to be just a place to access Web pages, but as more people makes financial transactions and store personal data there, the security of browsers has become vital to consumers at home and IT managers at the office.
[ For complete coverage on Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system -- including hands-on reviews, video tutorials and advice on enterprise rollouts -- see CIO.com's Windows 7 Bible. ]
Microsoft has offered up tips on how to fortify your browser against viruses, spam and malware.
Naturally, Microsoft would prefer you use Internet Explorer 8, although it's worth noting that Internet Explorer has been losing market share throughout 2009, and Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Google's browser Chrome all have security features of their own.
Internet Explorer 8: Five Security Features for Enterprise Users
Internet Explorer currently has 63.6 percent of the browser market share, a six percent drop from January 2009, according to Web metrics company Net Applications.
Here are eight (as in Internet Explorer 8. Get it?) ways to have a safer time shopping online.
Keep your computer's software and browser current. Microsoft's Download Center is a good place to start.
Protect your computer with firewall, antivirus, antispam and antispyware software. Click here for a list of security software providers.
Beware of phishing scams and malware. IE8's SmartScreen Filter feature alerts users if a Web site you are trying to access has been reported as unsafe and allows you to report any unsafe sites you find. SmartScreen Filter and other security features can be accessed in IE8 under the Safety tab in the upper right hand corner.
Protect yourself against cross-site scripting attacks. Cross-site scripting, or XSS, attacks allow malicious code to be injected into Web pages that can lead to identity theft. What's most unsettling about XSS: everything looks normal to the user while unauthorized access is being given to a hacker and sensitive data is being stolen. IE8 has a built-in XSS Filter that is always on.
Identify Fake Web Addresses. By highlighting the domain name of a Web address in black, IE8 makes it easier to see a site's true identity, thus avoiding getting fooled by a deceptive Web site.
Browse more privately. The InPrivate Browsing option in IE8, located under Tools, allows you to surf the Web without the browser storing data about your session. Temporary Internet Files, Web address history, cookies and passwords are all disabled.
Make Sure Payment Web sites Use Encryption. Any Web site that processes credit card information must use encryption. To make sure of this, look for: An "s" after http in the Web address - it should read https; a closed padlock icon in the address bar or at the lower-right corner of the browser window; a green address bar - IE8 uses green to indicate a trustworthy site.
Never Respond to Unsolicited Requests to Update Your Account Information. An e-mail asking to update account information might be a scam for stealing your identity. Legitimate companies never send unsolicited e-mail or instant message requests for your passwords or other personal information.

http://lot-things.blogspot.com/2009/12/8-tips-for-safer-online-shopping.html

Mininova, one of the largest peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing sites next to The Pirate Bay, has now removed most of its links to copyrighted content. The site complied with a Dutch court ruling from August. Mininova has said it is considering appealing that ruling.
Netherlands-based Mininova has risen in recent months as one of the most popular torrent sites on the Internet, alongside The Pirate Bay, which is still maintaining a strong presence despite fines and threats to close down the site. But Mininova had to comply with a court ruling from three months ago, which ordered the site to remove all the links to illegal content.
Removing all illegal torrents from Mininova would mainly leave the site without content. Mininova used to link to several popular categories of copyrighted files, such as TV rips of U.S. prime-time shows (Heroes, Stargate Universe, Fringe, etc.) and the latest music releases from popular artists (Jay Z, Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston, and others).
Mininova also used to be visited by more than five million users daily, but only legal content will be available from now on through the site's Content Distribution Service. This will probably turn away most of the visitors to more obscure torrent sites, in search for popular content.

The Eradication of Torrent Sites?

Due to declining sales, the music and movie giants have been targeting large illegal file-sharing hotspots on the Internet. Mininova's demise is only the latest move in what it looks like an attempt to eradicate torrent sites. The most popular case so far has been The Pirate Bay, which stirred a round of controversy around the world back in April.
Since then, we have seen yet another torrent site going under the radar, demonoid, due to alleged hardware problems. Now, Mininova is just the latest illegal torrents site to fall under the axe of authorities.
However, it is likely that the illegal content that made sites such as Mininova popular will find another home very soon. There are already other up and coming sites serving such content (Btjunkie, isoHunt), next to The Pirate Bay, which despite court order, still keeps its online presence going.

http://lot-things.blogspot.com/2009/11/torrent-giant-mininova-forced-to-go.html

Earlier this week, Google gave the world a first look at the Chrome OS. The press event confirmed what was suspected when Google announced it was working on a netbook operating system four months ago -- it would emphasize speed and simplicity. As the tech world tests versions of the operating system that were compiled from Google's source code it is looking like the project's priorities may be weaknesses.
Chromium OS is simple; so simple that most hands-on impressions are calling it the Chrome browser with a few add-ons. The OS adds features such as a battery life indicator and window management, but lacks a few standards -- such as a way to shut down the OS.
A big advantage to Chrome is that the cloud-based model has the potential for extremely fast computing, including a boot time as short as three seconds. Right now, Chrome OS is getting mixed speed results, which is probably because it is running through virtual machines.
Vladislav Savov of Engadget reports his install booted to the login screen in fewer than ten seconds and was able to browse the Web in another five.
Sean Kalinich from Tweaktown had a far more underwhelming experience. His machine was booting about as fast as a laptop running Windows 7 off a SSD. Here's what he had to say:
"Boot up - From pressing the start (power) link until we hit the log in screen was 14.8 seconds. After typing in our log in information (which HAS to be a Gmail account), it took a further 4.4 seconds to get to the "Desktop", so total boot up time is about 20-25 . . . "
It seems that it is too early to tell if the Chrome OS will be a hit or a flop. To be fair, this is a very early version of the OS that wasn't ever meant to be much more than a browser. As Harry McCracken of Technologizer points out, Google said the OS is subject to quite a bit of change before an official release next year, and critiquing the OS is premature until a close-to-final build is available.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/182819/google_unveils_chrome_os_tech_world_yawns.html

As Google Inc.'s earnings and optimism continue to rise, analysts are cautioning the Internet giant to beware of taking costly missteps with its bankroll and its focus.
Google late last week reported that its third-quarter profit was the company's best since its founding 11 years ago. And unlike some other major tech companies, the dismal economy didn't prevent revenue growth, as sales increased by 7% from the same period last year.
With those positive numbers came news that Google plans to hire a few thousand people and to spend some of its capital on promising start-up companies. Those plans come less than a year after Google had announced plans to lay off 100 recruiters, and shutter engineering offices in Texas, Norway, and Sweden.

Some users trying to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 have seen their PCs crippled by an endless series of reboots, according to reports on Microsoft's support forum. A Microsoft engineer writing on the same forum said the company was investigating users' problems, but he downplayed them as "isolated issues."
Users began posting messages about the endless reboots Friday, saying that the Windows 7 installation would hang two-thirds of the way through the upgrade. They reported a message on their machines that claimed the upgrade had been unsuccessful and that Vista would be restored. Instead, their PCs again booted to the Windows 7 setup process, failed, then restarted the cycle.
"My upgrade failed in [the] last step," said a user identified as "Manjigani" in a thread titled "Windows 7 -- Install Message -- Upgrade Unsuccessful" on the Windows 7 support forum. "And now it is in continuous loop. I let it run overnight hoping that it will fix itself, but no luck. I am stuck in limbo."
"All the promises of stability and simplicity, and now there are so many problems with installation," bemoaned another used, "Derrty," on the same thread. "I can't even access my laptop nor do I have the ability to roll my system back to Vista. All indications are the install removed any trace of Vista."
Other than trying to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, there did not seem to be any common characteristics among the computers or the users' actions. Some said that they had purchased a Windows 7 upgrade electronically from Microsoft's online store, and others said they had downloaded the upgrade from Digital River, the Minneapolis-based company that fulfills Microsoft's $29.99 offer to college students, while still others said they had bought a retail copy of the new operating system at stores like Best Buy.
Users vented their rage online in scores of messages.