Microsoft will celebrate Safer Internet Day (SID) on February 8, 2011 to raise awareness of online safety and promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile devices. Organized by Insafe, SID is celebrated in more than 60 countries around the world.
Research to be released on Safer Internet Day
Microsoft is supporting Safer Internet Day by releasing new research aimed at understanding awareness and perceptions about online gaming from parents of gamers and gamers themselves. Research findings will be available for download from Microsoft on February 8.
Safer Internet Day gaming events in major cities
In partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Microsoft will also host events in Atlanta, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Families are invited to experience Kinect for Xbox 360 and learn about the importance of establishing healthy and responsible interactive play. If you live in one of the aforementioned areas, please contact your local Boys and Girls Club to see if they are participating. The club will provide event details and registration information.
Online gaming Resources
For more information and downloads to promote healthy play, see:
Data Privacy Day is held every January to increase awareness of privacy issues in our everyday lives. This year, the focus is on new services that track where we are and then can share our location with friends or with the public. Services that use this kind of location tracking bring up new issues that are now referred to as "locational privacy." Facebook Places, Foursquare, Twitter, are among those who offer this service.
In a post on the "Microsoft on the Issues" blog, Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer at Microsoft explains:
Over the past few years, there has been an increase in new technologies and services that track, analyze, and share our movements. With more and more people connecting to the Internet through mobile devices and GPS, as well as the surging popularity of location-aware services, we've seen increasing privacy concerns related to such technologies and services. These services are innovative and clearly beneficial, but people need to understand the privacy implications when they "check in" to their favorite places.
Read more at the "Microsoft on the Issues" blog.
To start protecting your locational privacy, check the settings on your smart phone that use your location and adjust them to a level of security that's right for you. For more guidance, download the Location Based Services Fact Sheet for Consumers (XPS) or Location Based Services Fact Sheet for Consumers (PDF).
Learn more about Data Privacy Day.
The Internet Explorer 9 beta protects against 99 percent of “socially engineered malware,” according to independent researcher NSS Labs.
What is socially engineered malware?
Cybercriminals use socially engineered malware to gain access to your computer. According to NSS Labs, socially engineered malware describes any link that leads to malicious websites or downloads that could harm your computer.
Research shows that these links appear on popular websites and services such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as cybercriminals are increasingly taking advantage of people’s trust in these sites.
How Internet Explorer 9 protects against socially engineered malware
NSS Labs says that the success of Internet Explorer in blocking this kind of malware can be credited to SmartScreen URL filtering (included in Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9) and SmartScreen application reputation (new to Internet Explorer 9).
Here’s how Internet Explorer 9 stacks up against other web browsers when it comes to blocking this kind of malware.
Download Internet Explorer 9.
Read the report from NSS Labs.
We received this email message from a reader:
"My Hotmail account keeps getting hacked and my contacts are getting a message from me requesting money. I had gotten two [email messages] from Microsoft asking me to confirm my Hotmail account with my password. It happened twice and I thought it was authentic. I am thinking that it was a scam."
This is a scam. Microsoft does not send unsolicited email asking for your Hotmail password. You should not send passwords, user names, or other sensitive information in an email message.
For more information about these kinds of scams, see Avoid scams that use the Microsoft name fraudulently.
What should you do?
If you still have access to your account, you should change your Hotmail password. Use our password checker to make sure your new password is strong.
For more information and to find out what to do if you no longer have access to your account, see Recent reports of account hijacks.
Microsoft releases security updates on the second Tuesday of every month. Today Microsoft released of 2 security updates for Microsoft Windows.
Get the updates.
Watch a video about the updates.
New GPS technologies like Facebook Places, Foursquare, Twitter, and others can track, analyze, and share our movements in the public sphere.
But what are the privacy implications?
Will we be expected to take responsibility for our own locational privacy and reputation? What role will the government play in protecting our privacy, without severely hampering the economic potential of this market? What privacy-enhancing technologies are emerging that will enable consumers to choose how their personal information is shared?
On January 26, 2011, Microsoft is sponsoring a panel discussion, hosted by the Churchill Club, about the emerging concerns with locational privacy. If you live or will be in the San Francisco Bay Area, please plan to attend.
SPEAKERS:
Laura Berger, Attorney, Division of Privacy and Identity Protection, Federal Trade Commission
Jim Dempsey, Vice President for Public Policy, Center for Democracy & Technology
Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer, Microsoft
Michael Richter, Chief Privacy Counsel, Facebook
Owen Tripp, Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer, ReputationDefender
Moderator: Melissa Parrish, Research Analyst, Forrester Research
LOCATION:
Parc 55 Wyndham Hotel, San Francisco | Directions
To make reservations and for additional information about the event (including cost) see
Location & Privacy: Where Are We Headed?
The Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification Service offers details about security updates approximately three business days before they are released. We do this to allow customers (especially IT professionals) to plan for effective deployment of security updates.
Advanced Notification includes information about:
For more information about the security updates that will be released on January 11, see Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification for January 2011.
We recently received this email message from a reader:
"I got a call from someone who said that he was from 'Windows Technical Department Support Group.' He said he was calling to fix my security system. He wanted me to log onto a website so he could walk me through a process that would give him access to my computer so he could 'get rid of a virus and fix it.' When I started asking where he was and what he intended to do, he hung up on me."
This is a scam. If you receive a phone call like this, hang up.
Cybercriminals have been calling people on the telephone, claiming to be from Windows or from Microsoft, and offering to help solve their computer problems. Once cybercriminals have gained your trust, they can:
More information