Silicon Technix

In previous versions of PuTTY, 0.59, 0.60 and 0.61, the password used to log on to an SSH2 server was retained in memory.
The password was then retrievable by other programs that could read the memory, or could be found in swap files and crash dumps.
The update also fixes non-security-related errors including correcting the rendering of underlines and VT100 line-drawing characters, removing a spurious GSSAPI authentication message, restoring saved sessions, and closing a leak of file mapping handles when authentication failed.

Details of the changes are in the release notes. Pre-built binaries and source code for the MIT-licensed PuTTY are available to download.

Microsoft launched a website today designed to give users a detailed look at how secure their browser is. The site, called Your Browser Matters, automatically detects the visitor's browser and returns a browser security score on a scale of four points.

When you visit the site, called Your Browser Matters, it allows you to see a score for the browser you’re using. Well, if you’re using IE, Chrome, or Firefox—other browsers are excluded. Not surprisingly, Microsoft’s latest release, Internet Explorer 9, gets a perfect 4 out of 4

Link: Your Browser Matters

Mozilla announced today the official release of Firefox 8

The built-in search box in Firefox’s navigation toolbar has been extended to support Twitter searches. Users can now select Twitter from the drop-down list of available search engines. Mozilla partnered with Twitter earlier this year to release a special build of Firefox that ties into the social network. The search box integration from that custom build is now part of the official Firefox release.

Another noteworthy user-facing feature in Firefox 8 is stricter control over side-loaded add-ons. Mozilla is cracking down on third-party applications that install add-ons in Firefox without the user’s knowledge or permission.

If Firefox 8 detects side-loaded add-ons when it starts, it will disable them by default and display a prompt asking the user if they want the add-on to be enabled. This will help protect users from invasive toolbars and other unwanted cruft.

In addition to these new browser features, Firefox 8 also has some improvements under the hood. The browser’s HTML rendering engine has gained support for cross-origin resource sharing, a feature that will allow a website to load WebGL textures from other sites. WebSockets also got a boost in this release with an updated implementation that conforms with the latest draft specifications

Users can download Firefox 8 from Mozilla’s website. The new version will also be rolled out to users through the stable update channel.

To enable hibernation. To do this, follow these steps:

1.	Click Start , click All Programs , and then click Accessories .
2.	Right-click Command Prompt , and then click Run as administrator . If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow .
3.	At the prompt in the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type powercfg -h on

If you want to disable Hibernation completely

At the prompt in the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type powercfg -h off

Facebook recently unveiled  the most dramatic updates to its privacy settings in a year. Out of all of them, there’s one new feature that you really must turn on as soon as it becomes available to you: profile review.

Here’s how to activate profile review.

1. Click on “account” in the upper right-hand corner of your screen, then click on “privacy settings.” 2. Next to “how tags work,” click “edit settings.” 3. Within the “how tags work” pop-up, click “edit” next to “profile review.” 4. In the next pop-up, click “turn on profile review.”

Now, whenever you are tagged in a photo or a post, you’ll have to approve it before it appears on in your news feed or your wall.

Tagged posts and photos will appear in your profile wall in a new section called “pending posts.”

Photos or posts tagged with your name will still appear on your friend’s wall and feed, so your mutual friends will see them.

But Facebook now gives you the option to ask your friend to take down photos of you that you don’t like. And you can always block a friend who refuses to consider your opinions.

Firefox 7 isn't just about speed, there's also a long list of security patches. Surprisingly, a fix for the SSL BEAST attack is not one of them.

Mozilla is patching it's Firefox Web browser for at least 10 vulnerabilities, seven of which are rated as being "critical." Firefox 7 was released on Tuesday offering users the promised of improved performance and better memory usage.

On the security front, the Firefox 7 release provides a critical fix for what Mozilla describes as, "Miscellaneous memory safety hazards."

"Mozilla developers identified and fixed several memory safety bugs in the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based products,"
Mozilla stated in its advisory. "Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances, and we presume that with enough effort at least some of  these could be exploited to run arbitrary code."

There is also a critical fix for an interesting flaw that could have been triggered by having a user hold down the 'Enter' key. By holding
down the key, code could potentially be installed without a user's knowledge.

"Mariusz Mlynski reported that if you could convince a user to hold down the Enter key — as part of a game or test, perhaps — a malicious
page could pop up a download dialog where the held key would then activate the default Open action," Mozilla warned.

Other critical flaws that are fixed in Firefox 7 include potentially exploitable crashes in WebGL graphics and the YARR regular expression
library. Firefox 7 also provides a fix for a high impact flaw where cross-site scripting (XSS) could have been enabled via plugins.

There is also a fix in Firefox 7 for a flaw rated as "moderate" that is triggered by the motion of a device. Mozilla's advisory noted that a recent research paper detailed how it would be possible to inferring keystrokes from device motion data on mobile devices.

"Web pages can now receive data similar to the apps studied in that paper and likely present a similar risk," Mozilla warned. "We have decided to limit motion data events to the currently-active tab to prevent the possibility of background tabs attempting to decipher
keystrokes the user is entering into the foreground tab."

SSL BEAST

While Firefox 7 addresses multiple security issues, it is not taking specific aim at the recent disclosure of potential SSL vulnerabilities. Overall, Mozilla has publicly noted that they do not believe Firefox to currently be at risk from the SSL BEAST attack