Stories by Roger A. Grimes

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Be paranoid: 10 terrifying extreme hacks

Any device with a computer chip can be hacked, but not all hacks are created equal. In fact, in a world where tens of millions of computers are compromised by malware every year and nearly every company's network is owned, truly innovative or thought-provoking hacks are few and far between.

Roger A. Grimes | 16 Jun | Read more

7 warning signs an employee has gone rogue

For all the emphasis on tools and gizmos, IT is still very much about the people who develop and use said tools and gizmos. Collaboration, mutual respect, passion for the work -- all this and more are essential to a beneficial outcome, whether your IT group is shipping code, swatting bugs, working with business users, or securing company systems.

Roger A. Grimes | 03 Mar | Read more

10 security mistakes that will get you fired

Getting fired from an IT security job is a rare event, but there are certainly ways to ensure or accelerate your own unemployment. I'm not talking about garden-variety mistakes here. After all, most IT workers create or live with lots of little mistakes every day. That's the nature of complex, rewarding work.

Roger A. Grimes | 17 Nov | Read more

The BadUSB exploit is deadly, but few may be hit

Nine years ago, I created what I believe was the world's first USB worm. By playing around with a USB thumb drive and placing a hidden file on it, I was able to make any computer in which the "infected" USB drive was plugged into automatically spread the file to the host computer, then back again when a new USB device was plugged in.

Roger A. Grimes | 09 Oct | Read more

11 sure signs you've been hacked

In today's threatscape, antivirus software provides little piece of mind. In fact, antimalware scanners on the whole are horrifically inaccurate, especially with exploits less than 24 hours old. After all, malicious hackers and malware can change their tactics at will. Swap a few bytes around, and a previously recognized malware program becomes unrecognizable.

Roger A. Grimes | 03 Feb | Read more

11 sure signs you've been hacked

In today's threatscape, antivirus software provides little piece of mind. In fact, antimalware scanners on the whole are horrifically inaccurate, especially with exploits less than 24 hours old. After all, malicious hackers and malware can change their tactics at will. Swap a few bytes around, and a previously recognized malware program becomes unrecognizable.

Roger A. Grimes | 04 Nov | Read more