Defensive Computing blogs by Michael Horowitz

An interesting story of how a router was, inadvertently, blocking updates on Windows 10.

Microsoft makes miserable software.

If your Wi-Fi feels slow, don't trust a single speed test.

American Express sent me an email message that really really looked it was a scam, like it was a phishing attempt.

A boring title, but an important article.

A web page may appear to be a single thing, but under the covers it is composed of many individual components.

Sure, you can hover a mouse over a link - just don't trust the results.

Suppose, for example, your router is currently running firmware version 1 and the vendor has released version 2.

Anyone concerned with being tracked on-line needs to be familiar with web browser fingerprinting.

How do you pick a VPN?

Why an nmap probe shows that TCP port 53 is Open when it is really closed.

My router blocks attempts to communicate with a private IP addresses that leave the WAN port.

The upside of using a formula to generate passwords.

One of the many ways I try to defend Windows 10 PCs from the spying Microsoft built into the OS, is with outbound firewall rules.