Technical Tidbits™

Posts Tagged ‘cyber security alert’

US-Cert has just issued a security alert affecting Adobe Reader versions 9.1.1 and earlier & Adobe Acrobat (Standard, Professional, and 3D) versions 9.1.1 and earlier warning about vulnerabilities that exist that allow an attacker to take control of your computer.

The recommended course of action is to disable JavaScript capabilities in both software.

In Acrobat Preferences menu:

• Open the Edit menu.
• Select Preferences.
• Choose JavaScript.
• Un-check Enable Acrobat JavaScript.

Disable the display of PDF documents in the web browser.

To prevent PDF documents from automatically being opened in a web browser, do the following:

• Open Adobe Acrobat Reader.
• Open the Edit menu.
• Choose the Preferences option.
• Choose the Internet section.
• Un-check the Display PDF in browser check box.

Do not open unfamiliar or unexpected PDF documents.

Read the Adobe Security Bulletin with links to update your product(s) – at the end of the bulletin – here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb09-07.html

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If you are a user of any Intuit products such as:

• Quickbooks  (US, Canada & UK)
• Quicken (US, Canada & UK)
• TurboTax
• Innovative Merchant Solutions
• ProSeries and ProSeries Express – tax years 2003-2006
• ImpôtRapide (Canada)
• QuickTax (Canada)
• Clearly Bookkeeping (UK)

There is a a potential security vulnerability which involves AnswerWorks software, which is licensed from Vantage and developed on Microsoft’s ActiveX platform. It’s used in the “Help” feature of the affected Intuit products.

You will need to download and install a patch to help protect you!

The patch links are available here:

http://about.intuit.com/support/security/