BCI Blog – Page 2 – JBB3, Home of Benediktson Computer

Frustrating Security Issues

Ah the frustration of it; my browser has just refused to load a video and I have this popup saying I need to update some module. What should I do now? Whatever you do, DO NOT click on the popup; it may be legitimate or it may be an attempt to infect you with viruses.

Please bear with me as I explain what causes this annoying behavior. Many web elements are precompiled to include a player, the necessary codecs (audio and video compression interpreters), and the actual audio and video material (the part we are waiting to experience) into a single web object. We click on the object and instead of watching a video we get some annoying request to upgrade. Our system is likely already fully updated to the latest elements; upgrading it won’t help one bit. Let me repeat that, no amount of upgrading will resolve this problem.

The problem is in the web object we are tying to watch; it contains elements which are out of date. What can we do? In many cases, you will have another popup or status message which further warns you but also gives you the option of accepting the risk or of activating this specific item or maybe even all items like it. If you trust the source of the item, you can go ahead and activate, or allow, or whatever positive option is offered, watch the video, and get on with your browsing.

Adobe Flash alerting that it contains an out of date component

If you do not trust the source of the item, maybe it is best to heed the warnings and not watch, listen, or whatever. If you simply must watch, regardless of all warnings, verify that your firewall and antivirus are functioning and up to date (I do this daily; weekly is adequate) and go for it.

When firefox has alerts, you can choose to allow using the box that pops up in the upper left region

If there is no option to bypass the warnings, then try to identify which “module” (Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, etc.) is being accused and go directly to the author’s download page / service and try performing an update to the module in question. If this doesn’t resolve the issue, you can try contacting the author of the video or sound file to get an updated version of the media item you were trying to experience. (I make these last two recommendations based on issues with how Java and Adobe media products function; sometimes updating the installed module will allow you to safely view media items that contain out of date components).

One final note, sometimes one browser (Internet Explorer, or Firefox) will flag a web item as unsafe but another browser (Chrome, Firefox, or Edge) can safely handle that item.

If you have questions regarding what is unsafe versus what is relatively safer, or want help upgrading or just want help understanding this topic or many others please contact Benediktson Computer, Inc.

email: help@benediktson.com or

call 575-956-9723.

Web Content: When is help not helpful?

So, a minor rant to all folks and ‘bots out there who build websites. I just spent 45 minutes trying to figure out which carrier a vendor uses to ship its products; there was a handy link on their page about “carriers” and another “shipping help”. I had high hopes that one or the other would have information on which shipping method would be used; neither even gave a hint. Please let us all not fall into the Microsoft habit of giving accurate and completely useless answers to questions. When you set up a help page or an information page, please think about what information the person who came to that page might be desiring and offer complete, accurate, AND useful information.

An example (one I have been guilty of) “what would it cost to have you fix my broken computer?” answer: 85 dollars an hour plus parts. This is a perfect example of a Microsoft answer; it is of no use to the owner of the broken computer. A better answer would have been $45 (from a recent repair I did); a good answer would be (again from that incident), I will have your computer back to you in 3 days by noon with a charge of $42.50 for labor and $2.50 in parts for a total bill of $45.

While very little of the information is important to me (the technician), the timing of the return of the product may be as big a part of the expense to the user (who was without that computer for a few days) as the dollars and cents; and, the actual cost is far more useful than my hourly rate or the notion of some undisclosed fee for parts. Similarly, the company that is shipping me parts for a client repair tells me when I can expect the product but not which carrier; this is important because some carriers deliver in the morning, some in the evening, some to P.O. boxes and some only to street addresses and some charge more for residential than business deliveries.

Please think about (or get help thinking about) the audience and what kind of answer is helpful to them; why else have a help page or an information page?