just act like you know what you are doing
Chaosreader is a perl program for taking tcpdump logs (pcap files) and beating them into a readable, usable format. HTML, for example. If you ever work with tcpdump files this is a must see.
Filed under: Computers, documentation, SecurityAs a computer professional, I have seen several cases where problems were caused by “slipping a digit” or “fat fingers” typing out the wrong number.
As a network security professional I deal daily with the effects of having millions of insecure computers connected to the Internet. Few know better than I the havoc and danger that situation could impose. In my office we regularly and offhandedly contrive plausable situations where clever exploitation of the Internet as it stands today could have a significant impact on real — offline — life as we know it. And usually these theories don’t require any huge physicist brainpower, just a little malice and the patience required to put together a model train.
So I am doubly horrified when I read about a bungled investigation in which a wrong IP address brings real-life horror to innocent people. Americans. In America.
It causes the public, the real people who would presumably benefit the most from a well-wired society that works cheaper, faster, and more efficiently to ask Do ‘computer police’ have too much power?
I was held at gunpoint, searched, taunted, and led into the house. I had no idea what this was about. I was scared beyond description.
…
My wife and I were interrogated about Internet crime. … we do not even e-mail.
…
Our home was searched by a para-military search-and-seizure team.
…
At 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 2, the chief investigator of Pittsylvania County returned our possessions and said that the wrong IP (computer) address had been identified. We would not be charged.
Think about it.
Filed under: Computers, Politics, Security, The Internet
Sun has really taken this shipping container modularization thing to a whole new level with their Project Blackbox. A datacenter in a box? Oh wow, that’s cool. Be sure you click on the link for Scenarios where they’ve done some interesting photoshopping.
I just have one question … how much will one of these things cost?
Filed under: ComputersYou may call it a dirty campaign, but I think Apple releasing a iPods with a virus that impacts Windows computers is hilarious. Of course I’m not supportive of deceptive or malicoius behavior. But I find real amusement in the time bomb it sets up for Apple. If you read their description of the situation you notice a certain lack of contrition in the tone. They say, oh it’s just a “small number — less than 1%” (yeah, of eight million). Over and over they call it a “Windows virus” but the virus wasn’t written by Microsoft. It was written to target Microsoft Windows machines because they are the easiest targets and most widely distributed platform. With the increasing popularity of OS X comes an increase in the threats to that platform. In the future it will be platform-independent or a OS X -targeted malware that gets distributed on some popular consumer device and, well, let’s just hope Apple has some good recipes for how to eat crow.
This is not a Windows problem any more than the flammability of gasoline is a car problem. Fundamentally this is a social problem exacerbated by the lack of diversity in the computing environment. Windows just happens to be the easy and productive target, for now.
Furthermore, looking up RavMonE.exe in the Sophos threat database we learn that it installs a backdoor and contacts a list of sites to report successful infection. I sure would love to get a copy of the version on the iPods and find out what sites are in that list!
Filed under: Computers, SecurityLet’s pretend that a file is called secrets and is full of information that I don’t want anyone else to know. I can encrypt just that file using the GNU Privacy Guard like this:
gpg -c secrets
enter a passphrase
enter passphrase again
You’re done! But now both the original file secrets and the encrypted file secrets.gpg exist so:
rm secrets
To view the contents of the encrypted file simply:
gpg -d secrets
and give the passphrase when prompted.
If you lose your passphrase, well, tough luck.
Filed under: Computers, documentation, SecurityBruce Schneier today in Wired News: Quickest Patch Ever
…economics is a much more powerful motivator than security.
It is a brilliant and simple article. And you should note that everything in it that damns Microsoft could apply equally to Apple if they were to get into something as stupid as DRM.
I also like the point that Schneier makes to the effect of: Microsoft doesn’t give a damn if the whole bloody internet gets housed by malware. It doesn’t really impact their business anyway.
Microsoft is in the business of making money, and keeping users secure by patching its software is only incidental to that goal.
In case you don’t know my stance: I’m not anti-Microsoft. I believe in using the right tool for the job. I also believe that the total cost involved in owning and maintaining a Microsoft-based system is prohibitively high. I’m also very sceptical of anything they offer because it always seems to include gratiuitous modifications and extensions to established protocols and it always seems to lead to continuiously spending more money to keep the Microsoft-based machine running.
Filed under: Computers, SecurityI know you run antivirus software on your computer, but don’t forget about the other kind of virus your computer can transmit, the dreaded Keyboard Cooties.
Of course, you can get the same stuff from doorknobs, payphones, money, shopping carts, and anything else you touch, so either
or
The canonical argument against hand sanitizers is that they create supergerms that eat Purell for breakfast and grow so venomous that they present an excessive threat tot he population. This doesn’t seem to be true, at least according to Pfizer. It does, however kill off the kinds of “germs” that are beneficial to you, which can be considered a problem. My biggest problem with them, however is simply that my body’s natural defense system does’t get exercised, therefore making me more vulnerable than I should be to the junk in my environment. Sure, there may be occasions where I feel a little extra caution is in order and I generally don’t eat food that has landed on the floor (for more than five seconds), but generally these hand sanitizers scare me.
Maybe I’m starting to sound like an old codger who can’t accept the change that comes with new technology developed during my lifetime. Maybe not all progress is forward movement.
Filed under: Computers, Real Life, WorkstationHere’s a two part article on building a mail server based on FreeBSD.
part one and part two
update: Look! Everyone is doing it!
part one - http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/secure_email_server_bsd_part_1
part two - http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/secure_email_servers_from_scratch_with_freebsd_6_part_2
Oops …
When I got my Mac mini, I determined I could save a few bucks by not getting a RAM upgrade from Apple and, by carefully following the instructions on websites (like these from Macworld) I could upgrade the memory myself. I’m not afraid of the inside of a computer, no.
But I am afraid of the procedure to open up one of these boxes. The case is held together with fifteen plastic clips that DO NOT want to be un-clipped from the inside of the warm, aluminum body. While I understand that, I’m unaccustomed to applying to sensitive and fragile electronic devices such pressure as is necessary to disassemble this computer. So, not wanting to break anything and not wanting to get any extra cat hair inside the little silver box, I left it shut and ordered two 1GB sticks of fast RAM (DDR2-667 MHz PC2-5300) and waited patiently.
Then today it arrived and, as you can probably guess by the title of this post it wasn’t the right stuff. See, I didn’t realize that part of changes necessary to shift to the Intel processor (and add the IR port for the Apple Remote), they changed to notebook-style 200-pin SODIMM memory modules which are significantly smaller than the standard kind I ordered. Yeah, that means what I’ve got won’t fit. Now I guess we see if the place that pricewatch showed as the lowest-cost retailer will play nice or screw me out of 15% restocking fee (read: idiot tax).
And it turns out that the instructions I need to be following are this Intel Mac mini: Take Apart Guide (RAM & HD).
Keep watching this space, I may soon be telling you that the nerd in your life really wants some upgraded RAM, even if he doesn’t know it yet.
Filed under: Computers, Workstation
