Dave Pogue of the NY Times has an interesting video on third party applications for the iPhone and the iTunes update bricking.
Filed under: Apple Computers, Hacking, In The News , iPhone
September 3, 2007 • 10:36 am 1
Lifehacker Posts Unethical Article on Hacking
I subscribe to Lifehacker, but this article about accessing banned sites at work is in poor judgement and totally unethical.
If you’re (for whatever reason) blocked from viewing a particular web site, tech site WebStuffScan has posted a list of ten different strategies you can use to access the forbidden.
A lot of this is familiar ground: convert the IP address, anonymous proxies, etc.Search Techniques: Ten Ways to Access Banned Sites – Lifehacker
As an IT administrator I see this as a case of employees not doing their job in a work situation. I work very hard to enforce managements policies and report any misuse of company computers or resources. Having to watch other employees in a big brother manner is not a fun job, while it takes away from friendly interaction with others because they know you are watching them. It also takes away from other more important things that I could be doing to help these employees make their jobs easier.
It comes down to these basics in the workplace:
- The company you work for for pays you a wage to do a job, not hack around company banned sites.
- It has the right to restrict web usage, email and anything else it wants while you are at work or using company resources.
- If you don’t like the policies of your workplace, either try to change those policies the the proper way through channels, or find another job that lets you goof off at banned sites.
Filed under: Computer Security, Hacking, Networking, Technology , Ethics, Technology and Software
August 3, 2007 • 8:07 pm 0
NBC Sends Mole to Black Hat Convention
The news media is getting pretty desperate when they have to send a producer into the Black Hat Convention in Las Vegas.
Threat Level reports that Dateline NBC has sent an undercover mole with a hidden camera to the DefCon hacker conference. Dateline is hoping to get videos of hackers talking about crimes they committed.
Source: Boing Boing: Dateline NBC’s DefCon mole has been outed
Technorati tags: Black Hat, Technology, Hackers
Filed under: Hacking, Technology , Black Hat
December 16, 2006 • 11:07 pm 0
WiFi Security Hole?
I just stumbled across this article in TechWeb “Why Didn’t Microsoft Update Everyone With XP Wireless Fix?” and was wondering why I hadn’t heard about it from any of the mainstream sources that I normally see this from. It seems that the Microsoft Security article was written/revised on November 21, 2006, which is over 3 weeks ago. Microsoft hasn’t pushed the hotfix and seems to call it a in a round about way a feature.
Here’s the scoop from MS:
In Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Wireless Auto Configuration tries to match preferred wireless networks to wireless networks that broadcast their network name. If no network matches a preferred wireless network, Wireless Auto Configuration sends probe requests to determine whether the preferred networks are nonbroadcast networks. In this manner, a Windows XP wireless client advertises its list of preferred wireless networks. An observer may monitor these probe requests and configure a wireless network by using a name that matches a preferred wireless network. If the wireless network is not secured, this network could enable unauthorized connections to the computer. (Emphasis Added) The Wireless Client Update lets you configure wireless networks as broadcast networks or as nonbroadcast networks. Additionally, Wireless Auto Configuration sends probe requests only for nonbroadcast networks.
So basically someone could get your list of preferred networks and if unsecured could gain access to your computer. Even though they can’t access a secure network at that point, there are programs designed to find passwords for secure networks. I personally don’t think it is a big deal if you are using WPA2 and a good password scheme, I can’t emphasize enough GOOD password scheme. A lot of this depends on how well you have secured your wireless. In the past I’ve given people the benefit of doubt, but that has come back to bite me. Now I go with the lowest possible denominator and assume that anyone who asks me doesn’t have good security until I’ve questioned them in detail.
In conclusion, I believe it would be in the best interest of every wireless user to download and apply this hot fix.
Filed under: Computer Industry, Hacking, Internet, Laptops and Accessories, Microsoft, Technology , About computer software, Computers, Computers & Internet, laptops, Microsoft.com, Notebook Computers, Notebook/Laptops, Windows/Microsoft
November 24, 2007 • 12:50 am 0
Comment Spammers are Smart…Not!
I get a fair amount of spam comments each day, about 10% versus page hits. They run the normal from mortgage to porn to place your favorite drugs name here. Moderating comments prevents them from making their way into the main comments, while Akismet gets 99% of the rest.
Today Akismet caught a comment spam that was actually computer related, but showed the lack of intelligence these spammers have. It’s like all forms for ID theft or phishing, poor grammar, spelling or just plain stupid. The spam comment I had today went like this:
Now, how can someone who supposedly is in the computer field find a simple post about where to find Vista audio drivers hard to understand. That just makes the spam stand out, while making me wonder why would anyone buy a computer from someone that doesn’t have a clue about the hardware.
So, comment spammers if you want to try to get your spam through the filters you should:
Lastly, if you would put the same amount of effort into something legitimate you could actually do some great things for the world.
Technorati tags: Blogging, Spam, Hacking
Filed under: Blogging, Hacking , comment spam, spam, spammers