gHacks technology news » Security

After Cyborg Beetles We Now Have Sniffer Bees

Shailpik — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:05:41 +0000

Next time you visit an airport, there’s a chance of you being sniffed by, not dogs, but bees. Yes, they are now down to training bees to sniff and apparently it is proving to be extremely successful.

While the cyborg beetles in my last post are still nowhere near practical implementation, these sniffer bees are already being used to detect suspect chemicals that are used in explosives. Thankfully, unlike their cyborg brethren, these insects are actually there to stop the violence before it happens by sniffing out bombs and explosives.

These bees are normal honeybees that have been trained to respond to certain chemicals. They are rewarded for responding correctly to the chemicals. This is the same training procedure that is used to train dogs and other animals to respond to certain stimulus, usually smell. Another procedure used to train animals is by inducing pain whenever they make a mistake. This is used to train them to avoid certain things or to take one specific path through a maze.

A company called Insentinel is behind training these bees by exposing them to tiny samples of chemicals. Bees are extremely sensitive when it comes to picking up traces in the air, so they make for perfect sniffers. It has already been shown that they can pick up the traces in concentrations to the tune of one in one million million. As the reporter puts it, that is like a grain of salt in a swimming pool.

Sources are of the opinion that the system may be in place within a year from now. So the next time you are at the airport and hear a strange buzzing noise, you’ll know there’s no place to hide. [Telegraph]

Tags: explosives, honeybees, Security, sniffer, terrorists

F-Secure Health Check 2.0 Beta Ditches ActiveX

Martin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:08:31 +0000

F-Secure Health Check is a web application that can perform a health check of a local Microsoft Windows operating system. A health check is basically divided into three areas of interest that are checked and an assessment in the end that lists possible solutions to the problems encountered. Area one will check for installed security software and display information about their state, e.g. if an anti-virus software or desktop firewall is installed and turned on.

Area two will do the same for backup software. It will list installed backup software and inform the user about the state that the installations are in. Area three which is probably the most interesting one to many Windows users will check various critical software programs and compare their version with the one in the F-Secure database. Health Check in this step checks programs like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the Adobe Flash plugin, Mozilla’s Firefox or Sun’s Java runtime.

The information in the solution tab obviously depend on the results of the system scan. A solve button will be displayed if problems have been found in one of the areas that have been investigated by the program. The solutions do fall a bit short, at least in the security tab as the program suggests to use F-Secure products to solve the problem.

It is only natural that a company wants to promote their products. The web application would however be useful to more users if they would have added some choice to the diagnosis. The new beta version of F-Secure Health Check 2 has ditched Microsoft’s ActiveX technology for Java. This means that it is now compatible with a wider range of Internet browsers. The developers list Internet Explorer and Firefox only but it has been successfully tested with Google Chrome as well which increases the chance that other web browsers that support Java will run the application fine as well.

Users who want to give F-Secure Health Check 2 Beta a try can go to the F-Secure website to run it from there.

Tags: f-secure, health check, Security, security check, security-software, web application

PC Security: Tips To Make Your PC More Secure

Martin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:55:22 +0000

A friend recently asked me a bunch of questions about PC security. How dangerous email was, how people could attack a website and so forth. The answers to his questions led to this article which is not going to cover the usual PC security recommendations that always include using antivirus software, a firewall or malware software. Yes, those programs do help but they are not fool proof and it happened more than once in the past that PC systems were hacked even if they were running an antivirus software and firewall.

I want to go beyond the usual recommendations to discuss PC security issues that many users do not think about at all or not enough.

Update

You can install a secure operating system, an award winning anti-virus software and firewall and still fall prey to attackers through outdated system components. Programs that are used on the computer system need to be up to date. That is especially true for the operating system and programs that connect to the Internet. This includes the web browser (including web browser plugins like Flash), email client, instant messengers, but also the security software programs (which usually come with automatic updates turned on). The computer is vulnerable if the operating system and programs are not up to date.

Email

There are only three rules for emails: Do not open attachments, do not click on links and do not use HTML emails. Email attachments can contain malicious software. They usually do if the sender is unknown or by a company that never send you attachments before. Links can be disguised to look as if they point to a trustworthy website when in fact they lead to a phishing website to grab your username and password. HTML emails can be used to exploit the browsing engine and are also used for tracking users.

Here is how I handle these three risks. Attachments send by friends are usually safe. It is important to check the extension of the attachment. I’m cautious if it is an executable (even when send by a friend). Executables send by senders I do not know are deleted instantly. I check the remaining executable attachments at the online service Virus Total. If I’m still unsure I contact the friend asking about the attachment and why it was send to me.

I never click on links in the email client. If it points to a site I know I open the site manually in my web browser. I otherwise check if the link text and the link are pointing to the same url. If they do I copy and paste the link in my web browser (Firefox with Noscript, so barely any risk here). I do not have to supply username and password since I do not know the service so no fear of phishing in this case.

HTML can be disabled in most email clients.

The Web

I use Firefox mainly for the add-ons and in particular because of the NoScript add-on which provides an excellent layer of security (it disables all scripts by default with the option to enable them individually again). NoScript takes care of most threats on the Internet if it is used in the right way. Someone who always enables all scripts on a website (because it is faster than enabling only some) is not more protected than someone without NoScript. If you enable scripts only on websites that you trust then you are well protected (yes there is always a tiny chance that you are attacked on these sites as well e.g. through malicious banner advertisement).

Another add-on that I have come to love is Last Pass. A password manager and secure password generator that can create and remember passwords and profile information. Last Pass connects urls and passwords which is an excellent phishing protection as well. Say you have username and password saved in Last Pass for PayPal.com. If you open a phishing website that mimics the PayPal website you will notice that Last Pass will not automatically fill out the username and password. Something that the add-on would have done on the real PayPal website.

Files that can be executed are another threat on the Internet. A good way of dealing with those files is to use Virus Total again to check them out before executing them on the local system. It is advised to only download these files from trustworthy sources (big download portals, websites of trusted developers).

Verdict

The majority of attacks can be rendered useless with the right PC security. Updates are probably the most important part of every PC security strategy but caution is a close second. It is always advised to double-check a file or site. This might take more time but it can prevent attacks on a computer system which will save the user lots of time in the end.

Tags: email security, firefox, last pass, noscript, pc security, Security

Help the fight against phishing with Phishtank

Joe — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:13:48 +0000

For anti-phishing tools to work, phishing sites must be identified to analyse and to warn people about.

Sites like Web of Trust allow users to share information about phishing sites, but scores of similar tools exist and as it would be counter-productive for each to maintain their own database of phishing sites.

PhishTank centralises phishing reports and allows developers to use their data free-of-charge in their own applications, with manual or automatic download enabled (although the latter requires a free API key).

PhishTank offers a service a lot of web users will use without even realising it. Whilst certain tools might submit their data to PhishTank too, you can help your fellow web users and fight phishers through submitting data directly to PhishTank.

With a free registered account, reports can be submitted through a web interface or through email. It is extremely easy to send the next phishing attempt that manages to get through your spam filters to PhishTank. Providing you have that email address registered with them, all you have to do it forward it to phish (at) phishtank.com .

Whilst it might not directly benefit you to do so, you are helping users who might help you too. If nothing else, you are keeping your credit card interest rate down marginally, as your bank has to pay less out to compensate phishing victims!

Tags: anti-phishing, antiphishing, phishing, phishtank, Security, social-phishing, web of trust

Wordpress Remote Admin Password Reset Vulnerability

Martin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:46:08 +0000

The password of my Wordpress admin account was not valid when I tried to login today. I first thought it was a problem with the LastPass password manager and tried to see if I was still logged into the service. When I checked my email inbox I noticed that I have received a new password for the account. That was strange since I did not request a new password. It was not that much of a concern to me as I thought that someone might have used the password reset functionality to reset the password which meant that physical access to the new password was not possible.

A new post appeared on the Wordpress discussion list today revealing more details about the process. Everyone is apparently able to reset a Wordpress password if the email address of the Wordpress user is known. All that needs to be done is to point the web browser at http://www.domain.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword to reset the password. The email address of the account holder has to be supplied in the form. Wordpress usually will send a confirmation email first asking the email account owner if the password should be reset. The vulnerability manipulates the query to skip this step.

It is not possible to exploit this vulnerability further which means attackers cannot get access to the user account. It can however be theoretically be used to reset the password regularly to lock the user or admin out of the Wordpress blog.

A temporary fix for the remote admin password reset vulnerability was posted. Wordpress administrators need to change one line of code in the wp-login.php file of the Wordpress installation to protect their blog from the attack.

Replace

if ( empty( $key ) )

With

if ( empty( $key ) || is_array( $key ) )

It is advised to apply the temporary fix as soon as possible to Wordpress installations.

Tags: blog, Security, wordpress, wordpress exploit, wordpress password reset, wordpress vulnerability

Log in to websites with your site’s URL as your OpenID

Joe — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:12:56 +0000

A few years ago, Martin covered OpenID, an open authentication system. Since then, it has become increasingly popular and a wide range of sites, from AOL to LiveJournal provide OpenIDs, and OpenID login is also quite common. OpenID is particularly popular for blog comments, with Blogger now integrating support for it.

An OpenID is an URL. However, using an URL like http://computerjoe.myopenid.com/ to log-in and post comments with just doesn’t look sophisticated. I much prefer to use my own blog’s URL to post comments and log-in; it pumps traffic to my blog and frankly just looks better.

Whilst you could run your own OpenID identity server to do this, this takes quite a bit of expertise to set-up and whilst it is probably more secure, it isn’t needed in my opinion.

It is possible to use a any identity server with your website’s URL. I personally use MyOpenID, but I log in to sites with joeanderson.co.uk/blog; not with computerjoe.myopenid.com.

This can be done by simply adding a few lines of HTML to your website’s .

For example, I put

Naturally, these have to be modified depending on your username and server, but the provider should provider the information.

There are several benefits using this type of OpenID identificatin. The main one is that it just looks better but the most practical one is probably that it allows you to change provider whilst keeping the same log on. So, if I suddenly decide not to use MyOpenID, I can change to any other provider but my URL remains the same.

Tags: authentication, authorisation, html, id, my open id, myopenid, openid, passwords, Security, username, web

How To Download Files From The Internet The Secure Way

Martin — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:46:52 +0000

Everyone who uses an Internet connection is downloading files from there. It can be automatic file transfers like downloading new emails or filling the browser cache when opening new websites but also manual downloads of pictures, videos or programs. The most dangerous type of downloads are program executables as they can infect a computer system easily if the user has no precautions in place. The following article will give users of every experience level some guidelines at hand on how to download and handle files that are downloaded from the Internet.

It all begins at a website or server. This is the starting point and it might be a good idea to start validating that server before even thinking about downloading files from there. This can be done manually by performing some searches in search engines but also automatically with browser add-ons or plugins like Web of Trust, McAfee’s Site Advisor and a plethora of other respected programs including local security software that can also check websites and servers.

The second step involves downloading the file to the local computer system. There is not a lot that can be done here in this step. The only defense are security software programs that are installed on the computer system that should scan the file and report back to the user if they believe it to be malicious. Cautious users can also use one of the many online virus scanners to upload the file and scan it online. Services like Virus Total scan the files with more than a dozen different up to date antivirus engines resulting in a more precise analysis of the file.

Another option is to check the hash values of the downloaded files to make sure that they have not been tampered with. This only makes sense if the developer is displaying the values on a trusted website.

It is pretty safe to assume that the file is safe and can be executed on the computer system if it did pass the tests. There is however a last step that can be done to add the extra mile of security: Virtualization. Programs like Sandboxie or VMWare Player make it possible to execute programs in a closed environment for testing purposes. The benefit of this approach is that they cannot harm the rest of the computer system if they should be malicious.

Did we leave something out? Let us know in the comments.

Tags: file downloads, files, internet, malicious software, Security, security programs

Password Recovery Questions Make Online Accounts Vulnerable

Martin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:19:54 +0000

Password recovery questions are great to recover a forgotten password in a matter of seconds. All that needs to be done is to answer the password recovery question to receive a new password in the email inbox. This does however make email hacking a profitable business as email accounts are usually connected to online stores and other web services. Attackers with access to a compromised email account only need to answer the secret question to retrieve the password of the web account. This matter is definitely more secure than sending out the password without confirmation on the user’s request.

A recent study shows on the other hand that password recovery questions are usually answered honestly. Questions about the birth town, mother’s maiden name or first animal name can sometimes be easily guesses. The study asked acquaintances of 32 webmail users to guess the answer to the secret question. Roughly 20% of these answers were guessed correctly.

Password recovery questions should therefor not be answered honestly. Experienced users fill them out with password like characters which makes the answers more or less impossible to guess. These answers can then be stored in password managers as notes.

How do you handle password recovery questions?

Tags: accounts, Email, online security, password recovery, password recovery questions, passwords, secret questions, Security

Computer Security Myth: Defeating Keyloggers With Onscreen Keyboards

Martin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:57:51 +0000

I recently came upon a few articles that once again offered the computer security tip to use onscreen keyboards to defeat keyloggers. Most of these tips are suggesting to install an onscreen keylogger or make use of the default one of the operating system to defeat keyloggers while making transactions on the Internet or working with sensible data.

The theory that keyloggers can be defeated with onscreen keyboards is unfortunately a computer security myth. It is definitely true that some keyloggers, especially those that only record the keys that the user enters on the computer computer keyboard, can be defeated with onscreen keyboards.

There are however advanced keyloggers which make a screenshot of the onscreen keyboard while it visible on the computer screen and which record the mouse movements on the system. It is then a matter of simply reconstructing the mouse movement to know exactly what a user typed on a computer system.

There is only one 100% way of defeating keyloggers and that is to not use computer systems for sensitive information. That’s not always practicable and it is possible to reduce the chance that keyloggers are installed by running good antivirus programs.

Tags: computer keyboard, computer security, internet, internet security, keyloggers, onscreen keyboard, Security

The Most Dangerous Web Search Terms

Martin — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:54:25 +0000

Which search terms would make it on the list if you would have to compile a list of the ten most dangerous web search terms? Most users would probably add search terms like warez, cracks and sex when asked to compile a top ten list. A recent McAfee study on the other hand came to a completely different conclusion. The ten most dangerous web search terms are everyday search terms that cannot be connected easily with malicious intent. The top spot is occupied by searches for Screensavers, followed by free games, work from home and Rihanna with Barrack Obama, the iPhone and Taxes in the list as well. It should however be noted that the top 10 list is made up of categories and not single search terms.

These search terms are more dangerous than, lets say warez, because most users know that warez can lead to malicious software quite easily while they most likely do not suspect the same from these popular search terms.

The McAfee researches searched for more than 2600 popular keywords examining the first five pages of results across five popular search engines with McAfee’s Site Advisor technology. The top 50 most dangerous search terms in the US were listed in the research paper as well. The phrase “word unscrambler” is taking up the top spot followed by lyrics, myspace and free music downloads.

The researches discovered that lyrics and free made up the two most category-specific risks on the web these days. The research paper can be downloaded directly at McAfee.

Tags: dangerous search, internet, Search Engines, search terms, searching, Security, web search

Microsoft Security Bulletin May 2009

Martin — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:05:31 +0000

Microsoft has released the Security Bulletin for May 2009 which contains one Microsoft Office PowerPoint vulnerability which affects various editions of Microsoft Office but also the Microsoft Office PowerPoint Viewer and Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack. Affected are Microsoft Office PowerPoint editions in Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 2007. The security update is rated as critical for Microsoft Office 2000 editions and important for all other affected editions of Microsoft Office and software programs by Microsoft.

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability and several privately reported vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office PowerPoint that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted PowerPoint file. An attacker who successfully exploited any of these vulnerabilities could take complete control of an affected system. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

The security update is available on Windows Update and Microsoft Update. Additional information and links can be found at the Security Bulletin that has been created for the security vulnerability. Users of affected software programs are encouraged to perform the security update as soon as possible.

Tags: microsoft security bulleting, microsoft-office, Security, security bulletin, security vulnerability, windows updates

Five good reasons to switch to Linux

Jack Wallen — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:12:15 +0000

One of the most oft-asked questions I get is “Why should I switch to Linux?” It comes to me either via inbox or sound waves attacking my aural system every day. This has been going on for over ten years now I’ve heard the question from different locations on the globe, in different languages, from all ages, and in some odd locales. What is interesting about this question is that the answers, over the years, haven’t really changed that much. The order of importance has altered somewhat, but the answers have all pretty much remained the same.

So I thought I would bring these answer to the outstanding readers here at gHacks to inspire conversation on the topic. Without further adieu, let’s answer that age-old question. I am going to apply the order to today’s landscape, which of course includes the state of the world’s economy (That’d be a hint at number 1).

1. Cost. This is one of the most hotly debated issues surrounding the debate between Windows and Linux. Which is cheaper? One of the reasons this particular point is so hotly debated is because a simple acronym: TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Why this gets in the way is because it makes developing actual, real numbers rather fuzzy. This fuzziness occurs because of the assumption that all involved in the migration would have to be paid to be educated. In my opinion this is an issue fettered to past releases of the operating system that didn’t enjoy nearly the user-friendliness that today’s Linux enjoys. This issue could also easily apply to migrations from, say Windows XP to Windows Vista or Windows 7. Both are technologies unfamiliar to the users. But the metaphors are the same. The user will still recognize the task bar, start menu, right and left mouse click, notification area, drop down menus, keyboard shortcuts…the basic things an end user needs to know to work. Making a comparison between modern Windows and modern Linux and you see these fundamental issues are pretty much the same.

So now you can look at the issue of cost on more equal footing. Now the $0.00 price tag on every Linux installation you have in your enterprise starts to look really good. Top that off with the $0.00 price tag of OpenOffice and nearly every Linux app you will need to get by and you can see how the savings will quickly pile up. And in today’s economy that type of savings means a ton.

2. Reliability. This ties in perfectly with the number one. The reliability of an operating system is directly proportional to the over all cost of said operating system. How? The more reliable your system, the less work will be spent keeping it running. The more reliable your system the more productive your users will be. And Linux has been proven, time and again, to be one of the most reliable operating systems available. A study was done by IBM to test the reliabilty of the Linux operating system in an enterprise envrionment. The results were very telling. Read the full results on the IBM Linux Reliability test page.

3. Security. I have said this so many times before. I have been using Linux for over ten years now and not once have I experienced a virus, a worm, a root kit, a piece of malware, or a hacker. Not once. I have also deployed countless Apache servers, mail servers, file servers, etc. and have yet to have issue. I have, on the other hand, had to deal with many, many Windows users who have suffered from malware, viruses, trojans, worms, etc. I have reformatted, re-installed, and trouble shooted (shot?) so many instances of an infected or hacked Windows machines I have lost count.

4. Freedom. From the beginning Linux has been about freedom. This freedom is all about the user and the freedom from software that offers no opportunity for the user to change the way the software behaves. Recently the Linux Foundation held a contest for a “We’re Linux” video. The winning entry elegantly explains what software freedom is all about. See the video here. Freedom is one of the main reasons why I use Linux. When a piece of software doesn’t behave in exactly the manner I want it to behave I change it. Open source allows me to do that. Try altering the behavior of a piece of Windows software (outside of the preferences window). The old Microsoft question “Where do you want to go today?” With Linux that question would be “Where do you want to go, how do you want to get there, do you want the scenic route, do you want a specific map for your trip (or do you want to wing it), and do you prefer first class or coach?”

5. Choice. Let’s face it, with Linux you have more choice than you do with any other operating system. You can choose your kernel, your distribution, your desktop, your window manager, your package manager…the list goes on and on. You can mix and match and even run Windows applications if you want. The way I always explain the difference between the metaphor of Linux vs. Windows is that with Windows you are given a floor and a ceiling to keep you from going too high or? too low. With Linux you are given four walls (all of which can be moved or removed), no floor, and no ceiling so you can go as high or as low as you want.

And there you have it. The five top reasons you should considering switching to the Linux operating system. Do you have reasons, other that the above, for switching to Linux? Do you have reasons for not switching to Linux? Let us know.

Tags: Linux, Open Source, reliability, Security, TCO

UK. Sensitive Information. Need We Say More?

Martin — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 16:32:48 +0000

The massive increase in data collection throughout the world has not led to responsible data storage laws. That is an imbalance that becomes obvious especially in one country these days. The UK is amassing heaps of data about their citizens for their fight against terrorism (and other causes) but is failing miserably over and over again when it comes to securing that data.

Think of past stories like top secret information in a digital camera that got sold for a few pounds on eBay or the discovery of an USB stick outside a pub containing information about 12 million British citizens.

This time it was mere paper that was responsible for a data leak. Most users would think that pre-computer age politicians would know how to handle at least secure information on paper properly. This is apparently not the case as police chief Bob Quick managed to carry a document marked secret in public which immediately caught the attention of bystanding photographers.

The document, which can be viewed on the Guardian’s website contained information about an anti-terrorist raid. The details were extensive including names, addresses and command structures. The raid had to be conducted in bright daylight because of the security leak.

As Dante, who send me a link to the story points out: “It’s not just electronic security that
counts. It’’s also what happens when a user prints out the data.”

Tags: bob quick, data leak, data privacy, data security, information, privacy, Security, united kingdom

Home Video Surveillance System Utilizing Webcams

Martin — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:28:33 +0000

Home video surveillance system can cost thousands of Dollars. A cheaper but still valid alternative is to utilize equipment that is already available in the household. One of the possibilities includes webcams that can be used as video surveillance systems with the right software or service.

Ugolog is one of these services that can turn a webcam into a basic home video surveillance system. It has its limitations obviously as this is usually limited to single room surveillance unless multiple webcams are connected to the computer systems of the home. One of the major advantages of Ugolog besides offering a free version is that it requires no software installation. The full service is started and controlled on a web interface.

The limitations of the free service are a maximum utilization of two webcams, 500 snapshots and 5 minutes of video per day. Those are fairly acceptable values for a video surveillance system. Interestingly enough the premium plans are freely usable during beta phase with the state of the art plan allowing to add unlimited cameras with 15K snapshots and 4 hours of recording. These plans will eventually turn into subscriptions.

Everything is controlled on the web interface of the service which is only available to registered users. Users can access previous recordings, watch a full day in fast access mode or record videos or snapshots. The main advantage of Ugolog is that it is operating system and web browser independent and that its only requirement is a webcam that is connected to a computer system. Grabmotion is a similar software that can be used to monitor a room.

Tags: home video surveillance system, monitor, Security, surveillance, surveillance system, ugolog, video surveillance, webcam

Secure Windows Services Configuration

Martin — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:34:07 +0000

I just spend most of the morning installing Windows XP on a computer system. While the installation itself takes some time the configuration afterwards is surely the most time consuming part of the process. Windows XP comes with many services enabled that are usually not needed by most users and that can allow hackers to attack the computer system. One of the first tasks after the installation is therefor to tighten up the operating system’s services.

This can be done manually. If you have installed a lot of Windows operating systems you know the process in and out. If you are a new inexperienced user you might want to use a software for that task. A good and reliable program for that task that is compatible with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP is Configure NT.

Configure NT is a a batch script that can be used to secure Windows services easily. It comes with several switches depending on the configuration of the current operating system. The program will prompt for user input after installation, the available choices are:

(1) LAN This switch tries closing all open Ports. Some services (”automatic updates”, “scheduler”) and SMB will remain unchanged. Use this option if you still need network drives or -printer.
(2) Standard Other than (1), SMB will be deactivated. On W2K-systems all ports are being closed. On WinXP you must disable the scheduler to close all ports. Some services (”automatic updates”, “scheduler”) will remain unchanged.
(3) ALL Does make all changes as recommended on www.ntsvcfg.de. So all services + SMB are being disabled. (this option is recommended to “harden” your workstation)
(4) Restore Restore the last changes made. A warning message might appear during writing to the registry. Please ignore this message by clicking OK.

Option 1 is probably the option that most users should start with to secure their Windows Services. The website contains additional information and a checklist to verify that the system has been secured. Advanced users will probably still use the manual approach as they have more control over the Windows Services configuration.

Tags: configure services, portable software, Security, security-software, services, windows services, windows software, windows-2000, windows-xp

Protect your privacy from Google AdSense’s new behavioral ads

Joe — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:01:36 +0000

Google recently launched behavioral targeted ads for AdSense. This means AdSense displays adverts not only on the context of the webpage, but on the context of your browsing history. The aim is to provide more relevant and efficient adverts, but tracking cookies being used across hundreds of thousands of websites raises obvious privacy issues, as Google can use this information to log website you have been on.

Usually, the Electronic Frontier Foundation is very critical of big corporations who intrude on people’s privacy, but their criticism was not very harsh. Why? Because Google has developed a web browser plug-in that permits users to opt-out of this scheme.

The plug-in is available for Internet Explorer and Firefox and modifications to browser preferences in Chrome and Safari also allow people to opt-out. Google also maintains an ‘Ad Preferences Manager‘ which allows this tracking cookie to be disabled until the next time cookies are wiped.

There are several reasons to disable these cookies. Firstly, you may not entrust Google with your details. Secondly, adverts based on past browsing may be displayed to other users of the computer… not perfect if, for example, you were buying a present for a family member and they are suddenly swarmed with advertisements about it!

Most tracking cookies can be disabled if you modify browser settings. In Firefox, for example, in Preferences>Privacy, you can refuse to ‘accept third party cookies’.

Tags: Adsense, advertising, behavioral ads, cookies, doubleclick, firefox, Google, google adsense, internet-explorer, privacy, protect privacy, safety, Security, tracking cookies

Truemark Email Identification

Martin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:35:33 +0000

Inexperienced users and even some experienced users have troubles identifying fake emails from legit ones. It is sometimes hard to tell if the email that just arrived in your mail inbox came from a legit company like eBay, Amazon or Citibank or if it is just another phishing attempt. There are some basic guidelines that help identify phishing emails. They are not that hard to learn, read our anti-phishing tips for pointers. Many inexperienced computer users think that it’s complicated, they prefer an easier way of telling if an email is legit or not.

Enter Truemark by Iconix. Truemark uses authentication techniques to identify more than 1500 different company email addresses including the three companies in the example above. It is backed by some of the most popular shopping and financial websites on the Internet which makes it attractive for many users. Even better is the fact that the software is free to use and compatible to several popular email providers like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Aol Webmail but also Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007.

Another advantage of Truemark is that is it working in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox which should cover more almost 90% of the web browser market. The installation of the software will install a Browser Helper Object in Internet Explorer and an add-on in Firefox.

Truemark will automatically scan the emails in the mail inbox if the user opens a supported email client or web email client. It will display a verification icon next to the email to notify the user that the email is legit.

Moving the mouse over the icon will show an overlay with additional information about the sender and if the sender passed both identification and authentication.

Tags: aol, Email, email certificates, email security, gmail, hotmail, iconix, microsoft outlook, outlook, phishing, Security, truemark, yahoo

Microsoft Patch Day March 2009

Martin — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:26:36 +0000

Just a few minutes ago the patches for this month’s patch day have been uploaded to Windows Update and Microsoft Update. Users are encouraged to update their Microsoft operating system as soon as possible to close the recently discovered security vulnerabilities. Among the affected operating systems are practically all Microsoft operating systems since and including Windows 2000. This means the popular operating systems Windows XP and Vista are affected as well as Windows Server 2003 and 2008.

One security vulnerability has a critical rating for all affected operating systems while the other two are rated important by Microsoft’s security research team.

Details about the Security Bulletins can be found by following these links: Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-006, MS09-007 or MS09-008. Another possibility is to access the Security Bulletin Summary at Microsoft Technet.

The vulnerabilities fix one remote code execution vulnerability and two spoofing vulnerabilities on the affected Windows operating systems:

Vulnerabilities in Windows Kernel Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Vulnerability in SChannel Could Allow Spoofing
Vulnerabilities in DNS and WINS Server Could Allow Spoofing

Tags: microsoft patch day, microsoft security, microsoft security bulletin, patch day, remote code execution, Security, security bulletin, spoofing, windows security, windows vulnerabilities

Google Docs Shares Documents Without Permisson

Martin — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:57:41 +0000

Cloud computing is a buzz word. It has been made popular with services like Google Docs which allow users to store their documents on a server on the Internet. While it surely is comfortable to have the documents stored on servers with the ability to work with them and share them with trusted individuals words of concern has been raised lately. Most of the concern was security and privacy related. Users are basically handing over their documents to a third party. They gain accessibility but lose lots of control over their documents.

A letter that has been send out by the Google Docs team seems to have made the worst case scenario true for some users of the online service. According to Techcrunch who received a copy of a letter that has been send out the following happened: The Google Docs team identified a bug in their online service that may have caused the sharing of documents without the knowledge or permission of the user.

“This inadvertent sharing was limited to people with whom you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, had previously shared a document. The issue only occurred if you, or a collaborator with sharing rights, selected multiple documents and presentations from the documents list and changed the sharing permissions. This issue affected documents and presentations, but not spreadsheets.”

While it is unclear as to how many users have actually been affected by the bug it does outline the problems of storing documents, files and information on the Internet. There is always a chance that the documents will fall into hands that they are not intended for.

Tags: cloud computing, data security, docs, Google, google docs, Online Services, privacy, Security, web services

Learning Linux: Log Files

Jack Wallen — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:36:09 +0000

If you are serious about learning Linux then one aspect you will want to familiarize yourself with is log files. This concept will help you to understand why when you go to a mailing list with a problem and, when someone asks you the contents of a particular log file, you are able to offer enough information to help solve your problem. Log files are very good for helping you deduce what is going wrong with a system. There are, however, a lot of log files to wade through. That’s where I come in. In this article I am going to show you the first places to look when you have problems with a Linux system. I won’t cover all of the log files (at least yet), but I will get you started on what will hopefully become a long history of too much information.

dmesg

When I have a problem (or when I am attaching a usb device) one of the first places I go is the dmesg command. The dmesg command prints out the kernel keyring buffer. The information you will get will be all of the information you do not see when your system is booting. This is a great place to get information (low level) on your hardware. On one of my laptops, I run dmesg and near the top I see:

Phoenix BIOS detected: BIOS may corrupt low RAM, working it around. last_pfn = 0x7f6d0 max_arch_pfn = 0x100000 x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x7040600070406, new 0x7010600070106 kernel direct mapping tables up to 38000000 @ 10000-15000 Using x86 segment limits to approximate NX protection RAMDISK: 37c6a000 - 37fef4a2

From that I can tell I have a Phoenix bios. Pretty obvious. A little later I see:

Security Framework initialized SELinux: Initializing. SELinux: Starting in permissive mode

Now I know Security Enhanced Linux is starting, in permissive mode, at bootup. And even further on down the line I see:

CPU1: Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual CPU T2390 @ 1.86GHz stepping 0d checking TSC synchronization [CPU#0 -> CPU#1]: passed. Brought up 2 CPUs Total of 2 processors activated (7447.76 BogoMIPS)

The above shows me information about my CPU. Good to know.

The most important information you will probably get from dmesg is the information regarding attached USB devices. When you plug in a USB device you will need to know what special device this is attached to so you can mount it. This will occur at the bottom of the dmesg command output.

The output of dmesg is quite long and will scroll by very quickly. When I run this command I always pipe it through the less command like so:

dmesg | less

This way I can view the output one page at a time.

/var/log

This special directory is the Mac Daddy of information gathering. Fire up a terminal window and issue the command ls /var/log/ and see what it contains. You see, included in this listing, such log files and log directories as:

boot.log – boot information
cron – cron logs
cups – directory of all printing logs
httpd – Apache logs
mail – Mail server logs
maillog – The mail log
messages – Post-boot kernel information
secure – Security log
Xorg.0.log – X Server log

You can see the listing of log files in the /var/log directory, but in order to actually read the log files you have to be the root user (or use sudo).

Viewing with tail

One of the handiest methods of viewing log files is using the tail command. What tail does is follow the running output of a log file. For instance if I want to follow my /var/log/secure log to watch for security issues I would enter the command tail -f /var/log/secure. The f switch tells tail to follow. If you don’t add the f switch tail will just list the output all at once (as if you just issued less /var/log/secure.)

Final Thougths

There is so much information to be gained from reading log files. The Linux operating system makes reading log files easy, once you know which log file does what. Take a poke around /var/log to find out exactly what you have and where you need to look for the problem you are having.

Tags: /var/log, administration, Linux, log files, messages, Security, tail

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