Weekend Reading
Hacker thanks Yahoo for the help
Yahoo Inc was quick out of the gate and released a fix for the vulnerabilities last Friday, just two days after the flaws were publicly disclosed. The trouble is that Terrell Karlsten, a spokeswoman for Yahoo, apparently disclosed too much information about the bugs in an interview with InformationWeek.
And that information helped lead a hacker, who identifies himself only as "Danny," right to the flawed code.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Dell Responds to the Crapware Column
There really are a lot of configuration options when you set up a Dell system, yet there are things you can't configure. It's no surprise that people at Dell were bothered by my column two weeks ago about "crapware" on their systems. They responded in e-mail. What the hey, I'll include their entire e-mail from Anne Camden of Dell's Corporate Communications:
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
How Organized Crime Uses Technology to Make Money
Most of the guys I work with, they don’t like computers. They get frustrated. Lots of times they want to shoot their computers, like that guy in Colorado did. I printed out that story and gave it to one of my guys. He loved it, especially the part where the guy hung the dead computer on the wall of his bar. “I love this Colorado guy,” he said. And he passed it around to all the guys.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Five things you never knew about flash drives
Flash drives only look like disks. In fact, nothing works the way you’d think. Flash is really different from magnetic recording, and those differences have a big impact on flash drive performance. How well vendors manage flash oddities has a huge impact on performance and even drive lifespan.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
What the world needs now is Google Linux
If anyone can take on Microsoft it's Google. Both companies make squillions out of doing not much at all, which is the key to having your share price sit on top of the roof.
And the latest battleground the pair are marking out centres on Linux, the open-sore on the hide of the Vole's cash cow.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
What's behind Microsoft's open-source deals?
Microsoft views its string of deals with Linux vendors--the latest being Linspire, announced this week--as part of a broader companywide push to improve interoperability.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Site Exposed More Than Paris Hilton
The operators of an X-rated Paris Hilton web site exposed the credit card numbers and identities of about 750 subscribers who signed up after the site recently returned online in the face of a federal court injunction.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Four deadly security sins
Organisations should not rely on their staff to ensure their network is secured as employees are not infallible and one slip is all it takes for cybercriminals to launch a vicious attack.
Read the article HERE.
###################################
Top 10 Network Utilities
Today we've picked out 10 of our favorite, free, point and click software applications and webapps that help you make the most of the giant web of connected computers that is your network.
Read the article HERE.
###################################
Tools that manage PC's and Macs at the same time
As computing environments become larger, particularly those that are multisite and multiplatform, the need for a solid Macintosh/Windows remote deployment, management and troubleshooting package can start to seem like the Holy Grail. Much time can be spent by administrators having to go to a user's desk and then wait as any new or updated software is loading.
A number of packages offer remote troubleshooting and deployment options. Some are based on open standards, but many are commercial, Windows-specific or Mac-specific tools. In environments containing a mix of both Mac and Windows computers, having a single tool that supports all users and workstations, regardless of platform, is key. The packages discussed here all offer some level of cross-platform support and can help you efficiently manage the clients in your network.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
So You Want To Hack For A Living?
OK... so I want to be a professional hacker. Where do I start? Who offers this training? With all popular IT fields, there are a multitude of certifications. Which one do I choose? If I have no experience, how do I start? If I have IT experience, where do I jump in? Well, without causing a huge debate, a lot of companies now use the format of sending their staff to a highly regarded training facility with the end goal of attaining some type of certification.
Read the [old but interesting] article HERE
==================================================================
Why is Hotmail so bad at spam?
I'm trying very hard to be sympathetic towards Hotmail, and I'm failing, badly. It's not the Microsoft connection that makes me fed up, it's just Hotmail.
Here's today's inbox:
From my contacts: 2 (2)
Marquita@viagra.com RE: Online Canadian Pharma... admin@speedtrader.co... RE: Daily News
If you believe I have a contact called Marquita at viagra dot com, you're mad.
Read the article HERE.
==================================================================
Spam is good
Spam clogs up web servers, inboxes and promotes Viagra, Nigerian banks and farm animals in a way no one ever dreamed possible. But is it really so bad?
If you have more than a modicum of good sense, you won’t buy into the offers that are made. If you know your way around an inbox, chances are you will have set things up so that you don’t even see most of it. The battle between spammers and those who would filter them out of existence seems eternal, but the spammers do not have it all their own way.
While network admins will complain about the volume of spam that clogs up and drains resources, for the average Joe, this is not such a problem.
What no one ever points out, however, is that there is another form of spam, a much older form of spam, that is alive and well. And it is a much bigger drain on resources. It’s what I think of as ‘paper spam’.
How many times at the end of a working day have you gone to grab the (increasingly slim) paper mail in the letter box, only to find it overwhelmed by catalogues advertising power tools, bras, over-priced electronic equipment and pizzerias? Yet production continues unabated.
I recently came across this Australian site which is surely a step in the right direction for all the Dougies and Dorises of this world who do like their catalogues, but who don’t want to waste paper.
Think about it for a moment. What goes into the production of ‘paper spam’? Trees. Printing with poisonous inks and dyes. Trucks to distribute it. Warehouses to hold it. People paid a pittance to shuffle about, sticking it in out letterboxes. And if, as inevitably happens, we don’t want it, how much of it ends up not being recycled, possibly thrown onto the street, and washed down into our sewers. Which leads to where? Our oceans, rivers and seas.
Yet no one seems half as concerned with ‘paper spam’ as they do with electronic spam, despite the production costs involved. Where are the environmental reports? Where are the corporate social responsibility acts? And how often, really, does anyone ever pick one of those catalogues up and think "Ooh, I’m going to go to Best Buy now and buy the USB Toaster in that catalogue."
For the rest of us, and for our increasingly degraded environment, it is also about time.
Source : The Inquirer
Yahoo Inc was quick out of the gate and released a fix for the vulnerabilities last Friday, just two days after the flaws were publicly disclosed. The trouble is that Terrell Karlsten, a spokeswoman for Yahoo, apparently disclosed too much information about the bugs in an interview with InformationWeek.
And that information helped lead a hacker, who identifies himself only as "Danny," right to the flawed code.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Dell Responds to the Crapware Column
There really are a lot of configuration options when you set up a Dell system, yet there are things you can't configure. It's no surprise that people at Dell were bothered by my column two weeks ago about "crapware" on their systems. They responded in e-mail. What the hey, I'll include their entire e-mail from Anne Camden of Dell's Corporate Communications:
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
How Organized Crime Uses Technology to Make Money
Most of the guys I work with, they don’t like computers. They get frustrated. Lots of times they want to shoot their computers, like that guy in Colorado did. I printed out that story and gave it to one of my guys. He loved it, especially the part where the guy hung the dead computer on the wall of his bar. “I love this Colorado guy,” he said. And he passed it around to all the guys.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Five things you never knew about flash drives
Flash drives only look like disks. In fact, nothing works the way you’d think. Flash is really different from magnetic recording, and those differences have a big impact on flash drive performance. How well vendors manage flash oddities has a huge impact on performance and even drive lifespan.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
What the world needs now is Google Linux
If anyone can take on Microsoft it's Google. Both companies make squillions out of doing not much at all, which is the key to having your share price sit on top of the roof.
And the latest battleground the pair are marking out centres on Linux, the open-sore on the hide of the Vole's cash cow.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
What's behind Microsoft's open-source deals?
Microsoft views its string of deals with Linux vendors--the latest being Linspire, announced this week--as part of a broader companywide push to improve interoperability.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Site Exposed More Than Paris Hilton
The operators of an X-rated Paris Hilton web site exposed the credit card numbers and identities of about 750 subscribers who signed up after the site recently returned online in the face of a federal court injunction.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
Four deadly security sins
Organisations should not rely on their staff to ensure their network is secured as employees are not infallible and one slip is all it takes for cybercriminals to launch a vicious attack.
Read the article HERE.
###################################
Top 10 Network Utilities
Today we've picked out 10 of our favorite, free, point and click software applications and webapps that help you make the most of the giant web of connected computers that is your network.
Read the article HERE.
###################################
Tools that manage PC's and Macs at the same time
As computing environments become larger, particularly those that are multisite and multiplatform, the need for a solid Macintosh/Windows remote deployment, management and troubleshooting package can start to seem like the Holy Grail. Much time can be spent by administrators having to go to a user's desk and then wait as any new or updated software is loading.
A number of packages offer remote troubleshooting and deployment options. Some are based on open standards, but many are commercial, Windows-specific or Mac-specific tools. In environments containing a mix of both Mac and Windows computers, having a single tool that supports all users and workstations, regardless of platform, is key. The packages discussed here all offer some level of cross-platform support and can help you efficiently manage the clients in your network.
Take a look HERE.
==================================================================
So You Want To Hack For A Living?
OK... so I want to be a professional hacker. Where do I start? Who offers this training? With all popular IT fields, there are a multitude of certifications. Which one do I choose? If I have no experience, how do I start? If I have IT experience, where do I jump in? Well, without causing a huge debate, a lot of companies now use the format of sending their staff to a highly regarded training facility with the end goal of attaining some type of certification.
Read the [old but interesting] article HERE
==================================================================
Why is Hotmail so bad at spam?
I'm trying very hard to be sympathetic towards Hotmail, and I'm failing, badly. It's not the Microsoft connection that makes me fed up, it's just Hotmail.
Here's today's inbox:
From my contacts: 2 (2)
Marquita@viagra.com RE: Online Canadian Pharma... admin@speedtrader.co... RE: Daily News
If you believe I have a contact called Marquita at viagra dot com, you're mad.
Read the article HERE.
==================================================================
Spam is good
Spam clogs up web servers, inboxes and promotes Viagra, Nigerian banks and farm animals in a way no one ever dreamed possible. But is it really so bad?
If you have more than a modicum of good sense, you won’t buy into the offers that are made. If you know your way around an inbox, chances are you will have set things up so that you don’t even see most of it. The battle between spammers and those who would filter them out of existence seems eternal, but the spammers do not have it all their own way.
While network admins will complain about the volume of spam that clogs up and drains resources, for the average Joe, this is not such a problem.
What no one ever points out, however, is that there is another form of spam, a much older form of spam, that is alive and well. And it is a much bigger drain on resources. It’s what I think of as ‘paper spam’.
How many times at the end of a working day have you gone to grab the (increasingly slim) paper mail in the letter box, only to find it overwhelmed by catalogues advertising power tools, bras, over-priced electronic equipment and pizzerias? Yet production continues unabated.
I recently came across this Australian site which is surely a step in the right direction for all the Dougies and Dorises of this world who do like their catalogues, but who don’t want to waste paper.
Think about it for a moment. What goes into the production of ‘paper spam’? Trees. Printing with poisonous inks and dyes. Trucks to distribute it. Warehouses to hold it. People paid a pittance to shuffle about, sticking it in out letterboxes. And if, as inevitably happens, we don’t want it, how much of it ends up not being recycled, possibly thrown onto the street, and washed down into our sewers. Which leads to where? Our oceans, rivers and seas.
Yet no one seems half as concerned with ‘paper spam’ as they do with electronic spam, despite the production costs involved. Where are the environmental reports? Where are the corporate social responsibility acts? And how often, really, does anyone ever pick one of those catalogues up and think "Ooh, I’m going to go to Best Buy now and buy the USB Toaster in that catalogue."
For the rest of us, and for our increasingly degraded environment, it is also about time.
Source : The Inquirer
posted by vanish at 8:23 AM
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