New Leak Outlines How The NSA Hacks Your Computers

(Photo credit: DonkeyHotey) An interesting report about one method the NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) team hacks your computers using known vulnerabilities in the Internet as well as hardware and software. Via AP: Some of the attacks described by Der Spiegel exploit weaknesses in the architecture of the Internet to deliver malicious software to specific computers. Others take advantage of weaknesses in hardware or software distributed by some of the world's leading information technology companies, including Cisco Systems, Inc. and China's Huawei Technologies Ltd., the magazine reported.Der Spiegel cited a 2008 mail order catalog-style list of vulnerabilities that NSA spies could exploit from companies such as Irvine, California-based...

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How Secure is Alex Jones's Prison Planet? Not Very

Before I get too involved in this let me first say that I am actualy a fan of Alex Jones and his Infowars site, as well as his Nightly News program on PrisonPlanet.tv. In fact, I have a similar website called Mainwashed where I did a video talking about how to read Infowars to get valuable information. Check it out: So now you know that I am a fan, and this is not just an attack on Alex or his team. This is simply to point out a major security flaw I noticed the other night when I was logging into PrisonPlanet.tv to check out the Nightly News show. That security flaw is in how Alex's team has implemented SSL encryption when you login to PrisonPlanet.tv or go to sign up for a subscription. I'm a Network and Security Manager by trade,...

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More Ubuntu Sticker Action Shots

Hello everyone, I was emailed some more pictures of the free Powered By Ubuntu stickers I offer in action! This time the pictures come from Luiz of Brazil! Here's the first one: Here is the second picture that is more of a close-up of the keyboard area: Looking pretty good right? Luiz said that this is his brand new laptop. I think it looks pretty snazzy with the Ubuntu sticker on it. It's certainly better than a Windows sticker right? If you want some free Powered By Ubuntu stickers you can get them here: (Ubuntu Stickers) If you get some, be sure to email me some pictures so I can share them with everyone! Related articles "Powered By Ubuntu" Sticker Action Shot! Ubuntu's Touch OS Mobile Platform Lands Hardware Partner Ubuntu's...

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How To Speed Up Immunet Free Antivirus

A while back I wrote about a free for corporate use antivirus solution called Immunet. The cool thing about it is that it has the tried and true ClamAV engine built into it for offline protect when not connected to the Internet. Plus it give ClamAV the power of on-access scanning which is something that ClamWIN does not have. The problem with Immunet though, despite their claims, is that it is kind of a resource hog. We put it on our user's computers at work for a while, but then we received a lot of complaints about performance issues. There is a really simple solution though. You see, by default Immunet has two cloud detection engines enabled. One is called Ethos, and the other is called Spero. These require your computer to be connected...

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Up in the Air: Data Continues to Move to the Cloud

Tech enthusiasts salivate over shiny new gadgets and fancy titles, but one of the biggest technological shifts is happening out of sight. Data and programs are slowly migrating to the cloud, a general term to describe web-based servers that users can access anywhere they have an Internet connection. The cloud is raising security levels and lowering operating costs, and soon it will be a $100 billion industry, Forbes.com notes. Chances are you already use the cloud in some capacity, whether through email or streaming services. Businesses and personal users alike can take advantage of this convenient technology to boost their bottom lines and improve their overall computing experiences. Old vs. New In order to understand the cloud, consider...

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I Was So Wrong About CyanogenMOD For Prism-Breaking Your Android Device

A few months ago I wrote about using CyanogenMOD along with a number of security tools to try to limit the amount of spying the NSA can do on your phone. Sure, some things you can't prevent. Things like the NSA capturing your cell phone location information from towers and such, but my article should have been able to prevent anything from Google (Complicit in the PRISM program) from sending your information to the NSA. Well I just upgraded my phone to CyangogenMOD 10.2.0 and after the upgrade I went to check my version to ensure the upgrade went okay and I noticed the following: Yes, you saw that correctly. CyanogenMOD ships with SELinux installed by default. You are probably saying, "so what?" If you've never heard of SELinux here...

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Simple Script To Backup Files From a Linux Server Via SCP and SSH

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I mentioned a little while back that I had replaced all of my Windows machines at home with Ubuntu. Well, one of the machines that I replaced was running a weekly backup job using WinSCP to go out and pull backup files from my personal email server so I would have a copy off site from my cloud hosting provider. Since that machine is now running Ubuntu, I had to do the same thing, but use a shell script with SCP and SSH instead. SCP pulls the files from the email server, and I then use SSH to clean up the files once I have them copied. The problem is that when you use SSH or SCP you are normally prompted with a password right? Well to remedy this all you have to do is generate a key pair to use for authentication...

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AT&T Adds New Patent That Can Detect File Sharing and Block Access to File Sharing Sites

 (Photo credit: ElectronicFrontierFoundation) Do you share files? Do you download files via bit torrent? Do you use AT&T as your Internet provider? Well get ready for their latest patent that allows them to detect file-sharers on their network, perform risk assessment of said files, and limit access to file sharing sites! From RT: Internet service provider AT&T recently added a new anti-piracy patent which features technology that can detect file-sharers on its own network, assigning risk assessment to users and potentially limiting alleged pirates’ access to file-sharing sites.A new patent awarded to the telecom giant’s Intellectual Property division depicts a system that can classify unauthorized file-sharing users,...

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