Archive for the ‘Security’ Category
Wednesday, August 10th, 2011
Earlier this summer I attended a government sponsored cyber-security conference. The people who give the seminars are extremely knowledgeable and tell it like it is. Most also seem to be very good people with only a few exhibiting ego issues.
Then we get to some of the speakers who are part to the federal bureaucracy; specifically one of the people with the Department of Energy. This was not a low-level person, but one charged with keeping our electric grid safe.
The Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary had completed her keynote address and it was question and answer time. I asked her what the DOE was doing to protect the electric grid from attacks by rouge nations and terrorists along with natural causes. Her response to me was they are working to protect the grid from sun spots but not concerned about cyber or similar attacks on the grid. This is either a blatant lie, the department is totally clueless, or they think we’re stupid.
A recent article in the Iranian Keyhan paper states that Iran is in the planning stages of an attack on our electrical grid. Only pompous, arrogant, or ignorant people would ignore such a threat.
Face it, we are very dependent on energy and the death, destruction and loss of confidence in the event of a major attack on our energy infrastructure has catastrophic consequences.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
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Tags: Computer security, cyber security, cyber war, cybersecurity, Department of Energy, Electrical grid, Iran, Sunspot, United States, United States Department of Energy, Warfare and Conflict
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Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Almost every business these days, especially the retail establishments have security cameras. Many times walking into a store all one needs to do is look up and see themselves on the video screen.
Yet in our part of the country most public places we go, we are free to wander about without big brother or some other entity watching our every move. Granted there may be satellites in the sky, but for this discussion I am referring to public security cameras which are mounted on poles or buildings.
Earlier this week while chairing a committee on government technology, I had a surprise after I left the meeting. As I was about to put papers in my trunk, I noticed glass at my feet. Apparently someone had backed into my car and made the decision to just leave rather than manning up and taking responsibility for their actions. While this facility has internal security cameras monitoring critical areas, there are no cameras in the parking area.
I wonder what this person would be thinking if law enforcement showed up at their door with a warrant regarding their hit and run action? Mistakes and accidents happen and as tough as it may be, we need to take responsibility for our actions and accept the medicine which comes along with it.
Perhaps I will make a recommendation that this facility should have cameras monitoring parking lot activities. The unfortunate part (other that the aggravation, costs, and inconvenience to me), is that because of the lawlessness and inconsiderate actions of one person, others may now be subject to the eye in the sky!
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Apartment, Arts, Camera, Closed-circuit television, IP camera, parking lot cameras, Photography, Public cameras, Security, Shopping
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Wednesday, July 6th, 2011
In early June, Facebook faced an attempt for a hacker to break into the social networking site. As of this writing, the authorities in the United States and United Kingdom are looking into the matter.
According to Facebook there was no compromise of its system and no user data was stolen. Facebook is a major target as they have a very large user base of over 500 million people, people post personal information and many users trust what they receive while in Facebook.
The first item, Facebook being so large is just a fact of life. One has to hope that Facebook starts to take very seriously the trust which people give them.
The second item, posting personal information is something each user has some control over. Facebook does incorporate many security options to restrict access to personal data; most people however don’t enable them. The reason I said each user has some control over data is because a family member or friend can write about them or post pictures of them on Facebook.
The third issue, people trusting friends within Facebook, requires a change in behavioral habits. You may do a very good job of securing the information you have posted to Facebook, but what happens if you add an app you thought was suggested to you by a friend or click on an link which you also believe they sent? If their account is compromised, by automatically trusting them, you too could be compromised and could infect your friends.
Having personal information such as birth dates, address or phone number may not be a good idea. Home addresses and phone number can always be sent to people once you verify who they are.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, New York, Online Communities, Personally identifiable information, Social network, Social network service, United States, User (computing)
Posted in Privacy, Security | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
For many years I have been attending the Cyber Security Conference put on by New York State. The conference is attended by mostly state government workers. The speakers for the most part are of a very high caliber and offer a tremendous amount of knowledge and insight.
One area where the cyber security conference could be enhanced is by eliminating a lot of down time. On the first day the keynote and another speaker started at 9:00 and ended at 11:30; from then until 1:45 was just an empty time slot. Additionally several speakers went over their allotted time, causing participants to either walk out or miss some of the other security and technical sessions.
A couple of years ago I also attended the EMP Summit which dealt with the potential ramifications in the event of either a terrorist causes or naturally occurring disaster from an electromagnetic pulse. This event was sponsored by the owner of Steuben Foods in western New York. At the EMP conference, not only were speakers kept to their given time slot, the people running the event planned for the time it took to get from the speaking location to where lunch was being held. Not a moment of time was wasted.
The difference between these two events is dramatic and is an excellent example of how the private sector operates versus the public sector. While both the EMP and Cyber Security conferences offered superb speakers, there was much more meat to the EMP conference as they made the most of everyone’s time.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
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Tags: Business, Business and Economy, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, cyber security, cyber security conference, cybersecurity, cybersecurity conference, Electromagnetic pulse, EMP, EMP conference, Extensible Application Markup Language, New York, Private sector, United States
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Wednesday, June 15th, 2011
Being in the computer business, we get to meet and talk with a lot of people and see quite a few computers each week. While we primarily work with PCs, we do get Macs in.
Periodically when people come in to our Clifton Park office, they mention that some person or another suggest they get a Mac. When asked why, they say that so-and-so told them how Macs don’t get viruses and how easy they are to use.
First for the ease of use issue; while I don’t drink the Microsoft Kool-Aid, Windows 7 is a very easy system to use. I know many seniors who have been using Windows XP Home and Windows XP Professional versions and they seem to have absolutely no problems with it.
As for the “fact” that Mac’s are immune to malware, well if they believe that, then they must believe (like many politicians) that money grows on trees. Money doesn’t; and Mac’s are susceptible to malware problems.
Last month, users of Apple’s Mac OS were subjected to a malware attack similar to what PC users have experienced in the past. While Apple was slow to respond with help, they finally did come up with a fix. Within a very short time the malware writers were able to work around it.
The reason PCs seem to be in the news more when it comes to attack and vulnerabilities is because there are simply more of them. More PCs mean more people using them and a larger potential payoff.
Mac OS and Linux based computers have more vulnerabilities, but there aren’t enough users (at the moment) to make it worthwhile for hackers to spend much time on.
The fact of the matter is just being on the Internet makes one susceptible to attack. It doesn’t matter what OS you are running or what anti-virus or firewall you have installed. Just as a motivated burglar can break into any building given the proper motivation and resources; so can a hacker break into any system.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Apple, mac, Mac OS, Mac OS X, Macintosh, malware, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Operating system, Personal computer, Windows XP
Posted in Security, Technology | No Comments »
Thursday, April 14th, 2011
Ok, so you play by the rules. You don’t surf porn sites, you don’t gamble online, you even make sure your anti-virus software is up-to-date. So how is it you’ve been targeted for identity theft? You can thank Epsilon for that.
In last week’s Wise Guy Wednesday column, we wrote about the security breach at Epsilon. To bring those of you who have yet to read last week’s article “Privacy on the Internet? Fuhgeddaboutdit!”, here is a brief review. Epsilon is a marketing company focusing on Internet technologies such as social media and captures information such as email addresses. Large corporations such as Disney, American Express, Target, Citibank, Chase, TD Ameritrade and hundreds of others are all clients of Epsilon.
In the old days (before last week), most email based attacks were very generic, the email tried to get you to enter specific information or go to an embedded link. But because the contents could apply to anyone, like a good boy, you ignored it.
Now because of the Epsilon breach, hundreds of thousands of people are susceptible to very targeted email attacks. As Epsilon knows that you shop at Target or maybe you vacation at one of the Disney properties. You receive an email from Target describing a great new barbecue grill and the special low pricing. By clicking the link you are assured to reserve on in your name. Or perhaps you get an invitation from Disney and they would like to offer you two nights free if you stay for three nights at one of their resorts at Walt Disney World. All you need to do is click the link and login. In both of these scenarios, you click the link, enter your information, and game’s on!
If your like many people, at this point you just want to hire a HITman to take care of the genius who let the breach happen in the first place.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
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Tags: American Express, Anti-Virus, Best Buy, Citibank, Clifton Park computer repair, Disney, Hyperlink, Identity theft, Security, Target, Target Corporation, TD Ameritrade, The Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney World
Posted in Privacy, Security | No Comments »
Monday, February 28th, 2011
The other day I spoke with a person who was having an issue with Quicken. She had been using Quicken and computers for quite a while.
Before we proceeded, I asked her the when was the last time she did a backup. Her response was,” just a few minutes ago as I just pressed the save button.” When I explored this further, it became apparent she never did a backup, and she has a lot of financial data going back for many years on her computer.
I explained to her how she could backup her Quicken data and suggested she purchase some USB flash drives. As Quicken doesn’t take up a lot of space, almost any current USB flash drive would work fine for her needs.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
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- quicken save as vs backup
Tags: Accounting, Backup, Business, Clifton Park computer repair, Gigabyte, Hardware, Intuit, Microsoft Windows, Operating system, QuickBooks, Quicken, Storage, Universal Serial Bus, USB flash drive
Posted in Security, Software, Technology | No Comments »
Thursday, February 24th, 2011
According the the Code Research Consultancy, wireless use of data is expected to increase by forty times within the next four years. A company called LightSquared has developed technology to capitalize on this trend. Apparently though, this wireless technology for smartphones could cause major disruptions with GPS satellites.
According to an article which appears on FoxNews.com, the FCC is concerned that this technology could possibly disable GPS systems. The ramifications include disruption to the air traffic control system, the military’s ability to keep track of and deploy resources, and prevent local emergency services from correctly getting to the correct residence.
If our military is susceptible to such new technologies employed by a company to do good, what could be done by a country wishing to do us harm? Could someone with a smartphone take down an aircraft by simply accessing an app?
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Air traffic control, Federal Communications Commission, Global Positioning System, GPS, GPS satellite, LightSquared, New York, Smart Phone, Smartphone, Smartphones, Technology, Wireless
Posted in Security, Smartphones | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
Recently Toyota has been cleared of any wrong doing for their cars unintended acceleration. It seems the unintended acceleration was caused by the operator, not the car.
If we take this scenario though, extrapolate it out and consider where the auto industry is going, it isn’t entirely out of the realm that an epidemic of unintended acceleration could happen.
Cars are increasingly becoming more dependent on computers. First it was remote door locking and unlocking; then memory retention for settings was added. Now we have cars which can communicate with Google and cars which don’t need a physical key inserted into the ignition to run.
Many years ago, before hacking computers became a lucrative business, it was exploited as a way to wreak havoc. For people who do not care about the property of others, what better way for them to have what they consider fun then by having cars run into each other. Or perhaps instead of accelerating, when a driver applies the brake or turns the steering wheel, the car just dies. No power means no brakes and no steering.
Will car hacking replace car jacking? At least there wouldn’t be the need for violence. Will insurance rates skyrocket because of the increase in thefts? Will we be downloading the latest in firewalls and virus protection to our cars in the future or will the manufacturers invest in and design their systems with high security in mind from the outset?
At the moment, who knows?
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company, based in Clifton Park and serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
Tags: Acceleration, Automobile, Computers, Electronic throttle control, Google, hacking, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Sudden unintended acceleration, Toyota
Posted in Life Management, Privacy, Security | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 1st, 2011
Late last week Microsoft announced another vulnerability to Internet Explorer. It is covered in depth in Microsoft releases Security Advisory 2501696.
While all current desktop versions of Windows are vulnerable, they are only susceptible to the vulnerability through Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Using other browsers in Windows does not open the computer up to an attack.
You can decrease your risks using browsers such as Firefox and combining it with the proper add-on software. NoScript works very well as long as the user does not allow all code to be run from every Website. If you are not familiar with the site, don’t allow scripts to run.
If you’re on the Internet, your computer can be hacked. While you may feel safe browsing the Internet in you pajamas in the safety of your home, you’re not. It takes the proper tools along with an air of caution to minimize risks.
This article was written by The Boss of HITman Services, a computer and IT company serving the Albany, Troy, Schenectady and Saratoga Counties of New York.
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Tags: Firefox, Internet Explorer, MHTML, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Mozilla Firefox, security advisory, Windows
Posted in Security, Web | No Comments »
