Still running the qemu image (and downloaded another image from the freeoszoo while I was waiting for the installer.) Anyway… I’ve turned my attention to mythtv and since it’s the same version went to test if it was working well. Let’s see… for starters, since the local machine had seen a mysql upgrade (and the installer didn’t think I needed to run mysql at boot…) I had to do…
Month: December 2005
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Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 10 – use good passwords
In a small, trusted network you might be able to get away with weak passwords for file sharing for instance. What’s a weak password? Anything you might find in a dictionary. Most people don’t realize this, but there are programs designed to crack passwords. They’re designed to take a dictionary file and run through it trying every combination possible. It might take a while, but this kind of brute force attack can be VERY effective against a weak password.
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Disinfecting a PC… part 9
Ok – about 22 or 23 critical updates for Windows ME. I’m suspecting it’s never visited the Windows update site. While it’s going I make sure that the adware scanners and antivirus scanner get to pull updates from the web as well. It’s also time to scan for running network services that shouldn’t be running. It may be a dialup machine, but we don’t want UPNP listening over the connection.
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Book Publishing in small quantities or on demand lulu.com
This may be the first in a series of several profiles looking at different ways to get published online. The internet has been a disruptive technology for so many industries. Book publishing is one of those. Used to you would submit a manuscript to publishers shopping around for someone to take your work. These days it can be as simple as going online and shopping between several publishers, uploading your book (or calendar, pictures or other content) and then letting them take care of the publishing details, selling, printing on demand and you haven’t had to deal with a rejection letter yet….
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Exporting an active linux desktop with vnc, or vnc remote desktop under linux
There are lots of ways to get a remote desktop under linux, remote X, nxserver, vnc. One of the problems though is the most common configuration doesn’t let you connect to a running desktop session. There is a vnc component that let’s you do this and I’m using it right now. On the home network, sometimes I don’t want to be sitting at the desktop machine and would rather use the laptop while checking in on programs running on the desktop itself. But, being too lazy to go to the desktop it would be nice if there was a way I could run something remotely that would let me view that desktop… ahhh there is a way.
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Antivirus update response times
We know that for Windows systems especially antivirus is a must. Up to date antivirus is the MOST important though. So how do the different vendors do in responsiveness and quick antivirus definition updates…? The SecurityFix has an article on just that today. The comparison is courtesy of av-test.org.
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Spyaxe Spytrooper spysherriff et al removal
There are so many “wolves in sheeps clothing” or maybe I should say wolves in sheepdogs clothing… Anyway, so many nasty malware’s that pose as protective utilities. Spyaxe, spytrooper, spy sherriff, etc. There is a tool that is specialized towards removing these. Smitrem which is short for smitfraud removal. (After the viral name of one of the first of this class of rogue.)
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Wow serious VMWare vulnerability HOST system infection
A flaw in vmware could allow malicious code to be run on the host machine according to Sunbeltblog and citing VMWare’s knowledge base. This is pretty big since this is something that’s not considered as a threat. (Many people use vmware and other virtual machines for malware/virus/spyware investigations because they’re supposed to be isolated from the host machine.)
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The Santa Worm
More coverage is being given to the instant messaging worm that poses as a come on for a Santa Claus related site today. The only thing I think that I left out in last nights post was the name of the bug… IM.GiftCom.All On visiting the advertised site a rootkit is installed on the visiting machine.
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Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 9 – Know your network
Once more into the breech… Ok you’ve taken account of the software and services on your pc. The next thing we need to talk about is knowing your network. Do you have any wireless access points? Not sure? Print servers? How many pcs? Are any of them portables? Public access? Are all of them secured?