Tech

Another new website layout

Submitted by Edward on Fri, 2012-02-17 14:28

I think it's getting to be about time for another layout change on this website.

I've been doing a fair amount of design work on the Cornerstones of Trust website and will be meeting with the San Juaqine Sheriffs Association next month to do some volunteer work on their website.

For my own website, I kind of want to have a media/news style where you get headers and story previews on the main page along with media without having to scroll.

As another friend put it, I want to get more information "Above the fold".

Strange finding on my AWS Server

Submitted by Edward on Thu, 2011-12-08 10:22

This morning when I logged into my workstation, I found that one of my putty sessions to my AWS server had gone "inactive", I looked at the content of what was on the screen and I saw:

Broadcast message from root@ip-10-166-###-###
        (unknown) at 10:08 ...

The system is going down for reboot NOW!
Control-Alt-Delete pressed

Blogging for Information Security

Submitted by Edward on Wed, 2011-11-02 16:08

Martin McKeay has an article Write to learn, learn to progress where he talks about his history of blogging and how it has helped his career, this is a very good post with many good points. I've halfheartedly been blogging since 2004 and one thing I've realized is in order to be a good blogger and get "followers" you need to read other peoples blogs and contribute to ongoing "conversations".

Facebook and Twitter integration (Google Plus?) revisit.

Submitted by Edward on Tue, 2011-08-02 15:32

It seems that after a few module updates, I am no longer receiving the Share to Facebook function when updating stories and blog postings is no longer available. I see that the code is in the modules contributed examples, but not fully integrated. Also the examples enable too many features that I actually don't want or have found a different/better looking way to provide them.

Perl code to post 404 pages to ISC 404 Project

Submitted by Edward on Fri, 2011-07-29 17:10

So I was reading a post on the Emerging Threats signature mailing list and someone mentioned the SANS Internet Storm Center's 404 Project where your webserver sends information to SANS ISC whenever it receives a request for something that it can't answer, a 404 error.

Twitter robot update

Submitted by Edward on Sun, 2011-07-24 11:04

Yesterday I decided to see what it would take to get my twitter robot @HackThisOrg up and running again. I found the Net::Twitter perl module when looking for simple OAuth functions. The follow portion of the robot lives again.

When I first wrote the robot, I didn't want to use modules other than the LWP module because I wanted to see if I could get the functions I was looking for in a more simple fashion without having to download and compile a ton of code. I wasn't exactly following the "Be Lazy" mantra of Perl modules.

Information Security week in review

Submitted by Edward on Fri, 2011-07-22 17:05

Some of the interesting news articles in regards to Information Security this week, read more for details

XSS vulnerability in Skype could allow 3rd party to change passwords
Undersea communications cables are cut every 3 days
Apple iOS 4.3.4 release & Jailbroken
FBI Arrest 14 in relation Anonymous / PayPal case
Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Charged in M.I.T. Data Theft
Anonymous Claims Hack of NATO, Sends Warning to FBI
BING DNS hijacked? SANS says it looks like it
Three pizza chains ATMs hacked

What will happen if Generation Dora overruns Facebook?

Submitted by Edward on Wed, 2011-07-20 15:44

There is an article over on CCN where Omar Gallaga goes into having the pre-teen children infiltrating Facebook and comments about Mark Zuckerberg's "suggested the company may wage a legal fight to change or repeal the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which restricts what private information a website can collect from kids younger than 13 without a parent's permission."

Cyber Camp Develops Tomorrow’s IT Security Pros

Submitted by Edward on Wed, 2011-07-20 12:49

Government Technology website has an article about an information security challenge:

At 10:49 a.m. last Friday, Prof. Dan Manson cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted to seven teams of five eager people that they could begin a virtual Capture the Flag competition at the 2011 U.S. Cyber Challenge Summer Camp at Cal Poly Pomona.

The players manned laptops and began the simulation in which they entered a network to infiltrate servers, conduct penetration tests, analyze attacks and contents of files, overtake control of networked services and crack passwords.

Interesting day in information security

Submitted by Edward on Tue, 2011-07-19 20:27

Today has been a big day for news in the Information Security. The Department of Justice has the news on their own website regarding "Sixteen Individuals Arrested in the United States for Alleged Roles in Cyber Attacks More Than 35 Search Warrants Executed in United States, Five Arrests in Europe as Part of Ongoing Cyber Investigations"