testing

testing 1..2..3..

Just a test post

My Google Reader didn't update, with the new Feedburner, so I had to do some tweaking with Google Reader. I think all will be ok.

Back to your regularly scheduled program....

Feedburner

I just added a Feedburner feed to the blog. I hope it hasn't disrupted operations. If you see something odd, let me know in the comments.

HAKIN9 magazine?

I hadn't been in a Barnes & Noble in a long time, and since I had some time to kill (and a gift card, ha-ha) I thought I would browse my local B&N. The magazine section has been expanded, and, there seem to be many more computer magazines than I remember. And, I couldn't believe how many linux magazines there were. I get Linux Journal, and I thought there was one other. However, there were no less than five different magazines on the shelf.

What caught my eye, though, was a magazine titled HAKIN9. It was billed for the "hardcore enterprise security" or words to that effect. There was a DVD inside with a bunch of tools. And the articles looked pretty informative, at least the few I skimmed in the short period of time I was there. The magazine looks to come out bi-monthly, and I think i saw a price of $14.95, or something like that.

Does anyone have any reviews of the magazine? Leave a comment.

I hate failure...

In myself, at least.
I don't mind it in my sports teams, they have a history of failure. Some of them should be listed in the dictionary, as the very definition of failure.
But I don't like it when I can't get the resolution the client wants.
Case in point.
I was called to a client's machine the other day. This machine had no firewall, no anti-virus (or anti-anything software,) and was wide open. XP home, not admin password and no user account had a password. After somewhat locking down the situation, SpyBot almost broke with the number of problems it found. I cleaned that up, ran all my tools. The client was thrilled. I left a firewall, and some security tools so that the machine was relatively defended.
But that wasn't all.
It turns out the printers had been removed, and IE wouldn't run. AOL ran, but not IE. Looking into this further, it appeared the RPC process was corrupted. It looked like I was going to have repair that. At the last minute, I decided to look again at the event logs. And there it was.....the system log was one big red X. It was littered with disk hardware failures. And, I could pinpoint where the troubles started. At this point, since it was a Dell desktop under warranty, I thought the best option was to have them swap the drive out.

I just don't like NOT being able to finish.

Lesson learned: bring a different browser

Out on a case today, I ran into a situation where I couldn't get to the internet. Something had overtaken IE. I was really wishing for Firefox at the time, but I had no way to get it. (And I couldn't remember the FTP commands to grab it.) Now, I've downloaded the .exe to my USB drive, so I should be ok when I need the alternate browser in the future.

A new wave of Storm Worm

It looks like it is back, at least another wave.
Analysis from SANS.
And from the Digital Intelligence and Strategic Operations Group: 1 + 2

New Year's variants from SANS.

A little pruning

I removed some of my links; mostly blogs I read through Google Reader. The links I've left are blogs or sites I read that either I can't link to through Google Reader or are more of a resource.

Merry Christmas

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

Luke 2:8-20, King James Version

And Linus.

Looking for a hardware write-blocker

I was browsing a page on NIST because I'm looking for a good hardware write-blocker. The page had links to their benchmarks on a bunch of them, some from Digital Intelligence, MyKey, and Tableau (amongst others.) Does anyone have any recommendations? What do you use the most and why? I've heard about Digital Intelligence, Tableau, and MyKey, but I haven't used any of them.