Tuesday, December 27, 2005

The Spyware Dilemma: Understanding and Overcoming Impacts on the Enterprise. The Spyware Dilemma: Understanding and Overcoming Impacts on the Enterprise. As Spyware becomes recognized as one of the leading security risks affecting enterprises today, it is important to know the latest spyware trends, market research findings and to learn how our industry-leading technologies can help protect your business. Experts from Forrester Research and Symantec Corporation will share what can be done to protect against the latest generation of sophisticated threats, risks, and direct hacker attacks.   [Computerworld Security Holes News] 1:32:07 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

OpenSSH cutting edge - Federico Biancuzzi interviews OpenSSH developer Damien Miller Federico Biancuzzi interviews OpenSSH developer Damien Miller to discuss features included in the upcoming version 4.3, public key crypto protocols details, timing based attacks and anti-worm measures. 1:27:43 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Schneier on Security: Idiotic Article on TPM Idiotic Article on TPM This is just an awful news story. "TPM" stands for "Trusted Platform Module." It's a chip that may soon be in your computer that will try to enforce security: both your security, and the security of software and media companies against you. It's complicated, and it will prevent some attacks. But there are dangers. And lots of ways to hack it. (I've written about TPM here, and here when Microsoft called it Palladium. Ross Anderson has some good stuff here.) In fact, with TPM, your bank wouldn't even need to ask for your username and password -- it would know you simply by the identification on your machine. Since when is "your computer" the same as "you"? And since when is identifying a computer the same as authenticating the user? And until we can eliminate bot networks and "owned" machines, there's no way to know who is controlling your computer. 1:22:52 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Schneier on Security: New TSA Guidelines from The Onion The Onion has a new set of TSA guidelines. 1:19:54 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

New TSA Guidelines | The Onion - America's Finest News Source Remember this is a humor site :-) 1:18:27 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Rootkits, cybercrime and OneCare. 2005 in review. Rootkits, cybercrime and OneCare. The year in IT security 2005 in review The year 2005 in net security will likely be remembered as the year of the Sony rootkit DRM controversy. In other ways the last 12 months continued the trend of profit becoming a primary driver for the creation of computer viruses. The last 12 months also witnessed a number of high-profile cybercrime prosecutions, including the sentencing of NetSky author Sven Jaschan. [The Register - Security] 1:11:59 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

DailyBulletin.com - Opinions - Oversight needed for feds to spy on U.S. citizens In the wake of the security-shattering terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, terrified Americans willingly, even gladly, conceded some of their privacy rights to help fight terrorism. Air travelers submitted to long lines and numerous inconveniences with little complaint. The people also, for the most part, supported the reallocation of billions of federal funds to fight domestic terrorism and backed the Patriot Act, which significantly increased the government's ability to investigate possible terrorists, and prevent them from committing more atrocities on American soil. The feeling of most Americans was if that's what it takes to keep the country safe, then so be it. But the revelations in recent days that the executive branch has been authorizing the National Security Agency to conduct secret wiretappings of Americans, sidestepping procedures set up expressly for the purpose of providing proper oversight, is unsettling to say the least. Federal law specifically allows for the president to act whenever he deems it necessary and allows up to 72 hours to get retroactive approval from a special court that rarely turns down administration requests. 12:17:47 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Sousveillance Blog: IS NOTHING SACRED? by Margarita Papandreou This unfortunate situation highlights how disequiveillance can create problems for personal privacy, and freedom of thought. The aspects of this case brings up the issues of how respect is shared amongst individuals, and lack of respect demonstrates the degree of despostism within a society. So hence, the lack of respect for ones privacy demostrates the amount of respect within a particular society and hence is the measure of the amount of democracy within that society. This is an important article for the persons to review during the upcomming Equiveillance conference in Toronto. 12:13:04 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

The Gripe Line Weblog by Ed Foster - TigerDirect Rebate Has Privacy Catch Online retailers claim they're using technology to make it easier for customers to get rebate checks. But one reader's experience trying to claim a TigerDirect rebate via OnRebate.com made him think the only thing getting easier about rebates is losing your privacy. And it makes me think that instead of talking about the "after rebate" price at sites like TigerDirect, we need to start referring to the "after surrendering your privacy" price. [...] OnRebate's prying registration form raised the question of what they plan to do with all the information they collect before they'll hand over a rebate, so I also examined their privacy policy. It's a very interesting document. While at one point it states that OnRebate will "never share your email address, phone number, personal or company information with any unrelated 3rd party," they then turn right around and say that they "may share your name and postal mailing address with a few carefully selected marketing partners." But what's even more amazing -- and one of the most of the shameless practices I've seen any of these rebate houses overtly adopt -- is that by applying for the rebate you give OnRebate.com the right to spam you: "By submitting the rebate form to OnRebate.com and acknowledging receipt of the confirmation email you will automatically opt-in and agree to receive email correspondence, newsletters and other correspondence from OnRebate.com. You may subsequently opt-out of the receipt of such email correspondence, newsletters and other correspondence by following the directions in the email. Your opt-out status will not effect your rebate submissions to OnRebate.com; however during this process you will still continue to receive email correspondence from OnRebate.com related to the rebates you have submitted to OnRebate.com." 12:06:48 PM  PermaLink   / trackback []

CoolTechZone::Are we too Paranoid about Privacy? I recently read a  blog entry by Ed Foster , columnist for Infoworld.com, part of the IDG Network of online publications. In the entry, Mr. Foster discusses an e-mail sent to him by a reader who purchased a monitor from TigerDirect, had to fill out an online rebate form with OnRebate.com and was apparently shocked when the form asked for the industry he worked in and his job function. As much as I respect privacy, I think Mr. Foster's take on the situation and the reader's reaction are farfetched in this case. I can understand someone not wanting to give their employer's name, address and phone number for obvious reasons, and I would never condone something like this myself, but what's wrong with disclosing the industry you work in and your job function? Mr. Foster and the reader suggest that companies should have no right to ask you to divulge that information, and to an extent, I agree. However, both questions are so vague that there's no way it disrespects privacy.  11:59:21 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Such a Thing as too Paranoid About Privacy? Such a Thing as too Paranoid About Privacy?  jackoahoy! writes "As we become more connected, we have the right to be paranoid. But the question is: where do we draw the line between sane and insane privacy? CoolTechZone's Gundeep Hora tackles this issue and uses a recent blog entry on Infoworld to illustrate his point. From the article: 'Whether it's OnRebate.com or any other rebate managing company, asking for the industry you work in and your job function aren't the most personal questions they could possibly ask. However, they must carefully define the conditions for collecting such information. Targeted advertising by user opt-in newsletters and e-mail campaigns (unlike spamming) or internal market research to get a grasp on its customer base isn't unethical, in my opinion. And people making a big deal out of two vaguely placed questions is insensible and out of proportion. If you really are that paranoid about privacy, then do what this reader did and put in wrong information under those questions.'" [Slashdot: Your Rights Online] 11:54:32 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Infosecwriters.com - An Inexpensive and Versatile IDS by Dave Schwartzburg An intrusion detection system can be an effective technical control in the modern world of information and network security. One option that provides for low cost NIDS sensor deployment is the use of the open source IDS software Snort in combination with a consumer grade LinkSys cable/DSL router and the open source firmware distribution OpenWrt. These three items together form a powerful yet inexpensive unit that delivers IDS, routing, firewall, wireless, and NAT functionality for use in a light-weight environment, i.e. consumer or small business deployments. This document is in PDF format. To view it click here. 11:48:58 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Adaptive Firewalls with iptables. Adaptive Firewalls with iptables.  Up until now, we've looked at stateless and stateful firewalls. Remember, stateless firewalls only have the features of a given packet to use as criteria for whether that packet should be passed, blocked, or logged. With a stateful firewall, in addition to the fields in that packet, we also have access to the kernel's table of open connections to use in deciding the fate of this packet. There's a problem, though. Picture an attacker that has launched attacks against almost every port on our web server box for the past half hour. The firewall has successfully repelled all of them, but now the attacker turns her attentions to port 80. All of the hostile overflow attempts are let through unhindered. Why? Because the firewall ruleset allows all traffic to the web server through, and our firewall can't remember the fact that this IP address has been pounding all the other ports on the system. What if we could tell the firewall to remember the IP address of attackers and block them for a short period of time following their last attack? By remembering their past actions, we can block incoming web server connections that would otherwise have been allowed. [LinuxSecurity.com] 11:46:23 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

Security Pipeline | Four Security Resolutions For The New Year But you should also make some reservations at the office: resolutions that you'll actually keep. Perhaps the most important of these should be a determination to get a handle on your security strategy and the subsequent implementation. 11:43:18 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

New York AG starts per-label subpoena store. New York AG starts per-label subpoena store. Hand of justice touches music downloads It seemed only a matter of time before New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer turned his gaze of justice toward the online music download scene. And, as we learned last week via a regulatory filing from the Warner Music Group, Spitzer has in fact kicked off "an industry-wide investigation" into download pricing by handing out subpoenas to the major labels. [The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs] 11:41:20 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []

New Trojan Stalks Spanish Net Users. New Trojan Stalks Spanish Net Users. Malware spreads via MSN Messenger and harvests passwords to online banking sites. [PCWorld.com - Latest News Stories] 11:37:08 AM  PermaLink   / trackback []