Author: nathan

We knew it was coming, but this article from Ars Technica does a good job of reminding folks of the importance of making sure that their updates are installed (and not just saying 'oh, I've got the automatic updates turned on', which isn't the same as making sure that they're installed).  The article points out not just the Microsoft vulnerabilities (about 26 of them) but also touches on the Adobe vulnerabilies and sings the praises of Google Chrome's Flash Player that gets automagically updated.  A good, quick read. Full Story

One of my favorite Linux distributions is Backtrack.  Backtrack is a penetration testing distribution and includes (among a *lot* of other things) the Metasploit framework, which is the tool that we typically use in demos for showing how easily an attacker can breach a network.  Metasploit includes tools to scan for hosts (computers / potential victims), check for vulnerabilities, exploit any available vulnerabilities and install software (viruses, malware, etc.) via those exploited vulnerabilities and then interact with the newly compromised systems (including using those systems to then compromise new systems).  By default, Metasploit is command line only, but Backtrack inlcudes a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that makes the process even easier.  It's tyipcally not a user-friendly tool for new users or those unfamiliar with security but it can be a…

According to iMore.com, we may see iPhone 5 pre-orders as early as 12 September with an official launch 9 days later on 21 September.  Not sure if this is a sure thing or not but, historically, this has been a good source of intel on all things i-whatever. http://www.imore.com/iphone-5-pe-orders-planned-september-12-second-release-wave-first-week-october

The sidebar is enabled by default in most new installations of MS Windows Vista and MS Windows 7.  Microsoft has confirmed potential security issues with this and has issued a fix that disables the Sidebar and Gadgets to mitigate the vulnerability. From the article: "Revision Note: V1.0 (July 10, 2012): Advisory published.Summary: Microsoft is announcing the availability of an automated Microsoft Fix it solution that disables the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets on supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Disabling the Windows Sidebar and Gadgets can help protect customers from vulnerabilities that involve the execution of arbitrary code by the Windows Sidebar when running insecure Gadgets. In addition, Gadgets installed from untrusted sources can harm your computer and can access your computer's files, show you objectionable content, or change…

It's patch time again, and the August 2012 batch promises to be exciting.  Microsoft has 5 bulletins listed as critical and Adobe has an update to Acrobat Reader that's also critical.   Microsoft - The August 2012 Patch Tuesday updates includes 5 bulletins rated as critical and 4 rated as important with 8 bulletins addressing vulnerabilities that can allow remote code execution (the 5 critical can allow remote code execution without user intervention).  The updates seem to cover pretty much every Microsoft software product currently supported but the ones topping the list are all supported versions of Windows (including server), all supported versions of Office, all supported versions of Exchange, all supported versions of SQL Server and all supported versions of Internet Explorer.  It should be understood that any /…

Everyone, we were just notified that there had been an issue with one of the RBL (realtime blacklists) that we use for managing SPAM.  We have removed the RBL from our SPAM filter, but messages that were rejected were not received.  If you received an error with email sent to any address at Cyber Tech Cafe, please re-send the email.  We apologize for the inconvenience. The RBL appears to have gone down sometime around 6:51PM Eastern time.  The issue was resolved at 10:58PM Eastern time.

It's no secret that Samsung has a good (great?) thing going with it's latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy SIII, so it was kindof surprising to me to hear that they may be 'interested' in either buying RIM, buying into RIM or even licensing the latest OS offering from RIM.  The Samsung Galaxy SIII has the Android OS on it and was *built for* Android, so there's no need for them to go shopping around for a replacement OS on this device.  I suspect that this was a feeble attempt by someone to try to make / help RIM stay relevant.   http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57489816-94/no-samsung-isnt-interested-in-rim/?part=rss&subj=news&tag=title

The Zeus trojan [kit] has been HUGE in the past and is probably the favorite crimeware toolkit for those looking to break into the biz.  It's targetd Android devices for some time and now, apparently, is targeting Blackberry devices.  Blackberry users beware. http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2197291/mobile-zeus-malware-found-targeting-blackberry-devices

It's been said over and over and over (ad nauseum) but, just in case, I'll go ahead and say it again.  The folks that write (and use) viruses and malware are almost always in it for the same reason.... MONEY.  Whether it's using a compromised comptuer to store scammed credit card numbers from a skimmer at an ATM or to host porn or for extortion, a network of compromised computers is a significant asset for a dirtbag.  We have done demonstrations of how some of these work and how they can be used but the situation noted in the article linked below drives right to the point.  There's no three way relationship necessary to make money, you just get your warez installed on the right person's computer via carefully crafted…

I've had a few people point me to this story (linked below), some legitimately concerned and some simply pointing it out, and I wanted to take a moment to add my $0.02 worth.  The facts in the story, vendors handle information differently and, as such, classify different sets of infomation with different levels of significance / importance / etc.  In this case, the reader (and a large number of other people) have determined that, using infomation from entity a, they can garner information from entity b and with the aggregate of that information do nasty, nasty things.  This is completely accurate and true, so the story isn't a farce, but this has been the case forever (I'm using 'forever' here in lieu of any real statistics) and will likely always…