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[Keith] Welcome to A Couple Of Admins Podcasting. I'm Keith Albright
[Rich] and I'm Rich Niemeier.
[Ted] and I'm Ted Miller.
[Steve] and I'm Steve Murawski.
[Keith] This is Episode 15 recorded on September 4th, 2007.
Chit-Chat - What's going on with you?
[Keith]
- How was everyone's holiday weekend? For the international listeners, it was the Labor Day holiday this week and for most, there was no work on Monday.
- How was your vacation, Ted?
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[Rich]
[Ted]
[Steve]
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Housekeeping Items
[Rich]
[Ted]
[Keith]
- Podcamp Philly - Is Ted going? I'll definitely be there on Saturday.
- Apologies for the Episode 13 snafu. I will probably do a repost. I didn't think when I replaced the file that no one would get it without manual intervention. If you want the full file, you can manually do it for now, but I'll repost when I push this one out. I still don't know what happened.
[Steve]
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Listener Feedback
From listener....
Jared
-I was checking on technorati for people who were linking to our site and found that Jared from the blog jaredandheather.com had included us in a list of recommended podcasts. I would like to say thank you. You listed us with many sites I listen to as well.
News Items
Microsoft closes third party Windows update app
-Infoworld has an article announcing that Microsoft has closed down Autopatcher, which was an application that allowed users to package multiple Windows Updates, either to use on multiple machines, to bundle patches for reinstalling Windows, or similar tasks.
-"Today we received an e-mail from Microsoft requesting the immediate take-down of the download page, which of course means that
AutoPatcher? is probably history," said Antonis Kaladis, the 20-year-old Greek college student and author of the program. "As much as we disagree, we can do very little, and although the download page is merely a collection of mirrors, we took the download page down."
-"Microsoft has dealt similar cease-and-desist orders to other patch-related Web sites or services in the past. In April, it leaned on Hotfix.net , whose operator, Ethan Allen, had posted more than 100 hotfixes he expected would be part of Vista
SP1?. Coincidentally, Vista
SP1? was talked up by Microsoft today . Allen also complied by yanking the download. "
[Keith]
[Rich]
[Ted]
[Steve]
-I don't quite get what purpose taking down these tools servers. Microsoft provides a similar tool for free (Windows Server Update Services) which allows you to have a local copy of all of the Microsoft Updates.
-There seems to be a schizophrenia in the Microsoft complex, as some parts of Microsoft strive to be as open as possible (IronRuby? on RubyForge?, other Shared Source projects, developing ASP.NET for Apache, Office Open XML format), others keep trying to circle the wagons (Linux patent threats, this instance).
Link: http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/07/08/29/Microsoft-closes-popular-third-party-Windows-update-app_1.html
Spamhaus off the hook for $11 million judgment via ArsTechnica?
By Eric Bangeman | Published: August 31, 2007 - 01:00PM CT
-Last year, Spamhaus found itself on the wrong end of an $11.7 million default judgment awarded to online marketing firm e360insight after it decided not to fight the case due to its belief that US courts had no jurisdiction over the group because of its location in the UK. Yesterday, an appeals court overturned the award, sending the case back down to a lower court.
-The not-for-profit Spamhaus maintains a blacklist of known spammers and spam operations that is used by
ISPs? to help filter the spam from legitimate e-mail.
[Keith]
Finally, some sanity in this case. If you're not on board with what the Spamhaus project is doing, you're probably a *Bleeping* Spammer.
[Rich]
[Ted]
[Steve]
->-If you are looking for sanity from the courts... Despite the title of the article, this doesn't mean that Spamhaus is off the hook, just that the lower court needs to revisit their decision as to how to enforce their injunction.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070831-spamhaus-off-the-hook-for-11-million-judgment.html
"Storm worm" adds millions of computers to botnet
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: September 02, 2007 - 07:43PM CT
-The authors behind a specific strain of malware are trying every trick in the book to get users to succumb to their ill-meaning plans. You name it, they've used it: weather news, personal greetings, reports that Saddam Hussein is still alive, reports that Fidel Castro is dead, sexy women,
YouTube?, and even blogs. The group seems hellbent on creating the largest botnet to date, and they just might do it.
-The "Zhelatin gang"—named after the trojan it installed—was responsible for what started out as the "storm worm."
-Symantec security response director Dave Cole told
InformationWeek in late January that the worm had accounted for 8 percent of global virus infections after a single weekend rampage.
-Just how many computers are part of the botnet is anyone's guess, but estimates from some security firms are reaching as high as 10 million.
[Keith]
We've got to figure out a way to stop the monetization of this type of thing. As long as there is a profit motive, we will continue to see the resources thrown at these types of attacks.
[Rich]
[Ted]
[Steve]
->-I think access to resources will always have some value. I believe we need to drive up the cost of doing business for these guys. Real security needs to become part of the consumer PC. Grandma User should not be required to be a Comp Sci major to know the consequences of clicking on an e-card. She also shouldn't have to have a list of the 101-things-she-should-not-do that she needs to review after reading every email.
->-EV-Certificates and better AV/Anti-spyware, along with more secure operating systemsare one way; but ISPs?, governments, businesses, and others need to take the fight to the bot-herders, spammers, and other miscreants. While I don't condone Network Strike-Back as outlined by Timothy Mullen (http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/98), I do think a strong line needs to be taken by those with a legal right to act on the publics' behalf.
Link: http://www.arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070902-storm-worm-adds-millions-of-computers-to-botnet.html
Earthlink bailing on Municipal WiFi deals
Sony confirms security problem
-The Sony spokesperson said: "While the software at the issue was developed by a third-party vendor in conjunction with our outsourced device manufacturer, as a precaution and to alleviate any potential concerns, we will be issuing a downloadable software to address the situation by mid-September."
-"The apparent intent was to cloak sensitive files related to the fingerprint verification feature included on the USB drives," said researchers at security firm
McAfee?, who also investigated the flaw. "However, in this case the authors apparently did not keep the security implications in mind."
[Keith]
[Rich]
[Ted]
[Steve]
-Did Sony not notice what an uproar their CD rootkit caused?
->-This was supposed to be a security related product; however, it has the opposite effect, giving the malicious hackers a secure place to hide things.
->-With all the rootkit type technology, who wins? AV and security software create a rootkit to hide some of their processes and to be able to see malicious software doing a similar thing. Malicious software uses rootkits to hide from AV and security software. I don't know if you have tried using some of the anti-rootkit software; but for an average computer user, they will have no idea what belongs to the evil, steal-my-identity program and what belongs there. (What is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\
ControlSet001?\Services\sptd\Cfg\19659239224E364682FA4BAF72C53EA4?)
Link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6975838.stm
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Rich's Topics
- What's the buzz on ... corporate Wikipedia editing?
-Author:
-Source:CNN
-Date:
-Little poll by CNN about how people feel in regards to corporation editing there Wikipedia entry.
-Wikipedia's are community based.
-Corporations are part of a community.
-And isn't it the responsiblity of the community to police the content.
-couldn't an upset customer be just as problematic as a corporation trying to self promote?
-67% of those polled were neutral. I think that says it all.
- Wireless Security - Just a note
- Is Wireless Security Optional?
-Connected Home Media
-September 20, 2006
-Paul Thurrott
-By leaving your home wireless network unsecured, you can make it easier for visitors to get connected without having to muss around with passcodes. The trick, of course, is to ensure that the
PCs? that connect to that network are properly secured. You'll want to secure your router as well. But since you're already doing this, you're not adding any work or time, just making your life easier. And really, that's what all this technology is supposed to do anyway, right?
- TR10?: Peering into Video's Future
The Internet is about to drown in digital video. Hui Zhang thinks peer-to-peer networks could come to the rescue.
-By Wade Roush
-Monday, March 12, 2007
-Technology Review
-TV shows,
YouTube? clips, animations, and other video applications already account for more than 60 percent of Internet traffic, says
CacheLogic?, a Cambridge, England, company that sells media delivery systems to content owners and Internet service providers (
ISPs?). I imagine that within two years it will be 98 percent, adds Hui Zhang, a computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. And that will mean slower downloads for everyone.
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Ted's Topics
- I-Caught - On ABC Tuesday at 9:00 PM Eastern Time.
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Keith's Topics
-I got my devices and started setting them up.
-VPN wouldn't come up, so I called a friend who does a lot of these and he asked me a bunch of questions.
-Answer was always, "Yeah, I did that"....which made it frustrating.
-Turns out the documentation wasn't clear and I missed a step. It's clear to me now that I look at it, but it wasn't when I first did it.
-Creates a column you can add to your explorer window that calculates the folder size
-Very handy for troubleshooting what is chewing up disk space
-It will do the calculation on network shares as well. So, I can pull up a share on a server and see utilization without loading it on the server.
-It is a little slow since it is doing it on the fly. And, it doesn't cache sizes so if you navigate away then back it will re-calculate.
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Steve's Topics
-Email is becoming a point of contention in many workplaces. Many people use their work email for personal reasonse and employers are torn between lost productivity from the use of email for personal reasons and the loss of productivity from restricting email usage.
-Also, people's personal email from machines used for business purposes (either the employer's computer or a personal computer used for business purposes) can be included in discovery during litigation.
-Finally, to tie in with our earlier news story, personal email is also inviting additional threats into the enterprise.
-Employees who cyberslack have been shown to spend most of their time emailing, and almost a third of their messages were not related to work, said James Philips, a psychology professor at Australia's Monash University.
-The dichotomy is quite amazing. IT is moving rapidly toward more distributed and disparate types of data sources. Trends like tele-commuting, the greater us of PDA’s, black boxes in cars, etc. At the same time, corporate policies and the legal world are trying to better manage these data sources for purposes of litigation readiness and limiting exposure to legal liability. The struggle continues.
-In the U.S., 58 percent of respondents with access to the Internet outside the company network admitted to sending confidential information by webmail, such as Google's Gmail or Yahoo Mail.
-Law.com has posted an article written for the New York Law Journal warning that private emails may turn public , because employees use business computers for personal use, and personal devices to work on business-related projects.
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Website Picks
Rich - http://www.livecdlist.com/ Thanks Valid Syntax ,http://www.validsyntax.com/
Ted - http://
Keith - http://www.digibarn.com/
This one is in the similar thread as my Computer History Museum. For those of us old fogeys that have been a computer geek for a long time, this place is nirvana. It brings back some memories. I found a link to the old GEM desktop UI that I ran on top of DOS on my first laptop.
Steve - http://www.diigo.com
Last Call
Anyone....Anyone....Buehler.....Buehler....
Closing
All right, well that is it for the show. For listener feedback; you can email us at RichandKeith? [at] gmail.com or you can post a comment on the main site at ACoupleOfAdmins.com or, if you use iTunes, write a review. Lastly, you can drop any show ideas or topic requests on the wiki. There is a link to the wiki on the main show site. If you would like to participate in the show; either through an interview, a segment contribution, or any other way, please let us know.
Thanks everyone.
