Author: Dave Farquhar

Step 1 to landing a security job: Become conversant in security

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

So last week, I wrote about the difficulty of landing a security job and promised to explore it further.

And I think the first key, and what should be the most crucial key, is being conversant in security. Having a certification is one thing, but at the end of the day, the biggest thing it means is that you passed a test. It’s possible to pass a certification test and not be able to talk intelligently about security. So in the process of interviewing, you can expect to have to answer a pile of questions, and if you don’t answer those questions well, you won’t be offered a job. Read more

Somebody just tried to hack me

Dave Farquhar security , , , ,

Caller: “I calling from technical support. We found issue with your PC.”
Me: “What company are you with?”
Caller: “CSA is the name of my company.”
Me: “What’s our business relationship?”
Caller: “We found issue with your PC. Our technicians found your PC is running slow.”
Me: “Do you realize I wrote the book about PC performance? No, really, I wrote a book about it. I guarantee my computer is faster than yours. I also possess multiple security certifications.”
Caller: “Go on.”
Me: “You need to find someone else to social engineer.”

The caller stammered a little bit, tried to assure me it wasn’t a scam and wasn’t going to cost me money, then hung up.
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12 PC tasks you should be doing and aren’t

Dave Farquhar security, Windows

Here’s a jewel from earlier this month from PC World: 12 easy, crucial PC tasks you should be doing and aren’t. They’re mostly related to performance and security. No wonder I like the article.

A couple of the items won’t give the kinds of gains they used to–in this era when everyone thinks they need a 3 TB drive and they’re using less than 1 TB of it, cleaning up unused data isn’t going to do all that much to improve performance. But there’s some benefit to removing unused programs, especially unused programs that run at startup.

Most critically, the article tells how to automate a lot of these tasks. Automating it so that it just happens without you having to think about it is even better than doing it. If you’re not doing these 12 things because the computer is already doing them automatically for you, then that’s OK.

Livingsocial got breached. Change your password, of course

Dave Farquhar security , , , ,

Livingsocial got breached. You need to change your password, if you have a Livingsocial account.

There are two questions worth asking: How do you protect yourself, and how does this happen?

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The Card wasn’t real!

Dave Farquhar Baseball , , , , , ,

Somehow I missed this a couple of weeks ago, but the former owner of the most valuable baseball card ever, a 1909 tobacco card picturing Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame shortstop Honus Wagner, admitted to altering it sometime before he sold it. This card, sometimes called The Card, was owned by hockey great Wayne Gretzky for a time in the 1990s, so The Card is sometimes also called the Gretzky Wagner.

The story of the T206–T206 being the designation that the founder of baseball card collecting, Jefferson Burdick, assigned to that particular set–Wagner is shrouded in mystery anyway, and the Gretzky Wagner, even more so. The Gretzky Wagner was even the subject of a book published in 2008, appropriately titled The Card. Read more

Google’s plan for fiber seems to be working

Dave Farquhar ISPs ,

I saw this on Slashdot today: In Lawrence, Kan., about 40 miles west of Kansas City, Kan., a local ISP is building an affordable fiber network. Pricing is a little higher than Google Fiber, at $70/month for 100 megabit and $100/month for gigabit, but that’s still better than what you typically see from the local cable/phone duopoly.

The cable/phone duopoly won’t build this, so it’s going to have to be upstarts who do it.  Meet the new revolution: Same as the old revolution. Read more

“They were bored and wished they had a job.”

Dave Farquhar security , , , , , , ,

I was catching up on security podcasts this week, and a brief statement in one of them really grabbed me. The panel was talking about people who steal online gaming accounts, I think. The exact content isn’t terribly important–what’s very important is what this person found in the forums where the people who perform this nefarious activity hang out. What she found was that there was one common sentiment that almost everyone there expressed, frequently.

They were bored, and they wished they had a job.

There was about a 30-second exchange after that, but I don’t think it’s enough. Read more

When your CISSP isn’t enough

Dave Farquhar security , , ,

I had a job interview Monday. I have at least one observation from it–the things on my resume that impress recruiters don’t necessarily impress a good hiring manager. Not on their own, at least.

Let’s do some post-mortem.

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Value Village and Affton could be very good for one another

Dave Farquhar St. Louis , , , , , ,

There’s a Value Village thrift store in Shrewsbury that’s being displaced because the plaza it’s in–the same place I used to go to buy Commodore gear–is going to be demolished to make way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter. Whether Shrewsbury needs a Wal-Mart Supercenter when there’s one six miles away is another question for another day.

Value Village needs someplace to go, and Affton has an available retail space that’s been empty since the hardware store previously occupying it went out of business more than a year ago. County councilman Steve Stenger (D-Affton) wants to block the move, essentially saying that Affton is too good for a place like Value Village. Read more

PC Magazine’s tips for buying your own cable modem

Dave Farquhar Hardware

PC Magazine published a few tips for people looking to buy their own cable modems and ditch the monthly rental fee It’s also helpful if your existing modem quit working and you need a new one. Modems don’t last forever. It also contains a reminder: Make sure you know whether your modem is just a modem, or a combination device that routes as well.

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