security Archives

Home » security » Page 24

Cyber security podcasts I listen to

Dave Farquhar security March 24, 2016June 13, 2017Australia, CISO, d-link, isc, Liquid Matrix, podcast

Yesterday, after reading a post in which I cautioned about a popular security podcast, someone asked me what cyber security podcasts I do listen to. I wrote this up a long time ago and never posted it for some reason, so now I’m correcting the oversight. Here’s my collection of the best of the best security podcasts.

These are the security podcasts I’ve been listening to for several years now and continue to recommend. Security podcasts are a good way to keep in touch with current issues, and also a good way to get continuing education.

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

dfarq.homeip.net

Simple tips to prevent ransomware

Dave Farquhar security March 8, 2016April 23, 2017antivirus, malware, malwarebytes, Microsoft Security Essentials, oracle, Proxy server, psi, vector, Windows 10, windows 7

Last week at work, I noticed some odd events in an event log, and when I investigated them, I found they were part of a failed ransomware attack. This got me thinking about how to prevent ransomware at home.

Ransomware, if you aren’t familiar, is an attack that encrypts your data and demands a ransom, usually around $300, in bitcoins, and you get a short deadline until it destroys your files. More often than not, paying the ransom is the only way to get the files back, so it’s much better to prevent it.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

A weak VPN isn’t necessarily better than no VPN

Dave Farquhar security February 29, 2016February 28, 2016electric trains, SSL, VPN

A Slashdot story last week discussed how 90% of all SSL VPNs use weak, obsolete encryption. And one comment said, “So? A weak VPN is better than no VPN.”

Not necessarily.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Why to change forum passwords right now

Dave Farquhar security February 18, 2016April 23, 2017passwords

If you regularly visit forums online, particularly forums powered by the forum software Vbulletin, you ought to change your forum passwords right now. The longer and more random you make them, the better.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

407 error in Java with Forcepoint

Dave Farquhar security February 17, 2016September 27, 2022Proxy server

I had a Java app pointing at a Forcepoint (formerly known as Websense) proxy server. The proxy server wasn’t working, at least not consistently, and the app was giving me a 407 error. Here’s a workaround for this weird intermittent error. Intermittent problems are always the toughest ones to solve.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Use guest networks to secure IoT “smart” devices

Dave Farquhar security February 8, 2016February 2, 2019AP, DDWRT, steve gibson

A neighbor asked me about a recommendation Steve Gibson and Leo Laporte made a couple of weeks ago about securing your IoT household “smart” devices, like doorbells, thermostats, televisions, and anything else that wasn’t traditionally computerized, by putting it on a guest network.

The short answer is yes, it’s something you should do. It doesn’t make them perfectly safe, but it’s the best you can do, so you should. But I would do it a bit differently from Gibson–I think the ideal setup has two guest networks.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Why domain squatting works

Dave Farquhar security February 3, 2016July 9, 2017malware, Proxy server, troubleshooting

I lost an afternoon troubleshooting a Websense non-issue. A web site related to Salesforce wasn’t working, and any time something like that happens, Websense goes on trial. About all I can do is make sure it’s a fair trial. Such is the life of a proxy administrator. And in this case, Websense was innocent–the guilty party was a dirty, no-good domain squatter. It’s a business model. And people wouldn’t do it if it didn’t work. Here’s why domain squatting works.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Spot phishing e-mails with Outlook

Dave Farquhar Office, scams, security January 25, 2016October 22, 2022antivirus, breach, computer software, JPG, macintosh, spam

I got e-mail the other day from Turbotax saying someone had filed my taxes for me. Obviously a cause for concern, right? Here’s how I determined the message was fake in about three minutes. You can spot phishing e-mails with Outlook the same way.

Some people will tell you not to even open a message like this, but if you’re a computer professional, at some point someone is going to want you to prove the message was fake. I think this is something every e-mail administrator, desktop support professional, security professional, and frankly, every helpdesk professional ought to be able to do.

So here’s how you can get the proof. And generally speaking, Outlook’s default configuration plays it safe enough that this procedure won’t get you into any trouble, at least on modern versions of Windows.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

High side vs low side

Dave Farquhar security January 14, 2016March 26, 2025leaks, malware, NSA, podcast, Top Secret

The other day I heard a reference to the “high side vs low side” of a computer system in a podcast, and the speaker didn’t stop to clarify. Worse yet is when you hear “on the low side” or “on the high side.” I came from the private sector into government contracting myself. I wasn’t born knowing this jargon either, so I’ll explain it.

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net

Why MAC address filtering doesn’t help security

Dave Farquhar security January 7, 2016July 17, 2017AES, RADIUS, SSH, SSID, WEP

The other question that came out of my recommended DD-WRT settings was why not filter MAC addresses. I hate to be flip, but MAC address filtering doesn’t help, so why bother?

The reason is because your MAC addresses are broadcast as part of the network traffic, and it’s unencrypted. So your MAC addresses aren’t any secret at all. So it doesn’t do any good. One could argue it doesn’t do any harm. But it adds an extra step every time you put something on your wireless network. Why go to the inconvenience if you don’t gain anything from it?

Dave Farquhar

dfarq.homeip.net