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Unix-to-Windows copies with PSCP

Dave Farquhar Linux, security, Windows March 12, 2012firewall, JPG, PNG, SQL, SSH, unix

I’ve been moving files between Linux servers, and to and from Windows boxes, as part of my server migration. I started to write about how I’ve been doing it, but it seemed oddly familiar.

Yep, I’ve written about SCP and its Windows port, PSCP, before. Do this long enough and you find yourself repeating yourself.

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.

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The old days of viruses

Dave Farquhar security, Viruses March 8, 2012March 26, 2025antivirus, CIO, CISM, cissp, computer security, firewall, intel, John Dominik, journalism, Love Letter, malware, Missouri, public internet, spam, symantec, university of missouri, VBS

Blogging pioneer John Dominik, inspired by my Michelangelo memories, wrote about his memories of viruses later in the decade. So now I’ll take inspiration of him and share my memories of some of those viruses. I searched my archives, and at the time it was going on, I didn’t write a lot. I was tired and angry, as you can tell from the terse posts I did write.

Dave Farquhar

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I have a server… and about four years’ worth of content

Dave Farquhar Uncategorized March 6, 2012apache, firewall, SQL

My new server is up and running, and let me tell you, it’s spectacular.

And if you’re reading this on 6 March 2012, you’re probably wondering what I’m talking about, because everything looks just as slow as usual. That’s because the new server is still behind my firewall because I’m struggling to get my content all moved to it.

Dave Farquhar

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Open-source licenses, the CISSP, and the real world

Dave Farquhar Copyright, security February 4, 2012July 14, 2017BSD, buffer overflow, cissp, cissp exam, debian, demonstration, firewall, project management, vulnerability

You may have a question about open-source licenses on your CISSP exam. I don’t remember the specifics and wouldn’t be able to repeat them anyway, but I had a question on my exam where knowing the differences was helpful in finding the right answer.

And I had to deal with an issue this past week involving open-source technologies where the licenses made a big difference.

Dave Farquhar

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My first experience with data recovery

Dave Farquhar data recovery, War Stories February 2, 2012March 23, 20221990s, data recovery, firewall, IBM, ontrack

It was 1997. I was working my first full-time job, and my phone rang with my first crisis.

“What happened to the K drive?” the caller asked.

I glanced over at my network drive cheat sheet, which listed all of our shares and what server they were on. In those days, most of our servers still had 300-400 megabyte drives and that meant every file server hosted, at most, a couple of shares. There was no K drive on our list. I was afraid this was about to get interesting. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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The contractor who built systems via P2P

Dave Farquhar security January 20, 2012January 23, 2022firewall, wi-fi

Today I was helping one of my coworkers study for the Security+ exam, and one of his study questions reminded me of a story.

I wrote a few days ago about spending some time in an unhealthy IT shop. One of my cohorts supported one of the departments that decided to outsource its IT to a contractor, rather than use the internal IT department. It was a form of shadow IT on a large scale. The hand-off didn’t exactly go as it should.

Dave Farquhar

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The worst test I ever took

Dave Farquhar Personal December 17, 20111990s, certifications, cissp, firewall, marathon, mizzou, walter johnson

I’m gearing up (finally) to take the CISSP, a 250-question marathon of an exam that covers everything from firewalls and intrusion detection systems to how tall the fence or wall around a building should be and what kind of lights to use in a parking garage. And everything in between. Three of my colleagues have had CISSP certifications for several years, and on Friday two of them were telling me what to expect.

And the worst test I’ve ever taken came to mind. No, it wasn’t Security+. I had a pretty good idea I was going to pass that one, which I did. The worst test I ever took was Dr. Walter Johnson‘s Fundamental Macroeconomics (Economics 1) makeup final at Mizzou, circa Winter 1994.

Dave Farquhar

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How to make a DMZ with two routers

Dave Farquhar security November 21, 2011August 21, 2016d-link, firewall, linksys, lowercase letters, passwords, SSID, WAN, WEP, wrt54g

I’ve alluded in the past to why it’s a good idea to make a DMZ with two routers, but I’ve never gone into depth about how and necessarily why to do it.

If your ISP gave you a combination modem/switch/access point/router and it only supports 100 megabit wired and 54-megabit (802.11g) wireless and you want to upgrade to gigabit wired/150-meg (802.11n) wireless, here’s a great way to make the two devices work together and improve your security.

Dave Farquhar

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Don’t use software firewalls: Good advice or bad?

Dave Farquhar security October 10, 2011October 9, 2011amd, extra money, firewall, intel, linksys, malware, netgear, prison, vista, vulnerability, Windows XP, x86

A common piece of good-meaning advice you’ll hear is that you should never use software firewalls. But is that good advice, or bad?

On the surface, it’s good advice. It’s much better to use the firewall built into a cable/DSL router. But the software firewall built into Windows XP, Vista, 7, and (presumably) 8 makes for a good second line of defense, so I don’t recommend disabling it.

I’ll explain further.

Dave Farquhar

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Why SSL isn’t fooolproof security

Dave Farquhar security August 15, 2011August 15, 2011firewall, Proxy server, SSL, VPN, vulnerability, wi-fi

Over at Rabbit-Hole, a commenter posted that my low-tier VPN is unnecessary if you’re using SSL. He’s wrong.

Perhaps I should have titled this “When SSL isn’t foolproof security,” but it’s too late now. Oh well.

When you’re sitting on a strange network (not your home or work network), SSL is vulnerable to a classic man-in-the-middle attack. If you’re paying attention, you should know if your session is being hijacked. But who’s paying attention?

Dave Farquhar

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