windows nt Archives

How to secure a computer like a spook

Dave Farquhar security May 20, 2011April 15, 2017computer security, NSA, Orange Book, STIG, windows 7, windows nt

A link to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) guidance on hardening operating systems has been floating around various blogs today. But the NSA’s guidance on configuring Windows 7 and other recent operating systems is, to put it mildly, a bit incomplete.

What one government agency doesn’t do, another probably does. That’s usually a safe assumption at least. Enter the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). If you want to harden recent Windows operating systems, visit http://iase.disa.mil/stigs/index.html for guidance.
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Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.

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How CPU multipliers came to be locked

Dave Farquhar Retro Computing March 11, 2011July 15, 20171980s, 1990s, amd, asus, classmate, intel, math coprocessor, overclocking, pentium ii, windows nt

It was 1996. I was a senior in college, and I went to the computer store in the student commons to get a cable or something. I ran into an old classmate working in the store, who went on to work as an engineer for Boeing. We talked for a few minutes, and he told me about a web site that I just had to visit. I still remember the URL for some reason. He grabbed a piece of paper and scrawled “http://sysdoc.pair.com” on it.

It was my introduction to the world of PC hardware enthusiast sites. That mysterious URL was the early address of Tom’s Hardware Guide. The front page mostly consisted of links to articles telling you how to overclock Pentium CPUs using undocumented jumper settings on Asus motherboards, and the ads were largely mail-order houses offering specials on Asus motherboards and low-end Pentium CPUs.
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Dave Farquhar

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The tyranny of consumerization is real

Dave Farquhar security March 5, 2011December 4, 20181990s, 3com, android, apple, CIO, computerworld, dell, excel, hp, IBM, ipad, mainframe, micron, Packard Bell, RIAA, Token Ring, usb port, windows nt

Computerworld cites the Ipad 2 and increasing demand by end users to use such consumer devices in corporate environments as “The tyranny of consumerization.”

This has happened before. And if history repeats itself, the future will be better than today, but the road there is going to involve some pain.
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Dave Farquhar

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The decline and fall of system administration

Dave Farquhar Servers and Networking March 3, 20111990s, amiga, Dave Haynie, infoworld, intel, irony, Jay Miner, Linus Torvalds, passwords, unix, windows nt

Infoworld’s Paul Venizia stirred up a controversy, asking what happened to sysadmins who can fix things, as opposed to just rebuilding machines any time something went wrong.

The definition changed, mostly. At least that’s what I think.

Dave Farquhar

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On troubleshooting

Dave Farquhar Hardware February 10, 2011christmas, Christmas Eve, intel, troubleshooting, windows 2000, windows 7, windows nt

My Windows 7 upgrade was supposed to be a one-hour project on a Saturday afternoon. It dragged on until Wednesday. I’m at the point now where I probably have an hour’s work left on the machine–it’s Thursday now–but it’s late and I’m not sure I feel like it.

The answers–loading the BIOS defaults and changing the parallel port settings–seem obvious. Now. But when I look for my keys, where I finally find them seems obvious too, even though it sometimes takes a long time to find them.

Dave Farquhar

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What the 2011 CES may mean

Dave Farquhar Hardware January 7, 2011adobe creative suite, amd, CES, intel, netbooks, nvidia, ocz, pcie, windows 8, windows nt, x86

This week was CES, where companies make a big splash and try to show what’s going to happen in the consumer electronics space in the coming year.

In the coverage of CES, I saw three things that seem interesting, but only one of those three was a surprise.
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Dave Farquhar

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Um, no, software shouldn’t have kill switches or time bombs in it

Dave Farquhar Software, Windows November 9, 2010amiga, firefox, john c dvorak, mac os x, os x, unix, whirlpool, windows 2000, windows 7, windows nt, Windows XP

So, ZDNet is advocating that Microsoft use a kill switch to render existing Windows XP computers non-functional. Then he relented and said maybe an expiration date would be sufficient.

John C Dvorak is attacking the idea, with good reason. Dvorak is right.
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Dave Farquhar

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It must be that system idle process…

Dave Farquhar Servers and Networking, War Stories, Windows November 5, 2010November 5, 2010windows nt

One day, I came back to my desk after lunch and my boss cornered me. “You know about these things. What’s Half-Life?”

I hesitated for a minute. “I’m pretty sure it’s a computer game.”

It wasn’t a game I’d played. If it isn’t Railroad Tycoon, I’m probably not interested. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Tribute to the Asus SP97-V

Dave Farquhar Hardware May 12, 2010September 26, 20171990s, amd, asus, Missouri, recycling, symantec, university of missouri, windows nt

In need of an obsolete but reliable PC for a project, I searched a dark corner of my basement, a last stop for castoff PCs before being sent off for recycling. I found one. Predictably, it had an Asus motherboard in it. Specifically, it had an Asus SP97-V in it, a budget Socket 7 board from the late 1990s sporting a SiS chipset with integrated video that worked well with Cyrix and AMD CPUs.

Dave Farquhar

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Barfy.

Dave Farquhar Personal, Servers and Networking, War Stories September 23, 2009March 23, 20221980s, 3com, cart, hp, IBM, journalism, macintosh, micron, Missouri, network cables, os 2, ps 2, Token Ring, university of missouri, windows nt

I started my professional career doing network administration at the University of Missouri. (I generally don’t count my stint selling low-quality PCs at the last surviving national consumer electronics chain towards my professional experience anymore.)

Dave Farquhar

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