Unhandled Perception

NSA has developed and distributed configuration guidance for operating systems. These guides are currently being used throughout the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline for their systems.

Link: http://www.nsa.gov/ia/guidance/…

Get an extra layer of protection with the PayPal Security Key – it’s easy to use and portable, so you can access your account with confidence from just about anywhere.

Link: https://www.paypal.com/…

Scan a website to see if there are any known, or recorded, exploits or malicious threats.  Not really something I would use since I never click on what I don’t know or looks fishy and when I do Google does a pretty good job or warning me.

Either way a tool like this is good to keep in your Security bookmark folder just in case.

Link: http://www.urlvoid.com/

Steps to properly block comment spam on your WordPress blog:

1. Activate the Akismet plugin that comes with your blog (located in the Plugins section).  If you don’t have it download it here.
2. Get an Akismet API key
3. Go to the Akismet Configuration screen located in the Plugins menu group (left side bar menu in WordPress)
4. Enter your key and press Update Options

Now your popular blog will be well protected using Akismet. Don’t forget to make sure all comments are moderated or you’re asking for major problems.

Information on smartphones is stored in flash memory and some data can be stored on a memory card. For the memory card, simply remove it from the phone. However, to delete flash memory data…

A great topic that people tend to not think about.

Link: http://www.erbandevelopment.com/…

Yesterday Facebook rolled out a new feature called Places that lets you and your friends check in to locations, Foursquare-style. If you’d prefer to keep your location private, or at least stop your friends from posting it, here’s how.

If you’re not convinced that posting your location can be a bad thing, check out PleaseRobMe for some evidence. Of course, if you’re careful, check-ins aren’t inherently a bad thing. Whether or not you want to disable them is entirely up to you, but Facebook—yet again—has made the assumption that you want to take part in all of their privacy-eroding new features. If you don’t, or want a little more control over who can divulge your location, you can make this change pretty quickly through your privacy settings.

Facebook Places, one more thing that everyone should disable.  Why on earth do you want to share with the world where you are, and the fact you’re not at home.

Link: http://lifehacker.com/5616395/…

Starting today, Starbucks offers free Wi-Fi across US and Canadian cities. Free Wi-Fi hotspots have become a common method for connecting to the internet and sharing information, often private information.

Such hotspots attract the unwanted attention of hackers and others who are interested in capturing the information being shared on the hotspot.

Hackers use something called packet sniffers that if configured, captures each data packet that passes through the network. The captured packets are then decoded and analyzed to read the content they are carrying.

Link: http://tnerd.com/2010/07/01/…

PHP Security involves minimizing programming errors as much as possible, and putting proper code in place to protect against possible vulnerabilities – Often times this means putting 2-3 “layers” of protection in place to guard sensitive data against hackers that could otherwise cause a catastrophic result if compromised. Developers call this principle of redundant safeguarding Defense in Depth, and this concept has been proven over the years to be an extremely effective defense against malicious attacks.

Link: http://www.noupe.com/php/php-security-tips.html

Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees.

“We’re not doing any more Windows. It is a security effort,” said one Google employee.

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/..

You should see the new Privacy settings in Facebook.  The new settings should in your account by now.

Link: http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php

Years ago Google added SSL encryption to products ranging from Gmail to Google Docs and others, and we continue to enable encryption on more services. Like banking and e-commerce sites, Google’s encryption extends beyond login passwords to the entire service. This session-wide encryption is a significant privacy advantage over systems that only encrypt login pages and credit card information. Early this year, we took an important step forward by making SSL the default setting for all Gmail users. And today we’re gradually rolling out a new choice to search more securely at https://www.google.com.

This isn’t the same as private browsing, this just means the pipe between you and Google is secure.  Keeps prying eyes, like when you’re traveling and using hotspots or Hotel connections, from viewing your searches.

If you really want private browsing then you would need to use something that bounces your connection around so your identity is never know to the site you are visiting.  This can be accomplished with something like Tor.

While you’re at it you might as well check out the recent LifeHacker post “Internet Survival Guide for Traveling Where Privacy Isn’t Respected”

Link: https://www.google.com

The above is from my first scan with the tool.  Found an issue and provided a direct link to the setting so I could close the potential security hole.

Just follow the instructions provided.  It’s very simple even if you’re not familiar with a bookmarklet.

All-in-all a pretty useful little tool.

Did it find any issues with your Facebook account?

Link: http://www.reclaimprivacy.org/

If you visit certain sites while logged in to Facebook, an app for those sites will be quietly added to your Facebook profile. You don’t have to have a Facebook window open, you don’t need to signed in to these sites for the apps to appear, and there doesn’t appear to be an option to opt-out anywhere in Facebook’s byzantine privacy settings.

These apps appear to be related to Facebook’s sharing tools. The sites currently leaving this trail all have Facebook Connect integration, and the list includes heavyweights such as the Gawker network of blogs, the Washington Post, TechCrunch, CNET, New York Magazine, and formspring.me.

Link:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/…

The Hosts file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. This file is loaded into memory (cache) at startup, then Windows checks the Hosts file before it queries any DNS servers, which enables it to override addresses in the DNS. This prevents access to the listed sites by redirecting any connection attempts back to the local (your) machine. Another feature of the HOSTS file is its ability to block other applications from connecting to the Internet, providing the entry exists.

One of the best resources on the Hosts file trick to block “parasites” is over at mvps.org.  Its probably one of the most actively maintained hosts file on the internet today.

Link: http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm