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speaking of security

Hi all.
Well, well, well, its been a while since I felt it necessary to actually put a post on here.
However, since I have a lot of security stuff to put on here and since I have a little time this evening I thought I’d have a go at it.
Firstly, a low risk ssl 3 attack is making the rounds.
For those thatuse it, and have it on in internet options you should turn it off by going to internet options/ advanced and under security disabling ssl2 and ssl3 and enabling tls 1 1.1 and 1.2 ssl apparently is old and going out of fashion.
If you are a server turning off ssl may according to redmondmag.com cause some issues for a small amount of people.
everyone should start using the new tls protocol anyway because its not got this issue.
If you use open ssl as your package and a lot of Linux servers do, then there are updates for you that you should have installed by now if you havn’t autoupdated already.

Should you be concerned with the attack?
Probably not, it needs a server to have a bad cert, and then another attack, redmondmag.com describes that an attacker would need to send several hundred https requests to get a ddos style attack to even cause the floor in the first place.
Keep your certificate up to date and don’t click any suspicious files or emails.
I recommend you rout any attachments through dropbox google drive or a throw away sendspace account though.
And speaking of such services, a virus that’s made the rounds last year in yahoo has started making its way through fishing emails.
It is bank malware and attacks a system coming in via fishing email and attachment.
So the easiest way to avoid it is to not look at suspicious emails.
the attack uses the drafts folder in gmail to send attachments and data passwords and bank info to the creaters of the malware without you knowing.
The best protection is to be carefull what you click.
Though it should be secured if google announces to you you have an issue, follow instructions and change your password.
If the suspicious activity is in fact because you are emailing in another country that is not the one you made the account in, then you can dismiss it.
It goes without saying that if you are moving to another country perminantly that you should change your account profile to let google know where you are.
The yahoo article did say though that if you get the malware you won’t know and its hard to detect so the easiest way to avoid this is not to get infected in the first place.

This next one is an older one but is valid from this month.
ms was made aware of a way now patched for someone to hack into your fat32 file system via the access driver.
There is a patch for this which will require the system to reboot twice after updating but the easiest way to avoid this is to use ntfs for everything including your flash drives.

And last but not least, a multi attack using unpatched floors in adobe acrobat, pluss fishing email and several other floors in the system is round to hijack things.
However if you never went at that suspicious attachment or web link then you wouldn’t get infected, adobe 11.09 is the latest update and you should have it by now.
Also, currently under investigation, is an specially crafted ms document with infected ole macro.
You have to open an infected file via a fishing email or something to get the infection though.
There will be an update to this but that’s about it.
Java 8.25 is out, and while you can run it on xp it does warn you you will not get full functionality.
Finally on the tech front according to coolblindtech.com, there has been several new nexus and apple devices including the new nexus 6 and the apple I pad mini 3 coming out soonish.
There is a new iTunes 12 for windows which has a weird interface to which is a bit of a mission to use but still.

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More security News and updates for you

Hi folks, in the “no shock” department, I just caught up with Dairy Queen Confirms Breach at 395 Stores which is quite a lock in the amount of information that someone can take from you. One I haven’t read yet, Malware Based Credit Card Breach at Kmart may be the same type of thing seeing that we are still seeing these and will continue to see things like this until the industry changes. In a way, I wish there was something we can do to help ourselves from these types of attacks. Check out these articles and do the best you can.

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Technology podcast 203 is here!

On our RSS feed we just posted podcast 203. Since the show notes didn’t go through, here they are. Lots of things to read if you wish.

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On this podcast, we have an interesting discussion in regards to the biggest security issue I’ve seen. I also will demo L.A. Metro’s version of an app to help get around the bus and train system.

Things of interest to read

• We Take Your Privacy and Security. Seriously.
• Signature Systems Breach Expands
• Jimmy John’s Confirms Breach at 216 Stores
• Home Depot: 56M Cards Impacted, Malware Contained
• In Home Depot Breach, Investigation Focuses on Self-Checkout Lanes

App links

• Version 2 of Go Metro which has since been updated for fare increase info and other bug fixes.

  The app still works the same.

We hope you enjoy the podcast, and we’ll be back on another edition very soon!

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Enjoy!

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