Security – Page 4 – Everything is Broken

Strange SmartBro URL hijacking

September 14, 2008September 14, 2008 by admin

I'm at a loss to explain this unless SmartBro's DNS or proxy servers have been taken over. Here's the deal. I'm surfing normally, and then suddenly I try to go to a normal site (economist.com, yahoo.com, facebook.com, google. com, iptools.com etc) and instead of getting the correct page, I get a weird spammy advertising page, even though the URL in the Address bar looks correct.

The image to the right is an example. Click on the image to get a full sized view. I have more examples saved if anyone is interested.

Bunch of Yahoos.

September 12, 2008 by admin

I'm continually startled by the way people use email in the Philippines. Using a Yahoo address is phenomenally popular, even for business. I could forgive a mom and pop company from using [email protected], but when you get top management handing you cards saying [email protected] there is something clearly very wrong.

In no particular order, here are a few reasons why you should NOT use yahoo for your business email address.

Free Wireless VPN

August 8, 2008 by admin

Depending on your background you'll have different reactions to Free Wireless. Most people shout a quick whoopee, and plug right in there. However if your background is in IT security, you take a much dimmer view.

First of all there's the fact that a lot of the traffic you send down the wire can be intercepted ("sniffed") by people on the same network as you. The guy next to you in Starbucks could be snagging all your email passwords, for example. So at a minimum you need to make sure that you're using Secure email protocols (eg Secure POP on port 995 instead of port 110, and Secure SMTP on port 465 instead of port 25), and using https intead of http wherever you get a chance.