Tag Archives: Security

The NSA Stonewalls Congress

Posted on 2020-10-29 by jcs

I don’t get this. Reuters is reporting that the NSA is refusing to tell congress about its seeking of back doors. It’s certainly true that an argument can be made that the NSA should be seeking back doors but how … Continue reading →

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Online Voting and Banking

Posted on 2020-09-17 by jcs

There are, I’m sure, no Irreal readers who don’t understand that online voting is a really hard problem and that, currently, there are no good solutions. Those without a technical background don’t understand this and ask questions like, “If we … Continue reading →

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Ransomware: Prevention & Recovery

Posted on 2020-07-13 by jcs

A couple of days ago, I mentioned Backblaze and their newsletter with an article about Tips for working remotely. That newsletter has a link to an older article that discusses how to prevent a ransomware attack and recover if you … Continue reading →

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Protecting Yourself from Surveillance

Posted on 2020-06-29 by jcs

Jesse McGraw knows a few things about black hat hacking. He was a participant himself and was convicted of corrupting industrial control systems. Over at Forklog he has an interesting article on some steps you can take to protect yourself … Continue reading →

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More on the Websockets Port Scanning

Posted on 2020-06-03 by jcs

This is a short update to my Websockets: Why We Can’t Have Nice Things post. That post discussed a tactic used by several Web sites that uses Websockets to scan for open localhost ports. There was some speculation that this … Continue reading →

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Dubious Password Advice

Posted on 2020-05-28 by jcs

Jacob Bergdahl over at Towards Data Science has an article discussing what makes a good password. His advice is not entirely wrong but has some problems. His main point is that greenelephantswithtophat is a better password than jK8v!ge4D. That’s probably … Continue reading →

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Websockets: Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Posted on 2020-05-24 by jcs

Websockets are a handy device that allow for snappier browser/server interactions. Like all useful things, the usual bad actors have found a way to abuse them. It turns out that a Web site you are visiting can port scan your … Continue reading →

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Degoogling

Posted on 2020-04-30 by jcs

Aaron Ogle has a couple of interesting posts on how and why he is degoogling his life. The why is just what you’d expect. He’s tired of having Google vacuum up all the data on his online activities. Like many … Continue reading →

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Hardware Microphone Interlock

Posted on 2020-04-07 by jcs

Here’s a good idea. Apple laptops with the T2 security chip have a hardware interlock that turns off the microphone when the cover is closed. Apple stresses that the interlock is hardware based and can not be disabled by software. … Continue reading →

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Schneier on Zoom Security

Posted on 2020-04-05 by jcs

The COVID-19 pandemic is having many unexpected consequences. One of those consequences is to bring the Zoom video conferencing platform to the attention of almost everyone. Zoom appears to have the best-in-class video conferencing software as far as video and … Continue reading →

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