Ouch…Is your phone infected? Great Article!

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/so-theres-a-rootkit-hidden-in-millions-of-cellphones/16708?tag=nl.e539

Another reason I LOVE rooting my phone and loading my OWN custom ROM!

-SuperDale

….Here’s your sign….

Water District in Texas used only 3 letters for a password for their control systems.

https://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/hacker-says-texas-town-used-three-digit-password-secure-internet-facing-scada-system-112011

Folks…14 or MORE characters in a password!!! PLEASE!!!!

-SuperDale

Is your child’s identity in jeopardy?

Great article about “what-if’s” when it comes to protecting our CHILD’S identity:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/seo/are-you-to-blame-for-your-childs-identity-being-stolen-case-study/4130?tag=nl.e539

-SuperDale

Finally…Protection for mobile devices!

So I came across a little company that now makes it possible to safeguard you’re mobile devices.

http://www.mobicip.com/

So far this product works on Desktops, iPhone, iTouch and iPads.  Coming soon to Android devices…

And YES it will filter YouTube videos based on content!

SWEETNESS!

-SuperDale

The virus that crippled Iran’s Nuclear Power Program…goes “Prime-Time”!

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/15/anonymous-hackers-offer-stuxnet-worm-online/

Long story-short…KEEP YOUR ANTIVIRUS UP TO DATE!

-SuperDale

Holy CRAP! Facebook/Twitter + Public Wifi = “I OWN YOU”!

There's been a lot of talk about Firesheep, a free Firefox extension that collects data broadcast over an unprotected Wi-Fi network without using SSL. You turn it on, and by default it collects cookies for Facebook, Twitter and 24 other sites. Then you can sidejack the account and gain access under the acquired identity….get the rest of this story here:

http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/14/technology/firesheep_starbucks/index.htm

Watch this video and see it work

To fix it watch this video:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-20030323-2.html

PLEASE FOLKS TAKE NOTE!

-SuperDale

IPv6…the countdown continues…”IPv6-Day”

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What is it?

On 8 June, 2011, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight Networks will be amongst some of the major organisations that will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour "test drive". The goal of the Test Drive Day is to motivate organizations across the industry - Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies - to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

Why should I care ?

By offering their content over IPv6, these sites could become unreachable or experience very slow response time for users with a misconfigured IPv6 stack.

Typically, the most common problem we observe at ipv6-test.com is a home router which has IPv6 enabled, but no IPv6 connectivity. As a result, computers and networked devices on the LAN get an IPv6 address and default route, when in fact their outgoing IPv6 traffic never goes beyond their own router.

Take the test!

Check today your readiness for world IPv6 day ! Click here to take the test. If the first test takes too long and gives you a warning about IPv6 misconfiguration, be prepared to fix your network before the 8 June !

If the test passes, be it IPv4 only or v4+v6, you shouldn't experience any trouble on world IPv6 day. Actually, you may not even notice something is going on.

-SuperDale

BE CAREFUL—FACEBOOK ISSUE!!! Don’t get suckered!

Facebook’s ‘instant personalization’ feature is to be switched on today, allowing the walls between the social network and the world to be broken through for a seamless experience for all.

While many have not been able to access the instant personalization feature yet, it turns on today. More worryingly, it is turned on by default so many will be entirely unaware the feature even exists.

However, this raises serious privacy concerns amongst the 500 million and growing population of the social network, with the potential for better targeted adverts and more of your data handed out to other websites. Information that is set or has been set to ‘Everyone’ may have already been copied elsewhere.

How it works

Provided you are logged into Facebook, certain websites like Pandora and Bing can ‘personalize’ their sites with data provided from your account. Any information which is set to ‘Everyone’, like your name or your birthday can be used to make the website appear more friendly and tuned in.

Only certain sites can access this, and permissions need to be granted to do this. However, to be on the safe side, it is better simply to turn it off completely.

How to turn it off

1. Log into Facebook. In the top right hand corner, click Account, and then Privacy Settings.

2. Under the heading Apps and websites, select Edit your settings.

3. Under the heading Instant personalization, select Edit settings. You may see a popup called ‘Understanding instant personalization’. Just hit Close.

4. At the very bottom of the page, simply untick the box labeled Enable instant personalization on partner websites. This will instantly turn off partner websites accessing your data.

If, however, the option is greyed out but still ticked, this means that Facebook has not yet activated instant personalization just yet. It takes time. Check back in a few hours, or the next day.

-SuperDale

IPv4….Bye, bye!

NetworkWorld reports the last two IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) address blocks for the Internet have just been assigned, and, in line with predictions, we’ve run out of addresses. All new Internet addresses now employ IPv6 address spacing.

Experts say it will take anywhere from three to seven months for the registries to distribute the remaining IPv4 addresses to carriers.

So what?

The impending changeover from IP version 4 to IP version 6 won’t really be a big deal, and most people won’t even notice it as it happens. But the Internet will be running on both protocols for a while, and the head of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) cautions that some online applications may run slower as a result.

All new devices or sites that come along will now use IPv6. Don’t lose too much sleep over your systems, however. Industry planners have been aware of this matter since the 1990s. Most hardware and software has been ready for IPv6 for some time.

Businesses should start checking their configurations before the changeover takes place, as glitches may come up. “We can’t actually get an IPv6 host and an IPv4 server to talk to each other, because the IPv4 server only knows 32 bits. It’s much like if your telephone was set up to only ever dial seven digits, and it wouldn’t let you dial 10. Sure you could almost have a conversation, but you couldn’t call most of the world.”

As the changeover occurs, “ISPs are going to have to start using IPv6 to connect customers,” he explains. “Then, they’re going to have to put IPv6 gateways in, boxes that work like network address boxes, to translate IPv6-connected customers to the IPv4 websites on the Internet. That will work, but that’s going to be suboptimal, because those are gateways doing the translation.” This may slow down online applications such as Skype, Voice over IP, real-time video games, which “won’t necessarily run smoothly going through those translators.”

Curran points out that the Internet will be running on two protocols for some time. “If you really want to start a business that’s Internet based, you’re going to want to take your equipment, and make it connected by both IPv4 and IPv6.”

Some businesses have more of a challenge ahead of them than others, Curran says. While the major ISPs have been underway with IPv6, “the content providers are just beginning to work on this,” Curran says. “And that’s going to take a lot of work, and they need to enable a lot of software that we think of as the Web 2.0 software infrastructure. While all the parts may run IPv6, that doesn’t mean your infrastructure is ready.”

-SuperDale

OK…now THAT’s Cool!

So for several years now I’ve been using several products to help with different solutions.

As a Microsoft Trainer, I’m working several machines all at the same time….and sometimes I find myself wishing I had some of the files that were/are on another computer (my laptop, home machine, or work computer).

Guess what?  Microsoft has release the COOLEST feature called “Live Mesh”.

With Windows Live Mesh and the Devices website, you can finally stop emailing files to yourself, carrying them around on a USB drive, or worrying whether the version you have with you is the latest.

This does require a Microsoft Live account…or in the old days it was called a “Hotmail” account … no big deal, it’s free (yes another account to keep track of)…

Any-who.. when you download and install “Live” (by the way you also get access to other Live products via the download, like: Messenger, LiveWriter (that’s what I use to create my blogs), Family Protection (lockdown websites), SkyDrive (save up to 25GIGs online…YES IT’S FREE!), Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and Mail (for checking your Hotmail/Live emails…HOLY CRAP THAT’S A TON…FOR FREE), you then have the ability to select which machines you want to sync your files on…here I’m sync all of the MY DOCUMENTS between my work PC, Home PC and Laptop.

I can also sync “My Favorites” from IE.  Now when I create a document at work and save it…in the background MESH will copy it to my other machines!  Wait…it gets better!

I can also take remote control of any of my computer like “GoToMyPC”…DID I MEANTION IT’S FREE!!!!

Wait for it…(I feel like a Pitchman here) “If that’s not enough, we’ll include, FOR FREE, the ability to save up to 5GIG of those sync’ed files online…FOR FREE!.. yes that right FREE!”

So let’s look at this from a “protect my data” stand point:

My laptop hard drive crashes… NO PROBLEM…data is on my Work and Home PC’s!

I’m on vacation…need a file…NO PROBLEM…I can use any computer and logon to my LIVE account access my SkyDrive!

Can you tell I’m as giggle as a little girl!?

Oh, and yes, I’ll keep my Carbonite account, as I have almost 1.5 TB of data (movies, mp3s, pictures and documents) backed up with them as a “redundancy” issue.

Geee…OH Tag (geotag)…You’re IT!

There’s a subject that has been popping up lately that has been around for sometime…. it’s called GeoTagging.

Did you know that when you upload photos to the Internet they can tell more about you, then you would want to disclose to a random stranger watching it? Where you live, where you spend time with your kids, when you are at home, and when you are not.

How is that?

Modern smartphones and cameras can add additional information to digital photos they create - date and time, camera model, and lot's of other information, including GPS coordinates of place where photo has been made. And when you upload such photo to your favorite social network it might either display this info explicitly, or just leave it intact and any user who's watching it can find you on a map.

Is there a way to protect yourself and your family from disclosing your location?

Yes. All you need to do is 3 easy steps:

1. Turn OFF GPS on your phone and camera…This will stop it from adding info to the picture.

2. If you’re worried about pictures that you have already taken… Use Geotag Security to scan your computer for geotags in photos and remove them

Geotag Security is totally free and you can download it here.

Lock down Facebook.

Great Article for Locking down Facebook!...READ...LISTEN...LEARN!

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/january-2011-the-definitive-facebook-lockdown-guide/7439?tag=nl.e539

-SuperDale!