Network and Computer Security

The january 15th issue of Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram newsletter is out.

Automated Targeting System
Surveillance Cameras Catch a Cold-Blooded Killer
Crypto-Gram Reprints
Auditory Eavesdropping
Tracking Automobiles Through their Tires
Licensing Boaters
Wal-Mart Stays Open During Bomb Scare
News
NSA Helps Microsoft with Windows Vista
Microsoft Anti-Phishing and Small Businesses
Not Paying Attention at the Virginia DMV
More on the Unabomber’s Code
BT Counterpane News
Radio Transmitters in Canadian Coins
Choosing Secure Passwords
Comments from Readers

The december issue of Bruce Schneier’s CRYPTO-GRAM Newsletter is out.

I didn’t have time to read it yet, but there’s no good reason to believe it’s not as interesting than the previous issues Here are the topics covered:

Revoting
Real-World Passwords
Crypto-Gram Reprints
Tracking People by their Sneakers
Notary Fraud
News
Separating Data Ownership and Device Ownership
BT Counterpane News
Fighting Fraudulent Transactions
Cybercrime Hype Alert
Comments from Readers

Happy reading!

The November 15th issue of Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram newsletter is out. In those mid-terms voting times, this newsletter appropriately contains 4 very good and comprehensive (as usual) articles about electronic votes and voting in general.
Here’s the full newsletter summary:

Voting Technology and Security
More on Electronic Voting Machines
The Inherent Inaccuracy of Voting
The Need for Professional Election Officials
Perceived Risk vs. Actual Risk
Crypto-Gram Reprints
Total Information Awareness Is Back
Forge Your Own Boarding Pass
News
The Death of Ephemeral Conversation
Airline Passenger Profiling for Profit
Counterpane News
Architecture and Security
The Doghouse: Skylark Utilities
Heathrow Tests Biometric ID
Please Stop My Car
Air Cargo Security
Cheyenne Mountain Retired
Comments from Readers

A vulnerability has been reported in Microsoft XML Core Services, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a users system.

The vulnerability is caused due to an unspecified error in the XMLHTTP 4.0 ActiveX Control.

Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code when a user e.g. visits a malicious website using Internet Explorer.

Microsoft Advisory & Suggested Workarounds: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/927892.mspx

The September 15th issue of Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram newsletter is out. As usual, it’s a very good read. This issue is very much targetted to security in general and not only computer security. In particular terrorist threats and the current paranoia in the airports are very well described, as well as how counter-productive it is.

Here’s the full newsletter summary:

What the Terrorists Want
Details on the British Terrorist Arrest
More Than 10 Ways to Avoid the Next 9/11
Fifth Anniversary of September 11, 2001
Crypto-Gram Reprints
Educating Users
Human/Bear Security Trade-Off
Land Title Fraud
News
Is There Strategic Software?
Media Sanitization and Encryption
What is a Hacker?
Counterpane News
TrackMeNot
USBDumper
Microsoft and FairUse4WM
Comments from Readers

Michael Sutton has up an interesting post on the security vulnerabilities that we really need to be concerned about.

According to Sutton, it’s not the new ones that are scary, it’s the old ones that have long since been forgotten.

He illustrates his point by walking through an example where he uses Google and Yahoo! to identify 50 web servers that are wide open to attack. The list includes an ivy league school, various colleges and a company traded on the NYSE. Definately a must-read and very well documented article!

The August 15th issue of Bruce Schneier’s Crypto-Gram newsletter is out (ans has been for a few days now, but your favorite webmaster has been on vacation):

What really matters as far is computer security is concerned!

For an exclusive and alternative take on the current world news, just make sure you read the “Last Week’s Terrorism Arrestsâ€? article, as it’s the best I’ve read on this subject so far!

Last Week’s Terrorism Arrests
Remote-Control Airplane Software
Crypto-Gram Reprints
Doping in Professional Sports
iPod Thefts
News
Security Certifications
The Doghouse: Sniper Flash Cards
A Month of Browser Bugs
HSBC Insecurity Hype
Counterpane News
Updating the Traditional Security Model
Bot Networks
Comments from Readers

The problem with viruses, worms and other malicious codes or hacking attempts is that it’s not always easy to detect them. In most of the cases, it’s actually quite hard to spot them.

There are many different techniques and tools to do so, but none of them is really fully efficient, so a good network and security administrator will have to learn to combine several tricks to try to detect what’s wrong on his network.

Yiming Gong wrote a very interesting article about the usage of NetFlow to detect Worms; definately a must-read for network administrators (Note: For Open-Source people who don’t have/want NetFlow, some alternatives are suggested in the second article).
Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities with NetFlow, Part 1

Detecting Worms and Abnormal Activities with NetFlow, Part 2