Is Your Computer Listed “For Rent”? — Krebs on Security.
An interesting post about the other end of botnets – what happens when your machine is compromised by one of these things – you can be rented out!
Saturn Flyby
Now this is really cool – done without CGI or special effects, just images from NASA.
Looks amazing.
5.6K Saturn Cassini Photographic Animation
Course I’m an astronomy nerd from wayback, but I think it’s pretty amazing for anyone to see.
iOS 4.3
So iOS 4.3 came out today – just updated my ipod and ipad. Pretty cool – I think the nice thing for folks will be that you can now stream any audio or movie on your computer’s iTunes account to your iOS device. Pretty cool. So now (at least when you’re at home) you can access anything without having to sync the device to get it.
Note: non-obvious: you have to go to settings, then iPod, then fill in your iTunes account account. Once you’ve done that, you’ll see a new option to select any itunes libraries on your network (that match that account).
Also new, tho darned if I can find out pricing info, is that you can finally, legally, tether your iphone – that means you can use it’s internet connection to share out to your computer, ipad, etc… So that’s cool. Wish I could find the pricing.
And yes, another finally, for me at least, is when they changed the slide switch to be “mute” instead of orientation lock on the ipad. That bugged me, and now they’ve made it so you can set which way you like it, so that’s cool too.
Security Questions
So here’s an interesting read (click Read More below for the link):
“Anonymous makes a laughing stock of HBGary”
It’s interesting, not just because it shows how hackers work, but because apparently, even “security experts” sometimes make decisions not based upon security concerns, but of convenience.
It seems that even “pro’s” will use the same passwords to access multiple systems and servers, and it was this fact that allowed the hackers to get as far as they did.
Now I’ll admit, that until recently, I had a set of passwords that I used, from least to most secure, but there were many instances where I would use the same password across multiple sites, even though they were not very sensitive sites. So, to address this shortcoming in my own security, I’ve implemented a system using a neat program called 1Password that allows me to not only have unique passwords for all the sites I accessed, but to have very strong passwords. Using the software, I don’t have to remember all these passwords, or keep a piece of paper with them written down. It hooks into your web browser, allowing single click access to login to the sites, and can synchronize across your computers and other devices, so you don’t have to copy them over to your other computer, or expose them in any way.
It’s all secured with a master password, and kept encrypted. Nice stuff. Don’t know why I didn’t do this before. And no, no money changed hands for me to say that. :)