Thursday Morning

I decided to take the rest of the week off for vacation. I will be bloging and gaming. I'm going to go see Narnia later today, which should be cool. I will be posting a review about it today.

Yet another blog I started

I have started a new blog to test out WordPress. Here is the link: http://phuture.wordpress.com. Why did I decide to try Wordpress? Why not. Its free currently for a lite version and the interface is clean and simple to use. This is very important to me. Dont get me wrond I feel comfortable in any *nix shell enviroment and can move around but I think about other people who are lacking the skills in the computer department.

Keep It Simple Stupid

KISS- I have been applying this to my life lately, throwing out alot of junk. Organizing and enjoying the things that I have not what I want. I can honestly say Im happy. How does this relate to computer security? It doesnt I just felt like ranting.

More papers on security.

Its back to work for me. I will be posting some more articles here shortly. I'm currently working on a physical security paper expalining about CCTV, Alarms and Biometrics. This should be a good paper. This weekend I studied ARP poisining and spoofing and ways to try to prevent it. It really is amazing how hackers change their MAC address to get free Internet access at your local starbucks on your dime.

Cisco PIX 506E

Cisco Pix 506E Security Appliance

This firewall is a enterprise class security appliance. It could be used for small to medium sized businesses, sattelite offices and regional offices.It supports two 10/100 fast ethernet cards and also two 802.1q virtual interfaces.This alows your business to create a DMZ or demilitarized zone. This is a spot on your network that you put your webservers but not your backend servers like SQL or Exchange. Cisco took the approach of multilayered defense again with this product and it has alot of nice feautres to help protect your network and data.There are no moving parts making it more reliable.

The Cisco Pix 506E uses what Cisco calls Cisco Adaptive Security Algorithim.This provides statefull packet inspection it logs all authorized attempts to use the network as well as trying to block unauthorized access.The firewall is designed to look for common vulnerabilities, it looks for about 55 well known attacks.It inspects layers 4 through 7 os the OSI layers. The Cisco Pix 506E also looks at application data traversing the network and even protocol status.The designers of this firewall did a good job. The Cisco Adaptive Security Algorithim does protocol field checking and also URL length checking. It does not mention anything about if it can filter Unicode.It has over 100 applications already documented so you can allow or disallow them easily.

Cisco PIX Device manager allows administrators to manage their network remotely.Network or Firewall administratos can still create their own ACL's or access control lists and user and group based policies. Network administrators can decide which applications that are and are not allowed thru their network as well as protocols.Protocols that this device checks are HTTP, FTP,SMTP, DNS, SQl*Net,NFS,ILS, SCCP and many more.For instance I would not allow my employess to use Telnet, if they needed remote connectivity at all I would suggest SSH using a cool program called Putty for Windows based machines.

Since Im on the topic of remote management I will talk about some of the Cisco Pix 506E solutions.The are many different ways to mange this device. It can be troubleshooted and configured remotely.If you have a web browser which I hope all admins have, you can access this firewall through the Internet. It uses SNMP simple network management protocol for monitoring devices on the network.You can use Auto Update server, security monitor and management center for firewalls.

The firewall does auditing, has support for Dynamic devices on the network and can do software images.

The Cisco Pix 506E also has support for VPN's or virtual private networks.You can use either IKE Internet Key Exchange or IPsec.Cisco also offers VPN concentrators to speed up connections. I will be writing articles on those shorlty. The encryption standards it supports are DES data encryption standard, this is crackable. 3DES which is more secure and AES advanced encryption standard. I recommend the later. The VPN can work with NAT or network address translation which hides your internal IP address from the Internet. Support for up to 10 VPN uers.The firewall also supports TACAS+ and RADIUS.

VoIP- Voice over Internet protocol can also be ran thru this firewall. So that you can sleep well at night knowing that your multimedia and voice connections are secure.
This is probably my favorite about this device. Intrusion Prevention. This firewall has tools that protect it from many well-known attacks.

Dos or denial of service attacks are prevented from bringing down your network and firewall. I do question how much data this device can take before shutting down or how many packets it can drop quickly. There tools are called DNSGuard, FloodGuard, MailGuard, IPVerify and TCP intercept.

This firewall can also contact adminstrators real time thru a cell phone SMS or email thru a devich such as a RIM Blackberry.I have read of software that will allow you to SSH to your router, computer thru the Blackberry. Cisco's auditing software is called CiscoWorks Information management Solutions or SIMS.No not the game. It collects and anayzes data from across your network allowing you to prioritize threat levels.

Benjamin Hargis
Phuture Networks
http://www.phuturenetworks.com/
http://www.computersecurityadvice.com/

Voice over IP

I hear allot about VOIP what is it?

VOIP stands for voice over internet protocol. Basically it means making phones calls over your local area network (LAN) or even across the Internet.

VOIP is normally cheaper than your PSTN that’s public switched telephone network i.e. your local carrier.

VOIP is a good choice for businesses as well to save money on long distance calls if they have many satellite offices. VOIP service providers usually have lower fees because they are not a government regulated currently as the phone systems which at one time were a monopoly. VOIP can even be free if you connect directly to another VOIP client.

VOIP routers can send your incoming phone calls to you anywhere thus cutting down on the number of lines and you can be reached anywhere you have a Internet connection.

This and the combination of technologies like WiFi are going to make for one huge network. That voice, data and video will be sent everywhere and from anywhere. With this VOIP technology you have allot more features as well such as Caller ID, Call Forwarding and answering services all from your computer or PDA.

There are some issues to still be worked on.

Here are some:

The amount of band with required.

Security issues- what type of encryption should be used and how much is going to slow down the call and network?

This is a exciting and new technology which I will be writing more about.

Benjamin Hargis

More info on Cisco PIX 501

Cisco Firewall PIX 501

This firewall is designed for homes and small businesses.This firewall can support up to ten users on a basic license from Cisco. It has a 133 MHz processor and comes with 16MB's of RAM. In addition it has 8MB of Flash RAM.

The Firewall also comes with 1 uplink port and a four port switch. It does not support Layer 2 transparent fire walling. It also does not support the routing protocol OSFP which stands for Open Shortest Path First. There is no VLAN-Virtual Local Area Network.

The PIX 501 allows you to setup a VPN-Virtual Private Network easily with the Cisco Easy VPN Server.

The firewall supports speeds up to 60Mbps bidirectional.

When you implement cryptography such as 3DES or DES it slows down the traffic.The PIX 501 can support anywhere from 50-unlimited users depending on your license

Cisco PIX Technology

Cisco PIX Security Appliance.

Cisco PIX Security applications can enforce policies on users and applications.

Cisco PIX can protect you from many different network and Internet based attacks.

Cisco PIX offers secure connectivity, using methods such as SSHv2 Secure Shell Two and VPN virtual private networks.

This is fairly easy to setup.

Cisco PIX can provide you with secure VOIP voice over internet protocol.

IPSec or Internet Protocol Security IPSec can be setup for VPN's.

Cisco PIX Security appliances provide multiple layers of security.

This hardware/software based solutions is designed to look for anomolies aka weird traffic thats not normal on your network, which could be an indication of a attack.

There is over thirty different engines looking for different attack signatures.

The current version is Cisco PIX appliance version 7.0

Here are some of the feautures:

You can rollback previous configurations in IOS.

QOS- Quality of Service

You can update software on the fly with bringing down the hardware. No rebooting.

VPN client security

Layer 2 transparent firewall.

This is really interesting 3G mobile security services.

You can configure the firewall to block instant messaging, point to point networking P2P.

You have the ability to block applications trying to tunnel thru your network with encrypted
traffic.

Cisco PIX provide rich statefull packet inspection PIX can protect your voice, data, and video
traffic.

Version 7.0 also supports IKE or Internet Key Exchange.

Everything can be managed from Cisco Adaptive Device Manger which can be console and web based.

Benjamin Hargis CEO Phuture Networks
http://www.phuturenetworks.com
http://www.computersecurityadvice.com/
Here are some other sites for you viewing pleasure:http://www.checkmategame.blogspot.com
http://www.realestatelead.blogspot.com/

Sales Tips

-Here are some tips for people in sales, hope this helps.

Anticipate objections and be ready with rebuttals.

Get down to the real objection.

Follow up with all leads.

Do it the best its ever been done.

Its all numbers, dial more.

Provide value for customers.

Control the conversation, listen even more.

Follow ethical practices.

Planning, goal setting, decision making, delegation and communication work on improving these areas.

Toss out ideas at meetings.

Keep abreast of the market

Look for multiple sources of income.

Assume responsibility for your actions.

Build relationships.

Network like crazy.

Be resourcefull, ready, remebered and relentless.

Help customers discover the best solutions.

Persist and dont give up!

I've been in sales for 15 years this can be valuable to new sales people and veterans.

Building Internet Firewalls

Building Internet Firewalls by Oreilly

This book covers the basics of firewall technology to the nitty gritty details. I highly recommend it. It is well written and covers such interesting topics as protocols, databases, security strategies and examles of firewall setups.

Building Internet Firewalls covers packet Filtering, Proxy Services, NAT- network address translation and VPN's virtual private networks. Firewall architecture such as single box, screened host, bastion host, multiple screened hosts, modems and internal firewalls for your intranets.

The different ways to filter traffic are also discussed in depth. You can filter based upon address, protocol, source and destination addresses amongst many other variables. It discusses both Micorsoft Windows and *nix based solutions.

It goes over Internet Services such as RPC, DCOM, DOM, CIFS, SMB, SSL, RAS, PPTP and so many others.

This book is a awesome reference to add to your security analyst book collection.

Microsoft Security Update

Microsoft has released several security alerts for Microsoft Internet Explorer. Here are four of them:

HTTPS Proxy Vulnerability (CAN-2005-2830)

File Download Dialog Box Manipulation Vulnerability (CAN-2005-2829)

COM Object Instantiation Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CAN-2005-2831)

Mismatched Document Object Model Objects Memory Corruption Vulnerability (CAN-2005-1790)

This can cause problems ranging from attackers reading web addresses sent to a proxy server to running malicious code on your hosts to gain admin access.

MS05-055Vulnerability in Windows Kernel Allows Elevation of Privilege (908523)http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS05-055.mspx

This one allows attackers to escalate or gain higher privleges than allowed an example would be a user with no rights gaining administrative control of the machine. It is possible to change kernel memory with this vulnerability. This can lead to remote code execution as well.

Cisco PIX 501 security appliance

The is a firewall thats easy to set up for home or small office. It has a four port fast Ethernet switch built in.

This firewall can provide up to 60Mbps data transfer or 3Mbps of encrypted traffic using (3DES) . This can be used for VPN's Virtual Private Networks.

It supports AES which is the Advanced Encrytion Standard at up to 4mbps.

Here is Cisco's overview of their product

SANS going to start IT college

SANS will create a IT college! This is great news. Its going to be in Maryland, hmm I wonder why. Maryland is famous for computer security why do you ask? The National Security Agency is there. I would love to attend this school, it would be fun. They will offer two programs for Masters Degrees:

Information Security Engineering
Information Security Management

This will not be easy there looking for high GPA's and recommendations from employeers.

Security Warrior

This is a great book that gets more technical than most books I read. What does it contain? What does it not :)

It has assembly programming tutorials, reverse engineering concepts and tools. Overflow attacks and ways to stop them or at least make it more difficult.

TCP/IP analysis and tools to help in your network engineering chores. It breaks down protocols and their strengths and weaknesses.

It also covers forensics, and anti-forensics. SQL, Wireless, VPN's and SSL.

There is so much in this book and its a great read and handy reference this is my third time reading it so I recommend it to any security analyst's bookshelf.

Bidding for Excel Vulnerability

A cracker discovered a hole in Microsoft Excel and try to auction it off! This is a first, kinda funny in my opinion. Ebay quickly pulled it from their website. This is a goodthing. There are tons of free software out on the Internet to recover Microsoft Office passwords.

I use many Linux Distributions on bootable CD's to recover these from clients who have forgot or lost their passwords. I can recover most files even ones that have been deleted.

Virus Definitions

I'm amazed on how so many people think that antivirus software is a cureall its only as good as your last updates. Malicious users write malware daily to exploit and corrupt your systems. Turn on your auotmatic updates! YOu should also use a firewall, if your using wireless use WPA with strong paawords.

Spyware is also rampant on the Internet is your homepage changing automatically? There is also the threat of keyloggers which could be logging your bank account info, or even your Amazon account information! Use tools such as SpyBot Search and Destroy or Adaware.

What is PERL?

Practical extraction and reporting language. Perl is a stable programming language. It is great for automating tasks, especially system administration chores. It is Open Source which means its free.

PERL was created by Larry Wall. PERL is sometimes called the duct-tape of the internet. PERL can be used with popular database programs and implemented into websites as well.

Where can you get PERL? http://www.perl.org/get.html

Website on PERL http://www.perl.org/news.html

The PERL Journal http://www.tpj.com/

Examle of PERL code:

A cheap alarm clock: perl -e ’sleep(120); while (1) { print "\a" }’

Random Password Generator

Steve Gibson writes great software. This tool will generate random passwords for you you, this is usefull for alot of things such as WPA and WEP.

https://www.grc.com/passwords

It gives you 3 choices!

63 random alpha-numeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9)

63 random printable ASCII characters

64 random hexadecimal characters (0-9 and A-F):

Want to learn ARM assembly?

So what exactly is ARM, its a RISC based processor it can be used for mobile applications such as cellphones, it also can be used for routers, switches and hubs. I like embedded programming and figured I would include a link to learn to code in assembly for ARM.

http://www.heyrick.co.uk/assembler

Microsoft Security Video

This come from Microsoft in Japan- it is so cool.

From Microsoft Japan
http://www.microsoft.com/japan/athome/security/images/thinksecurity/tv/thinksec_1m.wvx

Firefox Vulnerability

We all new this one was coming. I love Firefox but the more popular it gets the more were going to see holes and exploits. Its still alot safer than IE.

http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?storyid=920

This code was written just to test Firefox, and it worked.

Real Estate Website

Check this out if you are in Real Estate http://realestatelead.blogspot.com/

Voice Over IP

This technology is hot, it allows you to make phone calls over the internet with the IP protocol, companies like Google might have plans to use this nationally already. There is also VONAGE.

You can check them out here : http://www.vonage.com/

Looking for a great debugger?

IDA Pro dissasembler is perfect for looking at machine language. Word of warning it is difficult to use, but it is the best in my opinion. It works with different processors as well. It also serves as a dissasembler. This is great for looking at Malware to find it what makes it tick and see which system calls its using. It call also allow you to view HEX. Stacks, jumps, tables it has it all!

Wired buffer overflow show

I came across this on Wired's website www.wired.com It's a flash program showing how a buffer overflow works. Pretty cool yet makes it look way to easy :) Generating shellcode is not for the faint. Here is the link http://ly.lygo.com/ly/wired/news/flash/special_reports_bugs_1.html

Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerability

Another one? Come on Microsoft, Smart people use Firefox www.mozilla.org. There is a window() object that fails to check code passed thru it correctly. An attacker can execute code to launch a shell and take over the computer. The IE user would have to view a HTML documnent or email to be affected.

Disable Active scripting.

Follow this link to check out a paper on malicious active scritping:
http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/malicious_code_FAQ.html#ie56

Cisco Vulnerability

Cisco just released a report warning of a flaw with OpenSSL www.openssl.org/ It is possible for an attacker to perform a man in the middle attack by spoofing IP addresses thru DHCP. DNS posioning is also a possibility only certain version of BIND are affected. For more information go here: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-response-20051202-openssl.shtml

Best computer security websites

Here are websites I frequent alot:

http://www.securityfocus.com
http://www.packetstormsecurity.nl
http://www.sans.org
http://www.cert.org
http://www.securiteam.com
http://www.linuxsecurity.com
http://www.phrack.org
http://www.neworder.box.sk
http://www.slashdot.org
http://www.google.com
http://www.securitynewsportal.com
http://www.infosyssec.com
http://www.snort.org
http://www.honeynet.org
http://www.dshield.org
http://www.astalavista.com
http://www.whitehats.com
http://www.incidents.org
http://www.microsoft.com
http://www.iss.net
http://www.cisecurity.org
http://www.networkintrusion.co.uk
http://www.isc.incidents.org
http://www.grc.com
http://www.foundstone.com

Web Programming

Have you ever seen acronyms like SOAP, XML, HTML and wonder what they are. Would you like to learn how to code in DTD, CSS or learn server scripting like PHP? This site shows you everything has awesome tutorials and is laid out easily.

http://www.w3schools.com/

Global Information Assurance Cert

Sans http://www.sans.org came up with a certification called GIAC. The basic cert is for security fundamentals. There are advanced topics like forensics, firewalls, incident handling, hacker techniques, and windows and unix OS information. This looks like a solid cert to obtain.

Here is all the certifications they offer:

http://www.giac.org/certifications/

TCP/IP

Need hep understanding IP addressing? Here is one of the best papers that Ive found on the net. Explains everything from subnetting to broadcast addressing. It also explains about the different classes such as A, B, C and D. http://www.bergen.org/ATC/Course/InfoTech/Coolip/

One of the best sites for Computer Security Training

I came across this site and it has a ton of information on different security certificates that are out there. http://www.cccure.org/

Looking for Information on CISSP

This is the official site to get information on obtaining your CISSP certificate. This site has alot of great information on it. Check it out here: https://www.isc2.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Hardware Modification

If your anything like me you like to take things apart and make them better, faster, smaller, lighter etc. Here are some great sites to help you out with your modding.

http://www.hackaday.com

http://www.makezine.com/blog/

Cpanel

My friend decided to host my website, I know have access to this program called Cpanel, its sweet, I have many scripts I can play with and best of all its running on a Linux server. Say goodbye to be stuck in some lame program where I cant even view the HTML :) It has full support for PERL, PHP its looks awesome.

http://www.cpanel.net

Cisco CCNA Certification: Broadcasts, Unicasts, And Multicasts

When you begin your CCNA studies, you get hit with a lot of different networking terms right away that you might not be familiar with. What makes it a little more confusing is that a lot of these terms sound a lot alike. Here, we're going to discuss the differences between broadcasts, multicasts, and unicasts at both the Data Link (Layer 2) and Network (Layer 3) layers of the OSI model.

A broadcast is simply a unit of information that every other device on the segment will receive. A broadcast is indicated by having every bit of the address set to its highest possible value. Since a hexadecimal bit's highest value is "f", a hexadecimal broadcast is ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff (or FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF, as the upper case does not affect hex value). The CCNA exam will demand you be very familiar with hex conversions, so if you're not comfortable with these conversions, get comfortable with them before taking the exam!At layer 3, a broadcast is indicated by setting every bit in the 32-bit binary string to "1", making the dotted decimal value 255.255.255.255.

Every host on a segment will receive such a broadcast. (Keep in mind that switches will forward a broadcast, but routers do not.) In contrast to a broadcast, a unicast is a packet or frame with only one destination. There is a middle ground between broadcasts and unicasts, and that is a multicast. Where a broadcast will be received by all, and a unicast is received by only one host, a multicast will be received by multiple hosts, all belonging to a "multicast group". As you climb the Cisco certification pyramid, you'll be introduced to creating multicast groups and controlling multicast traffic, but for your CCNA studies you need only keep certain multicast groups in mind.Class D addresses are reserved for multicasting this range is 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255.

The addresses 224.0.0.0 - 224.255.255.255 are reserved for use by network protocols on a local network segment, and like broadcasts, routers will not forward these multicast packets. (Packets with these addresses are sent with a Time To Live of 1.)As a CCNA candidate, you should know that OSPF routers use the address 224.0.0.5 to send hellos, EIGRP routers use 224.0.0.10 to send updates, and RIP version 2 uses 224.0.0.9 to send routing updates. RIP version 1 and IGRP both broadcast their updates.Multicasting gets a bit more complicated as you go from your CCNA to the CCNP and CCIE, but by simply understanding what multicasting is, you go a long way toward securing the CCNA.

Cisco Router Security

Network security is a hot topic today, and will only increase in importance in the months and years ahead.While most of the attention is paid to exterior threats, there are some steps you can take to prevent unwanted Cisco router access from within your organization.Whether you want to limit what certain users can do and run on your routers, or prevent unauthorized users in your company from getting to config mode in the first place, here are four important yet simple steps you can take to do so.Encrypt the passwords in your running configuration.This is a basic

Cisco router security command that is often overlooked. It doesn’t do you any good to set passwords for your ISDN connection or Telnet connections if anyone who can see your router’s running configuration can see the passwords. By default, these passwords are displayed in your running config in clear text.One simple command takes care of that. In global configuration mode, run service password-encryption. This command will encrypt all clear text passwords in your running configuration.Set a console password.If I walked into your network room right now, could I sit down and start configuring your Cisco routers? If so, you need to set a console password. This password is a basic yet important step in limiting router access in your network.

Go into line configuration mode with the command “line con 0”, and set a password with the password command.Limit user capabilities with privilege level commands.Not everyone who has access to your routers should be able to do anything they want. With careful use of privilege levels, you can limit the commands given users can run on your routers.Privilege levels can be a little clumsy at first, but with practice you’ll be tying your routers down as tight as you like. Visit www.cisco.com/univercd for documentation on configuring privilege levels.Configure an “enable secret” password.It’s not uncommon for me to see a router that has an enable mode password set, but it’s in clear text. By using “enable secret”, the enable mode password will automatically be encrypted. Remember, if you have an enable password and enable secret password set on the same router, the enable secret password takes precedence.These four basic steps will help prevent unwanted router access from inside your network. If only preventing problems from outside your network was as simple!

Author: Chris Bryant

Tips On Buying A Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab Kit

Buying a CCNA / CCNP home lab is the best way to be totally prepared for your Cisco exams.

Most home labs are put together one router or switch at a time, but many CCNA / CCNP candidates prefer to buy kits where you get multiple routers and switches, along with all the cables and other connection devices you'll need.
While this is a good idea, keep a few things in mind when purchasing Cisco home lab kits.

Don't buy anything you don't need. The problem is that when you're first starting out with your Cisco home lab, you don't know everything that you need. (I sure didn't!) Keep in mind that you only need one transceiver per AUI port on a Cisco router, so if you're getting routers with two AUI ports in all, you don't need five transceivers in the kit. It doesn't hurt to have one spare, but three is a little too much.

More importantly, don't buy kits with old CCNA or CCNP study guides included. I've seen kits with books that were three years old and were of no use to the candidate. If you see a kit that looks good but includes books or manuals you just don't want, ask the vendor for a price that doesn't include the books. It never hurts to ask.
Watch the IOS version. Unless you've got access to IOS upgrades, you'll be working with the

IOS version that's on the routers and switches when you buy the kit for a while. You don't necessarily need the latest and greatest IOS version for CCNA study, but don't buy routers with IOS versions beginning with "10" unless you have an IOS to upgrade them with. (And make sure the routers have enough memory to handle the IOS you plan on putting on them.)
Purchasing a Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab is one of the best investments in your career that you will ever make. Exercise just a bit of caution when purchasing your kit, and you'll be on your way to true Cisco success, in the exam room and on your network!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage , home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials! Pass the CCNA exam with Chris Bryant!

Some things I would like to accomplish in my lifetime

Master UNIX
Visit Japan
Master spanish
Get my pilot's license
Visit Tibet
Learn Zen
Get a degree
Get a degree in Computer Science
Get married
make money
Invest in Real Estate
workout daily
Speak chinese
Help mankind
Become a engineer
Get my HAM license
understand electronics
understand physics
be a better boyfriend
get my MBA
Get a PhD
Purchase a home
Pray daily
stop smoking
visit Europe
Purchase a powerbook
Purchase a Sun Workstation
Design Planes
Get a job in Aerospace
learn GO Get a handheld GPS unit
Purchase an Escalade
eat healthier
visit Bali
Retire in Montana
own a boat

Classes I'm planning on taking:

Introduction to Engineering
Personal Finance
Physics
Chemistry
Logic
Business Writing and Communication
Finance
Child Psychology
Web Design
PERL
PHP
C and C++
Cryptography and Security Mechanisms
Practices for Administration of Physical and Operations Security Security in Systems Architecture and Applications Disaster Recovery/Forensics

You may ask all those? Yes, I love learning. Wouldnt mind getting a PHD. :)

Classes Ive taken in no particular order

UNIX/Linux System Administration
UNIX/Linux Operating System
Business 001 - Introduction To BusinessBusiness 005 -
Business Law I
Management 001 - Principles Of Management
Psychology 001 - General Psychology I
Philosophy 001 - Introduction To Philosophy
Internetworking
Electronics
Computer Repair
Computer Networking
Microsoft Windows
Spanish 001 - Elementary Spanish I
Computer Information Systems 787 - Network Essentials

Configuration Guidelines from CERT

I recommend that all sys administrators read these excellent articles:


Home Network Security
Windows NT Configuration Guidelines
UNIX Configuration Guidelines
UNIX Security Checklist New Version 2.0
Anonymous FTP Configuration Guidelines

Here are some articles I have written!!

http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_Hargis

Feel free to read them and email them to friends and colleagues. Keep checking back as I plan to write alot more!!!

A great way to start investing

I use this service and I love it. Its great because there is no minimum to start.

http://www.sharebuilder.com/sharebuilder/Index.asp

Check them out!!!

Looking for a great and cheap way to Try Linux, or Unix?

I go on this site on almost a daily basis to check out the new flavors of Unix and Linux, I probably own at least 4 or 5 distributions currently and all have their ups and downs. I own Whoppix, Knoppis, Auditor and a couple of forensics CD's as well. This is a great way to get alot of tools for open source on one CD. http://distrowatch.com/

Class I'm thinking about taking.

This is a PERL class that I might take; Ive had this teacher previously and hes pretty cool.

Students will be introduced to the Perl scripting language syntax, data types, input/output, Managing System Processes, Database programming, CGI programming and Web Programming. Not an introductory programming course. Students need to have previous programming experience.

I love PERL there are so many things that it is usefull for. I want to be able to write flawless networking applications with it.

Looking for a good way to find files on your desktop?

I have used Google Desktop search and personally do not like the way it indexes my files here is an alternative. Its called Copernic Desktop Search and yes its free!

http://www.download.com/3000-2379_4-10314159.html

It searches most file formats as well.

Free computer security software

Looking for free computer security tools to use?

Got Spyware?

There is now a bill in Congress to make Spyware illegal. Good luck at catching the creators, in the mean time here are two links you can use to get started on your journey against Spyware.

http://www.lavasoft.com/ Ad-aware
http://www.safernetworking.com/ Spybot Search and Destroy.

Note there is better version available for a cost. There are many things you can also do to protect your computer Keep Automatic Updates turned on for all of your Anti-Virus Software, and operating systems. Clean out your cookies as well there is often cookies placed to track your whereabouts on the Internet.

Now the subject of viruses. There are commercial anti-virus scanner like Symantec Norton Anti-Virus and MacAfee in fact many new computers come with trial versions. Unfortunately when these versions run out users most of the time ignore it and wonder why do I have a virus? Let me explain something just because you have a antivirus software program on your computer you are not cured. Virus writers do just that write new viruses and edit old ones to do new things. You need to update your signatures of your anti-virus software continuously. Crafty virus writer’s code Viruses to disable your anti-virus software!

There is free anti-virus solutions one is called AVG http://free.grisoft.com/. I personally use this product and love It, it is not a memory hog like Norton. And you can also set up schedules to run and get updates.

A good firewall is a must especially nowadays. This is because everyone for the most part is running DSL and Cable modems. Which are great for connectivity horrible because it’s like leaving your front door unlocked.

Check out http://www.zonelabs.com/ They have a product called Zone Alarm. It is customizable and blocks allot of attempts of entering your network. It is shocking to see the amount of people trying to get into your network. Zone Alarm will alert you to programs trying to access the Internet. This is kind of annoying but can be a life saver if a program is dialing Kenya on your telephone!! Zone Alarm can remember certain programs.
Windows Service Pack 2 has a firewall in it and I recommend enabling it.

There are many web browsers that you can use. I love Open Source you can probably guess I’m using Firefox www.mozilla.org/products/firefox.com There are so many features that I can rave about like tabbed browsing, if your anything like me at home I have at least two or three browser running if using Internet Explorer, with Firefox I can have as many websites as I want open and tabs at the top with descriptions. it's ingenious in my opinion. I don’t have to switch browsers like I do with IE.

Internet Explorer is one of the most used browsers and most targeted. Mozilla Firefox has many advantages including security. It also does not use ActiveX.

Scan your own systems! To see what ports are open and running. DO you have services that do not need to be running?

Knowledge is power. I work for a technology company for three years and never have they trained any people in multiple departments on security that I'm aware of. I’m amazed to hear things from co-workers such as I don’t have an account with so and so bank but they wanted my information and I gave it to them! Corporate networks are and will continue to be infected by users that are untrained about computer security. People all the time open attachments that they do not know where they came from. Homes users are sometimes even more ignorant. That is not said in a mean way.

File Sharing programs are popular and an opening to viruses, Trojans and other lovely things you don’t want in your network.

For the best and current security tools, alerts and news use Google http://www.google.com/.

Microsoft Internet Security Accelerator

Quick and Dirty Primer on Internet Security and Acceleration Server.

What exactly is ISA?
Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration server is a web-cache, virtual private networks and application layer firewall.

For vendor information check out www.microsoft.com/isaserver.
I went to a Microsoft security conference and this is what I picked up.

ISA can inspect traffic coming into your network and also do HTTP filtering. It is designed to look for directory traversing. YOu can customize protocolsand policies based upon your criteria.
ISA allows for better authentication thru RADIUS remote access dial in server. You can also use products from RSA such as secure ID, which I recommend.
VPN's can also be customized thru ISA. VPN's are virtual private networks to allow remote users to access your network thru encrypted tunnels using protocolssuch as IPSec.

Internet Security Accelerator can also be used with Microsoft Exchange server for better security.

Internet Security accelerator allows traffic thru that has been deemed ok by the firewall administrator without additional packet inspection increasing performance of your network.
ISA will also cache webpages to allow faster access over the network.
There are always open source alternatives such as Squid, http://www.squid.org which is a open source proxy. This is just a few notes I took down that I thought I would share with the internet community. I hope this helps with any IT decisions.

Making Money

It is Friday morning and I'm thinking about how to make more money on the Internet. There is allot of opportunities. I'm currently using Google Adsense and am constantly looking at ways to improve traffic to my website and total number of clickthrus. I run my own computer consulting company, which is fine. I would rather work fulltime from home because I have a baby on the way and would love to spend all the time I can with my girlfriend, child and my computers. I currently have two jobs. I like my day job, but hate my slow computer at work, it is also not as technically challenging as I would like.

Then there is affiliate programs. I like Amazon http://www.amazon.com because I can select what books amongst other items I want displayed.
The possibilities are almost endless. It takes allot of writing, even more research and link building to get the results I’m looking for. I would like to make a fulltime income of the Internet and not even leave the house unless there is some interesting security problem or technical problem to get into. I'm thinking about just writing more security articles on a daily basis as well. I do it for fun and to share knowledge.

It must be the Colombian coffee this morning because my mind is racing with business ideas of ways to profit and turn nothing into something. I don’t want to reveal too much though because there is always competition :) I’m looking forward to going to the USENIX conference in December it should be a blast. I will be blogging and taking photos of every bit as well. Then I and my pregnant girlfriend will be making a trip to San Diego to Sea world.

This February I should be going back to college, I have attended like 6 community colleges, various trade schools and I'm not even a PH.D.. I think my problem is that I focus on only technical classes and not the General Curriculum suggested. YAWN. The classes I’m looking at? Oddly enough more psychology and ecommerce, maybe a design class. I took Java and could not stand it. They don’t offer Python.

Windows Server 2003 Security

Windows Server 2003 has some of the following feautres to help protect your corporate enviroment:

There is now forest trust that allows you to authenticate other companies in your WAN thru Active Directory, this simplifies some security issues for security and network administrators.
Kerberos is now availiable thru Windows Server 2003 to allow for better and more secure authentication.

Credential Manager allows secure storage for usernames and passwords as well as certificates.

You can now delegate what services can access other resources on your network.
.NET password is now integrated with Active Directory aloowing SSO or single sign on.
RBAC or Remote Based Access Control you can assign more efficient restrictions to manage access to information.

Systems administrators can disallow software to run, with the Software Restrcition Policy.

In Windows 2003 you can audit system alerts and even set up audits of individual users!

Account Management logs IP addresses and even calls for Logon and Logoff events.

You can now log security events in real time and export them to a SQL database to anaylze later.

PKI or Public Key Infrastructure is is system of digital certificates and CA or Certificate

Authorities to verify you are who you really say you are. This is great for ecommerce systems, think E-Bay. You want to know if your really giving your credit card information to E-Bay or E-fake.

Windows Server 2003 now helps with Wireless 802.1x., you can enable PEAP which is protected EAP for authentication.I suggest using WPA in conjuction. he encrytpion protocl they use is called EFS.EFS uses AES-256 which is very strong encryption. There should be security in depth applied.Two form authentication should be applied such as biometrics and passwords.Take a look at RSA secure ID cards.This provides great authetication for users on the move connecting to the corporate networks, or even home. I like open source solutions myself or even third party vendors for encryption such as RSA http://www.rsa.com.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my readers have a great Thanksgiving :)

XBOX 360 buggy.

I really do not find this shocking as it is a new product. There will be bugs and probably lots of them we have not even heard about possible vulnerabilities this might open up on your home network. Here is the link
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEFkZkkkyEHasmrPqu.php

I look forward to playing around with an Xbox 360 shortly. I will then write my own review. I have to admit it looks sweet and has some nice feautres.

The Value Of An Oracle Database

There are some very large, very powerful companies out there that have saved quite a bit of money using an Oracle database. Will your company be one of those? Or, will you simply overlook this opportunity? In order to know if in fact an Oracle database will help you, perhaps you have to know a little more about it. Also, you need to realize the differences that are out there in various versions of the Oracle database. Gathering this information will help you make a sound decision about the use of this product in your business. First, realize that the Oracle database is available to be used and can be benefited from by virtually any size of business. Large corporations, medium sized companies, and even small organizations can all benefit here. What makes it nice to everyone as well is the lower prices that are currently being offered on Oracle database systems. There is no doubt that the introductory price is something to turn heads. The system we will mention here is the Oracle Database 10g Products. These are, believe it or not, the first databases designed for grid computing in the industry. Your options are many: • Enterprise Edition: Packed full with the highest level of performance and scalability. You will find reliability in OLTP as well as in decision support, and management activities. • Standard Edition: Clustering support is provided with this 4 processor version. • Standard Edition One: Same great stuff with a 2 processor version that is perfect for the entry level. • Personal Edition: Perfect for an individual • Lite Edition: Great option for managing mobile database applications. While the features of each of these Oracle database options are many, it makes sense for each and every business out there to find out how well these products can serve their basic needs. Take a moment to see what they can do for you and you may just be impressed with the options that are available to you in Oracle database.View all Sandy Baker's articles
About the Author: For more information please see http://www.money-market-info.co.uk

Active Scripting

I have commented on this many times, this is how alot of Spyware and Viruses infect your computer. Disable active scripting.

How to stop 'Active Scripting' in home PCs by ZDNet's George Ou -- A supercritical zero-day IE flaw has been released in to the wild by a reckless British company. There are no patches available as of 11/22/2005. Here is what you can do now to protect yourself. You must disable "Active Scripting" on all Windows computers running Internet Explorer 5.5 or 6.0 even if you have Windows [...]

Ezine Expert Author

I have been doing alot of writing lately on security topics you can check them out here:

ezinearticles.com/?expert=Benjamin_Hargis

Todays Security Alerts from CERT

US-CERT Technical Cyber Security AlertTA05-312A
Microsoft Windows Image Processing Vulnerabilities
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security AlertTA05-292A
Oracle Products Contain Multiple Vulnerabilities
US-CERT Technical Cyber Security AlertTA05-291A
Snort Back Orifice Preprocessor Buffer Overflow

On another note the German goverment is warning of new strains of Sobig a trojan thats turns PC into email spam bots. look for patches at Microsoft. www.microsoft.com

Wireless Security

Wireless networks using 802.11 have made it simple to connect multiple devices to your home network.This can also make your data availiable anywhere, even outside your home.To set this up all you need is a broadband connection connected to a wireless router or a WAP Wireless Access Point. Your home computers should have wireless access cards installed or if your using a laptop a PCMCIA wireless card. Intel Centrino is great for wireless, I personally use it. I like the fact that I did not have to purchase additional hardware.

When you set up your wireless router or WAP your signal is broadcast. This broadcast usually goes further than your home or business. People like to drive around finding unsecured wireless access points. This is known as Wardriving, some hackers even mark spots on the sidewalk to let other hackers know your home or business is offering free Internet service, or worse yet access to your data.This is not to scare you but make you aware.

Diasble broadcasting so people cannot you your wireless network.
Your routers come with pre-configured system ID's its called a SSID or Service Set Identifier, its very simple to locate this information on the Internet for default SSID's I recommend changing this to something hard to guess. Use alphanumeric's to make it even harder to guess.
Use encryption to protect your network. WEP or Wireless Encryption Protocol is not secure, I have cracked my own network with a Linux machine running Kismet. WEP's keylength is only 40 bits, once you collect enough data from packets its only a matter of time for a determined cracker.Instead use WPA which is WI-Fi protected access. This is more secure.

Configure your router to block incoming outgoing traffic you do not use. Consider blocking Port 23 Telnet and Even FTP.
Router manafacturers have default passwords which I find many home users do not change. CHANGE THEM!

Invest in a software firewall and keep your system up to date. In the month of October 2005 there have been several security flaws listed by Microsoft. Keep Informed.

Security Process

What is ARBIL?
Asset and Risk Based INFOSEC lifecycle.
To implement a comprehensive security plan in I.T. and strategies for risk management.

What is CIA?
Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability
Confidentiality- making sure your data is available to only those allowed.
Integrity- making sure your data has not been altered in any way. Think bank transactions or chemical formulas.

Availability- making sure your data is available. Hackers often use denial of services attacks to bring down your servers or networks by overloading them with packets.
Hackers use attack trees to determine every possible entrance into your networks. This can be through modems connected to your network, routers, switches, and application vulnerabilities, almost anything connected to your internet.

Make it difficult to determine your OS, which hackers use for Banner Grabbing. This is a simple fix that many systems administrators leave.
Change your banner to display a security warning.

Many people have difficulty understanding security processes alone implementing solutions.

What is SMIRA? Simple methodology for INFOSEC based risk assessment.
Risk management is the practice and process of identifying threats and vulnerabilities to assets. This helps making the correct decisions to implement the necessary safeguards to help your organization carry out its mission.
Organizations should look at threats, vulnerabilities, assets and safeguards.
Risk Assessment

The goal is to have a list of your critical assets. Critical in understanding mission, objectives and operations and what if scenarios.
Then to implement safeguards to protect those assets.

Vulnerability Assessment

This is when you look for vulnerabilities in existing applications and determine there severity. The vulnerabilities will be rated. This includes physical security, web application reviews, policy and procedure reviews, host assessments and OS reviews, and vulnerability scans.

Threat Assessment

This is the process, of identifying existing and potential threats to assets and environments. This will also be based on severity.Where can threats come from? Disgruntled employees, script kiddies, hackers, crackers, foreign governments, and your competition. You can look for threat indicators in your server, logs, CCTV, intrusion detection systems like SNORT. http://www.snort.org

What can threats cause?
Loss of businessDeathFinancial lossCorruption of data.Inability to work, servers down or running slowly.Confidentiality issues.

What are assets?
User IT OperationsStaff Connectivity DocumentationSecurity SystemsThird partiesPaperFilesMedia, like disk, CD’s and USB drives.File, Web, EMAIL, Storage, Application serversAnything of value to the company.
Hackers like to get there hands on all information no matter how unimportant it may seem it can be used to filter out more information.

How do you protect yourself against threats and protect your assets?

Have policies and procedures in place.
Employee awareness of security issues.
Software security in place
Hardware security in place.
Physical security.
Environmental Security. I.e. water level sensors.
Communication security- to protect your phone lines, and PBX systems.
Personnel security.

There is a lot of software on the internet that allows even technically challenged people to run scans on your systems to try to crack them. Anybody that knows how to search Google can easily find such tools. The way the Internet is evolving and more and more people joining the Internet the security risks increase.

Attackers gain information on your systems by doing Domain Lookups with Whois. Port scans using many available tools to find out what you’re running and then do internet searches to find exploit code to crack your systems. Once they find out what applications you’re running it’s only a matter of time before they can crack your systems if you are not protected.
Attackers like to get information on your Domain Names, IP addresses, then they will scan your network looking for live hosts. This can be accomplished with tools like NMAP by Fyodor http://www.nmap.com . By using a tool like NMAP you can send UDP, ICMP, and TCP packets.
This is done to identify host by looking at responses. At this point attackers find out what applications are being used, or any information the host is willing to give out. The more services you have running the more opportunities for someone to remotely exploit your hosts. This can be very time consuming for the attacker. The goal is to find out what OS platforms are being run. Are they Unix, Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac OS? From here it easy much easier for someone to look for shellcode to use against your system.

Sony BMG Spyware

I like Sony as a company but when I heard that they install spyware onto your computer to hid their protection scheme without users knowing, thats shady. If you try to delete it, it will disable your CD-ROM drive! Amazing. There trying to make it hard for people to burn music CD's which is illegal. Copy protection is and will continue to be breakable. That is just my opinion.
F-secure and Symantec have put out updates to remove this spyware.

Home Computer Security

This is a paper about securing your home computers and networks.

The goal of computer security is to keep unauthorized users from using your resources. This can be anything from your computer to your printer or even your web camera. Detection is another important aspect that should be monitored as well.I often get asked "Why should I worry?"
Maybe you shouldn’t. If you are concerned about any of your files or the possibility of losing them you should care. There is also online banking that many people use to watch their accounts. Malicious users can also use your computer to launch attacks against other networks, or put files on your computer as a means of storage. Even if you have the computer just to send email to Grandma don’t think that you are not at risk. Attackers like to hide there tracks by jumping thru multiple locations such as your computer.

Malicious users can take over your webcam and watch and even listen to you!Attackers like to use multiple systems to launch denial of service attacks-sending tons of packets to bring a network to its knees.
Identity theft is huge right now. Your credit report should be reviewed frequently. Identity thieves can gain allot of information from your home computers. FTC said there are approximately over 10 million victims a year. If your ID is stolen or think it is visit www.consumer.gov/idetheft. Never send out your personal information in email it is not secured.The risk is getting greater daily as more people connect to the Internet. Script Kiddies download tools that make breaking into computers as easy as pressing a button. Security patches are offered thru vendors but most people do not bother to patch there systems or have the time.Do people in your household use file sharing programs? I cannot believe the amount of Spy ware and viruses that are hidden in some of those files. I removed over 600 different Malwares from a home computer who thought they were just downloading music.
The system was always freezing and changing homepages in Internet Explorer. Not to mention these file sharing programs can be sharing your financial data, medical records, secret recipes or your last tax return.Key loggers can be on your system recording every keystroke and emailing it to an attacker, enemy or even your spouse. This includes IM's, Emails, and passwords anything.

There are Anti-Virus software that will detect most of these programs.Anti-Spyware can also detect allot of MalWare or malicious code.

Use strong passwords that are alphanumeric or use a password strength tool. I would not use anything in a dictionary American or Foreign as those can be cracked easily thru Brute Force.

Don’t use the same password for every account. Change your passwords regularly, and don’t write them down.I recommend making regular backups of at a minimum your critical system files. Back up to a CDR to ensure that your data cannot be overwritten.
Please monitor your children’s surfing habits and teach them about the dangers of the Internet.

I recommend installing filtering software to keep their curious minds out of the wrong sites.Staying abreast of Anti-Virus updates.Don’t open email attachments that can contain viruses or other malware.

Don’t run programs if you don’t know where they came from than can have Trojan horses. Trojan Horse is a program that appears to be a regular program such as Solitaire buts its actually sending your bank account information to an email address. Attackers can also take over your computer have .mp3 file ran at 3AM in the morning to scare you, even open and close your CD-DRIVE door.

Disable JAVA, JavaScript and Active X
Keep up to date on patching your operating systems and applications. In Windows you can set up automatic updates. You can also visit the Windows Update site.
Microsoft releases patches even second Tuesday of the month this is known in IT as black Tuesday, there is always allot of patches. Upgrade to Service Pack 2.
Internet Explorer always has security issues.

There are Open Source browsers like Firefox http://www.firefox.org which is a great browser and has more security feautures. Firefox has allot of great add ons as well that can make researching more effective amongst other utilities

Disable scripting in emailEnable NAT Network Address Translation on your router. This will hide your private IP address from the Internet. While still allowing computers to access the Internet. Most network firewalls have IP NAT masquerading where multiple device on the Internet appear as one IP address.Make sure you are not enabling shares on your computer for any of your drives. This will look like a hand holding a drive in Microsoft Windows.

Be aware of Phishing these are Internet Con-Artist looking to catch a some fish. Emails are sent that look like Bank Emails, Amazon and PayPal, it amazes me how many people I work with think its the real thing.If your considered about security consider encryption. For Home users look into PGP or Pretty Good Privacy to secure your email, you can even encrypt your hard drive.When you think you have deleted your files they are still retrievable consider a file wiping utility.

Use a Surge Protector.

No firewall can stop all attacks.

Article I wrote on Firewalls

It seems nowadays if you are not online, you don’t exist. It really does not matter what type of company you run, you should have an online presence to let your prospects and clients know about your company and services. When you decide to take the leap onto the Internet there are some precautions you should take. I have friends who say all the time, I really have nothing to hide or worry about. This may be true, but malicious users like to deface websites.Which
can ruin you and your businesses reputation.

This is a paper about firewalls protecting your company from outside threats and unauthorized access.

A firewall is a great start. Firewalls can be both hardware and software based. There are many different firewall vendors some of the bigger names are Cisco, Symantec, and Checkpoint. The difficult part is configuring the firewall.This is where many intruders bypass security, because the firewall is poorly
configured.

I would like to mention that there are many Open Source programs and operating systems that offer great firewall software. I personally believe that OpenBSD has one of the most secure operating systems and firewall configurations if done right. FreeBSD also has firewall software, it is called IPTABLES.IPTABLES offers packet filtering, NAT and you can even change packets in Linux. I have to say you can do anything you want in Linux, because the source code is right
there. It’s a beautiful thing. Linux also uses this; you can build a firewall with the old system sitting in your garage and two Linux compatible network cards.Linux can be hardened, this means to make the operating system more secure. I like the tool Bastille Linux its is developed by Jeff Beale.

To really get a grasp on firewalls you need to understand TCP/IP and allot of different protocols to know if you should allow or deny them into your network. IP addresses identify hosts on the Internet they look like this 127.214.234.54. Firewalls can block IP addresses, ports, protocols and even keywords that come into packets. Hackers that want into you network have many different tools at their disposal to try to bypass firewalls. One common attack is known as
Denial Of Service or DOS attacks. The attacker simply floods your network, firewalls with so many packets that it cannot handle them and sometimes crashes. Firewalls are available with DOS filtering to keep these attacks low, and start dropping packets.

Firewalls do not protect you from internal threats such as employees bringing in viruses from home. Or remote users using VPN's (virtual Private Networks) bypassing your firewall. Think about if you bring your son to work and he downloads music on your fast company internet connection only to introduce your corporate network with a worm or even worst a Trojan horse. Service ports that are open to the public such as Port 80 HTTP, have know vulnerabilities on the Internet. FTP has many vulnerabilities as well.

Are there different types of firewalls?

Yes. There are hardware and software firewalls. You might be even using Zone Alarm or Black Ice Defender. These are software based firewalls, the more I
study firewall technology I realize that everything truly is a software firewall. A computer is nothing without software to tell it what to do.

Packet Filters

Packet Filters look at source and destination addresses. This is where firewall rule sets come in to play. The firewall administrator must determine which source and destination ports and addresses to allow or deny. The security administrator needs to keep up to date with alerts on vulnerabilities as new holes are found and created daily. A technique known as spoofing can sometimes fool firewalls but making it appear that a packet is coming from inside the protected
network when in fact it is an attacker changing the source address.


Application Gateways

Application Gateways are like errand boys. You request a file and the application gateway grabs it for you.This is great for logging connections, and setting
up authentication as well.


Statefull Packet Inspection

Statefull Packet Inspection is a technique used by Cisco PIX firewalls and Checkpoint Firewalls these firewalls look at the data coming across the network.It can also authenticate connections, users can usually not notice that the firewall is in place. Allot of firewalls now allow you to configure VPN's which is awesome if you have remote workers and satellite offices and need to transfer data securely.

Intrusion Detection is also something to consider, I like SNORT. SNORT can detect known attacks against your system and does a great job at logging them if set up correctly. There are thousands of different software and hardware solutions you can purchase for you home or network. I happen to like Open Source, because I like learning and knowledge and the Open Source community has taught me more than the corporate world ever will. A book I would like to recommend that is great for learning about firewalls is called simply enough Building Internet Firewalls, it is by O'reilly. That is all for now. One last tip, backup, backup, backup.

WEP VS WPA

I came across this article it is a interesting read, I feel all keys are breakable it's just a matter of time.

Steve Gibson weighs in on WPA-PSK keys by ZDNet's George Ou -- Brute forcing cryptographic keys is only interesting from a top secret or academic standpoint. Brute forcing a random 8 character alphanumeric WPA-PSK key for a home is a fool's errand because there are infinitely cheaper and easier ways to penetrate a home network by some other means.

Look out Network Admins

I know alot of IT admins that dont stay up on alerts, so the more the beter. It time to upgrade to the newest IOS version as many flaws are found in the current version. This was announced at the previous BlackHat Conference which caused alot of controversy.

Time to patch your Cisco routers by ZDNet's George Ou -- While Cisco isn't alone in upgrade complexity, the end result is that most end users never patch their routers and switches and just assume they never needs patching. This probably won't change until a conventional PC worm makes the jump to attack IOS vulnerabilities and causes massive damage.

Windows 2000 Security

Windows 2000 Security
By Benjamin Hargis

I was asked recently to go to a car dealership and do a security analysis on their Windows Server 2000 machine.

This is what I recommend doing to any Windows 2000 machine where applicable.

Make sure that the guest account is disabled. It comes disabled by default.

A problem I notice allot is when I go to companies, lots of accounts are still active for employees who no longer work there. They should be removed when the employee is terminated or leaves on their own accord. Disgruntled employees have been known to wreck havoc.

Group policies can and should be implemented in a Windows 2000 environment and audited to make sure there are no extra accounts or accounts with weak passwords.

Password security is also important; if your password is weak it will be cracked. I have been in companies where your password is your initials. That is to simple. Implement password policies and account lockouts after multiple failed login attempts. WARNING this can create a denial of service attack. Create multiple admin accounts and give them different rights. A strong password policy for administrative tasks.

Run Net Share from the command line to view open shares on your network and shut those down unless needed.

Go into the BIOS and set a user password and disable the ability to boot from a floppy, USB, or CD. People can easily grab the SAM file which is a password hash stored on your system from a Linux boot CD or other tools. Then attempt to crack the hash.

Change the administrator account to a different name. That is usually a crackers first attempt. Rename it to something other than root as well.

Use NTFS on all partitions this gives you more control and security than using the FAT file system.

Make sure that the "Everyone" permission is not allowed on your resources, directories, etc.

Have the last user logged on turned off. This makes it easier for an attacker to guess passwords. There already half way there the have the username.

Apply appropriate access control lists.

Don’t forget about the people around you and either lock your workstation when you leave or have a screensaver enabled with a strong password. Insider threats are a reality.

You can enable EFS encryption file system; you can encrypt whole directories as well. I suggest if your really paranoid or smart to look into a utility that allows you to choose different encryption algorithms. I do not like encryption standards that are closed. Meaning we cant see the source code. I prefer open source its easier to look for holes and attacks.

Make backups of all your important files. This is the most important thing I learned in System Administration. Backup, Backup, Backup to something that cannot be overwritten such as a CD-R.

To configure Security Policies use the Security Configuration Toolset you can make your job allot simpler by using snap-ins.

I visited Microsoft’s site to see everything they had, I have to say there is plenty of information.

Shut down services that are not needed. The more ports that are open and the more applications running the more avenues of attack.

Restrict access to Local Security Authority only to admin.

Change log in warning to something like. Authorized Personnel only, "all activities are logged and monitored. Violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Shut down individual ports, that are not used.

I personally like smartcards for two form authentication. I recommend RSA secure ID for machines that need more security.

Enable auditing to track what users and possible intruders are doing on your system.

Everything from login attempts to access of objects can be audited in Windows 2000.

Protect the registry from anonymous access.

Make sure the audit logs are locked down so they cannot be erased, or tampered with. Only the admin should have rights to these files.

Install service packs.

Make sure that your antivirus is up to date with the latest signatures.

Run a Spy-Ware utility.

You can also run an online vulnerability checker such as Shields Up by Gibson Research.

Get automated patch software.

Remember that security is not something that can be finished. Keep up to date.

Benjamin Hargis CEO & MCP

Phuture Networks

Visit us on the web! http://www.phuturenetworks.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Free Micorsoft Security Toolkit

Follow this link to get a informative newsletter and a free security CD from Microsoft.https://microsoft.order-7.com/sbsnewsletter/addrform.asp

A great article on Spyware definitions

Spyware definitions released by ZDNet's Suzi Turner -- The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC) released their definitions of spyware today, available at the website. The document includes a table of technologies that could be classified as spyware, depending on factors including control, notice and consent. Another document (PDF) is available, with a summary of the nearly 400 public comments and the ASC's response. The coalition also outlined their [...]

I liked this article and thought it provided good information.

Google Base

Google Base: What might Google be up to? by ZDNet's Garett Rogers -- Google is smart, they know what they want, and more importantly they know what people want. The answer to both is "information" and "money". Looking at both of these "wants", they must decide how they can do this and stick to their "do no evil" guns.

Google has alot of information this is a good thing but also a concern about privacy. I like Google, they have great technology and I cant wait to see whats going to happen know that they are partnered with one of my favoite companies Sun Microsystems.

Open Source Firewall Scripts

I came across Bill Stearns website today. I have to say I'm quite impressed. Been doing research on open source software security solutions. This site has scripts for rulesets and IP Table configuration.

Ezine Directory

I put up some more articles this time on Wireless Security.

Service Pack 2 For Micorosft Exchange Server Released

Microsot unleashed Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Exchange Server, some improvements are email push capability for BlackBerry and larger mailbox storage. Which can be more of a nightmare than added feauture. Spent most weekend studying Firewalls, packet inspection and ACL's. Learning about chokepoints, DMZ, dual homed servers.

Microsoft Security

It amazes me that Microsoft has already released nine patches this month alone. These vulnerabilities range from remote execution to tampering with your FTP clients. Some of the vulnerabilities allow attackers to take complete control of your system as well. All I can say is backup, backup, backup. I recommend turning on automatic updates as well. I also suggest reading Micrsoft Security Advisories.

Ezine Directory

I got published on Ezine directory for some of my articles on security.They even gave me expert author status. I like this. I plan to continue writing articles to help home users and small businesses with security issues. Im currently reading Practical Unix and Internet Security.

LISA '05

Im stoked. I will be going to San Diego for Large Installation System Administration conference. Ill be booking a room at the hotel and I'm thinking of becoming a member of . I will proabably be going to Sea World as well.

Im also looking forward to Southern California Linux Expo in Feburary:

Website Development

I'm still working on my company website Phuture Networks http://www.phuturenetworks.com figuring out front page extensions. I'm thinking of creating a security alert newsletter for home users. I have been writing content for the site on almost a daily basis and plan to do this for a year straight. I'm happy to announce that I'm a soon to be father, with my lovely lady Jenny. Between work, studying, baby and Phuture Networks I dont understand how I manage and it fires me up to do even more. There is great site I would like to mention that offers SEO information its . This is my friends site. Thats all for today.

Microsoft releases new security product.

Microsoft released "Microsoft Client Protection" It's supposed to protect you from Spyware, Viruses and worms. There is also MS Antispyware in build 615 released on Monday. They also offer a Enterprise addition. I think Microsoft should focus more on designing a secure OS and not needing to produce addons and SP's IMHO.

Phuture News

I've been extremely busy. Studying FreeBSD
Its a UNIX operating system based on the BSD Berkely System Development kernel.It works on Pentium x86 and RISC based processors also Alpha Chips.Unix was designed by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. I've been working on my website and analyzing good keywords for more traffic. I own a computer security consulting business. It's called Phuture Networks. We can also perform search engine optimization and do consulting on hardware and software. Currently reading alot of psychology and talking to my friend about affiliates.

My company website

I have started working on my company website and I can say its coming along nicely. http://www.phuturenetworks.com
Ive been real busy lately studying books for MBA, learning all I can about marketing prospecting, search engine optimization.Its awesome. I got my IPOD Nano, I love it it is well designed and simplistic the way hardware and software should be. My time and life is consunmed with devouring material on finances, real estate, technology and girlfriend. I love educating myself college taught me to learn and I can cover more material on my own rather than class. I will be enrolling back into college to pursue degrees.

Organic Search Engine Results

It is possible for real estate agents to rank high in the search engines organically. It takes time and effort. But it can be done. It does take a while for the sites to be indexed by search engines. Anybody looking for higher SERP's search engine reults should focus on content, reciprocated and unreciporcated links. Google and Yahoo both pay attention to these. If you want to see immediate traffic, instant gratification I would use PPC or pay per click thru Overture or even Google Adwords. Once you get people visiting your site you need content and fresh content to keep them interested, and hopefully they will fill out a form that will turn into a lead, which could lead to more sales for you.

Real Estate Technology Analyst

I work for a large web deisgn company that specializing in providing website services to Realtors. I educate real estate agents on marketing strategies on the Internet. I also explain and implement things like Pay Per Click, Search Engine Optimization and webpage analysis. I learn daily about how to do more effective keyword analysis, and acheiving high results in organic search results. There is so much to this business. Analyzing Meta-Tags, Headers, Title names. Not to mention link popularity, inbound links and outbound links as well. These are some of my duties:
Skills in Search Engine Optimization, Page Rank, Link Popularity, SEO, PPC, drip systems.
Familiar with Multiple Listing Services, and paid directories.
Website optimization for search engines: HTML, site structure, and page layout issues.
Identify and implement strategies for increasing traffic through organic search listings without creating the risk of sites being blacklisted.
Tracking and Reporting
Continually monitor organic search rankings to maximize traffic and sales
Keyword research including cataloging and indexing target keyword phrases
Keyword research using Word Tracker, Overture, Google and internal tools
Plans, organizes, and implements sales programs for the region. Coordinate directly with outside sales reps. Responsible for marketing and booking appointments for outside sales reps.
Provide realtors with product and service information to assist them in determining appropriate website, e-marketing and hosting solutions

Basic Astronomy

Hipparchus came up with magnitude
The moon is 240,000 miles away.
Ptolemy is one of the most famous astronomers.
Nova means new in Latin.

Kepler's three laws of planetary motion.
1. Planets move ecliptically (egg shaped)
2. Planets do not move at constant speeds but speed up when closer to the sun.
3. A closer planet moves faster than one that is farther than the sun.

Hans Lippershy built first telescope.
Newton- gravitation, nature of light, color, calculus.

Labor Day Weekend

Not much going on. Same thing different day. Currently Reading: Stephen Hawking Universe in a Nutshell. Listening to Nirvana Very Ape, plan to code today and hang out with my lady, which we are working out relationship issues. Aww the wonderfull world of relationships . Have the ring two which I will watch today as well.

Python

Python is a programming language that looks very interesting. This is from Python.org site: What is Python?
Python is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language. It is often compared to Tcl, Perl, Scheme or Java.

Python combines remarkable power with very clear syntax. It has modules, classes, exceptions, very high level dynamic data types, and dynamic typing. There are interfaces to many system calls and libraries, as well as to various windowing systems (X11, Motif, Tk, Mac, MFC). New built-in modules are easily written in C or C++. Python is also usable as an extension language for applications that need a programmable interface.

The Python implementation is portable: it runs on many brands of UNIX, on Windows, OS/2, Mac, Amiga, and many other platforms. If your favorite system isn't listed here, it may still be supported, if there's a C compiler for it. Ask around on news:comp.lang.python -- or just try compiling Python yourself.
Many of Google's engineers code in Python.

Friday Before Labor Day.

My mind is on three day weekend mode. WooHoo! Last night I did nothing, I caught up on some well deserved sleep. Seems like the only thing on my mind is Python and PERL . This weekend going to kick back with my lady and cook. Maybe code a little. Well have to see.

Open Source Security

Last night I played with Nessus which is a good vulnerabilty scanner. I also messed with Nmap and its graphical front end. I read alot about TCP, IP, UDP, and SYN, ACK, FIN Flags and different responses. I analyzed network protcols with EtherApe. It is even possible to craft packets to contain any source, destination port, or tunnel through any port i.e. 80. For instance if firewall blocks everything except the internet it is possible to tunnel to port 80 and issue commands as long as it is acting as a server. more on this later.

Blog Testing

Im currently testing different blogs to see which one I like the best, currently using http://www.blogger.com/ as my main one. Just started using Yahoo 360 Beta. Now open Source LiveJournal. Pretty cool so far. Im looking forward to attending Southern California Linux Expo in Feburary and thinking of joining my local LUG, to the uninformed that's Linux Users Group. I want to learn the most out of Unix and Linux. I have currently taken Linux and Linux network administration in college. Truthfully I think I learn alot more from books and my computer. Last semester I was giving my professor tips on how to secure our class web server as it had been hacked :) Whats really sad is he is an author of a popular Unix book.Here is good site for free submissions to search engines
FreeWebSubmission.com

Things I did over the weekend.

This weekend I studied electronics, mostly about capacitors, resistors and inductors. Ohm's law and the different measurements for electronics. I want to go for my HAM license and this is what I need to study.
I reviewed some Python source code for a program that you can craft packets to contain a source port and destination port of your liking as well as put in the payload of your choice. More research on buffer overflows and how memory is arranged.
Zen- To really live in the moment and focus, concentrate extensively on that second or what your doing. I have been playing Xbox quite a bit this weekend as well. Planning to set up a *nix server.

Current Books

I started reading many books today after visiting my local library, they include Secrets of Executive Success, which has 56 chapters on business tactics and strategies, enjoyable reading so far.

The Radio Amateurs handbook. So far I've learned that Marconi invented radio. Nuclear fission is splitting atoms. Batteries produce DC current and all dry cells produce 1.5 v. Although Lithium batteries produce 3 volts and have a 10 year shelf life.

Zen Mind a book about Zen meditation and practice. This book has really got me thinking about my way of thinking :)

Power and influence (Mastering the art of persuasion) I got this book to learn how to get more sales and business appointments. I quote my sister as she told me "it's just common sense, i dont understand why your read those books."

Beside that it is Saturday night, and Im reading and anxious to set up my Linux box in the living room tommorow.

What's New

It seems that there are new worms floating around the net. Rbot and zotob.d it seems they are bots. Virus writers are having wars with each other right now. These exploit plug and pray vulnerability. Here is a technical description http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00000553
The new issue of Insecure magazine is out. This magazine is awesome: http://www.insecuremag.com/.
The article I found particularly intriguing was how easily a PDA could create a backdoor into your network. IT should be more stringent with PDA access inside the corporation.
I received the new catalog from http://www.tektronix.com tools from measurements good for signal analysis.

Motorola V330

Overall Im pretty impressed with this phone, I enjoy the capability to take pictures and record video. I like the fact it uses Java. I want to see the source code on my phone. The picture is sharp and clear on the screen. The animations even look good.

On a different note, I purchased a used XBOX, with Tom Clancys Splinter Cell, Im still getting used to the controls, but am moving right along.

Technology addiction

Havent posted in a while, been busy studying Java learning about javac, objects, functions, associations. Pretty interesting stuff, I want to code some apps for my website. I finally ordered my XBOX, and my cellphone. I got the Motorola V330 because of its bluetooth capabilities. I got a bag to drag along all my gear.

Another day gone.

I dont know if it is that Im getting older, but the things I used to consider cool or important are not. The only thing that seems to matter now are 1)God 2)Family 3)My Lady 4)Friends 5)books. All I want to do is learn and be a good son, boyfriend and friend. I had a good day today. Work was the same as usual. I cant wait to get a Motorola V330, XBOX and IPOD these are the toys I want currently. Im such a technology geek, its an expensive habit, but at least its not drugs :)

Funny

Open SSH

This is a free version of Secure Shell, you should use this to encrypt all traffic going over your network. For instance I can create a VPN from my workstation to my server at home without having to worry that my information is going out plain text i.e. Telnet. You can securley issue commands, transfer files and monitor your servers.

Open BSD

This is a Secure Unix operating system, it is constanly being audited. There are about twelve developers who go over the source continiously to search for more holes. It is secure by default with most services disabled to begin with. Personally I would run this OS if I had a ISP or hosting ccompany.

NMAP- Open source scanner

This application is awesome for port detection, OS identification and you can even set flags in TCP/IP packets.

My Public PGP key

Support Cryptography and Encryption if you want privacy.

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A good weekend.

I spent most this weekend reading about and coding in HTML, DHTML, CGI and PERL. I looked at alot of javascript and am amazed at it's simplicity compared to Java. Im going to strat coding in both. Im looking for a second job to make more cash. Technology is an expensive hobby, but I love it. Next on my list IPOD and XBOX.

Open Source Solutions

Companies could save up to 90% on their database TCO by using MySQL, instead of Microsoft products. It is the fastest growing database in the industry. Its reliable and fast to deploy and fully customizable. Check it out here http://www.mysql.com.

Links

Here are some good scanning references:

http://www.freqofnature.com/
http://www.radioreference.com/
http://www.cityfreq.com/ca/orange/

Computer:
http://undeadly.org/
http://sagewire.sage.org/
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/#00000553
http://www.procata.com/blog/archives/2005/05/10/expert-programmers/
http://technet.microsoft.com/default.aspx
http://www.sun.com/
http://slashdot.org/
http://www.newsforge.com/
http://www.unixreview.com/
http://www.43folders.com/