Matthew's Weblog

Here’s a good article (through Schneier) that feels a lot like my recent search for a lost document.  I spent hours trying to find the soft copy and never did find it, though I could find a version I had printed out within 10 minutes.  With that experience, I would not doubt that it would take months to try and build a terrorism case… and sometimes be completely fruitless.

Technorati Tags: terrorism, security, data+overload

Now that VMWare has released their VMWare Server for free, it makes it much more practical and desirable to utilize it… plus they have a set of images for ‘appliances’ that are very interesting as far as experimentation and separation-of-duties.

Now if their stuff only ran on a Mac…

Technorati Tags: vmware, virtualization

An insightful post from Paul Boutin about the wonders of the (presumably) impending Google PC… with the point at the end about the dangers of other people holding my data.  The only way I’d do that is if I could be assured beyond a shadow of a doubt that (a) it was backed up and (b) that everything I sent was encrypted before sending with a key that only I control.  They could convince me of (a) if Google worked at it.

(B) means that Google won’t like me.  To be useful, they would need to see my data and suggest helpful items through advertising… and I’m not OK with that.  It’s the same reason I won’t use my gmail account (or any other free, hosted, account) for anything important.  Confidential means confidential, even from my hosting provider.

Technorati Tags: google, google+pc, gmail, security, encryption

HD Moore is publishing a vulnerability a day to push application vendors to fix their software.  I appreciate the need for full disclosure so I support his drive… but apparently not everyone does. 

After the first week of flaws were released, one online miscreant from
Russia shot off an e-mail to Moore, complaining that he had outed a
vulnerability the Russian had been exploiting, Moore said.

“The black hats don’t like that the fact that this is public because
they have been using these bugs,” Moore said. “By dumping out the bugs
on the community, I’m clearing the air and letting the good guys know
what others are doing.”

Sounds like good news to me…

Technorati Tags: security, full+disclosure

To consider, or to utilize and tweak for another distro… the ‘Perfect Setup‘ on CentOS.

Businessweek has a great article about the spyware/popup business.  It’s interesting that there hasn’t been a more concerted effort to deny these companies money by shaming their advertisers, even though that is the one tactic proven to be effective.  I suppose the quote from one of their technical guys is most appropriate:

Among Direct
Revenue’s alumni, pride over technical cunning mingles with regret for
exasperating so many computer users. After waffling on the issue during
a long interview, one former Dark Arts wizard sighs and sums up his
version of the company credo with an elegiac observation by
abolitionist Frederick Douglass: “Find out just what any people will
quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice
and wrong which will be imposed upon them.”

Technorati Tags: popups, security

An interesting interview with one of the creators of Firefox, Blake Ross.  My favorite part about Firefox is that it is driving Microsoft to clean up their act, even when they claimed it was impossible.  Refreshing to see David poking Goliath and getting a reaction, though I still have doubts about the ultimate outcome of the fight…

Technorati Tags: firefox, microsoft, internet+explorer

Here’s a guide to setup Amanda backup in 15 minutes… now if only users really saved their documents in only one tree like they describe!  That would make 15 minutes more realistic…

Technorati Tags: linux, backup