- From the “Weak Tea” Department – South Korean banks and TV networks had their computer systems hit hard today. In the midst of the “ZOMG THE COMPUTERS!!!” talk, it was mentioned that critical things like hospitals, nuclear power plants, and the military weren’t hit. Basically, reporters weren’t able to do research and write articles on computers and the ATM’s shut down for a few hours. I’m not going to say that the systems that came away unscathed are bullet proof, but the fact that this ‘attack’ was more of an annoyance than anything else will lead to a calming of the waters and slow down the push for expensive, but only mildly effective, cyberwarfare capabilities. Conversely, the fact that it happened at all might just push the people who make decisions to devote more than lip service to computer security. Here’s my 25 cent recipe for curing the majority of security issues:
- Patch early, patch often.
- The first 25 readers who tell me they have automatic patching set up on their home computers get a gold star next to their name.
- Shut off anything you’re not using. (I promise, this is the only really geeky one in the list)
- Webservers
- File Transfer Protocol
- Telnet
- Don’t use software that is written so poorly that it should be considered dangerous.
- Flash
- Java
- Use good passwords and change them periodically.
- Don’t use the same password and ID for different accounts
- Use a good spam filter and don’t open email from people you don’t know.
- Be wary of email from people you do know.
- Stay away from the seedier side of the Internet as much as possible.
- PR0N
- File sharing services
- Use your damn brain for something other than to keep your ears apart. It’s a powerful piece of computing hardware hooked up to a high speed network, not a toaster.
- Patch early, patch often.
- From the “Symbolic” Department – “The Beast”, the armored limousine that carts around the President, had to be towed after it broke down in Tel Aviv today. While that may be a great symbol of the Obama presidency, the fact that it either ran out of gas or was given the wrong fuel only enhances it. If only there was something else associated with the administration that stalled out, possibly because it was fed the wrong type of fuel or because it just ran out of steam. A good example escapes me, not because there isn’t one, but because there are so many choices. Seriously, the look on my face is probably like the look Boo gets when I take him out for ice cream and tell him he can have any flavor he wants.
- From the “When Animals Act Like Animals” Department – A family pet in Colorado Springs was eaten by a mountain lion the other day. While tragic, it’s not exactly surprising. More and more homes and neighborhoods are being built right up against the territories of animals, both predator and prey. Fluffy the Wonder Poodle doesn’t exactly stand a chance against a 100+ pound panther. Officials give good advice in that people should not act like lunch and run from a big cat. Their advice to puff up and back away slowly might be helpful, but not as helpful as advising people to shoot the darned thing if it threatens them or their family.
- From the “Schadenfreude” Department – Bloomberg Business News is reporting five reasons that gun control efforts won’t go as far as they would have liked this time around. The articles reasons include lack of White House involvement, vulnerable Democrat politicians in pro-gun states, and a Republican controlled House of Representatives. Here are my five reasons:
- The Second Amendment
- 100 million gun owners
- Gun rights advocacy groups like the NRA and the SAF
- The awakening of female shooters (The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world)
- Joe “Both Barrels” Biden
News Roundup
Posted by daddybear71 on March 20, 2013
https://daddybearsden.com/2013/03/20/news-roundup-180/
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7 Comments
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 
MaddMedic
/ March 20, 2013You mean people DON”T take care of updates? Automatically? All ours are set up that way..Because if they weren’t no one else in the house would take care of updates!! And that involves one with XP(#2 Son’s MaddBuilt box, ready for retirement), one with WIn 7(#1 Son’s built it hisself!!) and one (newest HP) with WIn 8(MBWITW’s). Oh and my Ubuntu box in my reloading cabinet..
I ain’t running around checking updates all the time!!
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daddybear71
/ March 20, 2013You’d be surprised. A lot of people I know look at patching as a pain in the butt that’s optional. I tell them it’s like the manufacturer put out a recall on their car because it might randomly blow up.
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Old NFO
/ March 20, 2013Concur with all! If I’m not using the computer or a ‘technology’ it’s OFF! And re the last, HELL YES those are five of FIFTY good reasons!
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oddball
/ March 20, 2013@MaddMedic: I know someone that works in IT that has admitted to me at various points that he doesn’t run anti-virus on his computer, nor does he install patches/updates unless something is clearly broken.
One thing I would add is this: if you are running a home network, check to see if your router supports uPnP (most modern ones do). If it does, turn it off. It seems like everything these days like to use uPnP to open up ports to the internet. Up to and including printers. I have yet to hear a good reason for a printer to talk to the internet.
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daddybear71
/ March 20, 2013There isn’t one.
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MSgt B
/ March 20, 2013I have automatic patching on my home computer.
I want my gold star.
and a cookie
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daddybear71
/ March 20, 2013Well, you’ve got the gold star. The cookie is going to have to wait.
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