Category Archives: Security

Cryptome.org Shut down for Exposing Microsoft Spy guides

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Microsoft stepping on the little guy

Stepping on the little guy

Cryptome.org, is a whistleblower site that archives “documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular materials on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence and secret governance”. Wednesday, Cryptome’s hosting provider, Network Solutions, took down the site and “legally locked” the domain name. When a domain name is “Legally Locked” it means that the domain information cannot be modified or transfered, only the registration can be renewed (basically you can do anything that makes them money, but not puts your site elsewhere). This action from Network Solutions was motivated by a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint followed by Microsoft, in regards to Cryptome’s releasing a leaked Microsoft document, which I told you about earlier. Basically, Microsoft is ticked that Cryptome has exposed to the internet the things it doesn’t want made public about how they violate their customers trust and privacy, and now they want to use their weight to take down Cryptome. They are using their size, to bend a copyright law to suit their own purposes (Big Suprise right). It was reported by ReadWriteWeb that once the complaint was filed, Network Solutions requested Paul Young, The sites owner, take the document off the website, to which he refused. The ISP then sent a warning that if the document was not removed from the site by Thursday, they would disable the site.

In the complaint, Microsoft states that the reason for their request was “infringement of copyright laws”. Luckily, the Electronic Frontier Foundation spoke up saying “We find it troubling that copyright law is being invoked here. Microsoft doesn’t sell this manual. There’s no market for this work. It’s not a copyright issue. John’s copying of it is fair use. We don’t do this anywhere else in speech law.” John Young has filed a counter-notification, to which we will probably be talking about later today. However, if Microsoft doesn’t send a notice of litigation, Network Solutions will be forced to reactivate the website and unlock the domain in no more than 14 business days.

In the mean time, you can still access Cryptome’s UK site available Here

-Zach Morton “The Uber Geek”

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You Tube is dropping IE6 Support Next Month

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IE6_Funeral

For those of you still using IE, let alone IE6, the time has finally come to get a real browser. March 13, 2010, the day YouTube will no longer officially support IE6. Burried deep in a Youtube help item in regards to browser support, under the header “When does older browser support end for YouTube and what does this mean?”. The answer says “Support stops on March 13th. Stopped support essentially means that some future features on YouTube will be rolled out that won’t work in older browsers.” The answer also details that Google’s YouTube will notify site visitors of this by displaying a message, until the user upgrades in place of the video the user is trying to watch. “On March 13, we are dropping support for your browser. You’ll still be able to watch videos after that date, but new features may not work properly” it will prompt for a time up until that fateful day.

This should not come as a surprise, we already are aware that March 1, Google will phase out support for IE6 in Google Docs and Google’s Site. They are not alone in this, various other sites, and governments have taken a stand against the browser due to recent events and overall security risks. I personally am very glad they are doing this, it is time for people to move to Firefox, Chrome, Safari, hell even Opera, ANYTHING BUT IE.

-Zach Morton “The Uber Geek”

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Warning- Twitter Direct Message Phishing Attack Spreading

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Hey guys and gals, Just wanted to make you aware of a new phishing attack affecting Twitter. If you recieve a Direct Message reading “lol, is this you”, and linking to a site called bzpharma, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK. People who do, and enter their details into the fake twitter page will let a spammer hijack your account. The Hijacker will then use the same message to Direct Message the same thing to all your friends. Now, just to be clear, if you’re receiving these messages your account is not compromised. However, if you find you’re sending them, make sure to change your Twitter password as soon as humanly possible.

Wikipedia defines Phishing as

the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames,passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging,[1] and it often directs users to enter details at a fake website whose look and feelare almost identical to the legitimate one. Even when using server authentication, it may require tremendous skill to detect that the website is fake. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users,[2] and exploits the poor usability of current web security technologies.[3] Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, public awareness, and technical security measures.

-Zach Morton “The Uber Geek”

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