New Desktop Purchase

I’ve had my old system for over six years now and I felt it might finally be time for an upgrade. So I have been searching NewEgg and doing a few test builds for what hardware I might want at the right price. Today the stars aligned and a few components came on sale at the same time. I like to keep a low budget yet have a system capable of doing all the tasks I need. So that influenced some of my decisions.

For the processor I liked the price and multitasking of this:
AMD FX-8300 Vishera 8-Core Socket AM3+ 95W FD8300WMHKBOX Desktop Processor
processor

For the motherboard I liked the price and features of:
MSI 970A-G46-R AM3+ AMD 970 + SB950
mobo

For memory I decided to go with:
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)
memory

I also decided to get a new case:
DEEPCOOL TESSERACT WH Mid Tower Computer Case
case

I’ll reuse the video card that I recently upgraded my old system with:
MSI Computer Video Graphics Cards N730K-2GD5LP/OC
gpu

I’ll also reuse the power supply and SSD from that system.

All the new components for the system cost me $247. So that will be $2 than my old build that also reused parts, though not the same reused ones.

New Desktop Purchase Read Post »

Rogue access points and Evil Twins pose risks on open networks.

wireless-conferenceThreat: Rogue access points and Evil Twins pose risks on open networks.
Solution: Users: disable automatic connection to wifi networks. Businesses: use network segmentation and devices that provide intrusion and malware detection.
URL: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2016/03/14/rogue-access-point-rsa-conference/

In this article the authors set up an open access point at RSA Conference configured to use some common SSID’s. Interestingly enough they 2,456 devices connect to the access points. These access points could have easily been configured as evil twins to snoop the network traffic of attendees that came to the conference. Luckily for the attendees this was just a test and their devices were just served the internet without bad intentions.

As a user there are several ways to protect against this type of attack. The first step would be to disable automatic connection to wifi networks. This would stop your device from connecting to an evil twin without your knowledge. As a business owner there are also several options to protect customers you want to provide access to wifi. Network segmentation and devices that offer other network protections are a good start. In addition, providing security such as WPA2 is another good option.

Rogue access points and Evil Twins pose risks on open networks. Read Post »

Multiple Passcode Bypass Vulnerabilities Discovered in iOS 9

Threat: Multiple Passcode Bypass Vulnerabilities Discovered in iOS 9
Solution: Disable the Siri module and Events Calendar without passcode, along with the public Control Panel with the timer and world clock. Users should also activate the weather app to prevent the redirect.
URL: http://www.securityweek.com/multiple-passcode-bypass-vulnerabilities-discovered-ios-9

This is a pretty big vulnerability that requires very little technical knowledge to exploit. The last vulnerability of this type I remember only allowed access to pictures and contacts.

I also wonder if the FBI could could explot this to unlock the iPhone they want from Syed Farook and the few hundred ones they have from other suspects for lesser crimes.

In addition as I look at the steps needed to completely disable this exploit, I hope Apple pushes out a security update soon. I can’t imagine many users actually taking the steps to disable everything necessary to protect against this.

Multiple Passcode Bypass Vulnerabilities Discovered in iOS 9 Read Post »

DROWN attack places more than 11 million websites at risk.

drown-attack-openssl-vulnerabilityThreat: DROWN attack places more than 11 million websites at risk.

Solution: OpenSSL 1.0.2 users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.2g and OpenSSL 1.0.1 should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1s. If you are using another version of OpenSSL, you should move to the newer versions.
You should also ensure SSLv2 is disabled, as well as make sure that the private key isn’t shared across any other servers.

URL: http://thehackernews.com/2016/03/drown-attack-openssl-vulnerability.html

The DROWN attack targets servers that might not use SSL2 but still support it. Often this is done to support other servers that use it such as SMTP, IMAP, and POP mail servers. A DROWN attack could allow an attacker to decrypt HTTPS connections by sending specially crafted packets to a server or if the certificate is shared on another server, potentially performing a successful Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attack.

You can find out if your website is vulnerable to this critical security hole using the DROWN attack test site.

Like many of these attacks, the fix is already out there. Server admins need to perform updates immediately to protect against attacks. In addition confirming all servers that use the same certificates are updated is important as this attack can compromise one server and be used on a “secure” server that uses the same certificate.

DROWN attack places more than 11 million websites at risk. Read Post »