Robby Pedrica's Tech Blog

Author: Robby Pedrica

  • CA’s get hacked

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Wow, it really has been a bad week for Certificate Authorities. First DigiNotar gets cracked by a seemingly insistent CA cracker called ComodoHacker; now GlobalSign has stopped processing certificate requests due to possible compromise by the same cracker. It all started in March this year with the Comodo CA breach. Next was StartCom the Israeli…

  • CA’s get hacked off

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Earlier this year, one of the biggest names in network-based security, RSA, was hacked. What made the situation a lot worse, was RSA’s hesitance to be forthcoming on the matter. And that unwillingness to disclose seems to be the trend these days. Get hacked. Don’t tell your clients … This lack of openness is becoming…

  • The Cloud, Security and IT Skills

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Seeing as everyone is writing about Cloud Computing lately, I thought I’d rehash some of my concerns about this ‘new’  technology. New in parenthesis because the idea is actually quite old, coming from the time-sharing Unix systems of the 60’s and 70’s. Cloud obviously takes this to a new level ( supposedly with non-stop availability…

  • SARS email blunder

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    It’s interesting to see that SARS is not immune to the occasional blunder ( in this case very serious one ). An email was sent out on Monday evening to apparent tax employers ( around 15000 recipients ), that were also included in an attachment containing the email addresses. It’s been noted that a 2nd…

  • Mobile Security in a nutshell

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Mobile security has morphed in the last few years to become a major area of security concern. It’s no longer just laptops that provide on-the-go networked computing – smartphones, tablets, ultra-portables, e-readers and other networked devices now all vie for a space in your electronic arsenal, and they all come with their unique set of…

  • Windows 8 a KDE clone?

    Windows 8 a KDE clone?

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Microsoft has always been accused of following the pack rather than innovating. So it’s no surprise that early screenshots of the Windows 8 copy dialogue seem to be a direct rip-off of the KDE 4 copy dialogue, from the ‘multiple copy operations in single dialogue’ visual aspect:   to the bandwidth usage graphs:   The…

  • Symantec Endpoint Security issues

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m not a fan of Anti-Virus companies, especially when they use FUD to sell their products. What’s even worse is when a security application, which is supposed to protect you from security issues, has security issues itself. Symantec’s workstation anti-virus application, SEP, is apparently riddled with them…

  • Microsoft: Cloud Services fail

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Well if there’s ever been an advertisement against cloud services, Microsoft is it. The recent spate of outages on Microsoft’s BPOS system continued this weekend past with a 7 hour outage at their Dublin data centre after an ‘act of God’ took out their power grid and backup generators. Microsoft said it would “proactively provide…

  • Social media good and bad

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Social media has played a huge part in the political and social world over the last year. Consider its links to uprisings in the Middle East and now riots in the UK. On the one hand we have idiots like Tottenham MP David Lammy calling for the suspension of RIM’s BBM service ( thanks David,…

  • Apple’s security issues draw apologists

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    One of the reasons I was drawn to the Android stable as a mobile platform was it’s open nature. The fact that I can control the use of my own phone is important to me. Having someone else say what I can and can’t do with it, is not on. So it is that I’ve…

  • UK Violence

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Any kind of violence is a sad thing to see. We’ve seen our own share here in the south of Africa however, things have been tailing off for a number of years now while people get on with the business of living. Yes we have our issues, but for the most part things just go…

  • Fake, Fake, Fake

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    A large part of the Internet is fake! What? Yip, emails, websites, mobile app store, social networking plugins and apps, banking, etc. All fake. Because there are a lot of clever people out there trying to con you out of money or whatever else they can. With 1.8 Billion current Internet users ( 5.1 Million…

  • Email woes and etiquette

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    Based on issues that a client of mine has had in recent times with email, I decided to resurrect and rehash my XStore IT Bulletin no. 1 from July 2006. One of the biggest issues with email is the lack of understanding of how it works. In addition, the requirement to implement anti-spam solutions falls…

  • New eMailStor website goes live

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    As part of the roll-out of services under the eMailStor banner, the new website has gone live. Very simple but to the point. Go take a look and let us know if there is anything else you’d like to see there. Go to: www.emailstor.co.za

  • eMailStor launched

    —

    by

    Robby Pedrica
    in

    The eMailStor service was launched last week! Currently being provided as a welcome addition to our existing clients, it has been quite an exciting time. We’ve got a real issue to solve, and that is the constraining controls that most ISPs are imposing on their clients in terms of sending email. Not without merit though…