Robby Pedrica's Tech Blog

Author: Robby Pedrica

  • Security vendors – stop your advertising antics!

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    Robby Pedrica
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    I always find it quite amusing ( and ironic ) when security vendors eat their own dog food – and get bitten. Here are a few gems: Earlier this year, Mcafee released a definition file which a Windows XP SP3 system file ( svchost.exe ) it thought was a threat resulting in thousands of machines…

  • Microsoft and anti-virus software

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    I’m subscribed to a Microsoft UK email newsletter that I get once a month. The latest one started as follows: As someone who is fully aware of the potential dangers that the internet poses to those who use it for banking, shopping and social networking, you must get a lot of people asking for your…

  • Security, the employee and business

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    Anyone who runs a business ( from small SMEs to large corporates ) these days, with computing facilities for their employees, faces a tough battle with network and computer security. The list of external malicious vectors are endless, including phishing attacks, spyware, viruses, DoS attacks and many others. The Mariposa virus, shut down in March…

  • SCO – are you dead yet?

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    The ether has been strangely quiet about SCO’s recent defeat at the hands of a jury, on the issue of suing IBM for copyright infringement. After 2 judges and 1 jury decision, it was found comprehensively, that Novell never sold the copyrights to UNIX as part of its sale of UnixWare to SCO in 2003.…

  • AT&T’s Ipad data leak

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    Further on from my previous articles on online data storage and services ( On-line storage – safe or not?, Windows and online banking, Local insurance company loses client data, Data loss for Sidekick users Part 2 and Apple and data leakage? ) AT&T have had a massive data leak of email addresses and ICC-IDs (unique…

  • Facebook worms have free reign

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    A new worm is spreading rapidly via Facebook. The cause is a problem disclosed weeks ago which Facebook seems unable to fix. As a result, there has been another wave of crafted status messages – this time they refer to a web page which allegedly presents the “101 hottest women in the world”. Those who…

  • Microsoft installs software without permission

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    It seems that Microsoft just can’t help itself. As part of its regular Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released an update for its various toolbars, and this update came with more than just documented fixes. The update also installs an add-on for Internet Explorer and an extension for Mozilla Firefox, both without the user’s permission. The update…

  • Windows 7 SP1 due in July

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    Microsoft anounced a public beta of SP1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 at TechEd in New Orleans this week. Yes that’s right – the same package is used to update both platforms due to them using the same kernel. While Windows 7 doesn’t gain any new functionlity from this update, Server 2008 R2…

  • Adobe get’s hacked ( again )

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    It didn’t take long for someone to start exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities in Adobe’s software. In fact, having the the honour of designing the most hacked software on the planet, means that Adobe’s products are always going to be on the front-line of attacks. Since late Friday attackers have been exploiting a critical vulnerability in the…

  • The Slackware 13.1 Interview

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    Slackware releases are like a big shiny new birthday present for me ( in fact mine’s just around the corner, hint hint ) even though I follow -current mostly. It means that the distro is at a point where new packages have been added, others upgraded and bugs worked out. And Patrick, and the rest…

  • VP8 vs H264

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    Apparently the MPEG-LA forum, which manages a pool of patents relating to H.264, thinks that any implementation of video will be encompassed by one or more patents from its patent pool. Not only does this reek of megalomania, but it also shows just how far gone the US patent system had gone down hill. It…

  • Slackware64 Multilib and GSB

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    I’ve had a few queries on setting up Slackware64 Multilib as well as GSB with -current. It’s not difficult at all but just requires one to follow a strict set of steps. Multilib Eric Hameleers ( Alien ) has the definite write-up on Multilib on his site however I’ll provide a short synopsis here for…

  • Slackware 13.1 rc 1 available

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    Upgrade to kernel 2.6.33.4, gcc 4.4.4 and glibc  2.11.1. JDK 6u20 in extra and usblp back in cups

  • Slackware 13.1 Beta 1 released

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    Now with KDE 4.4.3/PolicyKit sauce …

  • All root servers now offering DNSSEC

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    Verisign’s J root server was switched over to DNSSEC yesterday bringing the entire authoritative DNS system onto the new security platform. Alhough all the root servers are serving a signed version of the root zone, these are not yet able to be validated as the public key has not yet been disclosed. This allows the…