Robby Pedrica's Tech Blog

Author: Robby Pedrica

  • Conficker still around?

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    Robby Pedrica
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    The hype surrounding Conficker just seems to be increasing and the latest variant ( C ) apparently has some interesting capabilities such as disabling security software ( AV, firewalls, etc. ), killing processes for running security apps  and p2p networking to spread infection. The worm exploits a vulnerability in the Windows Server service that is…

  • Great Wall of Aussie

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    The government-led project to block all sites deemed as inappropriate to children has continued with a number of interesting developments in the last few weeks. First Wikileaks listed the blocked site list on their website ( and were then duly blocked themselves!!! ). Now a group have hacked the Aus Classification Board’s website. For a…

  • IE8 – not really all that

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    IE8 was released to much fanfare recently ( Dean Hachamovitch at the Las Vegas MIX 09 conference ), but it hasn’t taken long for someone to find the first vulnerability. Nils, a hacker from Germany, banged the browser by using a previously unknown vulnerability in the browser, during the annual PWN2OWN contest held at the…

  • Windows security redux

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    Robby Pedrica
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    A number of people responded to my previous article on the BBC’s botnet indicating that I was being overly harsh. I have 2 comments on that: 1. if you’re happy fighting fires, then maybe you should be a fireman 2. most of these respondents ran standalone machines; they had no experience maintaining corporate networks And…

  • The BBC’s botnet

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    Robby Pedrica
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    It appears that the BBC has decided to become a hacking company – they recently obtained a botnet of around 22000 machines from an underground forum and demonstrated ( as part of a  special investigation ) how to use these machines to send spam to some predefined email addresses they had created. UK law (…

  • KDE 4 continues to mature

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    Robby Pedrica
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    Much has been said, both negative and positive, about KDE 4 since it’s introduction almost 2 years ago now. Yes it was a rocky start but that was to be expected on a project this large. But the developers kept their cool and stuck to their vision. It’s interesting to still see some negative comments…

  • Truecrypt and ext2ifs

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    Robby Pedrica
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    I came across an issue this morning ( which has been around for some time already ) concerning using TrueCrypt and ext2ifs together. I would get a blue screen of death in Win XP sp2 when trying to mount a Truecrypt volume and the BSOD would relate to a driver called ifsmount.sys. Some googling turned…

  • Mono, Suse and Microsoft – problems all around

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    Microsoft’s recent patent suit against a prominent printer manufacturer ( that happens to use open source software in some of its products ) has raised more than a few eyebrows. This is the first execution of Microsoft’s threat against FOSS since its announcement over a year ago, when it indicated that FOSS was in violation…

  • Czech ISP chaos

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    Robby Pedrica
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    A Czech ISP made some changes this morning which cause routing updates to increase from a few thousand per second to around 25k per second at its peak. Newly-connected BGP routers typically provide information about themselves to each and every other BGP router on the internet.  One of these pieces of  information is AS (…

  • Windows for War – scary stuff

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    Robby Pedrica
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    A number of military organisations around the world have started using Windows 2000 as a platform for operational systems within navies, the army, air services and other war branches. But recently there has been quite a bit of consternation concerning the use Windows in UK naval vessels as well as French fighter planes. I’m the…

  • Kaspersky issues? or something more?

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    Robby Pedrica
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    In the light of recent Kaspersky security issues I thought it useful to approach the subject of security companies trumpeting their own horns and crying foul once too many times. To start with, I don’t think this issue really merits any more attention than usual. Kaspersky do anti-virus software, not intrusion prevention software, which is…

  • Spam increasing again

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    Apparently it’s increasing to close to pre-McColo ( one of the major sources of spam last year which was clsoed down ) levels. Levels are now at 74.6% which means that every 3 in 4 emails are spam. The Mega-D (Ozdoc) botnet is making the largest single contribution to junk mail levels, sending more than…

  • OpenMoko anti-semitic and communist

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    Robby Pedrica
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    It seems that a forged email at OpenMoko ( the free and open-source cellular handset ) was mistakenly sent out to the OpenMoko mailing list with some interesting content: According to the email, Obama “completely supports the theft of trillions of American taxpayer dollars to the Zionist international bankers” and Obama leading “America, Palestine and…

  • Twitter/LinkedIn malware

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    Robby Pedrica
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    Most social networking and Web 2.0 sites have been victims of malware at some point or another and LinkedIn is no different. The latest threat relates to many phony profile pages which tempt users with pictures of nude celebrities. When the user clicks on one of the links, they are taken to an external site…

  • Microsoft’s AstroTurfing

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    Robby Pedrica
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    Microsoft’s bullying tactics in the IT field are well known but one would have thought that they might have stopped with the AstroTurfing by now, seeing as many are wise to their tactics. But not according to one of their Technology Evangelists, James Plamondon.  For those unfamiliar with the term, AstroTurfing means that you, through…