InstallationDomain owners beware.
Posted on January 9th, 2007If you own a domain name chances are, your mailing information is already in the hands of a few companies (when you register a domain, that information it becomes public domain) some send offers to buy cheap mailing supplies, credit card offers or “official” looking documents.
A friend called me a few weeks ago asking me about an invoice he received about his domain registration, or what he thought it was a expiration notice, after reading the document it was clear that it was just a mail offer, just like the ones you get with “Guaranteed Credit Approval” or “Refinance your home”.
They are good at making documents that look official and some people even get scared of getting charged for services they didn’t order in the first place.
New 32GB Flash Drive
Posted on January 5th, 2007
SanDisk, the company that manufactures storage devices just released a 32GB Flash Drive that some say will replace the common hard drive. The conventional storage method is to use a hard drive to store files and run the operating system, this new method relies solely on its flash drive to boot up, run the operating system and store files.
The Benefits of using a Flash drive
- Reduce overall weight of Notebooks
- No moving parts
- Reduces power consumption by half therefore extends battery life
- Direct data access, reduces seek times
- Faster OS boot
What this means
SanDisk announcement brings good news to the average consumer, so far the only buyers for this kind of technology are large corporations and the government, with the introduction of new flash storage devices (like thumb drives) we have seen a dramatic drop in prices by the increased competition, soon others will follow and the demand for these drives will skyrocket.
Reduces overall weight of notebooks
One of the selling points of any notebook is its weight, new technology allows the development of smaller components, the flash drive is lightweight compared to a 2.5″ hard drive
No moving parts
All hard drives including the one on your computer have rotating disks spinning from 5200 rpm’s all the way to 15,000 rpm’s (varies by model). The new flash drive does not have moving parts which reduces the possibility for damages caused by vibration or shock.
Less power, more battery
The flash drive is a chip and does not have moving parts or an electric motor, the power consumption is less than 0.5 watts which makes it a perfect candidate for laptop computers.
Direct data access
Every time your hard drive seeks data on your rotating discs, it takes quite a few milliseconds to find it and transfer it, with the new flash drives it takes less than one millisecond, you might say -Well milliseconds are not important- but when you are searching and processing billions of bytes of information a day, it really adds up.
Faster OS boot
I really don’t know if these drives are going to be used for Macs too, but so far on regular tests the flash drives were 35% faster when booting on Windows than the average hard drive. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to wait 55 seconds for Windows to load.
Bluetooth hacked
Posted on January 3rd, 2007
This is not new, but a friend called me yesterday concerned about this, here is a small explanation. If your phone has Bluetooth enabled that means it can communicate with other devices through a wireless connection, for example, your Bluetooth headset. Your device has a security feature that allows 2 devices to communicate and secure the connection with a 4-digit number, from 0000 to 9999.
The problem
There is a program that allows an attacker to connect to your cellphone and start guessing the 4-digit number, if it is successful, the program will then lock on to the signal and give the attacker full access to your personal data and take control of your cellphone. All this can happen while your phone shows no activity of any kind.
Using your phone to steal your phone book and other info
This is the most simple attack, someone connects to your phone and copies all your stored information to their system.
Using your phone to connect to the internet.
The attacker can use your phone to connect to the internet and check email or use it for other purposes, if you have email on your phone, the attacker can read and copy all of your emails in a few seconds.
Using your phone to make expensive phone calls.
Some devices allow the software to run while making a call, this can allow an attacker to use your phone to make international calls or even worse, call to a pay-per-minute service setup by the attacker and making a long call without you even noticing, if they charge $5 per minute, a simple 10 minute call can generate a $50 charge on your next bill.
The solution
Well some phones have the ability to select which devices to connect to, therefore an attacker cannot connect. Another solution is turning off Bluetooth if you are not using it or if you don’t have a headset.
By far the best solution is not to use your phone to store personal information such as your SSN#, your bank account number or other info that might put you at risk.
Don’t use Bluetooth?
Not necessarily, the odds of being attacked like this are probably one in a million but it only takes one attack to realize the seriousness of the situation. It is always best not to use these wireless devices to store any information that you might consider important.
Windows XP Update: SP1 and SP2
Posted on January 2nd, 2007If you are planning on keeping Windows XP and have not yet updated your system, now is the time. Some people don’t even know that they need to update their operating system, there is something called a ‘Service Pack’ which includes updates for your computer. Aside from regular hot fixes the service packs are absolutely necessary and I recommend you install them as soon as possible.
Do you need to update?
To check whether your system needs to be updated follow these instructions:
- Click on ‘start’ (lower left corner of your screen)
- Right-click ‘My Computer’ to get a menu
- Choose properties.
- Check your Windows version, if you don’t see ‘Service Pack’ anywhere, you need to install both.
