[SecurityRatty] tag: charity

Scammers settling in after Gustav

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:51:22 +0000

First article Ive found so far that has the legit sites named so you can make sure youre not being targeted.
Well done !

clipped from www.inquisitr.com

Tracking Gustav: Storm Scammers Hit the Net

If you’re interested in contacting a legit charity working to help families displaced by Hurricane Gustav, check out the list below. You can also find everything from live cameras and storm tracking tools to Web services devoted to helping find loved ones at our Online Storm Resource Center.

Dutch launch open-source smart card software project

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:00:00 +0000

A Dutch charity is funding an open-source project to design smart card software that offers stronger protection of personal data in light of security vulnerabilities found with cards used today in the U.S., U.K. and Netherlands.

Why would the Government hire a security consultant and then not listen to him?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:56:00 +0000

I received an interesting piece from one of my friends in Homeland Security. It concerns Juval Aviv, the Bodyguard for Golda Meir and the person she sent out to track down those responsible for killing the Israeli athletes during the Munich Olympic games.

Apparently Mr. Aviv delivered a lecture in New York City a couple of weeks ago. He made some startling predictions. One of these is the fact that he believes the next attack(s)on the U.S. will occur in the next few months and it will involve suicide and non-suicide bombers where large numbers of people congregate. This will not come as any surprise to those of us who have seen the Al Qaida training types showing training scenarios aimed at football stadiums, shopping malls, golf tournaments, etc.

Interestingly, Aviv claims that these threats are well known by the U.S. Govt. but they do not want to "alarm citizens" with the facts. Aviv just might know what he's talking about there since he currently serves as a special consultant to the U.S. Congress and other policy makers. There is no doubt that he knows what he is talking about when he describes what is needed at U.S. airports.

I have long known that U.S. airports are not as safe as people would like to think. Apart from all of the "mistakes" and the prohibited items that make it past the security check points, there is the procedure whereby bags remain unchecked in any form until people have gained access to ticket desks and the internal front area of the airport. The people themselves are not screened until they head for the gates. What would happen if a terrorist self-detonated in the middle of a crowded airport without ever trying or expecting to make it on a plane? Scary thoughts, but thoughts nonetheless about which someone should be thinking and being concerned enough to address it.

Should Aviv be taken serious? Well, he predicted the London bombing on the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News stating publicly that it would happen within a week. At the time, O'Reilly laughed and said that in a week, he wanted him back on the show. Unfortunately, within a week the terrorist attack occurred.

It would be nice to know that the Government was doing all it could for us, but reading and hearing things like this does not exactly instill confidence. Then again, there were probably those who felt safe seeing Army reservists with rifles in our airports in the days following 9-11. That is, if you didn't think about it for more than a minute.

Like charity, security starts at home. Now more than ever, it may be a case of; "the Lord helping those who help themselves."

Hacker compromised Red Cross earthquake relief site

Sun, 18 May 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Hurricane Katrina proved a fertile ground for fraudsters to scam money off those willing to help the needy. Now the China earthquake has bread a new variant of the morally reprehensible, with donated funds being siphoned off one charity site.

Charity Battles Imaginary Killing Machines

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Another group has joined the ranks of academics and ethicists who want to save our society from blood-thirsty armed drones that are preparing to gun down our puppies and children. Too bad they don't exist outside of science fiction.

Irongeek Campuses Page Updated

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:35:57 +0000

I've updated the Irongeek Campuses page with a few new schools, please contact me if your university uses my materials for teaching information security. Also, I've started to help out the The Mitzvah Group with their charity work. Check out and join their Myspace page, especially if you live in the Southern Indiana/Louisville Kentucky area.

Irongeek Campuses Page Updated

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:35:57 +0000

Highlighting the importance of data privacy... one person at a time

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 06:29:07 +0000

I've seen an increasingly common trend for vendors or others to post sensitive personal information in public places, to prove that no harm will come, or that their solution will protect against any possible misuse. One person to do this recently, in response to the data loss by HM Revenue and Customs is Jeremy Clarkson, a TV broadcaster specializing in cars. Despite having no background in finance and fraud, he published his personal information in a newspaper column trying to diminish the idea that harm could come from the data breach. And that has come back to haunt him, as someone set up an automatic debit from his account of 500 GBP a month to be given to charity. My favorite part of the story is his new attitude:

"We must go after the idiots who lost the discs and stick cocktail sticks in their eyes until they beg for mercy."

Beyond a good laugh, what can we get from this story?

Review your bank accounts online regularly whenever possible. He did not check his account until the end of the month statement came and lost valuable time to oppose the debits.
Don't make yourself an easy target. He obviously called attention to himself as a TV personality that most regular people wouldn't be able to do (publish their bank account in a newspaper), but you should still remove the low-hanging fruit (easy data to steal). For instance, shredding sensitive information and only sharing it when mandatory.
As more people are harmed by misuse of their data, the outcry for better protection will grow stronger. This will filter up to the ears of our legislatures who will strengthen data protection laws to assist identity theft victims. Especially once it strikes their parent, sibling, or children.

A Quote From Bill Gates

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 04:13:00 +0000

(I really haven't been doing very well with my blog these past three months.

I aim to do better. My schedule has been totally messed around and time I spent blogging has gone. I do however have more time to read.)

So, with all that out of the way...those that know me know that I am total Linux Penguin Man so Bill Gates is not my favourite person in the world. However, he is a great man and has been, I believe by following this vision throughout his life from when he was Microsoft's CEO, Chairman and now with his charity work.

"To turn caring into action, we need to see a problem, see a solution, and see the impact. But complexity blocks all three steps." - Bill Gates, 2007.

His point in context is that people want to donate to charity but find the complexity of donating too much and they just don't. Alternatively, if they do donate, the money gets used up by supporting complexity and not really for what it was intended.

But there is a bigger picture here. I was involved once in a project which developed a security tool. I saw the bigger picture of how this tool would fit into an organisation but was shot down by everyone in the company from the CEO down because they had a different view. They were too caught up with the technology and didn't see the problem they were trying to solve.

I then did some work for two other companies (not Information Security companies) and again they were too caught up in the technology and suffered from red tape. One closed down and the other struggled along.

Most recently I did work for a company that runs its Information Security department in such a way that it jumps from buzzword to buzzword without really getting more secure.

I think we should all learn from Bill Gates and see what the problems are, simplify them, rank them, and solve them.. then move on. After all, he is the richest man in the world and has become so not by giving people the most complicated software but by giving them simple software that solves their problems.

Thank you to Presentation Zen for the information.

Zune Killer App - Windows Media Center

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:55:40 +0000

I admit it, I did not buy a Zune last year when they were first released. I don't have a large music collection and I'm generally happy listening to the radio to get my music fix, or the digital music channels available from my cable company, if you will.

However, as some of you may realize from my previous postings (Vista Media Center Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), I have been a fan of Media Center as a potential alternative to the recently-downgraded (don't get me started, even my wife lost what she considered *basic* features with the "standard" Comcast DVR downgrade) Comcast DVR.

The event that kicks this story of begins with a Poker game. Just after Microsoft announced the new Zune line-up in October, I won a charity poker event where the prize was a custom Zune 30. It was basically a "pearl" Zune with a special logo on the back and pre-loaded with some poker theme music that we heard during the event. I played with it a few days, loading it with some songs and even buying a couple of recent ones from the Zune marketplace.

Then ... I discovered the killer feature ... integration with my Windows Vista Media Center. Now, technically, this feature was not actually enabled when I discovered it. However, it took me all of 5 minutes to find the registry mod on the Internet and enable it. That became moot a week or so ago when the recent Zune upgrade rectified that issue, so now everyone can enjoy this feature by default. Here is the very simple set-up instructions:

Install the Zune software on your media center
Make sure you add your "Recorded TV" folder, if it is in an odd place (mine is on an external half-TByte drive).
Plug in your Zune device as a guest
Sync recorded TV shows to your heart's content

Now, let's see why this rocks...

iPod vs Zune TV Comparison

The Apple Way...

There was much ado when the Daily Show became available on iTunes for $1 per show or $9.99 for 16 episodes (roughly 3 weeks of shows). I browsed over to http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/tvshows.html just now and found this blurb:

Be a watercooler hero. For as little as $1.99, you can own the latest episode of your favorite show as early as one day after it airs, or purchase past episodes that you missed (or want to watch over and over). Choose a Season Pass and get a whole season of a TV show, past or present, at a discount. Or buy Multi-Passes for shows that air every day, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and enjoy a month’s worth of episodes downloaded automatically to your computer.

Well, yahoo, yipee! Only $2 per show on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

The Zune + Media Center Way ...

I record all of my favorite TV shows on my Windows Media Center. In the evening, I plug in my Zune and choose which shows to sync for mobile watching. For example, last night I chose the two latest episodes of Heroes which I had not gotten around to watching because of my recent Jury Duty and the holiday activities. The Zune software automagically converts the show to 320x240 and syncs it to my Zune.

This morning on the Connector Bus to work, I watched Heroes Season 2, Episode 7, "Out of Time" and found out the surprising identity of "Adam Monroe." I'll watch Episode 8 on the way home...

And My TV Movies Too...

And, it doesn't stop there. As I described previously, I've been building up quite a library of TV Movies, cutting out commercials, compressing them and creating my own on-demand TV Movies library. Since I got my Zune, I've switched to using MP4 compression with H.264 video and AAC3 audio, which gets added automatically to my Zune library and can be synced to the device... better together indeed!

With my Zune 30, this means I can load up about 50 kids movies and TV shows that I've previously recorded for those long road trips and vacations. In fact, I can plug my Zune into the aux-video inputs in our mini-van and play directly on the integrated DVD video screen.

And it is all so easy...