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Advertising (double and a half) fail
I get the following email in my inbox: Knowing that they have some interesting people (and webcasts), I bite. So where should I click? On the subscribe button of course! This takes me (trough a redirector – which fortunately wasn’t blocked by my host file) to this website. Fail no. 1: there is no way…
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The fox in the henhouse?
Some time back I ranted about ParetoLogic which was used to be known as the makers of a rogue security product (XoftSpy). Today I can rant once again about them: They’ve published a blogpost insinuating that Firefox 3.5 has a remote code execution vulnerability. I’ve tried to inquire if they notified Mozilla about the issue,…
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Old habits die hard
Last year I complained about ParetoLogic being a sponsor for the 2008 Virus Bulleting conference. It seems that my concerns were at least partially justified: as this post from the ESET blog points it out, they are back to using overhyped and inaccurate text in their advertisements, much like the rogue security products. Picture taken…
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Getting testing right
Product testing and review is a very important step in convincing people to buy, not to buy a certain product (it is viewed by customers as more credible than marketing aimed directly at them, because the perception is that they are not “bought”, even though vendors pay for many tests!). If the organization / individual…
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The state of web security
If you are a busy (wo)man, I save you the time it would take to read this blogpost: it is deplorable. Now to elaborate on it: Yesterday I was putting together some new templates for the webhoneypot project with a focus on PHP shells. Things like r57, c99 and their derivatives. Then I looked at…
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Gh0stNet
The latest security news (hype?) is the discovery of Gh0stNet. Links: Original papare: Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network F-Secure blogpost about it The paper from Cambridge: The snooping dragon: social-malware surveillance of the Tibetan movement My take on it? There is no proof that China is behind this. There are alternative explanations (as…
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It’s all in the eye of the beholder
One key aspect of the of the rogue AV/AS/AM products is the fact that they are using scare tactics to sell their "products". However even legitimate products have tendencies to go in this direction, as the two examples below illustrate. The first example is from a Secunia PSI install. Just to clarify my stance on…
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A few words about hackersblog
If you read security news, you most probably have already heard about hackersblog.org. It is blog created by a couple of my compatriots who feel that just talking about vulnerabilities in web websites is not enough and they must attract attention by actively exploiting the flaws and the posting their “trophies” Zone-H style. As you…
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FRHACK creates sexist award
The organizers of FRHACK, a french security conference in the making, came up with the idea of the “The Best IT Security Girl of the Year”. If you think I’m being over-sensitive, just look at the picture below and judge for yourself if it is a proper way to encourage women to participate in the…
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The limits of mob-style takedowns
It is interesting to observe the dynamics of the interactions on the Internet. In the last couple of years several hosting (RBN, McColo and so on) organizations have been taken down by “denouncing them to the masses”. The usual flow of events was: Evidence was gathered against them The media “exposed” them Their upstream providers…