Password Safety

So what have we learned this week,,,,I couldn't leave my blog at 13 posts

This week we covered how to steal all my information, (by making your e-mail look like it came from the school,)

 and that we will all die in a fiery nuclear holocaust thanks to Stuxnet. Happy World Domination!!

Stuxnet-Cyber Weapon or Misunderstood Digital Christmas Card?

So for those of you not in the loop, Stuxnet is a super virus, the first of it's kind cyber weapon. Found in industrial control systems of such things as nuclear power plants, air traffic control systems and many other key structures. What makes this virus so interesting is a few key facts that separate it from your run of the mill virus. It was made with a real security clearance, it's 20 times more complex then any known virus at the time, it has an array of capabilities, such as causing a nuclear plant to go into melt down all the while telling the operators everything was fine and it comes with a self-destruct feature among many other safeguards. It exploits multiple security gaps that the software creators are unaware of, often called zero-days, or 0-days. The virus originally targeted Siemens software by targeting Microsoft operating systems and networks then seeking out the Siemens Step7 software. There are 3 parts of Stuxnet, a worm that executes all routines related to the attack, a link file that automatically propagates copies of the worm, and a rootkit which hides all the malicious files and processes. Thence Stuxnet was first found, several similar programs have been discovered, such as Duqu, and Flame.

While no definitive person or group has been found guilty of creating Stuxnet many people believe it was a joint venture by Israel and the United States. It is believed to be the largest and costliest development effort in malware history, due to the team of programmers it needed to develop all the capabilities and the in-depth knowledge of the industrial processes. Documents from WikiLeaks and testimony from anonymous U.S. officials leave little doubt that both parties were involved. 

To make the world a better place Stuxnet is open source and free online for anyone to play with. Feel free to full fill your dreams of world domination by clicking here.

Frustrating Day

So one of my classes this term is "Internet in Depth" which is the reason I started this new blog. So far the class has been great, but at the same time incredibly frustrating. I am normally very non-trusting, cynical, and look for the worst in everyone. I know that's not the best outlook on life to have, and when I was younger I was quit the opposite. But life sticks it too you and you adapt and change. I have always been very skeptical of everything I see on the internet and love to punch holes in the lies and scams I come across. With this said, my professor has showed me my Achilles heal twice this term. I get fishing e-mails all the time, never fall for it, he sends me one and even though one part of my brain is screaming NO!!!!! I click on it anyways and enter my info. It's from the school, it has to be legit.

Dear Brian,

We are concerned that your Bobcat web account has been modified by an outside party.  In order for us to ensure that none of your classes will be cancelled (which could affect your financial status with the college) or other classes added, we need you to log in to your Bobcat account immediately and ensure that nothing has been changed.

COCC Bobcat Account Login

Please do this as soon as possible to ensure your classes continue as planned.

Thank you,

David Belluscini
Technology and Communications Coordinator
Central Oregon Community College

  Why oh why did I not listen to my bullshit detector? It was going off like mad, yet blindly I followed orders. Of course I am the type to stew on things so this is just eating at me, making it difficult to get my mind on task. Which is why I am blogging instead of doing homework. O.K. time to recite my mantra for a while, "don't trust anyone, don't trust anyone, don't trust anyone".

Fall Term

It's official, made the list!! Fall term 15 credits and working full time. 

Will AI replace the browser?

I believe the browser and AI will slowly meld into some new form. I don't believe we can fully get away from the browser, yet I can see were AI can lend it's self to helping create a slimmer, faster web browsing experience. There are people who due to disabilities are unable to use voice activated systems, at least at there current state. I can imagine a browser that is fully voice controlled in the very near future, but we will need some form of browser to view and interact with that information, and for the people unable to interact with the voice system.

While I have never used Siri or Cortana, I can see the appeal of the hands free, voice activated interface. With voice recognition continuing to improve, and the success of cloud technology, I feel this technology will become more and more apart of our daily lives. What is a cute trick you can do on your phone or tablet now, will soon become deeply integrated into all of our tech. They make refrigerators that text you when you are low on something, soon our all of our appliances will be able to interact with us in many new and helpful ways. Now while, I have been known to bash on the IoT, I think if this technology is done correctly it can really be a great tool for all of us. On the other hand it could be a disaster if not done correctly. As I have stated in previous posts, security and the users well being needs to come first. No one will want any kind of technology, no matter how "cool" it is, if they know there is a chance there being spied on, or in some way them, or there families safety is in danger. We also need to take a serious look at the infrastructures of our ISP's. They were not designed for users to have so many devices and are slow to catch up to the demand that end users are putting on the systems. When ipv4 was invented no one imagined we would be running out of IP's yet now we are scrambling to implement ipv 6. All of our nations ISP's are dealing with not only this conversion, but there quickly filling pipelines. Systems designed for 1 maybe 2 computers per house are now seeing 20+ devices per house and on top of that many of these devices are streaming, something unheard of when many of these systems were designed. No matter how many products we create, no matter how far we take AI or any other tech, it will only be as good as out aging infrastructure will allow it too work.  

Forbes on IoT

Forbes article on the future on the Internet of Things.

Article on IoT Security by Forbes 

Li-Fi

Pretty interesting talk on this new technology. Suppose to be 100 times faster then Wi-Fi.

Article about it's application from the EE Times

Great TedX talk on Spam

Everyone should watch this talk on spam.

Homework :(

O.K. So two posts about the "Internet of things" both ended up becoming rants, sorry for that, hopefully they cover the homework :(

The Internet of Things

Ok so my last post was me venting on this subject, now I shall do the assignment.

The Internet of Things is the shift to having a network of physical things. These things will be able to collect and send data. Think of google glasses, smart thermostats, health devices that can alert you to an issue before your aware your having an issue. The Jetsons, Star Trek, and all the other sci-fi things we grew up dreaming about are starting to become a reality.  

So how will this affect us? If the current internet is any example of how the future shall be, it's going to be a train wreck. While we have shrunk our world and expanded our ability to communicate and share ideas with anyone in the world in just a few clicks of the mouse, we have also created new means for criminals (ID theft, spam, hacking, the dark web, ect. ect.), we have created a generation of people with little to no moral or ethical understanding of how to treat there fellow humans(trolling, cyber bulling, ect ect). Anonymity has turned many people into monsters, with no fear of reprisal they can say or do anything to anyone. While it could be argued these people were monsters to start with and the internet just gave them a means to reveal there true self, I would argue the internet has at the very minimum, encouraged and nurtured these behaviors. These behaviors have become socially acceptable.

I truly believe the internet was created with the best intentions. To share ideas and data with the world. Not to troll or post stupid cat videos. It was pure and pristine. Sadly, like all things pure, we instantly went out of our way too, (pardon my language) shit all over it. I have lived for 40 years, I have fought in one war, survived two marriages, and kept most of my sanity being a single parent. Trust me when I say, there are some sick and twisted people on this planet, and I have seen first hand the horrible things we can do to one another. The internet has become the go to media for sharing these horrible things. These people feed off each other sharing ideas and being enablers for one another. While I am a proponent of the good things that can come from the internet, I truly feel it is the worst thing to happen to our society. It is the modern day plague. With out major ethical shift in our society I see only dark things in our future.

The Matrix

Just read the wiki post for The Internet of Things and while I found much of it very interesting, there is a part of me that finds the whole idea frightening. I want to make a tin foil hat, go off the grid, take the red pill, and curl up with my copy of Little Brother. The idea of so much of our lives being monitored and recorded by who knows who is terrifying. Hacking and internet security is already such a huge issue and they want to keep forcing more and more products on us with little to no concern for what it is opening us up too. So many items that we count on to be safe and secure have already been exploited, from baby monitors to insulin pumps to cars. The idea that someone can hack your medical device, or car, anything that could cost you your life, shows just how vulnerable these IoT devices are and why we should all be questioning the driving forces behind there development.

Should we not design with the safety of the user as a priority?  We need to stop asking can we, and start asking should we?

Format

                                  Well this blog looks a little better, still not happy with it,

                                               but like all blogs it is a work in progress. 

WOW, need to change the theme

I shall fiddle with making this blog a little less fuggly tomorrow. But for now, my puppy is telling me it is bed time.

First Post

I am starting this new blog as part of a school assignment. I might continue using it to just post about my miss-adventures as a 40 year old going back to college, (hopefully I will get it right this time), and use my main one for non-school related things. We shall see.