Category: security

AVG – Are they untrustworthy?

 

This afternoon I updated to AVG Free 2011, and a short while later, I was presented with this popup to scan my system with the PC Analyzer.  I figured, what the heck.  When the scanning was complete, I noticed that it said my hard drive was 52% fragmented… and if I wanted to fix it “once” i could do so for free, or buy a 12 month subscription.

Well, being the savvy user that I am (and also concerned at how my hard drive could become so fragmented) – I grabbed windows Disk Defragmenter tool and checked my hard drive.  Windows reports that I’m 1% fragmented, and AVG reports that I’m 52% fragmented.

Now, AVG has always seemed to be an excellent tool, and I have recently stopped using Trend Micro and Norton (both of which I used to pay for) for the simple and seemingly solid protection of AVG.

However, I have to ask – is their Fragmentation engine just that buggy, or are they being dishonest and unethical by representing a level of PC Problems that do not actually exist, thinking that most users will just run out and buy their additional software…

 

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Either way, I wasn’t so impressed with AVG’s PC Analyzer Product.

Satan is on my friends list?

I’m pretty sure I have blogged about the perils of social networking to personal information a few months ago.  Interesting in a recent University course, we had a gentlemen, who was a VP in an organization, state that he didn’t want to disclose the name of the organization in which he worked.  Which of course, for me, was all the more reason to find out the company he worked for.  🙂

No doubt, it only took combining a few pieces of publically known information about this fellow, and after a couple of minutes I knew more than one would want or need to know about him (unless you had some unethical purpose in your mind).

As a result, I wrote him a quick note back, here is the note, only slightly modified for contextualization purposes:

 

Name Omitted –

The Internet is your worst enemy when anonymity is desired, but the second worst enemy is saying "I’d rather not say" [when someone asks you about a piece of information that is probably publically available, but you’d rather not disclose], as this brings a whole lot more probability to the fact that people are going to search for you!  🙂

Which is one reason I am almost positive that the Pentagon intentionally purchased and burned the first printed copies of Operating Dark Heart: to drum up more exposure for the book – then the next real question is "Why".  =P

I love the aptly titled Defcon 16/Back Hat presentation: Satan is on my friends list.  Anonymity is nearly impossible in today’s connected world!

It’s funny because I have a brother who has tried his hardest to keep all his personal information off of the internet; and no matter what he does, or how hard he tries, Googling his name will bring up information that no one has any idea how it got there.  🙂

 

r/Darth Jedi

Should you move to electronic books?

Yesterday I heard that eBook sales have increased by 150% over this year.  While I have purchased quite a few eBooks, I still have a significant investment and ownership in hard copy books; books you can share, loan, and resell.

 

As the Kindle is the largest seller, I would also advise to be careful not to be sucked into Amazon’s web of control. DRM is unconstitutional, and unless you have the knowledge and capability (and desire) to break the law to support your constitutional rights, then it’s not a great idea to buy into the DRM cartel.

On top of that Amazon has continued to show that they care very little about their customers, as they continue to give precedence to the publishers as could be seen by their attempt to steal (and in many cases a successful one) of Orwell books, by crippling features of the device due to publisher pressure, by allowing publishers to charge only a few dollars less for a few bits that are crippled through DRM as compared to a hard copy, by creating new versions of their kindle every six months to ensure that old versions do not keep their value, and users continue to buy new ones.
Add on top of that, the fact that you loose your right of first sale (a right protected by U.S. copyright but trumped by the DMCA) in the fact that you cannot resell your kindle books.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I have 2 kindles, and spend a significant amount of money on books every year at Amazon (I am an avid reader), and many of those books are kindle books. But unless the book I want is one that I can use the "read to me" function while traveling, I usually opt for the paper books – or, sometimes, both (used hard copy and kindle copy).

Anyone for a conspiracy….

 

Pentagon destroys thousands of copies of Army officer’s memoir

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-09-25/us/books.destroyed_1_national-security-agency-memoir-2nd-edition?_s=PM:US

 

Ok, here’s the deal.  The first I heard of this I said to myself, if they truly believe the information would impact national security, then it must be kept secret… but then I thought why the heck would the Pentagon wait until after the book was published before they pulled the plug on it in such a visible way…  and there I think is the key!

While most people that like a good conspiracy are focusing on “What was removed” – I’m really thinking we should be focusing on “Why did they do it in such a visible way”.

Follow the bouncing ball. 

The writer is an ex-CIA op – probably worked in PsyOps and Counter Intel; wouldn’t it seem plausible that he was in collusion with the Pentagon to write the book, publish the book, and then have the book destroyed and redacted in such a public manner? 

First, it would definitely increase the book sales, but second, and more importantly, it would bring more credence to the information being written in the book. 

So, what if the book is actually a ploy to feed our minds with information that really isn’t true; by doing what they did in such a visible way, they have all but assured that people will buy the book, read the book, believe the book, and spread & speculate on what else may have been “taken out”.

Do we buy it “hook, line and sinker”?

See, I’m either smarter than everyone else, or I’m more paranoid than everyone else!  Either way, it certainly works to fuel the fun of conspiracies!

Now, off to buy the book!  🙂

r/Darth Jedi

The Final Test

This seems to be the CBK that I’m having the hardest time on, mostly because I know how to exploit the network very well, but do not have as much experience in configuring it.  I passed though.  🙂

 

Funniest part is after another full week of studying it – I still got the same grade!!! HAHA!

 

 

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CBK 5 – 5 more to go in less than 10 days

Wow – this networking CBK was rough – there has to be like a gazillion networking terms that need to be memorized.  The thing is, what I’m kind of frustrated about, is I don’t see much emphasis being placed on the security of the networking technology, more about the networking technology itself.  It’s almost like you’re going for a CompTIA +Network.  I did quite well on the CBK test – but I really REALLY need to review this chapter again if I get a chance…

 

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