tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24050657133486192072024-12-18T19:27:08.144-08:00observationI'm a hacker working in marketing and advertising, and this is some of my perspective on the world.Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-42637997918852248362016-08-28T18:51:00.000-07:002016-08-28T18:53:26.820-07:00The Dark Side and Physical Security.
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Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-47404178554986376832016-03-21T15:52:00.001-07:002016-03-21T15:58:09.129-07:00Threat of a lack of maintenance in regard to PHP, and MySQL code on existing websitesI've a few clients who outsourced their initial site builds to companies in India. The developers used teams of people who used 2001 best practices to build these sites circa 2009. The sites are mostly on shared hosting, a few on managed hosting, but here it the thing: while I'm working on the sites to upgrade their code it occurred to me that there are likely thousands of PHP websites running Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-45156212892804742322015-07-14T01:26:00.000-07:002015-07-22T11:11:23.120-07:00My experience with #Security and the College Education SystemI recently decided to go back to school for an advanced C++ certificate at the college level. I’ve been programming for a very long time and have taught technical hands-on college classes on computers to students with no prior computing experience. My approach was with online classes. In regard to technology studies, if you’re a technologically savvy person, online courses can be a really very Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-543827305173141672015-07-07T10:38:00.001-07:002015-07-16T09:47:01.079-07:00#Hacking definedWhen I started programming, over thirty years ago, a hack, to the people we followed, was a custom-written code snippet that would either fix a program, or add a new feature. It had a positive connotation to me as a six-year-old as my father and I hacked our Interact with our homemade binary input panel. I understood the simplicity of the machine, even then. While we could easily destroy, there Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-18375862121107822842015-07-06T16:47:00.002-07:002015-07-12T14:28:15.043-07:0044 practices for #security & #IT professionals, post #HackingTeam hack. #infosec #opsec #appsec #devsec
Go easy on me, but this should serve as a list of good security practices and habits for security practitioners and professionals, and even some IT professionals who are up for the challenge.
Okay, so call me paranoid, but I’ve been around the block a few times on this stuff.
General guidelines
Use strong passwords. I can’t stress this enough. This should go without saying, but don’t use a Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-65724340678632618082015-06-04T10:38:00.000-07:002015-06-04T10:38:27.368-07:00Lack of Evolution in Artificial Intelligence
When we think about evolution, we typical think of human
evolution: traits, either positive or negative are passed down genetically to
offspring. Random selections of potential traits, chromosomes and the like predispose
us to a potential of possibilities, ranging from intelligence to special
abilities and to weaknesses. Over vast amounts of time those with the more
desirable traits intermingle Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-77712919291462732972015-06-04T00:15:00.001-07:002015-06-04T07:30:57.501-07:00#DTSR Other potential reasons for Medical information breaches outside of what was mentioned in the 6-1-2015 podcast.
I'm just brainstorming here based on my observations of the
medical system in passing, or rather flaws I’ve seen in dealing with healthcare
in my own interactions.
Why?
Healthcare systems provide access to the same information
people use for nefarious purposes like tax return fraud, welfare fraud, and
identity theft. They are often not integrated, so each system will be
standalone in each Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-70467154701249964352015-06-03T21:33:00.000-07:002015-06-04T07:33:35.066-07:00Detecting e-mail and mailing list compromises
Back when I was working as Web Manager for a publishing
company we were sending out about a million e-mails a week to industries
relating to IT certifications, Chief Executive Officers, and Human Resource (HR) departments and managers.
We used an off-site list management service to maintain copies of our databases
for advertising audit purposes. During transit we would encrypt the list from our Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-76971712737851682802015-06-01T14:53:00.000-07:002015-06-01T20:18:41.469-07:00Spinning Wheel on Virtual Box on OS X host: SolvedThis won't solve everyone's issue with the spinning wheel in Mac OS X on VirtualBox, but it solved mine. Ran into an issue trying to install a new host on Virtualbox. For a brief instant I saw the contents of the folder containing the ISO, then the folder contents interface went white and the spinning wheel (system busy) mouse cursor began. When I went to use an ISO for a DVD / CD image after Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-32392657467312296462015-04-21T23:13:00.001-07:002015-06-16T07:15:53.688-07:00Hacking Airplanes and why this needs to be fixed.
So I don’t fly a lot. When I do I’m looking out the window
because I tend to get motion sick. While I do open my tablets,
electronics devices, and laptops on planes and do computer programming in a
crunch, I am 999 times out of 1000 doing it on localhost. I have numerous
reasons: such as I hate super slow networks, can’t bear the agony of dealing
with intermittent satellite Wifi, I don’t Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-27893214224549297112015-03-27T14:20:00.001-07:002015-06-16T07:15:10.134-07:00What types of things happen when a web server gets hacked.
These are just some of the things, and it really depends on the server, the type of data being
stored, whether it’s in a server farm, or if it’s actually at a facility like
an office. The outcome for each of these can be massively bad depending on a
variety of factors, because after all, a server being hacked is never really a
good thing, unless you’re the one doing the hacking, and that’s only Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-53279661928615859372015-03-27T13:23:00.000-07:002015-03-27T13:23:01.625-07:00If possible, use a different e-mail address for every website.
Certain website hosts allow the ability for users to setup an
infinite number of e-mail addresses. While this might not seem beneficial, they
also provide the ability to forward those e-mail addresses to a main account or any other account. If
anything needs to be responded to someone can use the main account, but for
most things it’s not necessary. Signing up for something new at a store, give Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-85221909516443306552015-03-17T02:11:00.002-07:002015-03-17T09:16:20.492-07:00How a custom virus caught a liar.
I don’t remember the names. It was
sometime in the late nineties when I received a phone call from an
ex-girlfriend who worked for a military contractor. She said she was sort of
on the rebound from a relationship, but needed my assistance with a “computer issue.” I drove
for over five hours to get to her house. Here I find that she’s cohabitating
with her current “boyfriend,” but they are Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-35176451965503599412014-10-29T13:01:00.001-07:002014-10-29T13:01:54.699-07:00A lack of Infosec in the home buying process.
I often get a little edgy when people who are dealing with
personal information throw around the word “secure.” Also when they say
something is “100% safe” it tends to grate me as well. Nothing is secure. We’ve been trying to buy
a house and during this process of applying for a mortgage and verifying income
with lenders at multiple banks, it’s been a few months, I’ve noticed a few
leaks or weakChris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-54720578030812644062014-09-16T14:41:00.001-07:002014-09-16T14:57:11.481-07:00When mail is [potentially] tampered with and you don’t even know it.
I’ve been a fan of the buy postage online and slap it on a
Priority Mail envelope for the longest time, until today. I had to send some
sensitive information through the mail because I wasn’t quite ready to drive 40
miles round trip to use FedEx, because I feared my package of sensitive info
setting in some FedEx box on a weekend awaiting pick-up was a bad idea. I also
thought about encrypting Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-9211087767060466212014-09-11T15:05:00.001-07:002014-09-11T15:05:18.159-07:00CentOS: Create a Blank file or redirect the default Apache Welcome Page
When managing or hosting a CentOS box, Apache will show the
CentOS welcome page. This page contains information you likely don’t want
people to have, so things like the fact that you’re running Apache on CentOS.
While these things can also show up in the headers, you want to remove the
default page in the event someone hits the website from the IP address only or
if they use a domain that Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-20319369795672856152013-12-23T08:06:00.002-08:002013-12-23T08:08:22.527-08:00Why time travel into the past is not possible
There is a simple reason for why time travel into the past isn’t possible. Everything revolves in a predictable motion from sub atomic particles all the way up to planets around their suns and galaxies. With these rotations charges are exchanged or kept at atomic and subatomic levels, and everything works in reaction causing what we see as life or existence. There is no historical record of Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-41460101051681068582013-12-22T13:58:00.002-08:002014-09-02T15:35:34.952-07:00The universe isn't a hologram, but it looks that way... here's why.
I read a headline on the Nature site stating “Simulations back up theory that Universe is a hologram.” I was surprised this was news or that they had taken a time to create a computer model to discern this bit of information. A hologram, according to Wikipedia, is a representation of an image in space (not outer space) made from an apparently random structure or representation of either Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-962617116131577232013-12-17T14:44:00.003-08:002014-05-20T11:32:56.372-07:00Allstate Drivewise. A huge failure in potential.I've been meaning to get this one up for some time. For a short time I had signed up for Allstate's Drivewise program. Driving very few miles as compared to most other drivers and the fact that I don't drive like an idiot, I figured it was safe (nothing to lose). The problem is the data set that they've created their perfect driver rating system around are likely based on their payouts for Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-90807935389854615472013-12-17T14:16:00.001-08:002014-05-20T11:32:29.662-07:00Displaying measurements and SEO
Quote marks and other symbols vs. Abbreviations
In short, use an abbreviation that is regularly used and makes sense. (Eg. 1inch or 2mm)
How I've come to this conclusion
I had an epiphany today while working on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for a site for one of my clients. We deal with measurements in American Standard, Imperial, US, NPS (nominal pipe size), and DN (diametre nominel) Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-6849193515924609812013-12-13T16:13:00.003-08:002013-12-13T16:15:02.763-08:00Why is Apple showing Nelson Mandela on their home page?I was thinking about looking at Apple products again. Money in hand I went to their website to look for ideas for things to get because I'm a sucker like the rest of society... then I saw this on their homepage. Yes that's Nelson Mandela.
Screenshot of the Apple homepage 12/13/2013
Now to say Nelson Mandela was a great leader of men is an understatement. A super strong figure in the world Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-17808767883087879072013-11-14T08:23:00.002-08:002013-11-14T08:24:33.202-08:00How to Protect your Google Accounts
I went into Google a few months back and viewed the plethora of information they have collected about me over time using information from domain names, social media accounts, browsers, email clients, and public record. It was alarming (but understandable). Use the internet for 20 years and you’ll have a backlog of info you’ve provided too. Two days ago I had to add yet another Google Analytics Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-78320510442740537532013-11-05T12:35:00.000-08:002013-11-05T12:35:25.375-08:00What if a black hole isn't a hole?
So I had this idea earlier today after watching a couple of videos on Quantum Physics and Quantum Mechanics yesterday. The idea that there could be something with so much gravity as hypothesized in a black hole seems a bit confusing to me since nothing would be able to escape its gravity. What if, however a black hole isn’t really a hole at all? What else could it be?
Then I started thinkingChris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-7270653193161527362013-09-30T16:02:00.000-07:002014-12-28T12:28:46.672-08:00Hughes Satellite Internet
And why it’s not as modern as its marketing suggests.
I recently found myself in a situation where I needed a faster internet connection in a remote location (other than an ADSL line) and had to look at options. The DSL line is 1.5mb and is being used as a comparison to the satellite. I weighed the various different satellite internet subscription options, and after reading hundreds if not Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2405065713348619207.post-4585014887325750522013-09-24T04:58:00.001-07:002013-09-24T05:00:19.378-07:00Apple's new iOS7 - Location Services Required
Apple’s new iOS 7 is bundled with so many features it’s not even funny. One of the features, (and I’m not laughing about this one), is rather than using the NTP servers to get Network Time based on preferred TimeZone, the geniuses at Apple decided to tie this to Location Services. If you don’t enable location services because you’re using multiple networks at once (like Satellite and DSL) Chris Pattersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05320381997093876456noreply@blogger.com0