January 3, 2008. Filed in
Web
Lack of updates on this website for the last couple of months was ignited by my hectic work schedule and fueled by the expired web hosting account. After juggling with various information security standards, documents and policies, I was neck deep in looking for “cheap and best” webhosting provider. I was sure of my needs – uptime, secure, ssh access and enough space for my website and backup. None of these were provided by the current host Kazix so it was time to change. After considering few options – i finally chose Media Temple’s grid server package to try out. Choosing (mt) was easy – it provided me the features I was looking for, had good reputation and discount was awesome. The change of host was smooth and quick with no data loss.
On a personal front, I couldn’t control myself and got an iPhone. HTC Touch that I used for about 6 months served me very well and I had no issues with it till I ditched it for not being as attractive as the latest apple gizmo. For those who have been reading my blog, and for those who have just been peeping off and on, get ready for my reboot.
July 19, 2007. Filed in
Web
Mike Davidson has initiated sentenc.es. I just hope people I know and get long emails from follow this. And also people who write FYI-ish emails should bother to write a bit more to make me understand the concepts.
 sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be a pre-determined number sentences or less. It’s that simple.
While browsing through generic masala news on rediff.com, I stumbled upon a piece on social engineering that talks about a case of double attack. For people who thought social engineering was limited to a 419 type email seeking your account number, this article seems to be an eye-opener.
The much knowledgeable computer hardware geek Chris has written a blog post on Google and Privacy. A subject that has taken up most of my free time for the last few weeks. A subject that I have been most inclined to write about, but never actually got down to scribble something. A subject that I have worked on for the last few years. So now that I have something to rant about, I’ll let my thoughts flow. The article discusses Google owned applications such as Gmail, Adsense and Gtalk etc more from a ‘single point of failure’ perspective than from the privacy angle. Privacy breach is not limited to someone getting into your account and stealing away your information. Privacy breach is misusing Google for google-hacks and collecting, processing and disseminating personally identifiable information without consent. Being a techie or geek helps you being safe on public networks such as Internet. It protects you from virus, trojans and known malicious activities on the Internet. It helps you filter between legitimate emails and phishing attacks. But does it help you protect your privacy to a safe limit? The answer from my experience is NO. Continue reading ‘Google & Privacy’
In a blog posting, Christopher Budd, Program Manager, Microsoft Security Response Team (MSRC), said the problem is that after applying the update, users may see a “File Download – Security Warning” dialogue box raised when starting IE. And after they close the dialogue box, they end up not being able to start IE.
Another reason why Microsoft should stop wasting money on IE, and consider including Firefox in their commercial OS.
May 14, 2007. Filed in
Web
The much appreciated GridFocus theme featured on Derek‘s blog goes open for public.
It is all over the place. Open first page of Digg, and every story there shows a crack key. I think Mr Rose and associates underestimated the power of net-revolution. It apparently all started off after some fiasco created by this post and led to this.
Update: Kevin wrote:
But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
And he just totally redeemed himself ! Game on mole!
So Mr Punsalan has finally thrown a new design at every one’s face who has been busy choosing those web-safe colors for their sites. Nothing could be safer than black and white, nor does anything looks as long lasting as a design in pure black and white. As Derek put his moleskine and textmate know-how to use for 12 hours, a new website erupted. A website which will inspire many, and make many crave and beg for him to release the theme. Go check what a classy design is.
I am Sumeet,an information security enthusiast, crazy about Coffee, iPod, everything mac, travelling, consuming rss and eating. I work for a large consulting firm where I usually rant about security best practices.