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Mac Flashback Trojan Began With WordPress Blogs

The whole Apple Flashback Trojan started with compromised word press blog. Kaspersky labs confirms this the virus was spread threw a vulnerability in java. When clicking on the wordpress link or post executed the silent malicious code. This is the same thing that happened at pwn to own. Any time you integrate the browser into the OS you are open up security vulnerabilities. Microsoft has had issues like this for years with Internet Explorer. Apple sacrificed security for useability in there Safari browser and in iTunes. One major security concern regarding iTunes is since they have designed iTunes as an all in one hub if there is every a security flaw it would be critical do to the integration into every Apple OS. The flashback malware has infected more than 600,000 Macs worldwide. There are removal tools available at Apples website http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1517. There is an update off of Apple’s website to prevent infection http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1338

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

SEO Tips 4 Things that Hurt SEO

Never Use Java Script or Java programming language it blocks meta crawlers the best sites are HTML. Java is also slow and can make your rank lower due to performance.
Flash is another problem don’t imbed your text inside of flash code the meta crawlers will have hard time reading the information and may miss content.
Don’t use programs like Microsoft Paint or Photoshop to design hole pages Search Engines can’t read text built into images.
Frames are not a great tag to use if you want to embed information into your site use the HTML embed tag instead of the frame tag.

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

Benefits of Single Sign On SSO

Benefits

Reduces phishing issues
Reducing password issues due to different user name and password combinations
Reducing time spent re-entering passwords for the same identity
Can support conventional authentication such as Windows / Linux and Mac credentials
Reducing IT costs due to lower number of IT help desk calls about passwords
Security on all levels of entry/exit/access to systems without the inconvenience of re-prompting users
Centralized reporting for compliance adherence.

Negatives

Since Single Sign On (SSO) provides access to many resources once the user is authenticated if credentials are lost or stolen impact of scenario increases.
Single Sign Sign On (SSO) makes the authentication systems highly critical a loss of service can result in denial of access to all systems
Single Sign On Devices are usually the target of attackers before anything

Types of Single Sign On

Kerberos ticket granting
Smart Card
OTP Token
Integrated Windows Authentication

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

15 worst data security breaches in technology history

Heartland Payment System
TJX
Epsilon
RSA
Stuxnet
Department of Veterans Affairs
Sony PlayStation Network
ESTsoft
Gawker Media
Google, etc.
VeriSign
CardSystems
AOL
Monster.com
Fidelity National Information Services

http://www.csoonline.com/article/700263/the-15-worst-data-security-breaches-of-the-21st-century

Out of all these I think the most brutal security breach was AOL because they got domain hijacked. But I think the VeriSign and Playstation hack effected more people and on a much larger scale. The Playstation network I remember took a VERY long time to recover from the hack and then was hacked again. Security is so important but no matter how much you secure something someone can almost always fine a back door especially if they have the time, resources and money.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

Technology Companies Could Hurt Nasdaq Index

One thing that has made every business news conglomerate is that Facebook has chosen the NASDAQ (NDAQ) for the IPO. This is great for the NASDAQ group they lost LinkedIn (LNKD), Pandora (P) and Yelp (YELP) recently. The latest IPO boom every market has been trying to sweeten the deal for technology and internet companies when Zynga (ZNGA) made its IPO it choose NASDAQ.

What does this mean for the NASDAQ Index with Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG), Groupon (GRPN), Zynga (ZNGA), Microsoft (MSFT), Netflix (NFLX) and now Facebook joining then market index? With all these BIG technology companies joining the NASDAQ or already being part of the Index as long as they do good so will the Index. If a few of them should start to do badly so will the Index value. One of the major concerns is what if the technology bubble breaks again the whole NASDAQ market could tank. This is a major concern when a market gets top heavy with a certain type of business stock.

Facebook’s IPO has been anticipated for a while and looks to be very strong and beefed up. With any social media company there is always concerns especially after the failure of Myspace. Facebook’s revenue is derived from ads and games. Facebook has hung around longer, has a much better following and is biggest of any social media company to date.

I be leave myself that these tech IPO’s have been the saving grace for the stock market and are adding to the rebound of our economy just like the Computer and PC industry helped our economy in the 80′s and the dot com industry did in the 90′s. Facebook is looking to IPO at $150.00 a share and I be leave it will sky rocket on opening day despite recent tech IPO’s not doing great on opening day. Most investors and share holding are waiting for the Mark Zuckerberg to ring the NASDAQ bell.

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

Change The Instance Name On Microsoft SQL Server

1. Login on to the server you want to change the name of 
2. Run this in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
3. Click on Create New Query
4. Enter this code to get the existing name.
select @@servername
5. After code is entered click the red exclamation point to execute
6. The current name will be returned.  
7. Next enter the following text filling in the appropriate information for you environment.
sp_dropserver 'old_name'
go
sp_addserver 'new_name','local'
go
8. After code is entered click the red exclamation point to execute
9. Now close Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
10. Run the command prompt Administrator and run the following two commands
net stop mssqlserver
net start mssqlserver
11. Now reopen Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and rerun
select @@servername


12. Make sure the name matches the ‘new_name’

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

HP Client Autotmation Review

I have had the privilege of implementing over the last few weeks a tool that HP makes called the HP Client Automation Tool. The HP Client Automation tool is similar to SCCM the tools is used for desktop management. I first was surprised to find out that this tool has both a free and a payed version. The free version is more stripped down good for managing BIOS and a few other small features of the desktop. The payed version is more in depth. I was happy with the tool having patch management, OS deployment and package deployment all rolled into one tool. There also is a reporting mechanism that does a great job. The tool also allows you to manually put in clients or you can query your active directory infrastructure. The tool does have certain perks that SCCM does not have BIOS management being the big one which is why this client decided go with this product over SCCM since there entire infrastructure is HP. There is also an option to install server smart packs. The big draw back for me is the clunky web interface also you must have a copy of SQL which is expensive in it self. Overall a good desktop management tool I would recommend for any company with an HP infrastructure.

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

Two Companies Investors are Shorting on Stock Market

Guess Best Buy & Barnes and Nobels not doing so great when investors are saying to SHORT IT on Stock Market http://www.smartmoney.com/invest/stocks/3-stocks-shortsellers-are-targeting-1333514330830/

Best Buy (BBY) stock been going down for a while and has lost half or more of its value. Best Buys announcement of closing 50 stores did not help there case any plus there last earning report showed a large loss overall I think safe to say a SHORT might not be a bad idea.

Barnes and Nobels (BKS) has been on roller coaster they went up for sale in 2010. Apple expressed some interest in them in July of 2011 but decided to shy away from the sale from what was reported. They tried to use there E-Reader the Nook as a saving grace but took a back seat to the Kindle and iPad. Overall Barnes and Nobels is company that I be leave has seen its best days behind them.

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Administrator, Reply

Determining Service Pack Level Microsoft SQL Server

Log onto server
Open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
Click About then Help
To the right of SQL Server Management Studio match the Versions with the list below to determine your service pack level.

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 3	10.00.5500.00
SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2	10.00.4000.00
SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 1	10.00.2531.00
SQL Server 2008 RTM	10.00.1600.20

SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1	10.50.2500.0
SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM	10.50.1600.1

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Administrator, Comments off

Ghost In The Wires Book Review

I myself always enjoyed reading mostly my genres consist of technology books, autobiographies and biographies. I have read may different books as of late which I will eventually blog about but today I would like to highlight Kevin Mitnick – Ghost In The Wires. This book gave a very detailed look at Kevin Mitnick’s life and cleared up a lot of rumors about this past. Steve Wozniak even does blurbs in the book giving it even more authenticity. The book speaks about the Free Kevin movement. Touches on the movie that was right to DVD Track Down. The book does go into some techie information for more of the technical person and geek at heart but also does a good job of simplifying information for the average reader. I think this was a great book and I had a hard time putting it down. I will also be reading Kevin Mitnick -Art of Deception and Art of Institution soon. I give this book 5 Stars.

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Administrator, Reply