SLR virgin

Initial batch of pics taken with the new Canon EOS 450D that April bought.

Apologies for the blurred pictures... I was too lazy to bring my tripod along. I will definitely use it next time.

AT&T DNS server poisoned

"The entry held by the AT&T server for google.com had been poisoned with the address of the attacker's Internet host"... as extracted from Securityfocus. A hacker is trying to profit from the recently disclosed DNS cache poisoning vulnerability. Convinced to take action yet?

ISP reply

My ISP surprisingly contacted me today by phone. Their staff assured me that their engineers are looking into the matter at their backend. Hmmmmm... sounds like they haven't fixed the problem yet. Doesn't matter... I'm relying on OpenDNS now.

DNS cache poisoning vulnerability

In light of the recent disclosure over a new DNS cache poisoning vulnerability, everyone surfing the WWW is susceptible to attacks where hackers poison DNS caches to redirect innocent users to malicious sites. US-CERT has published numerous remediation steps to address this threat and one of the critical actions require DNS administrators to patch their servers immediately.
Broadband users do not manage their own DNS servers but rely on DNS servers hosted by their ISPs. Run this test against your ISP's DNS to check that you will not become a potential victim of DNS cache poisoning attacks. The report should reflect the result "Great" for both source port and transaction randomness. I've already sent my ISP an email to advise them to take action. I have not heard from them since but no worries as I've decided to utilize OpenDNS instead. Just follow the simple instructions on their website to utilise their IP addresses.
Not wanting to sound like a doomsayer... getting your ISP to get off their butt or using OpenDNS is imperative because attacks are being seen in the wild. POC code like Evilgrade doesn't help the situation. Evilgrade btw is a POC code that permits hackers to set up a fake update server to con victims into downloading malware instead of patches. Nasty!

1st Day Release

My bird got me the Obiwan Kenobi, R2D2 and Clone Trooper animated figures from Toys"R"Us. No big deal you say? They have the "1st Day of Issue" stickers on them which is cool because I didn't stay up at 12.01am last Saturday morning to get them.

I'm eagerly waiting for the screening of the animated movie in August.

Surprise move

I'm surprised by Aston Villa's desire to sign Brad Friedel because of his age. He was a good servant to Blackburn and he saved us from defeat numerous times. I watched him live at Pride Park last year and I witnessed him save Derby's penalty kick with Derby 1-0 ahead. The penalty save he made galvanised the team and we went on to win 2-1 with second half goals from Santa Cruz and Bentley.
Getting £2.5million for a 37 year old keeper was good business. He will be missed. "Friedel... Friedel... Friedel...".

Battlefield Heroes

Battlefield Heroes is a free online cartoon shooter from EA that is currently in beta. 

I was initially interested in participating in the beta testing but I'm lucky that I didn't. EA's partner, QA Boss, was compromised and beta users' account details were stolen.

Gmail rocks!

In light of all the security issues faced by webmail, Google added a new functionality into their service by allowing Gmail users to review their account activity logs. Users can view timestamps, IP addresses and the medium used to access their specific account. Far out! Useful information for basic monitoring and investigations.
Besides monitoring logins, it may be wise to periodically verify your Gmail settings to ensure that there were not tampered with by hackers. Instead of continuously logging into hijacked email accounts, hackers usually add forwarding rules to receive their victim's emails. Check that forwarding, POP and IMAP are all disabled*.

* Unless you configured them for your personal use of course!

Email encryption

In this day and age, it is common to have at least one email address for interpersonal communication. We use email to send all sorts of information including sensitive data even though it is natively an insecure medium because of complacency or lack of awareness.
HTTPS only secures your session between your browser and email gateway*. It does not secure the privacy of the email when the recipient logs on via HTTP to read it. What happens if you sent the sensitive email to the wrong party?
GnuPG fills this security gap. It is a tool that offers asymmetric encryption for secure communication. This mode of email encryption is more robust compared to using symmetric encryption where you have concerns over the communication of the password. Asymmetric encryption also offers identity based encryption. Read my guide for more details.

* Gmail is the only free webmail provider that I am aware of supporting the use of HTTPS for whole webmail sessions.

Another politically motivated DDOS

First it was Estonia... now Georgia. How do you defend against a flood of packets originating from botnets comprising of millions of compromised machines? I am skeptical when vendors claim to be able to throttle DDOS flooding.

If it were up to me...

I would make it mandatory to pass a theory test before users are permitted to have access to the Internet. I seriously think that basic knowledge of Internet "Do's and Don'ts" is necessary for their own security.

Seems that another contact's MSN account has been compromised. I harnessed LinkScanner Online to confirm that the link sent was another phishing attempt. I'm trying my best to do my part for society by creating awareness but its an uphill battle everyday.

Before the rain

The cloud filled sky before the rain. Its going to be a wet week according to the weatherman.

Metadata

Documents contain a lot of hidden but potentially sensitive information called metadata. It can be embarrassing if documents are not sanitised before being released to third parties. The solution is data scrubbing. Microsoft offers a tool called "Remove Hidden Data" but it only works with Microsoft Office XP/2003. This is a problem for parties still using earlier versions like Office 2000. Alternatively, you can use a free utility called "Doc Scrubber".

Camper kixs

My bird is passionate about Camper and she has several pairs. She was excited about me getting a pair too. 

Canvas?

The sky looks like a painting where the painter dabbled clouds onto the canvas.

Portable TrueCrypt

The latest version of TrueCrypt has a new feature called "TrueCrypt Traveler Disk". It permits users to access their encrypted containers on machines that do not have TrueCrypt installed. It also helps create an "autorun.inf" file to either launch TrueCrypt when you plug in the portable device or auto-mount your container. I've incorporated instructions for this new feature in my TrueCrypt user guide.

Nigella attack

My bird is a big fan of Nigella Lawson. Visitors to her site beware... hackers uploaded a Trojan onto her website by exploiting an SQL injection vulnerability. If you have visited her site recently, you better get your machines checked.

Air Force Ones

Nelly sings a tribute to the legendary shoe.

Clouds over Holland

Figo took these pics whilst on holiday in the Netherlands. In her own words "i don't know why but whenever i see clouds, wherever I am, i think of u! hehee...".

Intriguing backroom

Things are getting interesting at Blackburn Rovers... Paul Ince adds Arsenal legend, Nigel Winterburn*, and former Alex Ferguson assistant, Archie Knox, to his backroom team.

* Member of the Gunner's legendary back four. Will we be seeing stingy defence and lots of frustrated opponents from successfully executed offside traps?

Taiwanese drama

Projects in my office are like Taiwanese dramas... you may miss a few "episodes" (ie. project meetings) but when you resume the "series"... they are still on the same "scene". Both are painfully draggy and tragic... I feel like crying most of the time.

I've got a crush on Heidi

She's side splitting funny.

Hellboy II

Caught the movie with my bird this evening... it doesn't have a profound story or morale but watchable for its entertainment value. Coincidentally came across this shoe on display at the Pacific Plaza Adidas store after the movie. There were only 1000 pairs made and all 12 of them made available to Singapore have already been snapped up. Damn!!!

Singapore connection

Former Singapore National Coach, Barry Whitbread, joins Blackburn Rovers as Chief Scout. Hope he's a better scout than he is a coach.

More than meets the eye?

My bird got me this... the animated version of Starscream. I like the sneaky and cheeky grin he has on his mug. He transforms into a fighter jet btw. V cool.

Warrants further investigation

I learnt a lot attending SANS's Digital Forensic class 2 weeks ago. Fascinating... scary... unglamorous... mundane... are a few words I would use to describe Digital Forensics. It is amazing what information you can extract or retrieve from storage/memory yet scary at the same time. Unlike what is portrayed in CSI... forensics is pretty boring and totally not glamorous... can you imagine spending days without sleep looking through GBs worth of storage trying to build a case? Besides looking into thousands of files, you would also need to scrutinize lines and lines of entries in logs to find incriminating evidence. Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

The instructor helped to clear up myths and wrong perceptions I had about forensic analysis.

Back to civilization

I felt so deprived walking around Raffles Place today after being freed from my reservist duties. My ICT was for a week but it felt like I've been stuck in camp for an eternity. Singapore is a vibrant city and we take our vibrancy for granted. I enjoyed the dance performance by a group of Singhs this afternoon at China Square.

Leisurely stroll provided ample opportunity to witness beautiful clouds and the setting sun.

This year's NDP rehearsal was conducted today. Saw the helicopter contingent fly past with the Singapore flag.

Hellboy

I'm anxious to catch Hellboy II. The first installment will be premiering on Channel 5 this Sunday and I will watch it to refresh my memory before watching the sequel on the celluloid screen.
I am keen on buying the action figure of the animated version of Hellboy. They don't deliver to Singapore because of the bloody scam artists who give Singapore a bad name.

13

A bit of trivia... the Domain Name System (DNS) is an established infrastructure that permits surfers to access sites without the need to memorise IP addresses but instead type in domain names that are then translated. It is the foundation of what we know as the World Wide Web (WWW) and will affect the global community if they are not available. The DNS root servers are often targeted by hackers to cause disruption.

There are 13 root servers that support the Internet. The reason for this significant number is the use of UDP packets for DNS queries. UDP packets are 512 bytes in size and can only store a maximum of 13 DNS root server details.

"Change is inevitable. Change is constant."

A quote by Benjamin Disraeli. Pity... very soon the familiar sights of Marriott hotel and Wisma Atrium will be blocked by Ion Orchard.

Favourite Chicken Rice stall

I'm not a Chicken Rice fanatic but I swear by Five Star Chicken Rice. Its the only one I like. Patronise the Katong branch... I've tried the River Valley branch but the service and food quality there is less superior. RH visited the Thomson outlet and was not impressed either.
Which is your favourite Chicken Rice stall in Singapore? Vote for your favourite here.