The Security Zealot

It has been a busy past few weeks between work, personal life and trying to get my first article completed for publishing (which I am patiently waiting approval).

Now that that is behind me, I want to start working on a request that I got from a close friend of mine. A few months back a friend of mine were out for dinner and he was commenting how he enjoyed “The Security Zealot”, but not an uber geek, he would like to see a some information that was targeted towards someone at his level dealing with how to help protect his information.

Now, I know there are several books, articles, website and blogs already out there, some good and some well not so good. I am going to take my own approach to this request by discussing several areas of “Individual/Family Security Protection Techniques”, not just “computer security”.

My first approach at this will be in my next post called “Individual and Family Security (Part I -Physical & Operational Security)”, which will be completed in a few days.

Until then stay safe.

Matthew “The Security Zealot” Becker

My vision is simple. I would like to have the ability to post questions and comments to only the network of professionals in LinkedIn that I am a member of. This would improve the networks functionally and communication. No longer would LinkedIn just be a list of people who kinda of know you, but rather a great tool to express thoughts and change ideas.

So, I posted this question to LinkedIn’s Support a few weeks back:

“Is it possible to ask questions that would be only to the members of a particular group?”

The response that I received is below.

Dear Matthew,

Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Support. I apologize for the delay in our response.
We do not have a means for questions among group members only. I understand that the Product and Engineering team is working on enhancements that will make communication among members of a group even better. Please continue to watch for those.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you,
John D. (Name Changed to protect the innocent)
Customer Support Agent

Although the response does address my question, it just seems that LinkedIn has fallen behind the “Web 2.0″ curve and is missing many potential opportunities for greatness. It is in my belief that not only could LinkedIn start a forum for “static” communication; they could drive further with Instant Messaging and Chat Room.

Let me know what your thought are?

Matthew “The Security Zealot” Becker

It seems almost inevitable any more to expect a bit of holiday greetings on the InterWeb without catching some incurable type of Malware.

For this joke filled “Holiday” there has been reports of a new Storm Trojan variate named “Pushdo”. This particular variate is being spread via messages with subject lines of “All Fools’ Day,” Doh! April Fool” and “Surprise! The joke’s on you.” According to the researchers at Helsinki-based F-Secure Corp. “There appears to be no text in the messages, only the URL that, if clicked, downloads executable files with such names as “foolsday.exe” and “kickme.exe.”"

SearchSecurity states that “If the victim opens an attachment in the email, “Pushdo.EV cycles through various IP’s in an attempt to establish an HTTP session where it will download a rootkit component,” Fortinet said in its March threat report. The Pushdo botnet is growing larger and gaining in activity, according to Fortinet security research engineer Derek Manky.”

So as you celebrate this fun filled day.. always remember to be leary of strange message.

Matthew “The Security Zealot” Becker