Computer Tips -Tech Info

First, I guess I should give a primer, what’s an RBL? RBL stands for Realtime Black List (or Realtime Block List depending on who you talk to.) The idea is there are machines that either 1) have no business DIRECTLY trying to deliver a mail message to a legitimate mail server or 2) are known […]

Postfix has a NUMBER of tools for rejecting unwanted messages before they get in the door and waste your CPU time on deciding “hey this mail is spam”. Up until recently I’ve mostly used the relays.ordb.org check (which in the last couple months has now gone defunct.) When we started noticing problems with ordb.org’s responsiveness […]

Well, the weekend saw news stories of Google planning to eavesdrop over pc microphones to hear what you’re watching on tv to target ads….. (I’m not holding my breath on that one, but… I do know how to disconnect the microphone.) Also, there was the story of Browzar which was supposedly THE solution for private […]

There are a few Google related stories of the last few days to catch up. 1)55 Ways to have fun with Google is an e-book available for purchase on Amazon or Lulu.com, but it’s also avaiable as a free pdf download. (And it’s licensed so you can mix it up/etc…) It’s certainly not as deep […]

Not too long ago I had an article about an ISP/telecom executive that floated the idea of charging some BIG web sites to make sure they had a fast connection/delivery to the ISP’s customers. In effect, they would prioritize traffic for the bigger websites that were able to pay for the added benefit. Those that […]

I think it’s time to pass along a long story of what’s gone on over the last week or so here and some of the reasons there hasn’t been anything posted. Generally, I would say that work has been busy, but something happened last week that went a bit beyond the day to day and […]

This may be one of the most important entries in this series. An important defence against those that would try to access your network is to constantly have the “security mindset”. Ask yourself “do I need this, how could it be exploited, what are the implications of this”… When it comes to people asking you […]

Alright, so you’re still reading this series and you’re thinking. Look, I’m not protecting national security secrets. All I’m doing is (running a business|emailing my grandkids|using the web for research). True, good point. You’re not at the defense department. OK. Let’s say you just use your computer for email and web browsing. That’s low priority […]

incidents.org has received a tip on an ebay item that contained some malicious script… ISC reader Gareth Attrill pointed us to an eBay auction that has some escaped HTML code that sneaks in a link that tries to get a trojanized .jar (usage.jar) file loaded on anyone who loads the listing. The latest .dat for […]

The Oboe service has launched. It’s a project that Michael Robertson of Mp3.com and Lindows/Linspire fame has been building interest in for the last 6 months or so. (Maybe a bit longer). The idea is that for a $39 per year subscription you can have an unlimited amount of space online to store your music […]