Sunday (Meteor) Showers,Virus Targets USB Stick Drives

This Sunday night Earth drives straight through the trail of debris left by Hailey's Comet: the Eta Aquarids meteor shower. Dust and debris will slam into our planet's atmosphere at 66 km./second.

The meteor shower is visible anywhere on earth at about 2 am local time. Because it's a full moon all but the biggest brightest bits will be hard to see, though. Bring a blanket somewhere dark outside and lie down for best viewing. Click here for info on where to look in the sky. The eta Aquarids are best viewed in the southern hemisphere; die hards up here in the no-longer-so-frozen north, can expect about 5 to 10 shooting stars each hour.

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Computer crackers are up to no good, as usual. Crackers, or black hats are computer geeks (a.k.a. hackers) who have crossed over to the darkside. Crackers latest hack is spread viruses by targetting USB 'stick drives' or flash drives.

Which just goes to show you you need to be careful where you stick your stick, I suppose.

Stopping (Optical and I.D.) Data Theft

Fiber optic cables are used for networking computers together. But hi-tech cabling may not be as secure to hackers and crackers as businesses think, according to "The Register", a top online technology daily. According to the article, hackers armed with small clip-on monitoring devices manufactured by Canada's EXFO, could patch into networks and their computers and read data. They say only 0.1dB of the optical rating of light needs to be captured in order to snatch data from an optical link.

A hacking device was discovered on a Verizon cable in 2003, according Swiss encryption machine company Infoguard. The perpetrators were not caught. According to the company such data taps can be avoided by encrypting the data going through the fiber optic cables. Other ways to protect the data are given by one of the people who commented on the article on The Register's website.

Here is an encryption technique reported last year by two US researchers. (Found via SANS Institute's excellent newsletter).

Below is a small sampling of the useful stuff SANS has. You don't need to be a computer and information security specialist to make use of this:

"5 Ways to Stop Identity Theft".
Published April 20, 2007 on the SANS Insitute's tip of the day!
Five Ways to Protect against Identity Theft

1. The next time you order checks, have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name. Your bank will know.
2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED".
3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers.
4. Don't list any telephone number. You can always write it on the check at the time of the transaction. If you have a PO Box, use that instead of your home address or your work address.
5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Store in a secure place and refresh it when you change cards." So, that's from SANS Institute.

Wondering what, if anything else you can do to protect your identity, in this day of ID theft? Check this out: LifeLock.. (Thanks to the Security Curmudgeon over at Attrition for posting info on these guys to their dataloss list.

Homeland Security Wants Net's Uber Security Key

Slashdot and Germany's Heiss Online are reporting some interesting news concerning the Internet and the US Department of Homeland Security.

The annual meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, just wrapped up in Lisbon, Portugal. Heiss reports that at the meeting, Canadian Internet Registration Authority president Bernard Turcotte raised the concerns of himself and fellow managers about attempts by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to obtain the master key for the DNS root zone.

The electronic key is in effect the ultimate master key for the Internet. It's a security 'key' that signs zone keys, which are held by VeriSign, Inc. Whoever has it can track DNS Security Extensions (DNSSec) all the way back to the servers that represent the name system's root zone on the Internet. If addresses have been 'spoofed' - in other words faked - this allows them to find out who actually posted what and where they are. Internet authorities have been trying to decide who will be entrusted with keeping this very special security key safe.

According to Heisse, Turcotte told them the national registries had informed their governmental representatives about Homeland Security's intentions to obtain control of the uberkey. A European Commission rep said they are discussing the development with EU member states.