Do you know what’s going on in your home when you’re away at work?
Do you have a reliable home security system that can relieve you of
your worries and concerns when someone is breaking into your home when
you’re away? If you already have a home security system in place, how
reliable and steadfast is it? Has anyone ever broken into your home
even with your current home security system in place? Do you know that
you can now install a home security system that utilizes the Internet
so that the home security system can actually alert you of unusual
activities at home?

That’s how far the home security system
technology has advanced. If you’re still having one of those old home
security systems that blares a siren whenever there’s an intruder, then
you’re not doing the best you can to protect your home. How many times
have you heard one of those sirens cut through the silence of the night
and ignored it because the siren is turned off about a minute later?
Intruders who break into homes know how to turn off the old types of
home security systems and they can usually break through any of those
home security systems easily.

With the advancement of technology,
home security systems have developed into more than just an electronic
alarm system that detects opened windows or doors. Conventional home
security systems have sensors built into the home security units that
detect interruption in the flow of electricity. Whenever the home
security system detects the interruptions, it will either let out a
deafening siren or activate strobe lights to attract attention.

But have you ever thought about this – what if others choose to ignore the sirens and lights?

What
you really need is a home security system that will silently alert
guards and you of the activities in the home. Combining the advancement
of the technology used to create and develop home security systems
together with the Internet, the home security system will silently send
signals of the intrusion to a call center run by the home security
company. It will also send a message to your cell phone or make a call
using your telephone line to you to alert you of a possible break in.
With the home security system’s silent method of alerting various
parties, the intruder is not alerted but YOU are. Therefore, it will
give the police and the relevant authorities enough time to act and
catch the intruders in action.

In fact, the latest home security
systems in the market today allow you to activate and deactivate your
home security system via the Internet or through your phone. This is
what I call a TOTAL convenience to home security systems.

Dakota
Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in
Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.at-home-source.com
on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.at-home-source.com on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.

How to build a better padlock shim using a very special hacker tool… A beer can.

This was picked from Deviant Ollam at Defcon 13.  This is yet
another reason I love Defcon.   I've heard the arguement that
we [security professionals] should NOT “promote” hacking or do anything to suggest that it is cool.

But I think that is a pretty stupid thing to say… because hacking IS
cool.  Its not always bad and definitely not always good.  As
far as going to events like Defcon… The IT and Security Industry are
so slow and firewalled with corporate BS that they will actually hide
things the consumners need to know.  Just look at CiscoGate. 
Or, do like a typical government, know that there is a problems but be
so filled with overhead and beauracracy that they can not do any thing
about it even if they cared enough to.

You don't have that kind of big brother crap at the Defcon.  If
its broke you fix it and if it is fixed you break it to see if its
possible. 

If
the locks on the doors into your house are no good don't you want to
know about it ASAP?

Ollams Site:
http://deviating.net/

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802.20 was approved by the IEEE in
2002.  The Mobile Broadband Wireless Access Working Group has been
working on the project.

This 802.20 is a standard for “air interface” efficient packets that
will be affordable and across multiple vendors.  802.20 will
operate at 3.5 GHz at 1 Mbps. 

802.20 will allow you to cheaply use the Internet while on the
road.  This would be really great for long trips.  I can't
tell you how many times I've on the road wishing I had access to
Mapquest or Yahoo Maps.

802.20 WG Documents:
http://grouper.ieee.org/

How is this different from WiMax?
Although WiMax (802.16e) is similar to MBWA in that it focuses on air
interfaces, WiMax will operate in the 2-6 GHz ranges versus MBWA's
3.5.  WiMax will cover a smaller area than 802.20.

WiMax Forum
http://www.wimaxforum.org/home

Resources:

http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/

Email and document security is no longer just an option for
companies, it is a necessity. Couple that with the costly user
licensing of most enterprise software solutions and many small business
operators can be locked out of taking advantage of Best Practice
strategies that ensure the privacy of intellectual property and
communication. Setting rights permissions to documents and encrypting
email will be essential to future security practices for all businesses.

Common
knowledge has been that the less sophisticated small business operates
on a pricing sensitivity and is more apt to take advantage of
promotions, whereas the more sophisticated make security decisions
based on perceived business necessities. Overall, small businesses tend
towards waiting to implement internet security measures until after
suffering an email breach or informational leak. By this time privacy
and accompanying monetary loss may have already done irreparable harm
to a company's intellectual property and reputation. Large enterprise
solutions make it necessary to adopt complex IT infrastructures and
processes that are usually dependent on an IT staff – a solution that
does not fit well into the budgets of most small businesses.

According
to published reports in PCWorld.com, there are nearly 70 million small
businesses worldwide and over 20 million in the U.S. alone. Small
business is a major part of the global economy – that means it's time
to replace a general passivity towards the possible threats from email
and document theft with a look towards initiating security measures as
a business standard. The increasing level of security risk due to email
and intellectual property theft make it imperative for small businesses
to raise their level of security knowledge and investment.

Recent
studies show that although information security is a high concern for
small business owners, lack of actual knowledge and awareness of the
economic impact of security incidents is equally high. Imparting an
awareness to the small business community of the real threats in
regards to security vulnerability should be top priority. Through
education in this arena, small businesses can better enable them to not
only determine their own level of risk but also choose the necessary
email and document security solutions.

The responsibility of
raising awareness of security provisions needs to come not only from
governing agency reports, but also from security solution vendors.
Providers of business tool solutions are better equipped than any other
entity to position themselves as leaders in educating businesses on not
only the dangers but the appropriate basic security measures to
complement a small company infrastructure. Especially here, being
informed on which internet security products best suit a company need
is important as the needs of small businesses are vastly different than
that of enterprise businesses.

Look to numerous market survey and
analysis reports that specialize in studies on information security and
small business. A little research will show they repeatedly state the
same warning to small businesses – they need to change their attitude
towards security and begin adopting a security plan.

Taking the
time to gather information on creating good internet security practices
will lead to a decrease in the future cost of lost productivity, and by
educating your workforce you create an even wider prevention of
productivity loss.

Nan Schwarz, Director of Corporate Marketing
http://www.essentialsecurity.com

Schwarz
is the director of corporate marketing for Essential Security Software
and is responsible for worldwide creative marketing strategy and
execution, corporate branding, and public relations.

Essential
Security Software (ESS) is a provider of document and email security
solutions. ESS has developed a premier, easy-to-use, peer-to-peer
content protection and user rights management solution that enables
small business owners and individuals to securely distribute sensitive
email messages and documents while protecting the privacy, integrity
and authenticity of their intellectual property. ESS believes that
people have the right to affordable security software technology that
is powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use.

It is still as svelte as it ever was, but the original Motorola RAZR V3
is getting a little long in the tooth, if you know what we mean.

A few people I've talked to said they didn't think the RAZR was worth
the money because its not intuitive and its load time is slow.  I
think I'll hold out for a PDA/Phone. 

As for the RAZR II, it seems to look just like the first.

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Lynda.com is giving away free access to it's paid library of video
tutorials .Don't miss this oppertunity.Tutorials cover products from
Adobe,Apple,Discreet,Macromedia,Microsoft etc.Also included are easy to
follow video tutorials on HTML,Php,CSS,Perl,Java,Photography etc. And
yes it is *LEGAL*

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Site to hide your text online; or chat or bypass company sniffers… pretty handy.  I think this make for a decent Anti-Google Hack.

This site is pretty cool.  It hides text by turning it into a
picture file.  Pretty creative!  You see, search engines can
usually find what you type in forums, websites, blog and even some chat
sessions.  But what if you didn't want your text to be found on
the Internet.  There are some plugin tools you could use or you
could encrypt the text but here is another way called Hiddentext.net.

This site turns your text into a picture with a randomly generated name
like LYe776e.jpg so that it isn't picked up by Google/Images.

Hiddentext.net also loads it on there server –> http://www.hidetext.net/hide/1RCet5KbrQ.jpg

Although I'm not sure how long, the site gives you the option of deleting the message permanently.

 This could be great for privacy if your trying
to get an online message to a select group of people.  On the
negative side, this would work really great for Al Qeda, but so would
encryption.

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I will be doing training on the Security+ for the ISSA-COS.  I'm
traing the Communcation Security portion of the test.  This is one
of my favorite sections. 

I told the ISSA guys I'd do it as long as I didn't have to train on Crypto which is one of my weaker subjects. 

I'm excited about the training because I feel like I will really be
able to help people ace this test.  Most security professionals
who have been IT for more than a couple of years won't have a problem
studying for it and passing it. 

It really is just basic technical information security
stuff.   There is also a lot of support on the Internet for
this test: practice tests, guidance on what to study, and
encouragement. 

Don't sweat this test.  Especially if you've studied.

“Virus writers are targeting a new Microsoft tool that will be part
of Windows and is set to ship as part of the next Exchange e-mail
server release.” – C|Net

F-Secure has already found a possible flaw in the Windows Vista
(code named Longhorn) command Shell called Monad also know as MSH.

Representatives of F-Secure stated that if Microsoft released Windows
Vista with MSH enabled, it could cause and outbreak of scripting
viruses.  Examples of Scripting viruses include Macrovirues, the
ILOVEYou VB scripting virus and the Melissa virus.

The exploit aiming at MSH is discussed here.

Microsoft my chose to disable MSH by default or simply add it as a plugin. 

Windows Vista is the next version of the Windows operatings system. 

I must admit, Microsoft has evolved greatly from one operation system
to the next from a security and functional perspective.  Many
geeks complain about Windows and say that Linux is way better or that
the HATE Microsoft and Bill Gates (the Anti Christ), but 98% of those
geeks use Windows and many of those use it as their main box.

I like Windows 2000 on up.  Sure there are issues but I can't use
a Linux box to play Age of Empires (or at least I don't think you can).

I love Linux but many times when I come home from work I just don't
feel like messing around with a computer for anything except
entertainment.  I use my *nix OSes for testing, trouble shooting,
hacking and pentesting.  My biggest issue with Windows (besides
Microsoft) is Internet Explorer… I really don't use it so I guess its
not that big of an issue.  Hopefully, IE7 will be as good as
Firefox.