I have had to take some time off from Tumblr posts over the past few months due to work requirements and resource constraints…However, I’m Back - On Both Blogs!
My new job comes with amazing new responsibilities, but also some new constraints on what I can do - so the blogs will take some affect. In summary - Riledup will still be the gathering of random pictures and fun items from events of the social aspects of my life and TheTrueStory will no longer involve any Defense/Cyber Warfare-related posts - it will be solely dedicated to IT-based news releases, interesting things happening in the digital world, and any other items with a technology implication.
I apologize for the several month hiatus, but RiledUp & TheTrueStory are now back online and fully functional.
6 days ago
I’ve been maliciously hacked a few times (that I know of). Being hit by a criminal hacker (cracker) may not be desirable, but one can learn from it (and even get the cracker back with some determination). The best way to learn is to put hacking into practice.
Unfortunately, a lot of “information security professionals” don’t know anything about what hacking is or what hackers are all about. The term “hacker” is not always a criminal activity. Information Security professionals should have exposure to hacking like cops have exposure to drugs and knowledge of physical security weaknesses. Of course, some information security professionals don’t have anything to do with hacking or anything technical (as Martin McKeay has pointed out to me). Hacking is about knowing a system well enough to enhance or bypass certain features.
Furthermore, even if you are absolutely convinced that all “hackers” are bad (in accordance with Big Media’s use of the word) one should still be knowledgeable of hacking because all Security Professionals (including cops, investigators, even Infantry) should know their enemies and their enemies tactics. Like a detective knowing the criminal mind.
It was Sun Tzu, ancient Chinese warrior, author of The Art of War, that said that you must “know your enemy” before going into battle. If “you know your enemy and know yourself,” he wrote, “you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Sun Tzu went on to say, “If you know yourself but not the enemy, every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. “
4 months ago
Congratulations. Comcast is officially lifting it’s ban on BitTorrent ports and protocols. They will be working together to adapt and alter Comcast’s network infrastructure to expand an ISP in a way that has never been done before. It is common knowledge that BitTorrent, if administered incorrectly, can totally hobble a network and render it unusable because of its Bandwidth ‘no-limit’ usage. So only time will tell if this partnership will prove to be beneficial for the common BitTorrent user or will they ruin the service entirely (like they did with P2P)…
Click here for the Partnership Press Release.
4 months ago
SlySoft announced last week that their guys broke the BD+ copy protection scheme that was suppose to be one of the superior aspects of the Blu-ray vs. HD DVD battleground.
Here’s my take: Strong copy (or copyright) protection will never stop determined criminals from large-scale counterfeiting. All it really does is discourage legitimate consumers from using the discs they purchased for the actual reasons they purchased them; i.e. stopping Blu-ray disc owners from legally giving a disc copy to a ‘rough-house’ child who will inevitably scratch the original or ripping their bought discs to a flash drive for a long trip. And in turn, it makes hacked products, like SlySofts, much more appealing to Blu-ray consumers.
Robin Harris of ZDnet said it best with, “Onerous copy protection hurts Hollywood more than it helps, because it makes other, unprotected, digital media products more attractive: easier to watch; easier to share; and easier to create new content with. The democratization of digital media raises the bar for Hollywood productions.”
Click Here for the SlySoft Press Release
4 months ago
