Our e-mail system is configured to use three Registered Black Lists (RBLs) to block as much unsolicited bulk e-mail as possible.  These filters check all E-Mails going into the District before they get delivered to your mailbox. About 1300 pieces of spam get rejected each day! Even with this protection, it is very likely that you will still receive some spam. Here are some ways to deal with spam in your FirstClass account.

To take advantage of our RBL filtering, be sure you’ve created a “Spam” folder for your E-Mail, and that some messages are being routed to it. Don’t use your E-Mail account to sign up for “free” offers or contests. Read Privacy Policies on everything you sign up for that asks you for your E-Mail address, since you are often agreeing to let them send you e-mail. Don’t forward jokes or chain letter E-Mails. Create a Hotmail or Yahoo account to use when signing up for offers from companies you don’t entirely trust. The most important piece of advice is to never respond to SPAM, even to request that the sender removes you from the list. You are letting them know you have a valid e-mail address, and that you read messages going to it. Always delete SPAM right away.  Also, be cautious with E-Mail attachments.  FirstClass will automatically block most violent attachments, but always make sure you trust an individual before you open an attachment from them.

 I got a call from Chris Thompson from the Faribault Daily News on Wednesday, and he wanted to talk with me a little about Internet “phishing”.  I guess this is the new “public” term for those companies that E-Mail you, posing as your bank, EBay, or Paypal.  I’m sure everyone has received at least some of this type of E-Mail lately.

After the talk, the next day, the paper contained a nice article in it, with a good amount of quotes, straight from my verbal style.

Most people I talk to about computer-related stuff in my work and personal life have only a modest skill level on this stuff.  It is scary to most people after I explain to them that who an E-Mail is “from” is completely determined by what they happen to type in their E-Mail program as their name.  Slightly more knowledgeable “phishers” can have an E-Mail appear like it came from any certain E-Mail Address (your E-Mail address even, or the President of the United States).  Without the knowledge of “E-Mail Headers”, and some knowledge on TCP/IP, the recipient thinks these E-Mails actually come from the person that sent them. 

Like the article states, when in doubt, phone the company that sent you the message (to a Phone Number you are certain about) to be sure the message is legit.  Most companies offer some sort of Abuse E-Mail address to forward these types of messages to for investigation and reporting purposes.

If you still have Thursday’s Daily News, check it out!

Thursday, December 23, 2004

Beware of ‘phishers’

By Chris Thompson
Daily News Staff Writer

FARIBAULT — Internet hackers are spending more and more time “phishing” for your personal information.
Phishing is the term coined by hackers who imitate legitimate companies — often financial groups — through unsolicited e-mails and bogus Web sites in an attempt to extract personal information. Responses to the e-mail or information submitted on the Web site often forward the user to another site made to look identical to that of a legitimate financial organization.

Information like bank account numbers, passwords or Social Security numbers are often asked for by requesting the user “update” or “validate” their account information.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), if personal information is divulged on the bogus Web site, operators can steal your identity and run up bills or commit crimes in your name.

A report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group — an industry association with members including banks, e-commerce providers and online retailers — states instances of bogus phishing Web sites have increased almost 30 percent since July.

“It’s a really hard deal because some of the e-mails that come out to people are quite realistic,” said Brian Klier, network/data services technician for the Faribault School District. “I guess the best piece of advice I can give is if in doubt, call the company and ask.”

Klier said it is not only home computer users that receive the solicitations for personal information.

“I see a lot of it coming through the (school) district so it’s as big a problem in the district as it is for me at home.”

Phishing e-mails and Web sites often use the exact logos and information found on a legitimate financial Web site, and a computer user can be easily misled by the copied site.

Klier — who monitors unsolicited e-mail for the district and works with the district’s e-mail system — said important information should never be sent through e-mail.

“The thing about e-mails … is there’s no way to tell just by looking at who it’s from, if the message really came from them or not,” Klier said.

If you think you have received a phishing request, it can be forwarded to the FTC for investigation at spam@uce.gov.

— Chris Thompson can be reached at 333-3132 or cthompson@faribault.com.

DVD Writers have become somewhat of an irritation for me over the last few weeks.  Namely, the inability of any of the “popular” DVD Authoring products to produce any audio at all, when the project is complete.

I use a nice Canon ZR-20 Mini-DV Camcorder, along with Adobe Premiere 6.5, to produce professional looking video productions.  I always create an .AVI file in Raw DV format as the final output.  It is never a problem to convert this into any other format, such as DivX, Windows Media, etc.

…Until I tried to make a DVD out of it.

I tried MyDVD, TMPGenc DVD Author, _____, and NOTHING, I mean NOTHING I tried produced any output in the AUDIO_TS directory.  After previewing the DVD Image file with Windows Media Player?  As you might expect, absolutely no frickin’ audio.

The program that actually works?

Roxio Easy Media Creator 7.  It doesn’t do as good of job encoding MPEG-2 as TMPGEnc Plus/Xpress does, but as far as authoring goes, I haven’t found anything easier to create titles, menus, and do simple editing on a video production.  Not only that, but it burns well on a LaCie External Firewire DVD+R DVD Burner.

A big thumbs up to Roxio 7!

Do you have a GPS Receiver? How would you like to go on a treasure hunt to find hidden items in your local area? Check out http://www.geocaching.com. I will have more information on local hunts right here.

What is Geocaching?

Geocaching (pronounced geo-cashing) is an entertaining adventure game for GPS users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a GPS unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

So what’s the big deal? You gave me the coordinates so I know where it is. Seems pretty easy.

It is deceptively easy. It’s one thing to see where an item is, it’s a totally different story to actually get there.

What is usually in a cache?

A cache can come in many forms but the first item should always be the logbook. In its simplest form a cache can be just a logbook and nothing else. The logbook contains information from the founder of the cache and notes from the cache’s visitors. The logbook can contain much valuable, rewarding, and entertaining information. A logbook might contain information about nearby attractions, coordinates to other unpublished caches, and even jokes written by visitors. If you get some information from a logbook you should give some back. At the very least you can leave the date and time you visited the cache.

Larger caches may consist of a waterproof plastic bucket placed tastefully within the local terrain. The bucket will contain the logbook and any number of more or less valuable items. These items turn the cache into a true treasure hunt. You never know what the founder or other visitors of the cache may have left there for you to enjoy. Remember, if you take something, its only fair for you to leave something in return. Items in a bucket cache could be: Maps, books, software, hardware, CD’s, videos, pictures, money, jewelry, tickets, antiques, tools, games, etc. It is recommended that items in a bucket cache be individually packaged in a clear zipped plastic bag to protect them.

Are there Geocaches in Southern Minnesota?

Absolutely! Actually, the majority of geocaches around this area are found in the rural parts of counties. There is a lot of them around the area! Here’s a link to the latest list of Minnesota geocaches: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?zip=55021&dist=100

I am interested! How do I sign up to find out more about geocaching?

Check out the Geocaching home page at: http://www.geocaching.com. For a list of Frequently Asked Questions, go to: http://www.geocaching.com/faq. You can sign up for a free account from the main page.

This month, I am writing an article on Wireless Network Security.  After working with 802.11b Wireless over the past few months, it is simply amazing how many simply keep their wireless network open for anybody that passes by!

Wireless equipment is now very affordable, and many people with technology in their homes and businesses are going out and purchasing equipment to build wireless networks.  Are the majority of the people installing this equipment aware of the security risks with plugging it in without exploring your security options?  The answer is absolutely NOT!  Many “wardrivers” find that it’s very easy to simply take a laptop with a wireless network card, and use somebody’s Internet access — because 75% of wireless networks don’t use even the most basic security features offered.

Wardriving

I define Wardriving as the mobile roaming around a geographic area with a computer and Ethernet-compatible wireless networking equipment to determine available access points, or points where access to a wired network can be gained.

More simply, wardrivers drive around in cars with a laptop with a wireless network card and try to find places that use wireless technology.

If you’ve ever watched the movie “Wargames” with Matthew Broderick in the 80s, or were actively involved in hacking or even cracking 10 years ago, you may be acquainted with software to dial a range of phone numbers with your MODEM to find computers to “login” to.  When the Internet wasn’t as popular as it is today, “wardialer” software was usually the first step to find computers to “play” with.  The term “wardriving” was chosen because it describes the “roaming” to find networks, and a good number of “wardrivers” will attempt to gain access to these resources.

Evaluating your own Wireless Network

(coming)

My Security Advice

Please be aware that this is only my opinion, and that I’m not responsible for any accidents or damages by following it.  If you want a more tailored, custom solution for your residence or business, please contact me directly.

1. Fully understand your coverage areas.  KNOW how far your wireless network reaches.
2. Enable WAP.  I know, I know, it’s not a perfect solution, but the encryption offered by WAP will keep the script-kiddies away, and the vast majority of “crackers” will not attempt to play with your network if you are encrypting it.  Did you know that the MAJORITY of wireless networks don’t enable encryption AT ALL?  Simply put, it takes a lot of traffic on your network and a wardriver within constant radio range of your wireless network to break your WEP codes.  If your access point and wireless network cards support 128-bit encryption, enable it.  If not, then enable the 64-bit/40-bit encryption.  Don’t use cards without encryption!  Oh, and please pick a key that will be difficult to guess.
3. Change the default passwords on your access points!  Do this as soon as you get it online!  Lists of default passwords for many brands of access points are easily available from the Internet, and you could have your encryption disabled or your access control lists changed even from clients on your internal network!
4. Disable DHCP on your network segment with your access point.  If a wardriver that has the intent on accessing your network is in your coverage area, and you’re not running encryption (or your key has been hacked, a pretty rare occurrence), they can simply release their current IP Address, and renew a lease with your DHCP Server, giving them an IP Address on your private network.  Yes, that’s right, your PRIVATE network.  If you have a firewall device or NAT device on your network, it will be INEFFECTIVE against this kind of attack.
5. Enable Access Control, whenever possible.  Access control allows you to DENY access to your wireless network to all computers, except those in a specific list of MAC addresses that you choose.  Even if your WEP encryption is compromised, “crackers” will need to know a MAC address of an allowed client to gain access.  It’s very possible they’ll have to pull a “Kevin Mitnick”, or capture packets moving back-and-forth from your wireless clients, run a denial-of-service attack to shut down one of them, and poison the ARP Cache of your router to be successful.  Not for your run-of-the-mill “cracker”.
6. Don’t broadcast your SSID.  If your access point has an option to shut off SSID Broadcasting, use it.  You’ll have to make sure the SSID set on both your access point and wireless clients match, but this should be the case already!
7. For an even higher level of security, consider giving your wireless users no access to your private network at all, without connecting and authenticating through a virtual private network (VPN).

Software

NetStumbler — The Most Popular freeware for Wardriving hands down.  Works with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000.  Support for Windows ME and XP is coming.  Their forum is an awesome resource, but please, read the FAQs and do searches before posting!  Many of the members have participated in DefCon 10’s Wardriving Contest, and are probably among the most knowledgeable on 802.11 security that I know.

Ethereal — This is a freeware Packet Sniffer utility.  You need a Wireless NIC that works in promiscuous mode (Sorry Orinoco Users).

Other Links

External Antennas with a D-Link DWL-1000AP Access Point (a work in progress)

The Cantenna, 802.11b Networking with a Coffee Can (this REALLY works)!