Those Password Questions

The Sarah Palin email hack was done by some simple Google-fu and stupid password reset questions. Like "what is the name of your high school?". How hard is that to find out?

What to do? Well, set your password reset answers to something 'out of the box'. Example: "what is the name of your high school?" answer could be "1947 Chevy Impala". No way anyone will be able to Google that.

And what should you do to secure your digital life might be to follow the steps in this blog from a company called "Erratta Security" (link here: http://erratasec.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-sarah-got-her-hack-on.html ).

At the very least, try the "7 Steps to Computer Security" at my DigitalChoke site here http://www.digitalchoke.com/daynotes/reports/simple-steps.php . I wrote that back in 2004, although it may be time for updating.

For wireless networking, try these "Simple Steps for Wireless Networks" http://www.digitalchoke.com/daynotes/reports/home-wireless.php .

And if you are worried about Global Warming, then you should get some Carbon Offset Certificates here http://www.carbonoffsetcerts.com . They are worth less than they cost !

Hadron Collider World Destruction Status

If you are worried about the Hadron Collider destroying the world, you can use this web site to answer that question:

Has the large Hadron collider destroyed the world yet?

And if you don't believe that site, here's another one:

How 'bout now?

Heh.

(from

Google Chrome Warning

There is lots of press and user interest about Google's new "Chrome" browser.

It's important to know that this is a 'beta' product. And that there are, even after two days, some serious security vulnerabilities, including the potential to allow a malicious web site to silently install nasty software on your computer. There are also risks of user information disclosure.
There's even ways to easily 'crash' the Chrome browser. All of this risky behavior is publicly available information.

While "Chrome" may have some nifty features, it's still in 'beta' (pre-release, buggy, insecure) mode.

I'm waiting for a bit, letting everyone else get the arrows in their back.

My recommendation? Use at your own risk.

Gustav Web Site Warnings

The Internet Storm Center (http://isc.sans.org/ ) has the usual warnings of bogus domain names related to the Gustav hurricane. These always crop up during high-visibility events.

Don't go there. If you want to help out with donations, use the Red Cross or similar known organizations.

And ignore those 'news alerts' about the hurricane (or anything else). Clicking in those links will add your computer to the computer bot list. Along with probable damage to your bank account.

(9/2/08: fixed typo in post title - changed 'wen' to 'web'. what the heck is a 'wen' anyway?)