Muscular Development Forums - Computer Help Desk http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/ en Sun, 19 May 2013 13:43:26 GMT vBulletin 1440 http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/images/misc/rss.png Muscular Development Forums - Computer Help Desk http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/ Shodan: Hacker Search Engine http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php/136457-Shodan-Hacker-Search-Engine?goto=newpost Sat, 04 May 2013 14:14:57 GMT Scary stuff as to the security holes this search engine finds. http://www.shodanhq.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db5TPYTgy9c Scary stuff as to the security holes this search engine finds.

http://www.shodanhq.com/

]]> Computer Help Desk Bowden http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php/136457-Shodan-Hacker-Search-Engine <![CDATA[Uninstall 'Blue Screen of Death' Windows patch]]> http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php/136058-Uninstall-Blue-Screen-of-Death-Windows-patch?goto=newpost Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:56:47 GMT http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9238371/Microsoft_urges_Windows_7_users_to_uninstall_Blue_Screen_of_Death_patch *Yanks Tuesday fix after... http://www.computerworld.com/s/artic...of_Death_patch

Yanks Tuesday fix after reports of endless reboots hit support forums

By Gregg Keizer

April 12, 2013 03:49 PM ET

Computerworld - Microsoft today urged Windows 7 users to uninstall a patch shipped earlier this week that has crashed customer's PCs and crippled the machines with endless reboots.
The patch, which was originally issued Tuesday, has been pulled from Microsoft's Windows Update service.
But the company told users who had already installed it -- or had it installed for them by Windows' Automatic Updates -- to remove it as soon as possible. "Microsoft recommends that customers uninstall this update," the company said in a support document.

Microsoft yanked the patch in response to widespread reports that it was generating the notorious "Blue Screen of Death" (BSOD) error message and by rebooting repeatedly, making the PCs useless.

Early reports of problems originated from Brazilian customers running Windows 7, but others outside that country noted that they received error messages pointing to software from Russian antivirus vendor Kaspersky Lab as a contributing factor.
"The problems we have experienced were on machines with Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 for Windows," said Jim Bulger of VirtualAdministration, an IT support vendor in the Washington, D.C. area, in a message to the PatchManagement.org mailing list Friday.

Greg Hoppes of the University of Colorado also reported that the patch caused PCs to demand a CHKDSK diagnosis of the hard drive each time the machine was booted.

In a support note of its own, Kaspersky tied the CHKDSK issue to Windows Vista or Windows 7 PCs, or Windows Server 2008 or Server 2008 R2 servers, that had its software installed and had received the flawed Microsoft patch.
Microsoft, however was vague about the causes of the BSODs and endless reboots, saying only that, "We've determined that the update, when paired with certain third-party software, can cause system errors."

In Brazil, affected PCs seemed to be limited to ones with the "G-Buster" plug-in -- a widely used browser security add-on that many of the country's banks require their customers to install, said Wolfgang Kandek in an email today.

MS13-036, the security update that included the guilty patch, addressed four different vulnerabilities in the Windows kernel-mode driver, and was part of a nine-bulletin Patch Tuesday on April 9.
Because the update had modified the kernel-mode driver, Kandek wasn't surprised that security software was involved.
"In order to provide the additional security functions, G-Buster has to interfere with low-level functions of Windows, similar to software such as anti-virus and host intrusion detection systems," Kandek said.

Microsoft published instructions on removing the patch. Users who have received the MS13-036 update should, if possible, not reboot the PC before uninstalling the faulty fix.
This was not the first Microsoft update to cripple customers' computers. In 2008, for example, an update that set the stage for the upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) sent some machines into a spiral of endless reboots. Two years later, large numbers of Windows XP systems crashed after receiving a security update.
In the latter case, Microsoft eventually blamed the Alureon rootkit, saying that only already infected PCs were incapacitated by recurring BSODs.
Microsoft continues to offer the MS13-036 update minus the troublesome patch through Windows Update. ]]> Computer Help Desk Bowden http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php/136058-Uninstall-Blue-Screen-of-Death-Windows-patch AOptix: biometric reader http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php/135964-AOptix-biometric-reader?goto=newpost Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:38:49 GMT *Now Your iPhone Can Read Fingerprints, Scan Irises and ID Your Face*Attachment 298191... Now Your iPhone Can Read Fingerprints, Scan Irises and ID Your Face

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Cops and soldiers may soon be able to pull out their iPhones to track the eyes, facial features, voice and fingerprints of suspected criminals and combatants.

The California-based company AOptix rolled out a new hardware and app package that transforms an iPhone into a mobile biometric reader. As first reported by Danger Room in February, AOptix is the recipient of a $3 million research contract from the Pentagon for its on-the-go biometrics technology.

Opting for what it considers ease of use, the company decided to build its latest biometrics package, which it calls Stratus, atop an iPhone. A peripheral covering wraps around the phone — it’s an inch and a half thick, three inches wide and six inches tall — while the AOptix Stratus app presents a user interface familiar to any iOS user. Except you’re not going to be recording Vine videos, you’re going to be recording the most unique physical features of another human being.

“From an end-user perspective, it’s much, much smaller, lighter and easier to use an app-based capability” than the bulky biometrics tools currently in military use, Joey Pritikin, an AOptix vice president, tells Danger Room. “Anyone who’s used an iPhone before can pick this up and use it.”

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Here’s a look at the user interface on the AOptix Stratus iPhone app for when you’re trying to scan someone’s face. Image: AOptix.

The Stratus system is designed to be a “single-handed” device, Pritikin explains. Load the app and tap for iris scanning or facial recognition. The imaging display, readable from about 11 inches distant and using nothing more than the iPhone’s camera, will automatically focus and snap the shot. The phone’s ambient microphone handles voice recording, but fingerprint scanning comes from the back of the Stratus peripheral wraparound, not the iPhone’s touchscreen. Unlike a similar product from Tactivo, there’s no smartcard reader, but it scans more biometric data than someone’s fingerprint.

Anyone who’s ever used an iPhone will also be familiar with the Stratus app’s user experience for typing in annotations to the biometrics collected: small fields that look like any other iOS text feature allow quick notations. Standard iPhone geo-tagging is easy to enable, as a demo walkthrough AOptix showed Danger Room demonstrated. SMTP email functions transmit the biometric information back to a customer’s database. And an open architecture allows Stratus customers to develop their own add-ons.

But Stratus “is not a 99-cent application,” clarifies Amanda North, AOptix’s marketing vice president. The app sells for $199, and the company isn’t disclosing how much its peripheral costs. While conceivably any individual who wants to drop that much money can rig his or her iPhone for biometric collection can, “it’s not a consumer application,” North says.

It’s also not designed for every iPhone: AOptix built Stratus for the iPhone 4 and 4S, citing what it says was customer request. It doesn’t work with the iPhone 5, and the company isn’t saying what its plans are for future iPhone upgrades.

AOptix doesn’t specify its customers, but they’re from the U.S. government: Pritikin says the company has “substantial interest across a wide variety of agencies, not just DOD [the Department of Defense].” At a time of government austerity, it’s a bit curious that the company would have picked high-end Apple devices for its mobile biometrics platform: the Army, for instance, likes cheaper Android phones. Pritikin says AOptix chose iOS because it’s “a much more secure platform.”

The company may not intend Stratus to be a standard consumer product. And its expensive app and hardware may dissuade the average iPhone user from operating a biometrics collection suite from his or her pocket. But the Stratus is just the latest example of how sensitive biometrics data is increasingly collectable through readily available commercial devices.


wired.com/dangerroom/2013/04/iphone-biometrics/
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