That is true, but again it begs the question of proper setup. Any home user that is VPN'ing into my network is going to be behind, at the very least, a personal firewall. Some doofus bringing their infected laptop into my network won't get very far, as we don't allow connections to our network without checking who is plugging in first. Granted, I run a small network, but there are methods in place to make sure that none of the systems that plugs in here is going to cause me problems.
i love my mac, i even named it mr. snookums because it makes me feel so good inside. mr. snookums has personality. mr. snookums is my friend and i don't need to use more than one button for anything. yay for mac! yay yay!
exactly the reason people are affected by security vulnerabilities, comments like, "sure, whatever."
No OS is free from patch fixes...bugs are found regardless...M$ is an easier target because it is a) more prevalent and b) lower hanging fruit (swiss cheese, security-wise). Believe me, if everyone had a mac running OSX, people would still be patching their systems...or saying, "whatever" and infecting everyone else who feels the same way...
yeah, then we'd be patching up a BSD-based OS...and the mac heads would all be wondering why their fuzzy little computers have that question mark on the screen...
if you read/., don't run a firewall, and then complain about M$, all i have to say is, "phtttbht." linux needs patching, unix needs patching, M$ needs patching...but this worm would not propagate with a properly configured firewall in place, making the security patch a little less critical.
the fact that people are getting hit with this worm indicates that there is simply not enough education about computer security out there, or that there is too much laziness from both consumers and software licensing companies.
this worm is not an issue to people with the correct closed ports...
I walk for about 15 minutes each day, roughly...take a short break and go for a walk around the block.
I stopped eating candy at the candy jar at work. Bring an apple in.
I stopped drinking soda, now I drink sparkling water or diet sodas. If you can learn to love beer, you can learn to drink diet.
Watch your portions, change your diet. Eat some veggies off the lunch truck, stop going to the burger joint...
None of this is new. You know why you're gaining weight, you're eating a ton of carbs, empty calories and you're not exercising enough. A short walk every day will do it, combined with fewer trips to the candy jar.
Wonder what they're going to do with that information connecting your email account to your phone number, and subsequently your address? The Ministry of Information has begun its culling...
I have a Yamaha remote control that came with the 10 disk CD Changer and endured almost daily use from 1990 to 2000...never once changed the batteries for 10 years!
The issue here is really interesting. Do you think that by patching systems, and by going through security testing, the premiums for this type of insurance will go down? How do you determine a financial settlement (Kevin Mittnick allegedly cost several companies billions of dollars in damage, blah blah blah)? Will this make security teams wealthy and sysadmins better?
Furthermore, the article says that this type of insurance has been around for 3 years now, but I didn't get a hit when I typed in "network risk insurance" into Google...who is providing this?
useful information: I found the following books to be very good: Linux Complete - Sybex (Compiled by Grant Taylor)...because of the Internet links. Lots of links made this book really informative. Good Cheat sheets, too. And this book actually includes paragraphs and such, something nice to actually read when you're trying to understand a little bit about your system.
Unix System Administration Handbook - Third Edition - PH PTR (Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein, et. al). Pretty hardcore, but if you're using Linux, I'm assuming you're not just some Grandma who wants to see pictures of her pomeranian in her email...
Running Linux - O'Reilly. These books assume a fairly advanced user is going to be installing Linux, but they are really comprehensive. A great resource.
Real World Linux Security - PH PTR (Bob Toxen). Install Linux, harden Linux. Do it today, and actually understand it.
Linux: The Textbook - Addison-Wesley Publishing (Sarwar, Koretsky, Sarwar). Nicely written, introduces Mandrake and takes you through the gambit.
rant: Learning Linux has been a real chore. There are tons of people out there willing to give you help like this:
In order for your mouse to work, simply modify the mouse.conf file.
Now, that's pretty easy, right? Except that in order to modify the file, you need to actually find the file. So you go to the nice little book you have, and try to locate instructions on how to actually find the.conf file you're looking for. Then, when you learn a few "simple" commands, you finally locate the mouseconf.conf file (this distro of Linux happens to be different, so the file name is different, yay). Cool. Great. Shit, now I found the mouseconf.conf file, but I actually want to *modify* the file. Hmmm. Oh, wait, you need a text editor, that's it! So you go online to the Internet, and you find instructions on how to run vi. The "instructions" are literally 3 pages of shortcut keys like:q,:qw,/l and such. But that shouldn't discourage anyone from using Linux, because it is soooo easy!
Assuming they've never installed an "Alternative OS," do you think that walking them through an installation will take only a couple of minutes? "Alternative Operating Systems" presume an awful lot of knowledge about hardware, file locations and where/how to get information. Of course, everything you need to know is in the/usr/bin/wtf?/damnwhereisit/l directory, easily viewed by typing in vi/usr/bin/wtf?/damnewherisit/l linuxiseasy.man -v -s command.** Oh, wait a minute, they might not know vi yet if they're in the 8th grade. Better be sure to teach them emacs, vi or pico first, then teach them how to configure a mouse in x windows using the/var/obvious/luser ifyoudontknowthisyourealoser.conf file.
**This is, of course, not really a valid command, nor is it a valid location, but all enlightened flames are surely welcome in the self-lauding posts here at/. .
At 50 cents a pop in the 80's, and with an irritating action delay, the game was never really entertaining to me anyway. People who got through to the end of the game had to have spent at least $50-$60US...not the kind of cash I had to spend on a video game in High School. I guess spending the same amount on a console game isn't any fun for me, either. The beauty of these games was in the simplicity...making it 3D doesn't seem to help much.
Fujitsu drives have sucked for some time, now. The Register has been reporting on the recall of the Fujitsu drives for months now. This is really not news. More like, olds...
My wife loves her diamond ring, it will be passed on to future generations, hopefully, but I also know someone who bought his fiancee a used Toyota LandCruiser, and she takes him off-roading with her in her new baby. Costs about the same...
Wow, This is a great thread. Here's the problem, for all of you people who are complaining about your sysadmin:
1) Someone who can barely type in a password of more than 3 characters hired your sysadmin.
2) That same person waffled at paying a REAL sysadmin what they were worth to your company, and in this world, you get what you pay for.
3) Because you complain about things you know nothing about (and yes, that includes developer cowboys who like to screw things up for everyone else to get what they want), you are probably going to get a little bit of that treatment in return. Try this little test: Go to a nice restaurant, without a reservation. Grab the first waiter you see by the arm (if you're lucky, the waiter will have just walked in the door), and tell them that you want to order the steak and lobster, and you needed it 2 hours ago, and it is for a big, important client (who is generating revenue, not costing your company money). You will be sitting over at that open table, which hasn't been wiped off yet, and complain to the waiter about not having wiped the table clean in preparation for your unannounced arrival. Wear a suit to make yourself look important, because, well, you are, aren't you? Then, when your steak and lobster doesn't show up in fewer than 5 minutes, call over the manager, who will then tell the waiter to do what you ask them to do. A good waiter will give you excellent service, smile, and accommodate your every whim (interruptions, you explaining to him how he should work on the steak and lobster, constant bitching about not having water, wine, bread, 4 other tables). Any other waiter will be, oh, just like YOUR sysadmin...and will treat you the way you deserve.
4) Having an MCSE doesn't mean the sysadmin your Office Manager hired will know dick about computers.
5) You probably know less than your sysadmin about computer systems. If you know more about computer systems, you should be a mentor, not a whining prick.
6) Nobody notices a good sysadmin. Shit just works. If you constantly have computer downtime at work, see #'s 1 and 2.
Oh, and my Internet is just fine, I was only kidding...how's yours?
I have a yahoo account for spam, a personal account for friends/family/important personal business, and a work email account.
I get maybe, MAYBE, one or two spams a day...mostly in the bulk mail of my yahoo account. I register online in a ton of places...and it just isn't an issue for me to once in a while get an unregistered unsolicited email or two. What's the big deal?
Across-the-board boycott of purchasing new albums...just do it for a week. Nobody buys the CD's as a protest...see if that gets their attention. Probably won't, or they'll claim it is more proof, but hey, I would love to deny the RIAA any of my money. CD's cost more than LP's ever did, and they're cheaper to make...
Regardless of your certifications and experience, the big thing you'll face is competition...lots of it. I am not a firm believer in certifications or education in Computer Science. A degree means everything and nothing at the same time. In fact, getting certification in something might pigeonhole you into a specified salary range and a boring job. Regardless of your qualifications, and even experience, you can expect to be in the hunt for jobs with at least 400 other applicants. I spent 4 months looking for work, I have 6 years of IT experience ranging from small to medium sized companies, and cut my teeth in startups...even though I got my degree in Psychology (again, to have a degree is good, but it isn't really going to be the deciding factor in a job). I finally landed a job, fortunately for the same salary as I was making, but not with the same title or responsibilities as before...oh well, that can be good (I think so) or bad (possible future employers might think so).
In a nutshell, don't focus so much on your certifications, rather, focus on your communications skills. Develop relationships with people as quickly as possible, and get your foot in as many doors as is possible, even if it means walking in and putting a resume in someone's hands (preferably the hiring manager). Also realize that the person who is filtering through your resumes probably doesn't know a thing about IT, and will only be focusing on a few select skills that the hiring manager is asking for...
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That is true, but again it begs the question of proper setup. Any home user that is VPN'ing into my network is going to be behind, at the very least, a personal firewall. Some doofus bringing their infected laptop into my network won't get very far, as we don't allow connections to our network without checking who is plugging in first. Granted, I run a small network, but there are methods in place to make sure that none of the systems that plugs in here is going to cause me problems.
i love my mac, i even named it mr. snookums because it makes me feel so good inside. mr. snookums has personality. mr. snookums is my friend and i don't need to use more than one button for anything. yay for mac! yay yay!
exactly the reason people are affected by security vulnerabilities, comments like, "sure, whatever."
No OS is free from patch fixes...bugs are found regardless...M$ is an easier target because it is a) more prevalent and b) lower hanging fruit (swiss cheese, security-wise). Believe me, if everyone had a mac running OSX, people would still be patching their systems...or saying, "whatever" and infecting everyone else who feels the same way...
yeah, then we'd be patching up a BSD-based OS...and the mac heads would all be wondering why their fuzzy little computers have that question mark on the screen...
if you read /., don't run a firewall, and then complain about M$, all i have to say is, "phtttbht." linux needs patching, unix needs patching, M$ needs patching...but this worm would not propagate with a properly configured firewall in place, making the security patch a little less critical.
the fact that people are getting hit with this worm indicates that there is simply not enough education about computer security out there, or that there is too much laziness from both consumers and software licensing companies.
this worm is not an issue to people with the correct closed ports...
I lost 40 lbs doing the following:
I walk for about 15 minutes each day, roughly...take a short break and go for a walk around the block.
I stopped eating candy at the candy jar at work. Bring an apple in.
I stopped drinking soda, now I drink sparkling water or diet sodas. If you can learn to love beer, you can learn to drink diet.
Watch your portions, change your diet. Eat some veggies off the lunch truck, stop going to the burger joint...
None of this is new. You know why you're gaining weight, you're eating a ton of carbs, empty calories and you're not exercising enough. A short walk every day will do it, combined with fewer trips to the candy jar.
Wonder what they're going to do with that information connecting your email account to your phone number, and subsequently your address? The Ministry of Information has begun its culling...
Visit http://www.prorev.com for news from people other than CNN and Fox...you can even read an article from someone outside of the US for a change.
I have a Yamaha remote control that came with the 10 disk CD Changer and endured almost daily use from 1990 to 2000...never once changed the batteries for 10 years!
OK M$ bashies, enough. One word, "bugtraq."
The issue here is really interesting. Do you think that by patching systems, and by going through security testing, the premiums for this type of insurance will go down? How do you determine a financial settlement (Kevin Mittnick allegedly cost several companies billions of dollars in damage, blah blah blah)? Will this make security teams wealthy and sysadmins better?
Furthermore, the article says that this type of insurance has been around for 3 years now, but I didn't get a hit when I typed in "network risk insurance" into Google...who is providing this?
Sounds like a scam I'd like to be a part of...
useful information:
.conf file you're looking for. Then, when you learn a few "simple" commands, you finally locate the mouseconf.conf file (this distro of Linux happens to be different, so the file name is different, yay). Cool. Great. Shit, now I found the mouseconf.conf file, but I actually want to *modify* the file. Hmmm. Oh, wait, you need a text editor, that's it! So you go online to the Internet, and you find instructions on how to run vi. The "instructions" are literally 3 pages of shortcut keys like :q, :qw, /l and such. But that shouldn't discourage anyone from using Linux, because it is soooo easy!
I found the following books to be very good:
Linux Complete - Sybex (Compiled by Grant Taylor)...because of the Internet links. Lots of links made this book really informative. Good Cheat sheets, too. And this book actually includes paragraphs and such, something nice to actually read when you're trying to understand a little bit about your system.
Unix System Administration Handbook - Third Edition - PH PTR (Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, Trent R. Hein, et. al). Pretty hardcore, but if you're using Linux, I'm assuming you're not just some Grandma who wants to see pictures of her pomeranian in her email...
Running Linux - O'Reilly. These books assume a fairly advanced user is going to be installing Linux, but they are really comprehensive. A great resource.
Real World Linux Security - PH PTR (Bob Toxen). Install Linux, harden Linux. Do it today, and actually understand it.
Linux: The Textbook - Addison-Wesley Publishing (Sarwar, Koretsky, Sarwar). Nicely written, introduces Mandrake and takes you through the gambit.
rant:
Learning Linux has been a real chore. There are tons of people out there willing to give you help like this:
In order for your mouse to work, simply modify the mouse.conf file.
Now, that's pretty easy, right? Except that in order to modify the file, you need to actually find the file. So you go to the nice little book you have, and try to locate instructions on how to actually find the
The questions were stupid. I'd have answered them the same way. Star Trek was a looooong time ago.
Assuming they've never installed an "Alternative OS," do you think that walking them through an installation will take only a couple of minutes? "Alternative Operating Systems" presume an awful lot of knowledge about hardware, file locations and where/how to get information. Of course, everything you need to know is in the /usr/bin/wtf?/damnwhereisit/l directory, easily viewed by typing in vi /usr/bin/wtf?/damnewherisit/l linuxiseasy.man -v -s command.** Oh, wait a minute, they might not know vi yet if they're in the 8th grade. Better be sure to teach them emacs, vi or pico first, then teach them how to configure a mouse in x windows using the /var/obvious/luser ifyoudontknowthisyourealoser.conf file.
/. .
**This is, of course, not really a valid command, nor is it a valid location, but all enlightened flames are surely welcome in the self-lauding posts here at
Should be pretty obvious that people read /. at work, and the majority of computers in the business space are WinDOS boxes.
At 50 cents a pop in the 80's, and with an irritating action delay, the game was never really entertaining to me anyway. People who got through to the end of the game had to have spent at least $50-$60US...not the kind of cash I had to spend on a video game in High School. I guess spending the same amount on a console game isn't any fun for me, either. The beauty of these games was in the simplicity...making it 3D doesn't seem to help much.
Fujitsu drives have sucked for some time, now. The Register has been reporting on the recall of the Fujitsu drives for months now. This is really not news. More like, olds...
My wife loves her diamond ring, it will be passed on to future generations, hopefully, but I also know someone who bought his fiancee a used Toyota LandCruiser, and she takes him off-roading with her in her new baby. Costs about the same...
Wow,
This is a great thread. Here's the problem, for all of you people who are complaining about your sysadmin:
1) Someone who can barely type in a password of more than 3 characters hired your sysadmin.
2) That same person waffled at paying a REAL sysadmin what they were worth to your company, and in this world, you get what you pay for.
3) Because you complain about things you know nothing about (and yes, that includes developer cowboys who like to screw things up for everyone else to get what they want), you are probably going to get a little bit of that treatment in return. Try this little test: Go to a nice restaurant, without a reservation. Grab the first waiter you see by the arm (if you're lucky, the waiter will have just walked in the door), and tell them that you want to order the steak and lobster, and you needed it 2 hours ago, and it is for a big, important client (who is generating revenue, not costing your company money). You will be sitting over at that open table, which hasn't been wiped off yet, and complain to the waiter about not having wiped the table clean in preparation for your unannounced arrival. Wear a suit to make yourself look important, because, well, you are, aren't you? Then, when your steak and lobster doesn't show up in fewer than 5 minutes, call over the manager, who will then tell the waiter to do what you ask them to do. A good waiter will give you excellent service, smile, and accommodate your every whim (interruptions, you explaining to him how he should work on the steak and lobster, constant bitching about not having water, wine, bread, 4 other tables). Any other waiter will be, oh, just like YOUR sysadmin...and will treat you the way you deserve.
4) Having an MCSE doesn't mean the sysadmin your Office Manager hired will know dick about computers.
5) You probably know less than your sysadmin about computer systems. If you know more about computer systems, you should be a mentor, not a whining prick.
6) Nobody notices a good sysadmin. Shit just works. If you constantly have computer downtime at work, see #'s 1 and 2.
Oh, and my Internet is just fine, I was only kidding...how's yours?
In preparation for this workshop, the Technology Administration invites public comment on our website at: http://www.ta.doc.gov/comments/comments.htm.
I have a yahoo account for spam, a personal account for friends/family/important personal business, and a work email account.
I get maybe, MAYBE, one or two spams a day...mostly in the bulk mail of my yahoo account. I register online in a ton of places...and it just isn't an issue for me to once in a while get an unregistered unsolicited email or two. What's the big deal?
Across-the-board boycott of purchasing new albums...just do it for a week. Nobody buys the CD's as a protest...see if that gets their attention. Probably won't, or they'll claim it is more proof, but hey, I would love to deny the RIAA any of my money. CD's cost more than LP's ever did, and they're cheaper to make...
Who owns the rights to the Beatles' music?
Regardless of your certifications and experience, the big thing you'll face is competition...lots of it. I am not a firm believer in certifications or education in Computer Science. A degree means everything and nothing at the same time. In fact, getting certification in something might pigeonhole you into a specified salary range and a boring job. Regardless of your qualifications, and even experience, you can expect to be in the hunt for jobs with at least 400 other applicants. I spent 4 months looking for work, I have 6 years of IT experience ranging from small to medium sized companies, and cut my teeth in startups...even though I got my degree in Psychology (again, to have a degree is good, but it isn't really going to be the deciding factor in a job). I finally landed a job, fortunately for the same salary as I was making, but not with the same title or responsibilities as before...oh well, that can be good (I think so) or bad (possible future employers might think so).
In a nutshell, don't focus so much on your certifications, rather, focus on your communications skills. Develop relationships with people as quickly as possible, and get your foot in as many doors as is possible, even if it means walking in and putting a resume in someone's hands (preferably the hiring manager). Also realize that the person who is filtering through your resumes probably doesn't know a thing about IT, and will only be focusing on a few select skills that the hiring manager is asking for...