WillErwin.com

From time to time I receive information from the Department of Homeland Security or Secret Service regarding aspects of Internet security. As a network administrator for several networks, I’m tasked with the responsibility of taking every measure possible to mitigate possible threats. These reports help me in doing so. I’ve been given permission to share this report with you.

Attached is a report (CIIN-07-332-01 US CERT Cyber Incidents Impacting Private Sector) distributed by U.S. CERT. CERT has identified sophisticated attempts to compromise private sector networks, including critical infrastructures. CERT has requested that we distribute this report to our N-TEC partners. This information will be helpful for those who are responsible for network security. Please fill free to forward this e-mail to other companies not listed on this distribution list. CERT has provided an email link to report any validated incidents involving this activity and assistance.

So, I should be able to share it, according to the email I received. Attached is a report (CIIN-07-332-01) distributed by U.S. CERT. CERT has identified sophisticated attempts to compromise private sector networks, including critical infrastructures. This information will be helpful for those who are responsible for network security.

Update: Due to US-CERT contacting me and wanting me to remove the article, which under DCMA rules I’m required to due to so I don’t get into trouble, whether I don’t know if they have that actual authority, I’ve gone ahead and removed the article from my webhost. However, you can find the report on several bittorrent sites:
http://www.mininova.org/tor/1026753

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Today has been quite a day on the Internet. Actually this week has in general. I’ll highlight over a few areas that I feel are important.

Firefox 2.0.0.9 has been released. It basically contains some small bug fixes. I suspect this will be the last release before Firefox 3 comes out, unless a major security issue is found.

mIRC 6.31 has been released, along with a long time overdue website update. It addresses various issues reported in the previous release, along with over 50 changes. It’s nice to see mIRC get a real Windows Vista feel with it’s smooth design and icons. However, I’m still able to crash this version.
Also since I’m mentioning mIRC, I’ll also mention that the mIRC script that I use, NoNameScript, has also been going through some changes lately - bug fixing and bringing compatibility up to par for mIRC 6.30. Version 4.2 should be released before years end.

Trillian Astra gets a new build today. I’ve been alpha testing this program since the beginning (Yes, I do know people that get me access to unreleased products such as this and when Gmail was launched as invitation only in April 2004. I’ll comment more about Gmail in a moment). I’ve reported several bugs to the Cerulean Studios development team, one of which has been fixed in the upcoming build 61, so I’m pleased to see that. It’s been very exciting being able to see a product from it’s base inception to turning into a full product, and also having an actual say in what gets changed.

What is being dubbed as ‘Gmail 2.0‘ has begun being rolled out to Gmail users. Although most people have yet to see the changes, it’s only the tip of the iceberg. I’m predicting a full web-based chat support system for multiple IM networks in the future. Storage has also hit around 4.5 GB’s per account.

Last, but certainly not least, is that Comcast has had an official complaint filed against it to the FCC. I can confirm that Comcast has been “delaying” BitTorrent traffic over the past several months, as I’ve experienced it myself. I’ve actually taken action because of Comcast doing this. I’ve been using up close to 95% of my Internet connection by having something download and upload constantly - whether downloading/uploading on BitTorrent (using header encryption) or helping out the Tor network - I’m keeping the data flowing, which in turn costs Comcast money. I’ll be setting up some monthly bandwidth graphs via SNMP to see how much bandwidth I’m actually using.

It appears that Google is working on integrating IMAP into Gmail. Although Google has not released the official word confirming the update via The Official Gmail Blog, the help documents have been posted onto the Gmail site.

This is exciting seeing that Google is indeed starting to rollout updates to Gmail, as a major upgrade has been confirmed for a few months, but the general public (if you’re not a Google Trusted Tester [cached]) have yet to see these upgrades. I reckon that the IMAP upgrade is only the tip of the iceberg of what we’ll see before year’s end.

update: Google did release the official word on IMAP the next day.

Just a small update. For those (intelligent) individuals who run Firefox, an update is available. The release notes show that this release just contains security fixes, two of which are critical. Anything in the Firefox 2.x series should contain just small fixes. The next version will be Firefox 3.

The auto updater in Firefox should be firing soon. If you are like me and don’t want to wait, you can download the release directly.

I’d like to introduce you to a project called Folding@Home. It is a distributed computing project that uses your spare computer processing speed to help calculate/compute research for protein folding. When proteins do not fold correctly, there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.

This is a great project and is run by Stanford University. We call want to do as much as we can to eliminate devastating diseases such as cancer, and you can do a part. Just by running a small piece of software on your computer, and even keeping your computer on when you’re not using it, you’ll be helping fold proteins, which has already lead to much advanced research and greater understanding on certain diseases. I strongly encourage everyone to take part - it costs you nothing, but could mean everything.

I’ve been running the Folding@Home client on several of my computers for a few years - you can see my stats. So check out their homepage for more information about protein folding and the research they’ve already accomplished, and even download the client to help out.

I usually don’t run beta versions of applications that I run continuously on my computer, hours on end. One program that I run like this is Winamp, which I use for listening to my MP3’s. If you haven’t heard or used Winamp, then I suggest you check it out, especially since their latest preview version of 5.5 is simply put, amazing.

New features that I’m impressed with include very accurate metadata lookup and cover art lookup. The new skin of Winamp 5.5 has also been changed to Bento, which features multiple UI windows under one skin. From the few hours I’ve been playing around with it, I’m very impressed.

I’ve only been able to crash the application once, which was when I was loading 2500+ MP3’s into Winamp’s library. Hopefully that, along with the Vista preview/Flip 3D image support will be fixed in the final build of 5.5. For one, I can tell you that this version is something worth talking about. Winamp has not only skipped their version numbering system from 5.35 to 5.5, but has also included a publicized beta link on their homepage - something that has not happened in a long time.

Update 10/10/07: Winamp 5.5 Final has been released. Updated post to reflect change.

I’ve managed to push my Internet download speed to a new capacity - 738 kBps or roughly 0.7 MBps or ~ 5.8 Mbits. Thats about 4x T1 lines at my disposal. Not bad for a single cable connection. My upload seems to still be at around 92 Kbps*. Both these limits are of course capped by the local cable company, Comcast, so people like me don’t use up all the bandwidth. I say use it all up though - I’m paying for it and I might as well put it to use. All of this increase of speed has actually been due to me upgrading to Windows Vista. I believe it’s because Microsoft completely rewrote the TCP/IP code in Vista from XP, and also maybe because I’m now supporting IPv6.

I’ve also managed to reach a new peak within my home gigabit network while streaming multiple videos from separate computers to TV’s located across the house. while having the home audio system (which is also connected via CAT 5E) stream music throughout the house. I even have some nice WAN and LAN bandwidth graphs to look at.

*Seems Comcast is able to burst my upload bandwidth for a certain size amount, because I just uploaded a 3MB file at 294 kB/s.

**10/11: Hit 1.05 MB/s (yes, that’s bytes). Actually I just realized that the bandwidth I’m actually getting could be much greater and that the limit I’m hitting is due to the fact that I’m not hardwired and using wireless instead. I’ll be moving into my garage apartment in a few weeks, which was wired with CAT 6 to router when we had the house networked, so I’ll update this again when I get to test out that speed. This is a good article talking about the different cable types (CAT5, 5e, 6, 7).

After reinstalling the OS because I thought one of the drivers may be causing the reboot problem and taking apart the computer, I individually tested each stick of RAM (4 x 1GB) which took a few hours. It turns out the last stick of RAM was bad, so I’ve removed it and all it working. I guess I don’t really need 4GB of RAM anyways.

I’m in the process of installing Windows Vista Ultimate (hope I like it and don’t revert back to XP).

Well, it seems like this site is going to get a new design after all, especially after a year of procrastination.

First though, I have to fix my main computer, which started going haywire today and reboots randomly every 2 minutes. I believe it’s a motherboard problem. Thankfully I policies in place for situations like this with another hard drive with all my important (and up-to-date) data stored.
So, I may be busy ordering parts and building a new computer this week. This is such an inopportune time for something like this to happen, since the release of Intel’s new processor, Peryn, is just a month away. I might just throw in a cheap motherboard and make due until then — we’ll see.

I’ll also be switching over to be running Windows Vista Ultimate, as SP1 is due out relatively soon and beta copies can be obtained online. Time for me to migrate from XP.

Lots to do and I want it all done now!