Geek Bazaar

competing OSes: Ubuntu 7.10, Vista Ultimate SP1 and OSX 10.5.2. 

In the first day of the challenge no computer could be breached, as the organizers only allowed attacks over a network.

The second day of the hacking contest allowed attackers  to visit Web pages or open messages in e-mail clients. Charlie Miller, who hacked the iPhone in 2007, breached the MacBook Air via a zero-day vulnerability ….

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/28/mac-hacked-two-minutes-flat

Just as an update to my previous post HSBC, the world’s local secure bank after several emails I got contacted from the HSBC IT department group via phone.

First they asked me what is happening exactly to try and reproduce the issue themselves and they were surprised that such issue was being reproduces using Internet Explorer and XP, as XP is fully complaint but Vista is not, so they expect clients using Vista to have problems (another “latest” software not supported???).

When I asked them why they do not support the latest Internet Explorer, when they promote to users that they should always have the latest software and patches installed, they replied “As you might know yourself since you work in the software industry, new software and patches are being released every day and it is impossible to keep up with everything”. For God’s sake, you’re 1 and a half year late, as IE7 was released in Q4 of 2006. Even if it was released a couple of months ago, I do not think “it is impossible to keep up with everything” is not a valid excuse, I mean I do not care what is impossible or not, if you are offering a service to your clients, give them a decent service at least, especially when it is all about the clients’ money!!

Well, not worth hassling about it, it won’t take me anywhere. Just out of curiousity I asked them a question “Why don’t you support Opera as well?”, the answer was very clear (hope they were just fooling around and it wasn’t an honest answer) “Well, Opera runs on Linux and we do not support Linux”. Ok.. just FYI mate, Opera Download for Windows.

Enjoy e-banking with HSBC pals

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/7217.html

Here

http://0×000000.com/index.php?i=532

Watch more.

HSBC E-banking is cool and fast. You receive emails every day from banking companies not to trust spam emails, that people from banks won’t ask for passwords over e-mail (hope not even over the phone). Well, HSBC e-banking supports only LATEST Firefox and Internet Explorer, for SECURITY REASONS (as they say). I had a problem transacting some Euros at 1 go between 2 accounts I have. I sent an email to HSBC help desk and I got a sweet reply:

HSBC helpdesk
Dear Mr X

Kindly note that problem is related to your browser since you are using IE7. The last version is not supported by us.

You are kindly request to use IE 6 or else Firefox.

Internet Explorer 7 was released in Q4 of 2006 and security wise “should be” much better. It’s about time HSBC keeps up to date with these things!

not much to add. just check it out here.

Here’s a question for you - how much do you love noodles?

Tired of your family running behind you to fix their home pc problems? Because I deleted this, I deleted that and this is not working? GOS looks very cool and OS + PC are being sold for $199. Haven’t read much about it but it seems good for most of my cousins and co., perhaps one day I’ll get rid of them! Anyone ever heard of GOS or tried it out?

http://funtasticus.com/20080314/new-googles-zurich-office-amazing/

http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirates-dilemma-080314/

USENIX put up all online conference proceedings for free here.

And if you want to see some upcoming conferences of interest, then this site looks particularly useful.

I usually make use of Process Explorer by Sysinternals (now Microsoft) for this. Click on “System” which is under “System Idle Process” and make sure that the lower pane is showing dlls. This can be done by using the shortcut Ctrl+D. Then on the lower pane you get the drivers that were loaded by the system.

This can be especially useful when checking a machine that is thought to be infected by a Windows rootkit / backdoor.

Last weekend I’ve been in Portugal for a Cure concert. Portugal looks nice, relaxed and people know english, not like this boring island I’m living on, and no it is not Malta. Well, they have loads of modern structures (at least in Lisbon where I was), and nice chicks, sorry no pics available, was around with my girlfriend. Concert was ace, 3 and a half hours, very good sound quality (like the sound in that Escort Mk1 of your neighbour, with a sticker on the back “Sex is my favorite game, wanna play?”) and we were right in front of the stage. Simon Gallup thinks he is still cool although he is in his 40’s and Robert Smith, erm is really weird looking in real life. Well, I really loved it and anyone who has a chance to see them live before they disappear (as soon they are quitting they say), go for it

More pics:

Some famous thingy in Portugal which my gf wanted to see.
Wall covered with tiles of cartoons characters.
Christmas Tree?
JC flying high.
If Lowell sees you around!
wtf you’re looking at?

Well stay was very short, that is why few pics. There are more of me naked, but I am sure you are not really interested in seeing them

Enjoy e-guys (yeah the social me)

for humans i presume. i like their designs .. and so should you.

er.. wtf’s wrong with her? the original article is on wired.

The RIPE guys issued a case study and a lovely youtube video about what happened. Good stuff