Spoofing from 'Apple'

A nice example of a spoof email that is sent from a 'known' entity in an attempt to get you to click on a link so you can fall into their trap.

 

The first clue is the return email address. It is a server out of Italy the domain is axeitalia. No way is that owned by Apple.

 

The second is where the links are pointing: "welnessmedical.com".

 

Don't click on anything in these messages.

 

Below is the WhoIs information for wellnessmedical.com

 

Domain Name: WELNESSMEDICAL.COM

Registrant:
Alulay Solorzano
Alulay Solorzano (campion@welnessmedical.com)
1105 Rowes Lane
Elizabethtown
KY,42701
US
Tel. +1.2706600129

Creation Date: 05-Nov-2012
Expiration Date: 05-Nov-2013

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.welnessmedical.com
ns2.welnessmedical.com


Administrative Contact:
Alulay Solorzano
Alulay Solorzano (campion@welnessmedical.com)
1105 Rowes Lane
Elizabethtown
KY,42701
US
Tel. +1.2706600129

Technical Contact:
Alulay Solorzano
Alulay Solorzano (campion@welnessmedical.com)
1105 Rowes Lane
Elizabethtown
KY,42701
US
Tel. +1.2706600129

Billing Contact:
Alulay Solorzano
Alulay Solorzano (campion@welnessmedical.com)
1105 Rowes Lane
Elizabethtown
KY,42701
US
Tel. +1.2706600129

 

Don't Forget About The Paper

We are all getting computer security tips and tidbits from all directions.

So much so that sometimes we are forgetting about the simple stuff.

We all know that large databases need to be protected. We know to have a personal password policy and all that other stuff.

But sometimes we forget that the scraps of paper that float around our offices can be just as valuable to someone trying to obtain information they otherwise shouldn't have.

Don't forget about the printed reports you generate and pieces of mail that have been opened and you are just stepping away for a moment or to.

Keep information on paper away from prying eyes. Use a shredder when the information is no longer needed or you considered out of date for your personal use.

When you get to the office on Monday, look at your desk. What can you learn from what is around from just what you see.

Got Spam? Don't Unsubscribe

We all get them. No matter how good our spam filters are they get through... SPAM.

At the bottom of all these messages is a nice enviting link telling you that if you do not wish to receive any more messages from whoever sent it just click.

Wait... DON'T DO IT.

When you do click to unsubscribe (as if you were subscribed) what you just did was tell the sender that in fact he / she does have a good address.

Now that verified good address will be added to other spam sender lists, even sold to yet even more companies who send unsolited email.

So just delete the message.

If too many of them are getting through take a moment and forward it to your email provider so they can take steps to add the sender to the spam filters.

Do not allow your browser to store passwords for you

The fact that browsers and mobile devices store user names and passwords may be convenient for you, but they drive corporate and internet security people nuts.

Stored passwords allow anyone who can access your machine to log in to your web accounts as you. In addition, there are numerous utilities that can expose that hidden information and actually reveal the password. If you've reused that password for other logins, many systems or web sites could be compromised.

When prompted by any service, device or browser if you would like it to save your password select 'no' and the option to never ask you again.

Security Shortcut: Lock your workstation with one click

 Here is a great way to quickly lock your Windows computer if you are going to away for a few minutes.

 

Everyone knows of the CTRL-ALT-DEL option, but this puts a shortcut on your desktop and even your shortcut bar.

 

Here are the steps you need to take:

1. Right click on an empty area of your desktop.
2. Click 'New'
3. Click 'Shortcut'
4. Type the following:
• rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
5. Click Next
6. Name the shortcut; something like "Away From Desk"
7. Click Finish

Now when you step away from your computer for a few minutes it is a quick double click and your computer is locked.

 

There are other methods too, stay tuned for those as well.

Cybersecurity Becoming No. 1 Concern for GCs and Directors

Here is an interesting piece of information.

63% of the individuals surveyed by Law.com ‘s Corporate Counsel believe that the General Counsel needs to take charge of cybersecurity and not their IT departments.

Link: http://urtak.is/NJFOu1 

Now this is going to come about through the Corporate Governance or Corporate Compliance areas of the corporate legal department. The skill sets that currently are located in the Information Technology departments will be absorbed by the GC. One group will be putting together the standards (governance) while the other (compliance) will be testing and checking.

Born from this will be additional national standards much like the ISO 9000 movement in the early ‘90s..

Cybersecurity Becoming No. 1 Concern for GCs and Directors

ColdFusion - List Functions

I thought I would pass on a little trick to those programmers who also have to design the data structures behind their applications.

If you plan on using table primary keys (usually a sequential number) as something to use in sub-queries or list structures consider starting you numbers at 1000 instead of 1.

Typically when creating a table I start the primary key with 1:

CREATE TABLE SomeTable (
     TableID int NOT NULL PrimaryKey IDENTITY(1,1)
     )

This works great except when you want to put the result set of returned values from a SQL statement in a string:

<CFSET SomeString = #ValueList(QueryName.TableID)#>

And then search that string for matching records:

#ListFind(SomeString, ‘3’, ‘,’)#

Sometimes you run into a situation where the first three (3) that is found is actually in a value like 103 or 33. The Find functions consider everything an alphanumeric and cannot restrict itself to numeric value only.

OK… here is the trick.

Start your numeric value in the primary key field with “1000” instead of “1”.

IDENTITY(1000,1)

If your data table is going to have thousands or hundreds of thousands then consider using an initial number even higher than 1000.

This will truly make your FIND operations run more smoothly and take the opportunity to mix up numbers every once a while.

Adobe ColdFusion 9 * Functions by category