Recently, the dutch
Tweakers website started with dissecting USB flashdrives. Their goal is to see if the so-called secure USB flashdrives are as secure as the manufacturer says they are.
They reviewed the SecuStick, and a BioStick. The first protects the data with a password. The latter (two different versions were tested) uses biometrics (fingerprints) to secure your precious data (in combination with AES encryption).
The full reports can be read
here, (SecuStick) and
here (BioStick). The dutch review can be read on the tweakers.net website (
here, and
here) along with interessting comments on the article.
Conclusion of the articles: Some of these so-called secure USB flashdrives are not as secure as you might think. Oke, the data is 'secure' for the casual user. If real secrets (your private pron collection :-) ) are being stored on those USB flashdrives, you might want to consider using TrueCrypt (with a strong password, and keyfiles) to store your 'valuable' data.
The rumor engines are buzzing with '
news' about a new Wi-Fi iPod. The estimated release would be the holiday season (X-mas). This means an even more expensive X-mas... iPhone, Wi-Fi iPod, OSX Leopard.... all due in the second half of this year.
Better start saving some money :-)
B.t.w. I have some doubts on the delay announcements of Leopard. The announcement was only a small article on their (hot)news page. Apple stock didn't suffer that much with the announcement. What would happen to the apple stock if they will ship it during the
WWDC?
During the WWCD keynote, Steve would tell us about all the great features in Leopard (some of them were kept secret to prevent the copiers at Microsoft :-) ). And at the end of the keynote:
Oh yeah, there is one more thing..... We're shipping Leopard as scheduled starting TODAY! ....
[crowd goes absolutely, and totally berserk]
Together with iLife 2007, and the new iWork....
[crowd goes mental....]
[Steve checks his Apple stock options on his iPhone]
Apple
announced that the OSX 10.5 (aka Leopard) will be delayed till October 2007....
... We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October.....
Aaaaargh. I was hoping to get it in June.
Well, this gives me more time for saving a little extra money, and buy a new piece of Apple hardware (Mac Mini or perhaps even a Mac Pro) which will have Leopard pre-installed. Or maybe just the iPhone when it arrives in Europe at the end of the year and a separate copy of Leopard.
Steganos has a piece of software which allows you to create encrypted containers. The Stagenos software is 'freely' available on the P2P networks. just download it and use a key found somewhere on the Internet. This won't help you though.....
You simply install a copy of Steganos Safe 8 but not the new security suite and when doing this you turn "OFF" the update feature temporarily and use a fake serial code you get off the net. Simply mount anyones .SLE file encrypted drive into the software and it will ask you for their password but won't let you in because it's encrypted.
From this point you want to turn the "update" feature back on and force steganos to update by right clicking it in your system tray or restarting the software. From this point it will detect you had used a fake or known serial after the update and it will now PUNISH you by resetting your encrypted drives passwords to "123" until you buy a registered copy. [SecurityFocus]
This means that
ANYONE is able to open your encrypted content stored in the container. Just use pirated software to open the containers.
Thankfully,
Truecrypt is still freeware :-) . Too bad it still isn't available for OSX :cry: .
The Apple TV box is available at this moment. This devices allows you to stream music, and movies from iTunes on your TV. Downside is that you also need iTunes to host these files, since the Apple TV can only sync with iTunes. This also introduces a limitation. It's not possible to watch videos in a format like DivX, or XviD. iTunes doesn't support those (and therefor, the Apple TV won't support them either.
It is possible to hack the Apple TV and add DivX/XviD support (and lot's of other nifty features like installing a hacked version of OSX). To achieve this, you need to open the Apple TV (byebye warranty).
The other possibility is to get a Mac Mini, and strip it down mainly for media center purposes. Downside with the Mac Mini is that it's a bit more expensive.
Currently I use my MacBook Pro as a media center (whenever I need it). But this is kind of a hassle with power, audio and DVI connectors. So I need a (relatively cheap non Windows based) dedicated setup for watching content on my TV. *SIGH*
I've been a big fan of the
TWiT podcasts. Especially the Apple, Windows and security related podcasts. But lately, the content of those podcasts seem to shift to too much off-topic talk.
Take the latest edition of
Security Now! (Cross-Site-Scripting - Part II). The podcasts is about an hour in length, but the first half hour is nothing but talk about the Sony e-book reader, and favorite writers. What's that got to do with security?? I don't know.
Same goes for
MacBreak Weekly. It's more about having a good time for the authors, than about bringing some news. I don't mind that the authors are having fun creating the content. Hell, I appreciate a good laugh as much as the next guy, but keep it on topic.
Too bad that only about 50% of the content has something to do with the actual title (Mac / Security).
If they keep this up, they will loose a listener (not that they might care).
Apple
announced yesterday that they shipped 100 Million iPod since its introduction in November 2001. Leaving the competion far, far behind :-)
100Mbps is soooooo
1993, and fully insufficient in copying lot's of Linux images :wink: over my internal network. So, today I upgraded to Gigabit. Even with the purchased el-cheapo hardware (Intel Pro NIC's, and a 3COM 10/100/1000 switch) the speed increase is noticeable (70-80Mbps versus 300-350Mbps).
Too bad that my DSL connection doesn't go that fast :-(
The last couple of weeks my blog was under some sort of spam attack. I got about 50 to 80 spam comments a day. Thankfully,
Askimet intercepted 99% of those messages. But Askimet shouldn't be getting these messages, because my captcha plugin should keep them out... well, it didn't.
Yesterday, I found
Wordpress Hashcash. A plugin which uses crypto to keep automated spammers away. So far it's working.
UPDATE: ever since I installed WP-Hashcash it has been awfully quiet on the spamming front :-)
Never mind... Thankfully Askimet is catching them all (50 per day at this moment)
EMI has discovered that DRM is hater by most of the consumer market, and therefor will
release their music with the hated DRM.
Now it's waiting for the other big players in the music industry (Sony, and Universal).
Apple's iTunes will be the first to offer these unrestricted downloads. Note that the new downloads are a bit more expensive, but this includes much better quality (256kbps AAC versus 128kbps AAC).
The older versions (with DRM) will still be available, but are also 30 cents cheaper (99 cents versus 1.29). If you have purchased DRM protected songs (released by EMI),you can 'upgrade' them for a lousy 30 cents a song.
