sorinmustaca.com – Sorin Mustaca – personal blog. Security software, agile development, scrum, programming and more

I saw this picture while being logged in on LinkedIn. I wasn’t doing anything specific and definitely not something related to job  search.

This appeared on the right side of the window.

The funny thing is that if you click on Apply Now you see that actually the ad is location dependent.

This job was in Germany (where I live) and actually relatively near me (Munich is 200 KM near me).

No, I didn’t apply

So easy… http://www.google.com/security/

1. Passwords
2. Gmail settings
3. Security tools
4. Malware
5. Phishing
6. Secure sites
7. Safe networks
8. Mobile security
9. Family safety
10. Shopping safety

Here are some articles I wrote in the Avira Techblog about how to improve your security:

Improve your security #5: use dedicated accounts for each user

Improve your Security #4: Update your Software often

Improve your Security #3: Online Protection

Improve your Security #2: Securing your notebook

Improve your Security #1: Complex passwords aren’t always better 

Boulevard Magazine has published my photos about Bodensee in their latest edition.

The article starts at page 43 and is 7 pages long (incl. pictures).

Here are the screenshots:

The VB2011 - the 21st Virus Bulletin International Conference took place between  5-7 October 2011 in Barcelona, Spain.

The city of Barcelona is a wonderful place to be. Pity that I didn’t have enough time to see all of its wonders.

Here is the article about the Opening of the conference.

Here are the reports from the three days of the conference:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

The source is an article I wrote for the Avira press release : http://www.avira.com/en/press-details/nid/528/news/consumers-concerns-online-shopping-safety

Here are the tips:

I recommend that consumers watch for a few things in order to not become a victim of the online fraudsters:

• Always check that the connection to the online store where the payment is done is secured. This can be observed first if the URL is starting with “https” and second if a small lock is present in the top left corner of the browser in the URL field (in Chrome) or the name of the website is written in a colored rectangle(in Firefox,IE). If the web browser gives any warnings about the security certificate of the website, then do not proceed to purchase anything from that website.
• If you don’t know the website you plan to buy from, always check its reputation first. Search for comments from other users about that website. Searching for “<website> reputation” usually gives good and relevant results.
• Give your financial details like credit card data only if the website is properly secured and its reputation is good.
• Try to choose payment methods which don’t require payment upfront. If PayPal is an option, choose that whenever possible. Otherwise, if you’ve ensured the safety of the website you’re on and you feel good about its reputation, then pay with a credit card.
• Always double check your bank accounts to make sure the amount you spent is the amount that was charged. If there is a discrepancy, contact the website where you made the purchase.

How do you define cyberterrorism?

The definition of cyberterrorism is since the 90s highly debated because it is not easy to define how devastating the damages of a computer attack are. However, according to many sources in the Internet, it appears that the definition of to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is the one accepted by many people. According to the FBI, cyberterrorism is any “premeditated, politically motivated attack against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data which results in violence against non-combatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents.”.

Unlike virus or computer attack that results in a (distributed) denial of service, a cyberterrorist attack is designed to cause physical violence or extreme financial harm. Possible cyberterrorist targets include the banking industry, military installations, power plants, air traffic control centers, and water systems.

This definition is quite narrow because it compares cyberterrorism with traditional terrorism.

There are several other definitions which define it much more generally as any computer crime targeting computer networks without necessarily affecting real world infrastructure, property, or lives.

Do you think the threat of cyberterrorism is real?  Why or why not?

It all depends about which definition of Cyberterrorism are we talking about.

If we talk about the one of FBI, then this is only hypothetical since there are no known examples of such a devastation produced by such an act.

If we talk about the more broader definitions, then we have seen many examples of DDOS, attacks against various institutions (governmental or not), website defacements.

Where do you think the threat of cyberterrorism is based? 

The word “Cyber” in “cyberterrorism” says actually everything. A cyberterrorism is in the cybernetic space, in the Internet, so it can be anywhere in the world. It only needs an Internet connection.

What is the profile of a cyberterrorist?

Again, it depends on the definition of cyberterrorism.

It can be a group of people which tries to achieve its political goals by means of disrupting the computer systems but it can also be a disgruntled employee who seeks only revenge on the company or governement.

What would a cyberterrorist attack look like? What do you think the primary targets will be?

Again, it depends on the definition of cyberterrorism.

Our lives depend more and more on the inter-networks connections such as that between a institutions and banks, computer systems which control facilities important for us (electricity, water supply, etc), and convenience facilities such as mass-media,  and last but not least the Internet.

If any of these connections don’t function anymore we will experience from a discomfort (in case of mass-media, Internet)  to serious threats to our lives (in case of critical facilities).

In the more broader definition, the targets of cyberterrorism might suffer from the annoyance of a defacement, the temporary loss of business created by Denial of Service attacks, to serious business losses if servers are hacked and critical information is stolen.

What steps can be taken to prevent an act of cyberterrorism?

I don’t think that there is a golden rule or rule set which can prevent cyberterrorism.

As we have seen in the past, there is a very thin difference between the fear cause by the real terrorists and that caused by the law enforcement people which try to protect citizens against terrorists. It is very hard to keep the right balance.

In general, it is good to keep the eyes open, monitor any suspicious network activities and be prepared for the worse. However, the definition of “worse” can vary quite a lot: from a simple backup to extremely complex monitoring and spying systems.

Preventing cyberterrorism is *everyone’s* responsibility, including the home users.

I stumbled on a very good article on TechCrunch written by the contributor UZI SHMILOVICI from the company Future Simple.

The article is called “The Complete Guide To Freemium Business Models” and it is located here.

This is the second post in the series  Google Plus and usability.

Here is the first post: Part 1

In Facebook, there is a way to hide the post from certain people to reach your News Feed, without stopping being friend with them.

How can you hide the posts from someone in G+?

You can exclude them from a circle and to block them. But they can find out that you removed them from a circle.

So, not the same effect.

G+ has still to improve here.

Page Speed Service is an online service to automatically speed up loading of your web pages. Page Speed Service fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices and serves them to end users via Google’s servers across the globe.

The extent of speed up depends on a variety of factors such as content on your pages, browser, geographic location of access, bandwidth, etc. You can run tests to measure the speed up of your site in a few minutes. At this time, Page Speed Service is being offered to a limited set of webmasters free of charge. Pricing will be competitive and details will be made available later. You can request access to the service by filling this web form.

Now the reality check

Where are the 60% ?

Page Speed Service Comparison for mustaca.com

	Original	Optimized	Difference
Page Load Time	3.109s	3.406s	+0.297s (9.6%)
Start Render Time	2.432s	2.191s	-0.241s (9.9%)
Repeat View Page Load Time	2.549s	2.644s	+0.095s (3.7%)
Repeat View Start Render Time	2.188s	2.159s	-0.029s (1.3%)
Full Test Result	view test	view test

Page Speed Service Comparison for avira.com

	Original	Optimized	Difference
Page Load Time	6.303s	6.687s	+0.384s (6.1%)
Start Render Time	4.270s	4.578s	+0.308s (7.2%)
Repeat View Page Load Time	5.657s	5.809s	+0.152s (2.7%)
Repeat View Start Render Time	3.571s	3.912s	+0.341s (9.5%)
Full Test Result	view test	view test