Alert: LinkedIN Scams Rampant

Have you heard of the professional networking site linkedin? Well, a number of professional users (Including Myself) have been using this site to increase their job prospects, clientele,  and associates. It seems that more and more, professional scam artists are trying to prey off of the unsuspecting users of LinkedIn. It seems that common sense isn't all that common. Just because someone has a LinkedIn profile- Doesn't mean that they are trustworthy.

     Unsuspecting professionals, driven by the urge to make quick millions off of a simple transaction, willingly turn over their bank information to a person who has made their acquaintance online. Why? Well, the scammers are using a '419 Scam'. What happens is the attacker claims to have inherited/ claimed a large sum of money, and is willing to give you a large fee to deposit the newly acquired funds into a US Bank account.

The best possible way to prevent this kind of attack is to: (A) Only accept mail from people you know, Or who have a related Interest (B) Never execute any financial transactions based solely upon knowledge recieved via virtual communications, Be it Email, Social Networking, Or other communications.  Unless you know the person, don't allow someone access to your account.

Vulnerabilities in the Tennesse Valley Authority Power Grid

Recently, in a disclosure by the US Government Accountability office- the UAO makes the following statement.

"Until the TVA fully implements these security program activities, it risks disruption of its operations as the result of a cyber incident, which could impact its customers," the GAO says. TVA delivers electricity to an area that includes most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina and Virginia -- an area with a population of 8.7 million people.

The Authority Power grid is essentially not separate from its corporate network. The latter is ripe with vulnerabilities, including faulty hardware, Anti-virus free machines, poorly patched control systems and a myriad of other issues. The network has "Limited intrusion Detection" and ineffective management. Basically, if you happened upon a Wireless Access Point, with WEPCrack- Your have access to the world's largest public power grid.

I find this to be disgusting, and an absolute slap in the face for the IT community. How hard is it, admins, to set a 14 digit pass code, configure a router, or even mass install a freaking Anti-Virus? Remember, people depend on you for their livelihoods- take the responsibility seriously.

Dear God

Recently, I was browsing government websites to see if there were any new articles to read. However when I came to www.NSA.gov (National Security Agency), their website was offline. Baffled by this National Security Issue,  seeing as how the NSA is supposed to be the pinnacle of Intelligence and Technology, I decided to do some digging.

So who was the "Super hacker" that executed such a technologically advanced, planning intensive attack upon the US government? Well, as it turns out the super hacker was a incompetent mole. No, not a double agent. Someone who was hired,  because there was extra room in the Budget.  DNS misconfiguration in my NSA? Its more likely than you think.

              First, a web server was running on the same computer or the same IP address as one of the so-called authoritative name servers for nsa.gov. The authoritative name servers are the primary and secondary servers that translate the web addresses humans understand (i.e., NSA.gov) to machine-readable IP addresses (in the NSA.gov case, 189.182.93.126).

             Moreover, the primary and secondary authoritative name servers were both downstream from the Qwest edge access router in Washington, D.C. They should have been separated topologically within the network infrastructure, according to McPherson.

Come On Guys, thats basic network design. If the Top Security Agency can't design a network properly- what does that say about our national network infrastructure.