WhackArnolds – Technology, Politics, Pop Culture, Life commentary delivered hot and fresh!

I have been thinking about internet security a lot lately and I can’t help but think that sites like TinyURL, BitLy, Twitter and Facebook are a perfect way to get hordes of people infected with exploits. If you think about it, it’s not that hard to do at all and I think you could get this implemented in an afternoon. The only trick would be getting someone with significant reach to tweet your site link.

So, how would one do this? Well, you could take an XSS approach like this kid, Michael “Mikeyy” Mooney, or you could just brute force someone’s account. After you get in you can simply post a shortened URL and ask for the repost. At this point, on the internet, people are so mindless that they will probably retweet blindly if the subject is compelling enough. Then you can use good ole Mikeyy’s technique to proliferate your malware across the network.

The obfuscation of the target site using TinyURL is so beautiful that you could do this on a host of sites. But, what if someone goes to the url preview of the TinyURL? Well, that is a problem, but with all the twitter tools out there that do not implement this feature it’s not a problem if some do go to the preview. See, it’s pretty easy to do this type of hack and quite frankly the brute force attack on the account is the only real annoyance in the hole process.

Here’s the deal, I am writing this article to keep people thinking about what they are doing online. It’s easy to get a firewall and an anti-virus and think that you are safe, but if you are clicking tinyurls and bitly links all over the place you can get hammered just as easily. Just be careful with your internet.

I am pretty excited about this software and I bet that some of you folks will be as well. Thanks to a wonderful podcast called Security Now, I have been shown the way! The program that I am talking about is Sandboxie. This is a very complicated program with a simple purpose, to keep your programs from doing anything stupid. I have to say bravo, this application is awesome and very good at what it does.

So, what does Sandboxie do? Well, in a nutshell, Sandboxie takes your programs and runs them in a space that prevents them from making any permanent changes to your data or your system. You read it correctly, you run your programs in a sandbox which makes your programs think that they are running on the system, but they aren’t. Once you decide to delete the sandbox all changes the program made goes away. Sweet huh?

Sandbox: In computer security, a sandbox is a security mechanism for separating running programs. It is often used to execute untested code, or untrusted programs from unverified third-parties, suppliers and untrusted users.

The sandbox typically provides a tightly-controlled set of resources for guest programs to run in, such as scratch space on disk and memory. Network access, the ability to inspect the host system or read from input devices are usually disallowed or heavily restricted. In this sense, sandboxes are a specific example of virtualization.

Think of it this way, let’s say you are using Internet Explorer and you decide that you want to go to a shady website. Let’s say the site has evil code on the page that tries any number of javascript hacks to break into your machine. Well, if you did you would probably have a bunch of viruses and trojans on your machine. You probably wouldn’t know it happened either. Does that sound like fun?

With Sandboxie you can open your programs in a Sandbox. By doing that you will be able to do the same things you did before, but with added security. If you took the same scenario from above and did that in Sandboxie, you would still get the virus and trojans and all that crap. However, this time you could delete the sandbox and, poof, there goes all the crap! I know you are excited and I was too.

There are many applications for this software, for instance you could install a program, install it, and if you don’t like it simply delete the sandbox and it’s gone. Or how about running your email in a sandbox and if you click a bad link and corrupt your machine, just close it and there goes the problem.

I know, too good to be true or what about the files you want to save. Well, Sandboxie is designed to give you the ability to assign programs the rights to save files when you want them to. That means only files you want saved will be able to be saved. I can’t suggest this software any more than this, it’s awesome. But there is one more thing that makes this software awesome. Once you buy it, for $30 bucks, you get a lifetime registration and you can install it on any computer you own. Go get it now…that is all.

Recently a friend asked me how I record our podcast, so I told her I would write it up so she could use that as a guide. There are some initial concepts that you all will have to deal with and those are as follows:

1. I believe in cheap or free alternatives.
2. I am not into a whole lot of hassle, so the easiest is usually the best.
3. I like to be up and running in about 30 minutes or less.

Ok, with those three stipulations, I went out on a mission to find the tools to record the WhackArnolds Podcast. The first thing I needed was a means to talk to my partner in crime, and quite frankly the only way to VOIP from a PC is Skype. There are other utilities out there, but Skype is free for Skype to Skype calls and it’s easy to set up. Did I mention that it was free??

Next, we needed a way to record the audio. Whichever solution I chose had to be decent quality, allow for audio manipulation, and easy to use without a whole lot of configuration. After several installs and a few angry moans, screams, and curses I landed on two options. The first one was HotRecorder which worked fairly well, but there were some problems. Unfortunately, the newer version of Skype added some new codecs that cause the audio to really degrade. So, unless you are going to be using a late version of Skype, you probably don’t want this option.

The other option is Pamela, and this is the software that we are currently using to record the show. Pamela, has been very easy to use and it allows us to adjust vocal levels and pause recordings. The audio quality is pretty good as well, but if we needed to we could adjust more than just the levels. Bottom line, get Pamela. The only bad thing about the Pamela option is that it costs money, but for the ease of use it’s worth it.

So, what’s next? We have to adjust the recording and cut sections out if needed. We need an audio editor and not one that is going to cripple your pocket. Well, thanks to sourceforge.net and the open source revolution we have Audacity. Audacity is free, of course, and it is fricken great! Not only can you import the mp3 files that Pamela spits out, but it also allows me to add the intro tracks and outro tracks. There are quite a few effects as well, including fade-in and fade-out. This is an awesome find for podcasting on a budget.

Alright, we have the podcast recorded but we need to host it somewhere so others can view it. Here is where it gets tricky. One of the easiest ways to do this, and this is the way we handle it, is to use WordPress and set up a blog. There is a wonderful podcast plugin for WordPress called PowerPress, which allows you to set up the RSS feed for your podcast. You should also have a blog so that you can write up what the the podcast is about and it can be found via Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines. You don’t have to pay for this, WordPress offers free options, but you won’t be able to use extensions. So, you most likely will have to get some hosting plans. If you need some hosting let me know. That is not the only option for hosting a podcast of course, here are some other options:

• Liberated Syndication: $5, $10, $20, $30 hosting.
• Switchpod: Free, $5, $10, $30 hosting plans.
• PodBean: Free with some business solutions.

So there you are, the basics of podcasting on a budget. Of course if you decide to get on iTunes you will need to create an account, go to the iTunes store via iTunes, and click on the submit podcast link on the left navigation. So, you should be able to set up a podcast from this outline and the rest comes from experience. Happy podcasting!

Well, I have the answer for you. Go and download WinDirStat and see what is eating up your disk space. This utility is rather small and simple, but it is very useful when you are trying to clean up space on your drive. It is free and quick to install. I recommend this little guy for all your nerdy drive clean up needs. You can get WindDirStat here and here.