I’m back!

February 16, 2020 by Dave

My wife Grace just started a blog for a class she’s taking. Seeing her post each week, made me think about how much fun I had blogging years ago.

I had a blog from 2004 to about 2013 with several names including dave.sonic.net, AngryVillagers.net, and FriendsofDave.org. I liked having a place to capture my thoughts. While some people actually did read it, it was mostly for me. It gave me a place for creative expression. When I went back to school to finish my degree in 2014, I didn’t have the time any more to write, so I retired my site. I probably still don’t have any time to write between my job as a Director of Information Technology for my local college, my extra job teaching Linux online for Brigham Young University – Idaho, my responsibilities at home, church, and the occasional consulting job that I pick up. I decided to try to blog again for a while and see what happens. Maybe I’ll run out of time and interest and this one will end up in the bit bucket as well. Until that happens, here we go.

Dark Reading Attacks/Breachs

How to Help Spoil the Cybercrime Economy August 11, 2020

Cybercrime increasingly is turning into a commodity. Stolen PII data and hijacked cloud accounts especially propel the spread, research shows.

Gamifying Password Training Shows Security Benefits August 10, 2020

When picking passwords, users often fall back on certain insecure patterns, but good habits can be learned using simple games, a group of researchers find.

Better Business Bureau Warns of New Visa Scam August 10, 2020

Visa limitations due to the novel coronavirus have given rise to a wave of scams aimed at visa-seekers.

Q2 DDoS Attacks Triple Year Over Year: Report August 10, 2020

Distributed denial-of-service attacks have stayed consistently high throughout 2020, a shift from normal attack trends that researchers attribute to COVID-19.

Reddit Attack Defaces Dozens of Channels August 7, 2020

The attack has defaced the channels with images and content supporting Donald Trump.

Researcher Finds New Office Macro Attacks for MacOS August 7, 2020

Building successful macro attacks means getting past several layers of security, but a Black Hat speaker found a way through.

IoT Security During COVID-19: What We've Learned & Where We're Going August 7, 2020

Vigilance and ongoing training combined with an integrated security framework are key aspects of a successful strategy in the fight against the latest crop of pandemic opportunists.

Dark Reading Video News Desk Returns to Black Hat August 6, 2020

UPDATED: Coming to you prerecorded from in front of carefully arranged bookcases around the world ...!

Exploiting Google Cloud Platform With Ease August 6, 2020

Security engineer Dylan Ayrey and Cruise senior infrastructure security engineer Allison Donovan describe fundamental weaknesses in GCP identity management that enable privilege escalation and lateral movement.

Office 365's Vast Attack Surface & All the Ways You Don't Know You're Being Exploited Through It August 6, 2020

Mandiant incident response managers Josh Madeley and Doug Bienstock describe how thoroughly Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) extends into corporate networks, describe both sophisticated and simple attacks they've detected, and suggest mitigations as businesses rely more heavily on the cloud.