So over the past few months I’m sure I’m not just the only one that hs been noticing the increasing issue of spam, not just in our own personal mail boxes, but also our work mail boxes.

Listed from a recent Microsoft Security Report, over 97% of all emails sent over the internet are unwanted – spam. I’m sure everyone will be used to getting a pile of emails from some one offering drugs, products among other things. The point that I am trying to get at here is that for us and our clients this is a nightmare. Now even though our team do use various applications like “Spam Assassin” which are good for preventing Spam you have to be careful when taking this approach.

You may get mail from an ‘unknown source’ that is actually directly addressed for you that you need, however the prevention systems that have been put in place may stop this email coming through to you for the unknown sender reason. Even though these tools are always put in place, they are never the best option for eveyone to use. Some people more than others this applies too, but for people who don’t get that much Spam why implement such a scenario where important mail could be getting lost in the system.

Upon rolling out our first official “Kerio Mail Server” this week, I have noticed a very promising tool that is inside it and I have been reading up on it. A ‘Kerio Mail Server’ has three levels of Spam prevention, Spam Assassin, a Heuristic Engine and also the key part of this Spam denying system, a feature called the Bayesian Filter. We have talked about the features of SpamAssassin before, and its integration into Kerio is amazing, the heuristic engine works within spamassassin and does an analysis on every email message comparing it with multiple anti-spam rules and this helps yet again by giving it a numerical rating based on how many of the rules were matched etc. This all helps give spamassassin its finally rating, if the message rating exceeds the set governed level then the message is marked as Spam and is filtered dependent on the way the user has their junks filters applied.

Lastly the ‘Bayesian Filter’ which is also used within Webmail can be trained and this means that even though you don’t know it, you can actually teach the box what is spam and what isn’t. This feature is already in most clients, even though the users never do use it. “Spam” or “Not Spam” is very visible now-a-days in both Thunderbird and outlook (our two main email clients) and by using these buttons help kerio to work out what to treat as spam and what isn’t. I guess you could say its sort of like it has a built in A.I engine, because theoretically it is learning how to do things. But to be honest, its just because it is a really strong and powerful piece of software that so far has not broken.

So why is everyone not on Kerio?? Very good question – who knows is the answer I have. Maybe just maybe its because Microsoft is trying to take over the world one step at a time, with every small little step they take. I’ll put it this way, people become very comfortable and reliant on Exchange and all of the features that it has, but overall if we put two solutions side by side, a  very powerful windows box running exchange and active directory shared drives and base it as a domain controller, compare it with a average linux box running samba, kerio mail server, DHCP, SQUID, roaming profiles and monit/munin. I know honestly which one I would pick, and let me say something it would not be the windows box – for one, so many more things can wrong with the windows box than a Linux box.

However, if we are not so lucky to have a spare server hanging around with Kerio on it what can we actively do to maintain our Spam levels so that they drop down and stop annoying. For the present moment, the best thing to do is follow the directions above by using the ‘Spam, Not Spam’ button and also use a reliable Anti-Virus application that also includes Email Scanning, which can help limit the amount of Spam when it actually reaches the desktop/laptop computer itself.

So there comes a time when things just get the better of you. Like today for instance, i’m not going to lie, today was absolutely hell and I seem to be running out of time thick and fast. Today for example, became the day when we officially rolled out our first very own “Kerio” server.

Ok so apart from the tweaks the server guys seemed to do everything went smoothly apart from the network interfaces running slow and the initial synchronisation being a little bit tedious. One problem we seemed to find on the client computers was that “Microsoft Office XP” did not work with the kerio outlook connector until office SP3 had been installed. A little bit of a pain, but overall not that problematic considering most of the machines in our clients infrastructure are updated every night with a crazy clean up and update nightly schedule.

Another somewhat pet moan of mine at the moment is what is the point of a MLK? Lets be honest for a couple of minutes. What honest advantages does it bring you to have a MLK instead of the full DVD version and license? Someone once told me it was to help save the environment! Well let me tell you something, if they expect the MLK’s to be more environmentally friendly because they don’t have a CD, they have another thing coming. Now to acquire the CD/DVD for the MLK you either can order it only through the Microsoft OEM partner website, or you can leav your computer connected to the internet for about twelve hours so that you can then download the CD using the website.

Now I don’t know what Microsoft are trying to cut corners on here, but as far as I can see it when you ask them to send you the CD that would just be the same as including it in the MLK. As for downloading the ISO you have to honestly weigh up the differences between leaving your computer on all night, and your modem on all night as well. As we know these devices all take up valuable amounts of energy, so what I want to know is why do Microsoft put their customers through so much hassle and extra cost when everything could just be so much simpler.

I’m just waiting for someone to turn around and just say, its cause its Microsoft, what do you expect.

This title may refer to a number of things, don’t you think? Then again it would be incorrect for me to blog a whole list of things under one title.

Frankly some people should know that even though I am just a simple being, once I get started and that once you find the guy underneath all of the covering, you end up thinking to yourself, you know something, he’s actually pretty cool! Well that’s my opinion quite frankly; I don’t know what anyone else thinks – try your worst

One of my greatest achievements in life is rather un-cool to be honest, but it’s something that appeals to me, even though it may seem just incredibly sad. So are you ready to discover my biggest achievement……. *drum roll* I can practically take anything apart, pulling out every screw and latch and be able to successfully get it back together. Sad isn’t it… And I have honestly no idea how this is related to this blog, but that’s just yet again another little bit of information into my life.

Anyway, back to the main topic of conversation, “The Joys of Getting your hands dirty”. Now what I mean by this topic is building computers. It is probably up there in the top ten things that I can do along with the likes of playing the guitar and coding.

In all honesty I think that in the longer term you get far greater satisfaction in using something you have built yourself from scratch is much better and much more enjoyable than something pre-built.
Think about it, when you achieve a massive task, whether it is writing a massive proposal document, rendering a full blown film or hunting down some n00bs on your favourite FPS (First Person Shooter for those that don’t know) just think of the thoughts going through your head when you complete a task using something that you yourself have built using your very own fingers and all your effort and money. Priceless!
After all when you do think about it more, would you rather be ripped off by some major brand, or would you rather create something personalised and unique to yourself have it working and performing better than a system you would have built yourself.

I’m sure a lot of people have a lot of different views on this, so please share….

Yet again answers on a postcard

Alarm Raised On the Number of Teenage Hackers

This is a blog about me, David Forrest OCP Eng, white hat.

For those of you that aren’t in the know, the term “White Hat” isn’t some racialist stab into the world of racial politics. It means a person that has turned the knowledge they know from being a hacker, into useful tips and tricks and uses hacking for the correct purposes.
I know many people will ask the question: “How the hell can you be a good hacker?” that my friend is the million pound question. Now there is a chance that no one will have heard of ethical hacking. Ethical hacking is defined as an expert, who specialises in penetration testing and other testing methodologies, to ensure that a company’s infrastructure is secure. The job of a white hat is to expose all of the security issues before the black hats (malicious hacker) find them and take advantage of them.
Now this entry into my blog should have been done a long time ago to match up with Stephen’s blog about ssl, and plain text passwords. I’m not going to really talk about that subject, read Stephen’s blog if you want to know more.
What really reminded me to right this blog was an article I saw on the BBC news homepage Alarm raised on teenage hackers. Interesting you may add, but potentially quite scary at the same time.
Now what this article describes is forums where credit card names and numbers are being swapped, so potentially I could make the judgement that it isn’t hacking, its just fraud. But then again, it is classed as a “Cybercrime” so therefore it is hacking.

Now from what I understand, many youngsters and teenagers want to hack their favourite video game. They have heard rumours about it, videos of it and want to do it themselves. So they pop onto the internet (a very unsafe place at the best of times) and look at the many tutorials and guides that are designed to give the gamer their utter satisfaction. Baring in mind that the by this time the users computer has been attacked about ten times by offence bots and spyware. Then they decide, ok I’m going to do the hack, they do it succeed and then they get a taste of this so called hacking, and it feels good. So now they think they are a hacker, what else do they need to conquer the world…..? Of course in their eyes the sky is the limit, and on wards and upwards they go. And this time instead of it being petty little games hacks, this time they begin tracing cards, looking on forums for card numbers, names and addresses.

Now that the so-called young hacker is in arms about his new discovery of talents he decides that this is what he needs to do and continually does it again and again – seeing how easy it is. But there is one little implication that they might have looked over. And that is the part that catches most of these hackers out. Their lack of technical knowledge means in fact that they are more likely to get caught than anyone else trying to achieve the same overall result.
In the BBC news article Kevin Hogan tells readers: “They do not even know enough to get a simple phishing or attack tool right”. This just purely backs up the whole point that the youngsters who try and make money from this type of life usually get caught due to a lack of technical skills, they see it being done elsewhere and they think it is easy.

Many people have many different views on the idealisms of hacking, but as far as the line is drawn it is still an illegal offence to hack. As detailed in the Computer Misuse Act 1990; unauthorised access to computer material, unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of other offences and unauthorised modification material. Now if you put this in parallel with the “Police and Justice” Act, the penalty for hacking now a days is anything from six months to two years in jail.

Now let me ask the question is it worth it??

Answers on a postcard!

Over the past five years I have been a fanatical gamer. Until recently I stay up as late as 3am gaming with other people around the world, trying just to get that little bit of an advantage over my fellow gamers.

One of my major achievements has to be my “EPIC” gaming machine that I built 2 years ago and now I hardly use it anymore.

I’ll go through the stats with you:

- Core2 Quad core 2.4Ghz Processor (over clocked to 3Ghz)
- 8GB PC2-6400 Dual Channel 800 MHz with 4-4-4-15 timings
- Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS
- Dual Gigabit Network Cards
- HD 7.1 Surround Sound
- 4 TB Maxtor Hard Drives

Now I don’t want to sound like I’m judging people, but I hope there are a couple of people around the world that at least read this and understand the memory timings and specification of that build.

After building that computer, I spent the next 6 months benching marking it and playing the wildest games out there on it. This included the very infamous “Crysis” which I can tell you right now, I played constantly on “Very High” graphic detail.
Crysis was the game that was marked by people as being the killer of all computers. This game would take your processor and attack it several times, back and forth before turning round to you and saying “Hmm, I don’t actually know what you want me to do” – boom!
After playing Crysis for a good 6 months, it became boring. The same missions over and over again, the same online players and then same idiots calling you a n00b while you’re the one trashing their ass.
With the boredom of “Crysis” gone, I moved on to the “Orange Box”. The “Orange Box” consisted of the “Half Life” series and also “Portal” and of course “Team Fortress Two”.
However, it all runs through “Steam”, built by Valve – one of the most annoyingly stupid pieces of software that has ever been made in the life of mankind. An application that constantly makes you remember your login details – cause if you don’t you can’t play your games.
The worst part of this software is that if you have a hardware fault or a software fault and you have to do some sort of rebuild. Now ninety percent of the time when you do a rebuild, you usually loose the majority of your less prioritised files. This includes all your game files for steam!
Now Steam’s major plus is that you don’t need the CD to run any of the games. You install steam, try and remember your login details and then download each of the games individually. Now if you’re on a slow internet connection, I guess you could say that I hope you don’t want to play your games for about 2 weeks.

Yes I moan a lot about Steam, most probably because I have had so many bad experiences with it, mostly do to stupid usernames, passwords and also hardware errors. It is a great system and a great application and I know people out there love it. But is there really a need in this day and age to have an application this can potentially cause problems like the above.
Overall if you want an application that you can download and purchase games through, constantly updates game content and allows you to play with player’s constantly across the world – then get steam. Otherwise, just go and buy normal games out of your local shop.

In the summer of last year I got myself an Xbox 360. One of these amazingly new fangled devices that stills sells today at some stupid price. I am a person that always likes to take advantage of new technologies and this included either the “Play station 3” or “XBOX 360”. However due to lack of money, I couldn’t really afford to buy a play station – even though they do look super cool.
Ever since that day, the Xbox has been what I play constantly. I hardly play games on my computer anymore, and if I do its only because I can’t really be bothered to turn the Xbox on and muck about switching the cables over to make it work when I am already on the computer.

Even though I hardly use my gaming rig for playing games anymore, I still actually use it when rendering in Photoshop and when processing a lot of pictures. Just the sheer spec of it makes life a hell of a lot easier. In truthness even though I spent a lot of money and time building it, it has honestly paid me back my money in gold (if that’s even a phrase – someone Google it).

Now many people will be wondering what the hell this has anything to do with, and to be honest the truth in the matter is that it’s just me. This is the kind of thing I do and the best part is that this is related to my job. Now that I am more of a techy, computer systems’ are really what I am mostly stuck in all day. And lets just say, when I’ve shown a few of the traits that I have (some people know them, some don’t) I think that I do what I’m required to do pretty well; maybe some people disagree but that is your own opinion, not mine!

Firstly I would like to make a note about one little application that (I think) shri talked about in one of his previous postings. The add-on in question integrates with firefox, and allows you to merge your mail (google, windows live), social networking (facebook, myspace) and other sites into a tiny little sidebar. Yoono as it is so greatly named describes that it will “Simplify Your Online Social Life”. Yeah it’ll do that, as well as most probably slowing your network connectivity down.

In looking into it, ‘Yoono’ depending on the number of accounts you have registered to it, maks on average 2 GET requests every second every five minutes. So lets say you have your windows live email, facebook and myspace accounts tied into this ever so “Sexy” toolbar. That is around about 60 GETS happening every five minutes.

Useful to slowing down your network speed, sin’t it

Fun times! Bring on the next blog a little discovery about so called secured networks…

Vista Product Red  edition: fight AIDS in Africa

It’s probably not enough of a selling point to make buyers out of
the operating system’s critics, but Microsoft will start selling boxed
copies of Windows Vista in a Product Red edition. Starting later this
month, customers will be able to purchase Windows Vista Ultimate in a
version that offers some proceeds to Product Red, a charity that works
to fight AIDS in Africa. The Windows version is not entirely new,
having been sold on several models of Dell PCs since early this year.
In addition to providing some cash to the AIDS charity, the Red version
of Vista also includes some specially themed wallpaper and sidebar
gadgets.

Last month, Microsoft also launched RedWire, an online music venture
benefiting the Product Red effort. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was an
early backer of the Red effort, but it took a while for the software
company to join it. It was beaten to the punch by Apple, which has
offered a Product Red iPod Nano for several generations. Red is not the
first special color in which Vista has come. In Japan, Microsoft sold a
pink-boxed bundle of Vista and Office. Amazon currently have the full
Vista PRODUCT (RED) edition up for pre-order, for $219.95; that’s $70
more than they’re retailing the standard, Vista Utimate version.
However those eligible for Microsoft’s US student-edition can get the
PRODUCT (RED) upgrade for $64.95.

source: http://www.rlslog.com/

• Never play something that is going to make you kill yourself!
• Never play the said play list over and over again for a week
• Never distinctively play Rage Against The Machine, and then play Spanish music

• Quite frankly nobody wants to cut their wrists at work, so why make everything depressing
• Never say someone else’s music is pish when you never give other people a reason to hate yours

• Never put down Metallica when there is no reason to.

There lesson, everyone enjoy the rest of the day

Boom

AND THAT WAS THE START