The Network Administrator

This has been out there for some time now. A brand new Firefox add-on called “FireSheep”  http://wiki.twit.tv/wiki/Security_Now_272 lets anyone who is connected to the same Wi-Fi or Ethernet as someone that may be using Facebook or Twitter hack their account easily with just the click of a mouse button.

The link below shows just how easy it is to install firesheep.http://codebutler.com/firesheep

The goods news, there are something’s you can do to protect yourself.

If you use Firefox, these add-ons should do the trick:

• HTTPS Everywhere — this gem from the Electronic Frontier Foundation is about as good as it gets. By default it forces most popular websites to use HTTPS, and you can add your own rules for other sites. This is one of the few add-ons that I use everywhere
• Torbutton — this solution is slightly more involved (it’s for power-users), but if you want to be really secure and anonymous, the Tor network is a fantastic solution
• Force-TLS — this is like HTTPS Everywhere, but doesn’t come with a built-in dictionary of secure sites. Adding them is very easy, though

Chrome users, due to a limitation of the browser, aren’t quite so lucky. There is no way to force HTTPS with an extension. You may have read elsewhere that KB SSL will help you, but it won’t. Instead you need to use a secure SOCKS proxy. This isn’t particularly hard, it does involve a bit of work.

• A guide for Windows users, using SpoonProxy
• A guide for Mac users, using Meerkat — our sister site TUAW has a guide that might help, too

Opera and Internet Explorer users: you too will need to use a SOCKS proxy; just follow one of the guides above.
Ultimately, though, if you use unsecured Wi-Fi networks you will leave yourself exposed. The best solution might not be to install add-ons, but to ask your local coffee shop owner to secure his network with WPA2. The entire problem would go away if big-name websites used HTTPS across the board, too.

Qualys Websitehttp://www.qualys.com

They will even give you a FREE Scan, when you sign up for a FREE two week trial.

http://www.qualys.com/forms/trials/qualysguard_pci_trial/

I have written about then nmap command line interface in the past, but I want to make sure you are aware of a GUI Nmap tool to scan IP addresses and urls.

Zenmap Website

http://nmap.org/zenmap/

Zenmap Download Page

http://nmap.org/download.html

Check out this video below, mastering the Nmap scripting engine.

Mastering the Nmap Scripting Engine – Fyodor & David Fifield – Defcon 18 from Gordon Fyodor Lyon on Vimeo.

http://www.secmynet.com

You can scan your router. firewall,etc and make sure you only have the ports you need open.

With nine “Critical” and five “Important” updates, October’s patch Tuesday is going to be pretty important to say the least.

Microsoft will be addressing at least 34 vulnerabilities.

See the complete details here….http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-sep.mspx

Available from http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials
the program is designed to stop common threats such as viruses, spyware, rootkits and Trojans. It runs on Windows XP, Vista and 7, in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions.

Also check out..http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

Sometimes its faster and easier to just use the windows system restore and go back to sometime before the malware was installed.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CrackingWEP

This tool checks your computer for infection by specific, prevalent malicious software (including Blaster, Sasser, and Mydoom) and helps to remove the infection if it is found. Microsoft will release an updated version of this tool on the second Tuesday of each month

If you havent installed this I would recommend doing so. You may already have it, in that case select start run type mrt.  

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en

conf t, ca generate rsa 1024

If there is an existing key that you need to clear, issue ca zeroize rsa

I am always suprised at the number of wireless access points that are unsecure. At the very least I would recommend not broadcasting your SSID, if possible use a security mode such as WAP with a encryption of TKIP or AES. Some devices depending on age may not support security modes beyond WEP. Before you go out and buy a new routers or access point check to see if you can upgrade the device software.