IMC Computer Consulting Web Log

Dear Valued Clients,

The recent successful cyber attacks have been very frightening for myself at IMC Computer Consulting.

Rest assured, IMC or any of our clients have not experienced recent (known) breaches.

I have become more and more aware that the frequency, success rate, and scope of the recent attacks have increased dramatically and frightfully.

It is my duty to educate myself and my clients to realities of cyber threats and provide solutions.

I pondered the following,  lying awake late last night:

Hackers and hostile governments (China for one) are now seemingly routinely copying extremely sensitive data including:

• Usernames, Password, credit number and related information sufficient to financially defraud tens of thousands of customers.

Victims include:  Sony, Sega corporations in Japan.  Sony was REPEATEDLY compromised March thru June THIS year.   Sony’s IT budget is probably in the 100’s of millions annually.  It is mind boggling to think of the financial tragedy bestowed on Sony and others by merciless hacking.   The Hackers Kick them when their down which really sucks.   Like the Earthquake, Tsunami and Fukushima nuke nightmare aren’t enough for poor Japan.

• Just July 14 2011 or so, breaches with extremely sensitive US military top secrets including the next generation fighter AND drone aircraft plans, War plans for Iraq and Afghanistan were also apparently compromised.

The victims were the Pentagon, yes the Pentagon and unlisted defense contractors.  24,000 design documents and files were copied. This happened over months!

• Even the security companies are vulnerable:

RSA Security, yes giant RSA inSECURITY was seriously hacked back in march. They say there is no link between the March RSA hack and the more recent Pentagon/Contractor catastrophic hack, but I am not totally convinced. RSA provides its once secure services to the military, your bank, other financial processors and services, your police station, your muni,state and federal governments.  I will leave the rest to Conspiracy Theorists.

How frightening is it when the organizations we rely on protecting our cyber security are HACKED Themselves.

So I thought to myself,    “How safe am I and my customers?”

I want to be able to answer that  with:

“As safe as I can make it.  I will proactively assess and attack all threat possibilities and do everything in my power to prevent them.   I am  always vigilenty looking for new threats and solutions”

The good news to the small guys like you and me is that the attacks listed above were TARGETED specifically with CUSTOM written virus, NOT the garden variety release to the general public.  That is why these viruses were able to run, unaffected by the best anti-viruses available.

In the near future I will be working with your organization to proactively improve our cyber security by taking the following actions:

1.  Ask  “What if a breach happened to your organization and  what is the WORST CASE scenario and what can be done about it.”  What could be the financial, legal and personal losses?
2. Implement vulnerability testing on public facing assets such as servers accessed from the internet and so much more.  Take action on the results.

Together we can work together to avoid the tragic results of cyber attacks,

Respectfully at your service,

John Hill

General keyboard shortcuts
CTRL+C (Copy)
CTRL+X (Cut)
CTRL+V (Paste)
CTRL+Z (Undo)
DELETE (Delete)
SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
F2 key (Rename the selected item)
CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)
CTRL+A (Select all)
F3 key (Search for a file or a folder)
ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item)
ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object)
ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)
CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items)
ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)
F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)
F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)
ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window)
CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)
ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu)
Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command)
F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program)
RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu)
LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu)
F5 key (Update the active window)
BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
ESC (Cancel the current task)
SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)
CTRL+SHIFT+ESC (Open Task Manager)

Dialog box keyboard shortcutsIf you press SHIFT+F8 in extended selection list boxes, you enable extended selection mode. In this mode, you can use an arrow key to move a cursor without changing the selection. You can press CTRL+SPACEBAR or SHIFT+SPACEBAR to adjust the selection. To cancel extended selection mode, press SHIFT+F8 again. Extended selection mode cancels itself when you move the focus to another control.

CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs)
CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs)
TAB (Move forward through the options)
SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options)
ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)
ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button)
SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)
Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)
F1 key (Display Help)
F4 key (Display the items in the active list)
BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)

Windows Explorer keyboard shortcuts
END (Display the bottom of the active window)
HOME (Display the top of the active window)
NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)
NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)
LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)

You know the old cliché:

The shoemaker’s family always goes without shoes.

So in exact opposite response to that I have revamped and documented my network here.
I did this AFTER a major revamp that includes replacing the router/firewall with a VOIP device (goodbye AT&T landlines) and the two switches with a single green 16 port semi managed gigabit switch.
Not that it did not work before, I just wanted it to be more elegant and simpler.
I have had this whole design in my head for ever and thought maybe I should write this down, lest I forget and something breaks.
My goals were to create a cost-effective, reliable, elegant, green and high performance network and document the whole design. So here it is.
My goal in creating the documentation was to be able to hand it to anyone approaching my skill level and them being able to understand and maintain the network.
I think I have succeeded in both areas.
When (not if) something breaks, it may come in handy to help expedite repair. It should help me to maintain calm in what would certainly be a tense situation-especially since I won’t have to rely solely on what is in my head!

This shoemaker has very nice shoes!

What do you think?

Click below to see PDF of IMC’s Network.
IMC Complete Network Operations

Some kids at a firm IMC works found a way around IMC’s WorkSafe(TM) Webfiltering- They simply changed their network setting’s DNS entrys to Google’s DNS service. Smart Kids. Some may say, just reduce the user level in Windows from administrator and then they could not do that.
True, but IMC did one even better: With two simple firewall rules I put the rascals in their place.
1. Deny ALL DNS LAN->WAN port 53 UDP traffic. Yes, all of it.
2. Allow all DNS LAN-> (IP of real DNS provider)

Ok, I repeated rule two for the secondary DNS of the real DNS provider.
Of course with this firewall, the ALLOW rules have precedence over any DENY rules.

Please click below to help a no-kill Doggie sanctuary.

http://pep.si/f89GiL

Link to IMC’s Google’s Places Page,  check it out:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=16139780926885329767&q=imc+computer&hl=en&sll=33.788974,-117.960591&sspn=0.015979,0.033023&ie=UTF8&ll=33.796963,-117.977114&spn=0,0&z=16

I looked for ever for good pictures of the multitech  ISI9234PCIe and was so disapointed.  So i took a risk and bought the card.  Suprise!  It is a full length card.  I had to replace the servers case.

multitech ISI9234PCIe 8 port fax/modem pci express complete package view. Notice the two beige cables. Those are the break out cords, four RJ-11 (or whatever the standard phone plug is) phonelines each. conveniently labeled

Good shots were not even availble on the web site. geesh.  

multitech ISI9234PCIe 8 port analog fax/modem view with dimensions. finally