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Educational, News May 5, 2021

New Android app for IT Security News with push notifications

ITSecurityNews.info is my security news aggregator, which collects RSS feeds and publishes them in WordPress automatically. A long time ago I created an app using AppSpotr, but since then things have changed. So, I decided to write one myself. Of course, not from scratch, I took an open source project called fNotifier and changed it to my needs. The app remains running as a service and polls regularly (see screenshot below – Settings) for new feeds.   And after one rejection due to Policies, it was approved in the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.itsecuritynews   It is actually enough to visit the website on a mobile device and you will see immediately on the top of the page an offer to install the app.  

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General April 29, 2021

Twitter is strange when it comes to business accounts

I created my company’s Twitter account, called  @EndpointCS . Obviously, I tried to add the birth date of the company: 1.1.2015. Well, imagine what happened next with my brand new account: it got locked because the owner of the account must be at least 13 years old. And my company is only 6 years old. I had to submit a photo of my ID in order to get it unlocked. Fortunately, and very surprisingly for me, the process took a few minutes. Did they automatize it ? I think so… otherwise it couldn’t have been so fast.   So, Twitter, get your processes straight. In  case you’re wondering, there is no official way to set up a business account. You still need a person to create it and mark it as such. And that person must be 13 years or older. 🙂  

Educational April 1, 2021

Stack Overflow introduces … erm… copy/paste limitations

If you use Stack-Overflow today, you will be surprised to see this popup:     This has caused an explosion of Reddit comments here: https://www.reddit.com/r/webdev/comments/mhkume/stack_overflows_new_copypaste_limit/ When you click on “Learn More”, you get to see this : Aha, 3 keys for $39.99 … riiiight 🙂   If you click on the “Pre-order” you get to see this:     April Fools joke. Hahahahah 🙂     But those guys from Reddit didn’t laugh, at the beginning. 🙂

General February 22, 2021

A post about searching a software developer on LinkedIn that didn’t go as planned

I was and still am in need of a freelance Android developer with experience in Java. After trying all other possibilities (my own network) I decided to post the job on LinkedIn. Due to the special requirements of the project, I needed a very close and good cooperation between myself, the customer and the developer. For this reason, I asked in my post on LinkedIn to be contacted by freelancers in the CET +/- 2 Timezone. Now, if you look on a map, this means approximately until Turkey in East and Portugal in West. I did not mention restrictions on nations because I have no prejudices with whom I work. I work now and have worked in the past with people from all around the world and I can really work with anybody. I published it on Thursday the 18.2.2021, on Friday I closed the comments, and finally I erased it on Saturday 20.2.2021 in the evening.   Let’s have a closer look on the post.   I wrote specifically : I need an experienced freelancer PM me only if you meet this requirement… “Companies are excluded”, because I want to build a long-term relationship with that person.    Let’s…

News September 30, 2020

The Virus Bulletin Conference 2020 VBLocalhost is live and my video presentation is there

Here is the conference link: https://vblocalhost.com/conference/ You need to register first (free).   Here is my paper: One year later: challenges for young anti-malware products today I have to say that the VB team did a good job with the editing 🙂   I think I was too nice with Defender :))) What do you think ?   Here are some , more or less. funny facts about the session filmed: I did the recording in a one day, just before leaving on vacation. I needed more than 8 hours to do it I filmed myself 10 times, 8 of them from start to end a few times I made mistakes a few times my children made some noises once came the post once the cat started to meow so loud in front of my office door, that I had to stop The 8th attempt was the one you see there and it was taken in two parts.

security September 24, 2020

Defender Application Control or Defender SmartScreen – what can you do to not be blocked by it

Ever wondered why do you get one of these popups for your Windows program, despite of the fact that it is signed with a standard code signing certificate ? Applications that are signed with a standard code signing certificates need to have a positive reputation in order to pass the Smart Screen filter. Microsoft establishes the reputation of an executable based upon the number of installations world wide of the same application. Since you haven’t published your application as yet (and therefore the reputation hasn’t been established as yet), the Smart Screen will continue to flag the application. If you have a standard code signing certificate, some time will be needed for your application to build trust. Microsoft affirms that an Extended Validation (EV) Code Signing Certificate allows to skip this period of trust building. According to Microsoft, extended validation certificates allow the developer to immediately establish reputation with SmartScreen. Otherwise, for some time, until your application builds trust, the users will see a warning like “Windows Defender Smartscreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.”, with the two buttons: “Run anyway” and “Don’t run”. In newer Windows version you see the…

antivirus, Educational, News August 21, 2020

Speaking at the Virus Bulletin Conference 2020: ‘One year later: Challenges for young anti-malware products today’

Source: https://vblocalhost.com/presentations/one-year-later-challenges-for-young-anti-malware-products-today/ A year ago, at VB2019 we presented for the first time an overview of how the anti-malware world looks from the perspective of a young company trying to enter the market: how they try to build products, how they try to enter the market, how they try to convert users, and what challenges they face in these activities. In this new paper we will present an overview of the situation for such a company after one year of experience. We will look at the situation from several angles: that of the consulting company helping them to build the product and enter the market that of working with certification companies regularly, checking the products for detection and performance that of working with Microsoft to make the company compliant and keep them compliant One year later, many still have a hard time understanding that the security market is no longer the Wild Wild West, but we also see that a lot of visible efforts are being made to improve. This means that compliance with ‘clean software’ regulations is becoming an issue. We will present some interesting statistics and compare data from the past with current data. The young companies still…

General July 24, 2020

Facebook advertising at its best

It is known that the Facebook advertising is very aggressive sometimes and that it very often fails. Very often I find strange ads and I click on the details in order to to see why was it displayed to me. If you click on Hide Ad: And then, for example, click on “Irrelevant”:   Then, you can click on “Why did I see this ad?”. I found very strange to see one ad for some kind of sales training and process improving (?!). To my surprise, I’ve seen that the ad was targeting “Star Wars” fans… :))   The other two requirements are always the same: – 18+ – location Germany     So, is this intended and there is actually some study that shows that Star Wars fans are more inclined to buy consulting for improving sales ? What do you think ?    

Phishing, Spam & Phishing July 20, 2020

Aggressive phishing against Strato.de customers

Strato.de (now belonging to 1&1) is one of the biggests hosters in Germany. Since a few weeks we see a lot of emails containing various texts that try to convince the user to login to his strato.de account and perform some actions. Strato published on their blog also a post about these fake emails: https://strato.de/blog/achtung-aktuell-wieder-phishing-mails-im-namen-von-strato-im-umlauf/   Fortunately, the phishing email is very simple and it just hides the target URL with the official strato.de URL. Pretty much all phishing filters detect it and block it.   The subject of the email is very aggressive: Last notification before judicial recovery The email says that the customer has one more day to pay. But now comes the funny part. The email says that the payment should be done via credit card, in order to make it “easy” for the customer. 🙂 To may this even more credible, they write that the introduction of a new payment method costs 1€. After that, they even communicate the name of the company that will try to retrieve the money from the customer: Intrum (www.intrum.de)   The problem I can’t stop to wonder how are the phishers obtaining all domains from Strato. I have all my…

News, security May 11, 2020

My IT_SecurityNews account nominated for “Best tweeter” account in the European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards

European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards – VOTE FOR YOUR WINNERS: Vote here . Yes, it is a Google Form… but there is no malware or spam 🙂 Don’t forget to vote IT_SecurityNews! The seventh annual European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards sponsored by Qualys and powered by Eskenzi PR, will be bestowed upon the best cybersecurity bloggers, podcasters, Tweeters, Instagrammers and vloggers in a live virtual event on Tuesday 2nd June 2020. Visit IT Security news and the Twitter account.

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