KAZEY JOURNAL

Do you happen to hang out in star bucks, Macdonald’s or around a public library where internet browsing is actually free? Well I do, considering it gives me the opportunity to get some fresh air and a chance to check out what the world has to offer.

But beware, it comes at a price, a hidden one !! Free as it may sound, it is an unsecured network, and an idiot browsing the same network could sniff the traffic for passwords and confidential information. This is not funny at all because you could become a victim.

So how do I secure myself from such idiots, who think they have the right to steal and use my information, because I happen to like free surfing?

I use Tor. Tor helps me anonymize my web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and other applications that use the TCP protocol.

It also comes bundled with an application named “Privoxy”, which prevents my computer from automatically sending personal information to websites.

Well so how much does it cost? Well everything comes at a price, and Tor certainly does come with a price too. It does cost me time because it is slow. It is slow because WebPages are transmitted through several servers around the world to get to the computer of the user.

You can download Tor from http://tor.eff.org/download.html.en . So Beware of free wifi hotspots, you have been warned.

Protecting information from leaking to the internet is a necessity, especially when you partake in daily risky transactions that involve you visiting sites you do not trust. Tor gives you the assurance that some of your information would not be leaked out.

Website: http://tor.eff.org/index.html.en

Tor is software that contains a bundle of applications that helps secure online activity by safe guarding certain information from leaking from your computer to the internet.

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Blog Worm, have you been infected yet?

Payment processors play an important role in the world of E-commerce. It is either you are using it to pay for a product or service or to get paid for offering a product or service. Whichever position you find yourself, you are left to do the worrying, on whether the payment processor you are using is worth using or not. Security, Reliability, and Support are primary concerns in decision making.

The method normally been chosen by the online public, depends also on certain factors, which is normally brought about by the restrictions set by the processor or payment gateway. This restriction is generally determined by the laid down regulations sometimes call terms, that governs the existence of the processor.

I have been opportune to use a lot of payment processors either at the receiving end or from the sending end, be it for pleasure or for business. So, I would say I have the prerequisite to give feedbacks to the services been offered by the processors I have had the opportunity to use.

The payment processors I have been opportune to use are Paypal, Emocorp, Stormpay, 2checkout, E-gold and Moneybookers.

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In what I would call an unbelievable shocking news, the greatest USA tops the latest spam-spewing list.

Sophos has published its latest report on the top 12 spam-spewing countries for Q4 2005. USA still tops the charts; but for the first time, the country accounts for less than one quarter of all spam relayed.

Dubbed the “dirty dozen”, Sophos’ list of 12 countries in the period from Oct to Dec 2005 has

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How safe is your online information? Not nearly enough, due largely to the secrecy of personal passwords being easily compromised by hackers and “shoulder surfers.”

But how about a solution that allows you to use images instead of words or even numbers or the combination of the two? This next wave of computer password security could possibly result in greatly enhanced security for online retailers and sensitive information stored on computer hard drives.

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In reference to my new clients in the post Probability of them being scammers is high?

that had the same transaction ip, but different profile. Well they do happen to be what I taught they were, infact a sophisticated one.

They were pro-spammers, I mean they could actually successfully cloack their headers to avoid the logging of the source. Even using grep to catch the logs of the yahoo account they were using was useless.

So i had to review the acccount properly and found out they were using a mail bomber named “RAH MAIL BOMBER VS 2.0“. Hmm really couldnt find much info on search engines but I would check underground networks to study more about the script , when I get the time too. For now. May the soul of their four accounts rest in pieces.

We got 4 orders on thursday and payment on friday for 4 web hosting accounts with different profiles but the same transaction ip.

What do you do as a hosting company? Do your cancel the order and classify it as fraudulent order or do you give them the benefit of the doubt, on the pretext that they might be ordering from the same cafe at the same time?

Well i choose the later, which means I am taking a risk, but they are under high surveillance . I would keep you posted.

well I was chatting with my partner and all of a sudden a message came which didnt look like it came from him.

(MASS) Checkout this site injoy http://www.geocities.com/tracity/?200529?20057

Stupidly, out of a rush, because the person happens to be my partner, I clicked on the link, and well it brought about a yahoo login screen, well I did think it was a yahoo member site, you know the group sorta thingy that requires you to enter your username and password before you login. well so it is, I entered my username and password, I fell for it. But something caught my attention, the page wasnt in english, besides a geocities site which it was, it looks a bit wierd. I knew something was wrong. Wooohoo, password stolen.

Well so i had to rush back to yahoo, change my yahoo password immediately. And here I am happily blogging, almost a victim of password theft. Well how can I be sooo stupid ???

Dont enter your password if you decide to check the link out. Dont say I didnt warn you

On a recent scan read on the articles in the Tech area of the washington post, I paused at an article titled “Technology Fueling Wave of Phishing Scams” By Brian Krebs to give it a thorough read. And It was indeed worth it. It came out very educative.

It started out with a very interesting replay on the virtual interactions that is very common in carding IRC Chatrooms. This article makes the scenarios and the issues humourous whilst still maintaining the gravity of the situation at stake. It began with……

It was just a name, one of dozens flowing by in a little-known Internet chat room for identity thieves. Sandwiched between requests to barter various kinds of ill-gotten data (“Trading one valid [credit card] for my 5mb proxy list or hosting” ... “[need] linux host to put my site on.. i have cvv2’s, msg me to deal”) and inane chatter (“wat u upto?”) came the simple, unadorned lines: “card type: Debit Card … Name: Dallas Thomas … city: Stillwater … state: ok.”

The article went on, relating the various scenarios, which Inadvertently brings about the question, whether there was anything like privacy, especially when it comes to Credit cards online. This question does arise, with the type of information that could be fetched from hacked online databases, just by keying in the credit card number of the victim. Well we can all see that the protocols of validation is bringing about security peril now. Peoples identity is at stake !!

Although many disturbing issues where raised, There was a particular area that cracked me up. Subtitled “Honour among Thives?“. Relaying the scenarios of the possibility of a scammer scamming another scammer.The interchange of scamming itself needs to be secured in the aspect of ensuring that the seller, gets paid for the fraudulent information rendered.An excerpt from that goes like this…..

The seller must find a trustworthy “casher”—someone who will convert stolen credit cards into cash without absconding with more than their agreed-upon portion of the money—while trying to stay one step ahead of law enforcement and corporate sleuths. For the buyer, the tough part is verifying that the data for sale is legitimate and usable.

Its really alarming on the degree this scamming has reached. I am really concerned. The article really brings out everything that goes on underground. The questions that is still left at large are . Would there be a future solution, to bring a halt to this fraudulent transactions ?. andWhat would the future of e-commerce be like, in relation to the security concerns which remains at large?The article anyway is a worth read.

You can read the article Here.