Chris F. Waigl

links for 2009-06-22

The Usability of Passwords | Baekdal.com

It is often said that there is a trade-off between usability and security. This article shows a way to passwords that are usable and secure — and explains why and how.

(tags: security password authentication)

chris @ June 23, 2009

Buggy 'smart meters' open door to power-grid botnet • The Register

Ugh. "To prove his point, Davis and his IOActive colleagues designed a worm that self-propagates across a large number of one manufacturer's smart meter. Once infected, the device is under the control of the malware developers in much the way infected PCs are under the spell of bot herders. Attackers can then send instructions that cause its software to turn power on or off and reveal power usage or sensitive system configuration settings."

(tags: security energy botnet)

chris @ June 15, 2009

Lars Eggert : DKIM Deployment Trends

This is a very strange survey. The methodology makes basically no sense to me — are they guessing the selector? "The scripts that update this page retrieve the names of the web sites that are most popular across the globe, as well as in select countries, from alexa.com in regular intervals. They then check whether the DNS entry for each site nameThe scripts that update this page retrieve the names of the web sites that are most popular across the globe, as well as in select countries, from alexa.com in regular intervals. They then check whether the DNS entry for each site name reflects that it uses DKIM. reflects that it uses DKIM."

Not to mention that having a DKIM public key in a DNS record does not equate to deploying DKIM!

(tags: dkim authentication email)
Reminder: You Can't Trust the "From:" Line in an E-Mail

SEC staff falls victim to email From: address spoofing. Though the post contains a blunder regarding DKIM.

(tags: email DKIM spam SPF security)

chris @ June 14, 2009

chris @ June 2, 2009

chris @ May 31, 2009

40 Useful and Creative Infographics

Infographics and visualizations of data of a large variety of types. Something to think about — how do they achieve their effect? What works well, what less well? Also, good uses of typography.

(tags: design visualization infographic typography)

chris @ May 12, 2009

Ben Ramsey » Blog Archive » A rev=”canonical” Rebuttal

The anti "rev=canonical" position.

(tags: web html url linkrot)
The five ages of the brain: Adulthood - life - 05 April 2009 - New Scientist

Brainpower declines from age 27, apparently. But not wisdom.

(tags: science brain mind)
Chris Shiflett | Save the Internet with rev="canonical"

This is for the pro "rev=canonical" side of solving the URL shortener problem.

(tags: web html url microformats)
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog | Specify your canonical

Lucid explanation of rel="canonical" for indicating the canonical form of the URL for a given page of web content.

(tags: development web google html url seo)
Sorting Algorithm Animations

Educational fun. Built on Google's AppEngine.

(tags: programming visualization algorithms sorting)
Unweary | The Security Implications of URL Shortening Services

"A hacker or spammer is empowered by using a "benign" URL shortening service that everyone uses and everyone trusts." URL shortening services from the angle of what they can do for the bad guys.

(tags: web spam security url)

chris @ April 13, 2009