Stories by M.E. Kabay

Traffic analysis and inference

One of the interesting techniques used in signals intelligence is called traffic analysis: inferring important information from relatively obscure byproducts of information structure and transmission.

Antivirus antiperformance

Nothing is free - an observation sometimes known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics and sometimes referred to as TANSTAAFL (or TINSTAAFL), standing for "There ain't (is) no such thing as a free lunch." This certainly applies to fighting viruses.

Logic bombs, Part 3

Today's software is often provided by external suppliers. Individual contractors and small software firms play an important role in creating systems especially designed to support the essential operations of countless organizations. Larger firms provide commercial off-the-shelf software to millions of users.

Logic bombs, Part 2

It is very difficult to stop a determined inside attacker from modifying production code to install logic bombs. Preventing such bombs requires a thoroughgoing commitment to quality assurance and strict separation of duties.

Logic bombs, Part 1

A logic bomb is a program which has deliberately been written or modified to produce results when certain conditions are met that are unexpected and unauthorized by legitimate users or owners of the software.

Deterring and exterminating RATs

There is no easy way to stop installation of back doors in software. Because the back door code is passive, just waiting to be activated, it doesn't do anything particular while its carrier program is installed. The rules for preventing infestation are the same for RATs as they are for other cybervermin.

Examples of back doors

Back doors (or "trap doors," as they are often called) have been known for decades. Let's look at some of the history. Willis Ware wrote about them 32 years ago:

Frauds and hoaxes

I can't tell if it's just me, but the number of "Nigerian 4-1-9" fraud letters I'm receiving has been growing to the point where I receive at least one pathetic letter per day telling me about how some creep in a developing country (Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique, to name a few) has found or inherited a huge cache of illicit money skimmed off from the starving masses.

Back doors

In the 1983 movie "War Games," a young computer cracker (played by a very young Matthew Broderick) becomes interested in breaking through security on a computer system he's located by automatic random dialing ("war dialing") of telephone numbers. Thinking that he's cracking into a video-game site, he eventually manages to break security by locating a secret password that gives him the power to bypass normal imitations. He goes on to play Global Thermonuclear War - which nearly results in the real thing.

Voice mail security

Last month, The San Jose Mercury News reported that a voice-mail message from Hewlett-Packard Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina to Chief Financial Officer Robert Wayman had been leaked to one of the newspaper's reporters.

Bye-bye, data

It is best to obliterate sensitive hard disk data at the time you discard the files. File shredder programs (use any search engine with keywords "file shredder program review" for plenty of suggestions) can substitute for the normal delete function or wastebasket.

Ripping yarns

Riptech recently released its "Internet Security Threat Report" summarizing "Attack Trends for Q3 and Q4 2001."

Controlling superzapping

Powerful system utilities that bypass normal controls can be used to damage data and code - but network managers can control such "superzap" programs by limiting access to them, and software designers can help network managers by enforcing capability checking at run-time.

Security feature: Piggybacking

Using someone's logged-on workstation is a favorite method used by criminals who have gained physical access to devices connected to a network. Such people can wear appropriate clothing and assume a casual, relaxed air to convince passersby that they are authorized to use someone else's workstation. Sometimes they pose as technicians and display toolkits while they are busily stealing information or inserting back doors into a target system.