I was running an errand the other day in Downtown Los Angeles. As a big fan of classic Hollywood and detective fiction, I relish in the landmarks and mainstays, from the outdoor urban paradise of MacArthur Park to the crowds of bustling travelers at Union Station; from the authentic Hispanic heritage so beautifully displayed on Olvera Street to the architectural marvel of the Bradbury building (where, by the way, the most cinematic scene from “Blade Runner” was shot). But none of them tickle me as much as the iconic Felix the Cat sign atop the almost century-old Felix Chevrolet. Continue reading “Why Felix the Cat is a Detective Hero”
Tag: Hacking
All Hackers Are Phonies (Sort of)
Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man. If mountain ranges and oceans can be overcome, then anything built by man can be overcome. ~ George S. Patton
Let’s face it. Unless you are trying to fix a busted drainpipe or something similar, your adversary is a living, breathing being. You can hunt deer, fish, a wolf, a serial killer, or even a hacker. And conflict can be easily boiled down to living beings and their tools versus other humans and their tools. Continue reading “All Hackers Are Phonies (Sort of)”
Steve McQueen’s Advice About Online Threats and Leaks
I saw the classic Hollywood disaster film The Towering Inferno in my twenties, two decades after it was released. I watched it after I read Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel
Hogwarts Should Conduct Background Checks
Background Checks – Who are the Slytherin anyway? And why is Hogwarts teaching them the ancient and forbidden magic arts? My wife is going through the process of re-watching all of the Harry Potter films. She’s read all of the books ahead of the films, watched the films in the theater and now she has decided to see them all again. Perhaps this is in preparation of the grand opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter next year at Universal Studios Hollywood. Besides the first one that had Gary Oldman in it, I always encouraged Wifey to take a niece or nephew to see these movies. Mission accomplished. Somehow, though, I have a feeling I’m not going to be able to weasel out of attending the theme park. To quote a great song of the 1970s “The Things We Do for Love”. 10cc had it right. Continue reading “Hogwarts Should Conduct Background Checks”
Branch Offices for Counterfeit Luxury Goods
During one of my strolls through the dark alleys of the web I came across another interesting black hat search engine optimization technique: branch offices for counterfeit luxury goods installed within legitimate sites. At first observation, the website I saw selling counterfeits looked like any other. But, after a closer look, the URL appeared to be much longer than the typical domain-based URL like fakestuffseller.com. Instead it looked like this: http://legitimatesite.com/includes/ice/ _vti_cnf/lib/ brand/boots/brand-boots.php. I noticed an extra directory ‘/includes/‘ that looked out of place and perhaps would not be in the normal structure of this particular legitimate website. My next step was to test my theory and delete the extra crap (/includes/ice/ _vti_cnf/lib/brand/boots/brand-boots.php) from the URL, leaving it to be simply legitimatesite.com. As I has suspected this led me to a perfectly legitimate university website.
The two questions you are asking right now are “how?” and “why?”. Allow me to enlighten you. The “how” is similar to what I explained in another recent article I wrote regarding black hat search engine optimization techniques where hackers find weaknesses (like unlocked doors) in websites whose security software is not up to date. Once that vulnerability is detected, the hacker can install thousands of his own websites within your website without your knowledge and, perhaps, for years before you even notice anything is strange. The reason they do it is so that they can create tens of thousands of websites selling counterfeits. Since this is done on a mass scale, the criminal is only minimally affected when your lawyer takes down poor old legitimatesite.com. He has an unlimited supply. Now I’m going to finish my coffee.
