Dumsani Website Design Solutions: The Internet Braces for the Crazy Shellshock Worm

Dumsani Website Design Solutions: The Internet Braces for the Crazy Shellshock Worm: A nasty bug in many of the world’s Linux and Unix operating systems could allow malicious hackers to create a computer worm that wreaks ...

The Internet Braces for the Crazy Shellshock Worm

A nasty bug in many of the world’s Linux and Unix operating systems could allow malicious hackers to create a computer worm that wreaks havoc on machines across the globe, security experts say.
The flaw, called Shellshock, is being compared to last spring’s Heartbleed bug because it lets attackers do some nasty stuff—in this case, run unauthorized code—on a large number of Linux computer servers. The flaw lies in Bash, a standard Unix program that’s used to connect with the computer’s operating system.
The good news is that it doesn’t take long to patch the bug. At internet infrastructure provider CloudFlare, admins scrambled for about an hour this morning to fix the flaw, which was disclosed late on Tuesday. “We got 95 percent of it done within 10 minutes,” says Ryan Lackey a security engineer at the company.

The flaw is being compared to last spring’s Heartbleed bug because it lets attackers do some nasty stuff on a large number of Linux servers

Because Shellshock is easy to exploit—it only takes about three lines of code to attack a vulnerable server—Lackey and other security experts think there’s a pretty good chance that someone will write a worm code that will jump from vulnerable system to vulnerable system, creating hassles for the world’s system administrators. “People are already exploiting it in the wild manually, so a worm is a natural outgrowth of that,” Lackey says.
To exploit the bug, the bad guys need to connect to software such as PHP or DHCP—which use bash to launch programs within the server’s operating system


There are still some important questions about the bug. One is whether other operating systems that use Bash—Mac OS, for example—are vulnerable. Another big one: how many linux server applications and appliance-like Linux devices—things like storage servers or video recording devices—might be vulnerable to the flaw. Many of these Linux systems to not use the Bash software, but those that do could be vulnerable to attack and difficult to patch.
In the grand scheme of things, Shellshock is not as big of a problem as, say, phishing attacks, which continue to trick internet users, says Robert Graham, CEO of Errata Security. However, it’s “slightly worse then Heartbleed,” he says. “It’s in more systems. It’s going to be harder to track them down and patch them, and you can immediately exploit it with remote code execution.” Heartbleed let criminals steal your username and passwords, but it didn’t make it quite so easy to run your own malicious software on a vulnerable system, Graham says.
Like Heartbleed, the new bug has been around for a long time, and was introduced in a widely used piece of open source software. In the wake of Heartbleed, the open source community came up with some money to beef up the security of several popular open-source tools. And it may be time to add a few more—including Bash— to that list.

Link: http://www.wired.com
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The number of websites has burst above one billion and is growing apace, according to figures updated in real time Tuesday by online tracker Internet Live Stats.

 Tim Berners-Lee, considered the father of the World Wide Web, touted the milestone on Twitter -- one of the most prominent websites in the mushrooming but sometimes murky Internet world.

It comes as the agency responsible for managing addresses on the Internet expands choices far beyond ".com" and ".net" to provide more online real estate for the booming ranks of websites.

The World Wide Web turned 25 in April this year.

It was born from an idea in a technical paper from Berners-Lee, then an obscure, young computer scientist at a European physics lab.

Berners-Lee was working at CERN lab in Switzerland when he outlined a way to easily access files on linked computers, paving the way for a global phenomenon that has touched the lives of billions of people.

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5 Ways to Increase Job Satisfaction

5 ways to increase job satisfaction    

   

Finding satisfaction in a job can be hard if the economy is bad and there aren’t many options when it comes to a career. Before giving up and living with the disappointment, try to find ways to enjoy your job.

1. Remember why you took the job: When you first applied for the job, what drew you to it? Did it offer a nice pay package or benefits? Does the company have certain beliefs that agree with yours? Remembering the positive aspects of a job can overshadow the negative and refresh your outlook on your position.

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2. Work for a promotion: If you’ve been in the same position for a long time it may be time to work towards a promotion. Look into job openings within the company or ask management if there are any opportunities coming up for a promotion.

3. De-clutter your work space: A dirty workspace reduces energy flow and can make employees feel depressed. Whether you work at a desk or in a warehouse organisation goes a long way. Create open spaces with minimal distractions. Then take a few minutes to admire the space and the difference it has made in how you feel about work.

4. Take a vacation: Being overworked can make even the most dedicated employee feel unsatisfied in their work environment. Book a few days off from work and spend it doing what relaxes you, even if it’s just lying on the couch and reading a book. When you come back to work, your outlook will be refreshed and you can approach your career with new eyes.

5. Find a new job: If nothing can give you job satisfaction at your current place of work perhaps it's time for a change. Even if a new job is not available at the moment, start looking. It may be enough to help you appreciate your job a little more since another can be hard to find.

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