The Dangers of the Internet

The Internet is a scary, scary place and lots of bad things can happen to you online.  This is the story of something that happened to.

There I was, happily reading Reddit.  And a link comes up for “100 cover versions of Stairway to Heaven”.  Long story short: I just listened to Dolly Parton singing “Stairway to Heaven”.  Once it started, I was paralysed and couldn’t shut it down.  Now, I’ve lost all belief in God.  Remember kids, the Internet is a scary place.

Hang this up in your time machine. [via Reddit]

Hang this up in your time machine. [via Reddit]

A rogue CA? Now that’s dangerous.

Well this is a new one for me. Rather than look for a short term phishing attack, I’m now getting spam that is targeting a nice long-term compromise of my machine:

"Beginning March 17, 2009, the Northern Trust Business Passport Center will use a new Certification Authority (CA) to issue end-user certificates. If no one in your organization has a digital certificate, you will need to download your primary digital certificate file. Installation is quick and simple.

Proceed for further information:"

Installing a new Certificate Authority is a great idea for a hostile. Opens up all sorts of attack vectors that would normally be protected by lots of browser warnings. I’m impressed, and a little bit scared.

My Wordle.

My Wordle.