Downadup / Conficker

There have recently been a spate of articles about the Downadup / Conficker Worm in the tech media and regular media.  Upon first hearing about the worm, I was impressed with its abilities.  There was a patch to prevent the worm put out by Microsoft, so I thought that it would be interesting to see how it propagated.  If a system was updated and patched, there shouldn’t be a problem.  Any security expert worth their salt will tell everyone to keep Windows systems updated and patched.  Many even recommend that a novice allow the Automatic Updates download and install the monthly updates automatically, without user intervention.

The security researchers at F-Secure have stated that this worm has the potential to infect up to 1/3 of Windows PCs.  This is due to the systems having not been updated, even though the patch was available in October.  That is a lot of computers.

Now for a personal perspective.  4 out of 4 of the systems that have been brought in my store in the last week, have been infected with this little beauty.  It becomes pretty obvious when the AV / Malware products that the customer is using will not update.  Of course, none of the system had been updated for quite some time.  One I believe had not been updated since purchase.  So I guess the message has not gone mainstream.  Only the “geeks” update their systems.

The question is, “How do we get the ‘average joe and jane’ to keep their Internet connected Windows PCs updated?”.

WTF People?

This woman brings her grandkid into the store on an irregular basis.  In other words, every once in a while.  The kid is a complete little asshole.  I mean it!  He may be young, but his manners, even for his age, are complete shit.

The only reason they every come to the store together is to rent movies and occasionally a video game of some kind.  Today the kid came in and began a campaign of destruction in the video section of the store.  The grandmother did nothing.  An employee asked if he could not move all the video cases around the store.  OK!

The kid finally picks out a couple of movies.  The total is $4.70.  He then proceeds to pull out a change bag and dumps it on the counter.  WTF?  That is mean.  The clerk holds him temper and calmly counts the change, which happens to be all nickels, and the total is $2.95.  The kid starts to argue that he thought he had $3.00.  FINE!  In either case, the kid doesn’t have enough money for the movies.  So now he turns on the charm.  He wants grandma to fork over the money for the movie.  Of course she does.  This despite the fact that the entire time he was here, he was a disrespectful little …..

I want to know WHY people don’t start taking responsibility for their kids?

The Idiocy of Wi-Fi Continues

23 January 2009

After listening to TWIT, Security Now and several other podcasts that are relevant to the tech industry, I have heard that more and more people and businesses are using WEP and WPA on their wireless networks.  While WEP is certainly NOT the best solution, it is something.  WPA is widely considered the minimum protection by many, if not most, of people who care about the use of wi-fi networks.  I certainly encourage my customers to use it when they purchase a wireless network setup.

Now for the “IDIOCY”!

A phone call came into the store shortly before we opened today.  The person on the phone states to me that he works for a local business and gets his wireless from a different local business.  He is having trouble connecting, because the router is over 40 feet away and goes through several walls.  Well that can be a problem.  He wants an antenna that will “improve” his connection.

The first thing I ask is if he actually has permission to use this connection.  He states that he in fact does have permission.  OK.  I tell him that we do carry some antennas that “could” help, with emphasis on the “COULD”.  We discuss the type of wi-fi adapter that he has to determine if one of the antennas we have will actually work for him.  He tells me that he has a desktop PC with a wi-fi adapter in the back.  I as if it is USB, and he tells me that it is not USB.  Well, it sounds like we can help.

When the guy shows up in the store, he has a different story about the wi-fi adapter.  He actually looked at it and turns out it is a USB adapter.  Since he is not giving me the “tech toy hacker” vibe, I don’t even suggest soldering on an antenna to the USB device.  He says that it might help if he was to get past one of the walls and wants to know if we have an extension cord for USB.  We can do that, so he purchases one.

During to course of our conversation, I was able to get more info on his “wireless setup”.  He business and “several” other businesses all use the high speed DSL connection that it paid for by one of the local businesses.  This is probably against the “terms of service”.  He did tell me he has to put in a “security code” to connect to the wireless.

Now for the scary part.  The business that they are all using for their wireless connection is an insurance company.  I know quite a bit about the network used in the insurance company, because I know who installed the network equipment.  He was told that the owner of the business wanted a wired/wireless network for “in office” use only.  There would be 2 wired users and 1 wireless user.  Only the office staff would have access to the network.  It was setup with a WPA key for the wireless user to prevent anyone from using the network that was not part of the office.  Windows file sharing is in use on this network and none of the shares have passwords as per the owners requirements.  This means that anyone connecting to the wireless network has access to the shares on the original network setup for the insurance company.  I repeat, anyone connecting to this network can now SEE the files that have been shared by the insurance company.

25 January 2009

I wrote the original post above two days ago.  I was amazed and a little upset at the time and thought that the person who came in the store may have had incorrect information or somehow figured out that WPA key from the insurance agent and was using the wireless network without permission.  I was, however, wrong in this assumption and the original information was correct.  The insurance agent is giving out the WPA key to his wireless network so that the other businesses around him can share the connection.  He pays for a business class internet connection from a local ISP, then splits it out with the neighbors.  He is using consumer grade equipment, a Linksys WRT54G, to create this wireless connection.  The Windows shares are still unsecured as the insurance agent is unaware of how to change it and seems unwilling to do so.  This is unfortunate as the shared data is there for to taking by anyone who is able to connect to this network.  I have to hope that the people who have access to this data are honest people.

The moral of my story is this, if you are going to go to the trouble to secure your wireless, please don’t just give the key out to whomever.  If you are going to be benevolent and share an internet connection that is connected to a network, by all means, protect sensitive data.  The sharing of your network should not give everyone the keys to the kingdom.

Stupid Answer of the Day (24 January 2009)

Ok, here is a NEW Topic!

The Studip Answer of the Day

He is the question.  “What is your last name?”

Answer. “Imnew.”

You may have noted that the answer given is actually, “I’m New”.  But, this caused some cnfusion with the clerk working, because the customer obviously didn’t answer the question properly and didn’t clarify.

Please, the correct answer is (INSERT LAST NAME), not a statement about your status as a dvd renter.

Stupid Question of the Day – 24 January 2009

What is the differance between the 3ft. AV cable and the 6ft. AV cable?

A Business Lesson on Time

Today after work I hurried to the local emergent care clinic.  Since I work 30 miles away it takes about 30 minutes to get from my place of work to the clinic, which is in the town that I live.  The phone book stated that they were open until 5:00PM, so I figured that I would get there at close to 4:30PM.  That would give me a little leeway and not piss off the people working at the clinic.  I manage a business and know how it is when someone walks in the door at the very last minute with something semi-complicated.  While my appointment would be pretty straight forward, I didn’t want to take the risk.

Well I arrive at the clinic at 4:34PM.  As I am walking to the door I notice a sign saying that they “DO NOT ACCEPT ANY PATIENTS AFTER 4:30PM”.  Well, naive me, I walk in anyway, because there is no one sitting in the waiting room and I think that they would make an exception for 4 minutes.  Wrong!  The lady in the lobby tells me that they are closed and stop accepting patients at 4:30PM.  I look around.  There is the lady in the lobby that appears to be picking up.  There is a receptionist at the check-in desk, sitting and waiting.  The physicians assistant who is the person that I would see is standing in the doorway behind the receptionist having a conversation about a movie that she wants to go see.

Now I am the one that is pissed!  But I know how to behave when faced with adversity.  I tell the lady sprucing up the lobby thank you and turn to leave.  She asks if I am feeling okay.  Is it something that can’t wait.  WTF?  I say that I will be fine and walk out to my car, get in and drive off.

I recount this story for a reason.  This group of people have taught me a very valuable lesson.  I am too nice.  Actually all the people that I work with are too nice.  We say “OK” to people that say “F-U-C-K YOU” when the tables are turned.  A very valuable lesson indeed.  Tomorrow, I am going to work and direct my employees that we are not going to be so nice anymore.  If it is 8:30AM and we don’t open until 9:00AM, we are not going to open the door.  Hell, we are not even going to answer the phone until 9:00AM.  People need to learn their place.  We are the people in charge of this store and we do what we want.  9:00Am is 9:00AM, you will not be served until then.  If someone is wandering around our store at 8:55PM and we close at 9:00PM, we will just ask them politely to make a selection now or leave the store.  We have lives too, you know!

The previous paragraph is in jest of course.  There are just too many alternatives in our line of work to be an asshole like that.  But man would it not feel good!

Salmonella

A few years ago I was in the middle of an outbreak of salmonella at the youth residential treatment facility where I was working.  It started innocently enough, a kid vomited in the middle of the night.  Anyone who has worked with kids will know that one kid vomiting is not an uncommon occurrence.  The kid was not feeling well, so another staff member and myself helped him get cleaned up and back to bed.  As it was my “Friday”, I left that morning to enjoy the weekend.

Upon my return two days later, there were many kids vomiting.  The staff working at night were overwhelmed with sick children.  We did the best we could to take care of them, but we knew that something was different about this illness.  It was nasty and spreading fast.

The next day the nurse was alerted to the number of students that were sick.  And by this time the staff were also ill.  She reported this to the Medical Director, a local doctor, who informed the CDC.  We had a significant percentage of our population sick with the same illness.

Well this kicked off an invasion of medical people.  They were mostly nurses and medical students recruited from the state university.  They began an investigation into the cause of and origination of this illness, which by this time had been identified as salmonella.  It was a horrendous mess.  They wanted to know anytime anyone got sick with anything.  They also wanted multiple stool samples from students and staff.  They sent these really nice military style stool sample collection devices.  They were complete with a nice little white “cowboy hat” from stool collection.

In the end, the “researchers” concluded that the milk was to blame.  I came to my own conclusion, but it was different from the “official” ruling by the CDC.  Fortunately, I never became ill even though several students vomited around me and I am pretty sure that I at some point came into contact with body fluids on accident on at least one occasion.

The recommendation from the CDC was that we do a complete sanitation of our campus.  Then we also needed to implement a stringent hand washing program.  In a few weeks we were salmonella free.  But I still have lasting memories of this time in my life.  Salmonella is not a fun sickness, but fortunately it only last a week or so.  If it was longer, I fear that it would kill people left and right.

Now there is a peanut butter and peanut paste recall.  I was watching the news and imagine my angst when I realized that I had eaten one of the products on the recall list.  Not a fun realization after having seen the effects of salmonella on so many people.  I am hoping that I don’t get ill, but I am not that worried at this point.  This is due to the fact that I ate the product over a week ago and I am hoping that if I was going to be sick, I would already be sick.

My recommendation to anyone worried about this outbreak is to go to the site above and see if you have any of the foods on the list.  If so, get rid of it NOW!  It never hurts to clean you house, especially any areas where people touch things often.  My wife, the nurse, says that we should all wash our hands during the day.  The trick is to not be excessive about it.

More Employee Troubles

Seems that the “norm” around here is to immediately do nothing a soon as the “boss” leaves.  Well actually the owner seems to be supporting this behavior as near as I can tell.  He is afraid that we are going to “offend” the employees if we actually make them do their work!

So, here I am, stuck in the middle.  The owner wants certain things done and the employees are not completing assigned tasks.  Somehow I am need to correct the behaviors of the owner and the employees at the same time.  For some reason, the owner has no trouble getting on my ass about things, but when I assign a task to the employees and it is not getting done after I go home for the evening, he says nothing.

I am a little stuck!  I have had several discussions with the employees, but since this is not supported by the owner, my talking is for nothing.  Yes, I have also had discussions with the owner about the situation that he is creating for me, but this is not changing.  I am just getting pissed off.

Another problem is actually one of the employees that likes to take some of the ideas to the owner for implementation.  These are things that I have been pushing for for some time.  Now, the boss has said several times that we should listen to what the “kids” have to say, because they are young and “in-touch” with the younger crowd.  That’s fine, but when your veteran manager tells you that we should do something and you don’t, then don’t do it when the “new employee” says that you should.  The manager will just think you are a dumb asshole.  You should also remember that it was someone else’s idea first and quit running around telling everyone what a genius the new employee is.

Customer Tries to Inflict Guilt Trip

At 9:30AM the phone rang at work.  This is nothing unusual in itself, but the subject of the conversation was different.

Seems that the customer had been in the store on Sunday asking about having a refrigerator delivered to her house that day.  Well, for starters, we are basically only open on Sunday for video rentals.  We used to be closed, but we had several requests from customers that we be open on Sunday.  We tried it for a little while and it paid for itself, allowing us to provide more hours to our part-time employees.  When the employee working told her that we don’t do deliveries on Sunday, she tried to play a trump card.  She told him that the former owner, from 7 years ago, had told her to have the employee call the owners at home.  Now I don’t know what she thinks “former” means, but to me it means “they no longer have any thing to do with the operations of the store”.  Needless to say, she did not have a refrigerator delivered to her home immediately on Sunday.

When she calls at 9:30, she tells me that she had tried to call the store early in the morning, but no one answered the phone.  I asked her what time she tried to call.  She called at 6:00AM and 7:00AM.  Well the store opens at 9:00AM (she knew this), so why the hell did she think that someone would be here at those times.  Now, we do have people here at 8:00AM to open the store.  Had she been patient and called a little later, someone would have been there to take her call.

Now, for the reason why she was calling now.  She wanted to let me know that because she had been in yesterday, she had not gotten a call back Sunday night and she was unable to reach us at 6:00AM, she had called another store, in another town and purchased another refrigerator.  WTF?  Ok, am I supposed to be upset?  By this time I am realizing that this lady is a nut.  She called attempting to make someone feel guilty about her not purchasing an appliance from a “local” business.  Out of all the people involved with this cluster, I think that she is the only one feeling any guilt.  I am certainly not.

Actually, the woman did manage to accomplish one thing in all this.  She managed to waste about 3 minutes of my time!

Dish Network Intermittent Signal Problems

This guy calls to say that he is having problems with his Dish Network system.  Ok, it happens.  We live in an area that has many problems when it comes to long term dish installs.  The wind blows, it snows and we have significant ground movement in certain areas.  Due to these things, most people learn to deal with them.  For the most part, people out here are pretty independent and since it is not that hard to do, they do it themselves.

This guy calls to say that he is having a problems with the signal going out and coming back.  He says that it has been happening 2-3 times per week, but recently it has been worse.  He asks me what the problem is.  Well I go through the common causes and he says that it can’t be any of those.  Ok, if that is so, I have nothing for him.

So, dumbass, asks me again what it could be.  I tell him that most likely it is a dish aiming problem that has come up since the dish antenna has been on the house so long.  Otherwise, he has an equipment failure and since both of his receivers are doing the same thing, that pretty much narrows it to a cable problem.  That is, unless the antenna is off, the more likely problem.

He now wants to know how to fix it.  I tell him that he can either point it himself or pay someone to do it for him.  I also offered to let him bring in his equipment to have it tested here, but that is not something that he wanted to do.  Why is it that some people think that when you buy something it is guaranteed forever?  The system was put in 5 years ago and many, many things can happen in 5 years.  It would be impossible for a small or even large business to continue to foot the bill for something that was purchased years ago.  Especially when these things can be affected by “acts of god”.