Hurricane Labs

Gaining Access to a Check Point Appliance – Physical Access Trumps All by Tom Kopchak Recently, one of my co-workers and I were tasked with reconfiguring a Check Point Appliance for use as the main firewall in a lab environment we are building for some internal testing. Because we both are recent hires (and thus, the low men on the totem pole), we were not given passwords to the devices or any other useful information regarding their previous configuration. We were expected to learn how to manage the devices, reload the Check Point software, and configure the equipment entirely from scratch. Unfortunately, the Check Point devices refused to play nicely and cooperate with our mission, instead insisting on throwing fatal exceptions whenever we attempted to reload the software. With our attempts to reload and configure the devices properly crippled, we were forced to se... (more)

Go Google Yourself

Go Google Yourself By Leigh Goldie Raise your hand, how many of you have Googled yourselves recently? I knew it – you haven’t! I believe you should do it right now. Why, you ask? Because that’s what other people are doing to learn more about you. Shouldn’t you be the one who controls what anyone sees and discovers about you when searching online? Looking for a job, hiring a new employee, meeting new people, and finding classmates for a reunion are simply a few of the reasons people may be googling your name. What will they find? Type in your name and many things will come up: Y... (more)

Beacon Podcast – Episode 014

Hurricane Labs Beacon Podcast Episode Number: .014 – McMaster Breaks Things Edition Hosts: Bill Mathews (@billford), Matt Yonchak (@mattyonchak), Patrick Sayler (@psayler) Zappos - Database breach - Customers advised to change passwords - Class action lawsuit - Bill mentions Batman World IPv6 Launch - “Speaking of problems…” - Bill doesn’t think it will work 13 Security Steps - Build knowledge - Share knowledge - Maintain - Improve White House Labels SOPA Censorship - Political ranting Apple Education Event - The future is now - Text books on iPad Hack of the Week Zappos.com security b... (more)

Why The Cloud Matters

Why The Cloud Matters or “What Can You Can Do to Stop Whining and Join The Cloud” By: Bill Mathews Disclaimer: I work, live, and play with whiners and I’m one of them. It’s that group of geeks that just don’t “get it”, they just have a problem living in the modern world. “I don’t need to change, I’m fine the way I am.” You know the ones I’m talking about. Like I said, I’ve been one for a really long time. This is a problem, mainly for the progress of technology and its assistance in the evolution of humankind (or when the robots want to actually take over the world) but there ar... (more)

2011 Hackademic Challenge Wrap Up

2011 Hackademic Challenge Wrap Up By: Bill Mathews At this year’s Information Security Summit, Hurricane Labs was proud to co-sponsor (in cooperation with the Summit) the 2011 and first Hackademic Challenge. We were proud to welcome teams from Baldwin-Wallace (2 teams), Youngstown State University (2 teams), Tiffin University (1 team) and Kent State University (1 team). The challenge was designed to be both fun and educational, hopefully we achieved that goal. Here goes the summary. Challenge Goals As with our previous hack challenges our team designed this one with as many “real... (more)