Category: Stuff-Related

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Editorial Note

The admin portion of maintaining this site involves mostly deleting spam, spammers and various other cretin’s untoward input. That’s probably one reason you don’t see much in the comments section. Rest assured, this site is heavily censored from racist, misogynistic and any and all forms of alt-right hate speech. The message for those people is: Don’t waste your time. In the half second it takes me to click the delete button, you lose the time attrition game bigly and nobody ever sees your crap.

OTOH, if you feel agreeable, don’t hesitate. Unlike other public media platforms like Facebook™ for example, anything you leave here gets no further processing by me – except possibly the delete button.

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Stuff Maintenance

Sorry for the past week’s downtime and resultant poor viewing experience running on the backup. I now have a clue why my WordPress does not migrate well, but no clue what happened to the system. Something or someone took out the mainboard, or it just decided to go FUBAR on it’s own.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and this one is the need for a proper fallback path. So I’ll build a more appropriate cold spare that doesn’t run an older version of WordPress, unable to properly import the current site. Thanks again Synology.

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New Network Architechture

The current state of a long-running 5712 project to lock things down in the face of ever-degrading Internet security is depicted below. I meant to do this a long time ago, but it was too easy and inexpensive to use the readily-available COTS tools. And it’s hard. That’s why it took so long, and also one reason top tier network and system security people command big dollars in the high tech job market. The ongoing Solarwinds fiasco finally drove home the need for me to get this done.

Time to fill in some blanks

The long, broken line sweeping around the right side and top portion of the pic is the path anything other than Wifi takes in and out of our network. Incoming to the public-facing web, gets passed by the DSL modem firewall to start with. Then an enterprise class NIDS(k) continuously analyzes all traffic on the Wifi-Centurylink DMZ portion of the network in real-time for malicious content, while a true stateful firewall running on my personal workstation(f) routes everything in and out of the wired network on a different subnet.

The Synology NAS now sits powered down as a cold storage backup location. If the vendor installs updates, they have root on the box. That just doesn’t work in my environment any more after Solarwinds. I’ll take my chances with open source. The web site and everything else system-wise now hosts from the 2nd gen Ryzen(f) at the core including database, security cams, proxy, firewall and routing. The only data it will hold is the security cam video in the final stage of this project, coming soon as I save enough cash to spend a couple grand building a new workstation and buy some 10GbE parts for a high-speed edge between the data repositories.

Here’s what it looked like in the last iteration a couple years ago. This is what happens when a Systems Engineer retires too soon. 😉

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Migration Complete

2nd Gen Ryzens are only a couple years old in the market, but already in the high tech history dustbin. It’s hard for me to imagine how the 3rd Gen 5k model going into my next build can really be that much better. This old 7/27 now forms the core of a fairly sophisticated SOHO architecture, hosting a ton of services, all while doing the network firewall dance underneath.

The system dashboard screengrab below was taken while simultaneously running a local copy of the data volume and encoding an mp4 video with a well-resourced Windows VM running in the background. You don’t notice even the slightest slowdown working at the console. I thought the reviews were too good to be true. It spent the past year+ basically wasted as strictly a personal workstation content creation machine.

Kinda like race cars – there’s lots of people driving them, not alot of real race car drivers around, tho. It’s not as much about the horsepower, as how you use it.

It idles at around 30% across the board with the cams and logs pruned.

Software Security is a BIG reason to stay away from the commercial kind. Here’s the other good reason. I’ll try to get around to updating the network diagram to better show whats happening after things get settled in.

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Stuff Migrated

Data storage finally outgrew the 1Gb network’s capacity to effectively back it up in a timely manner. Then Solarwinds effectively demonstrated how vulnerable users of commercial software are. The nefarious n’er-do-well cyber vector is officially un-constrained. Remote users may not appreciate it, but the site is now hosted on a beefy 2nd gen Ryzen with plenty of RAM, running nothing but open-source software. Moving things off the old Synology NAS was a week-long project fraught with bumps in the sysadmin road and learning updates aplenty.

The video-monitor project mentioned in the last post yesterday was a 3-day debacle, due mostly to my own rusty admin skills. There were import issues with the WordPress site, so look for missing images and broken links until I go back and fix everything. I’ve yet to have a WordPress site of any size import correctly.

The Synology stuff is great kit, but aimed more at corporate customers with deep pockets on the high end, with minimal performance and capability on the low end. My DS418play is a great little mid-tier 4-pocket raid machine that served well for several years, performing all the typical LAMP duties associated with a web site like this. But it’s mine in name alone, with no OS/application control. Can’t trust it anymore, and it contains spinning disks. Pretty sure I never trusted the DSL router either, but at least it’s a throwaway item.

Planned new topology will be a 10Gb edge behind a proper stateful firewall. Activating a 2nd interface on this machine will be the day it moves into pure server status and I start building a new workstation. That last portion of the project awaits funding.

The 5712 Trumpomania silver lining: Build Back Better!

Late Update 8 Jan: Turns out every local WordPress link is off by the same .php value and there’s ALOT of missing carriage returns. I’ve been displeased with the direction WordPress is heading – this just confirms my fears. I believe this is actually the first time I’ve run the latest version. Synology is always versions behind and even runs an ancient kernel. I’m sure i’ts been securely Synolygized, but…

I have a feeling alot more software licences are going to soon be re-written, or alot less COTS is gonna be found in the networks. Can’t trust ’em.

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Here's Your Election Rigging Evidence

The 2020 election season was interesting for me on a different level than most.  This little blog site started six years ago while I was still working for Lockheed on the SBIRS program.  I’d previously done Systems Security there before flying Ikonos almost nine years with them and DG-Geoeye.  Knowledge of Facebook foibles and other shared social media platforms gave me pause.  So with the tools and skills to go it on my own, that’s exactly what I did.  What I did not realize was it gave me a telling clandestine cyberspace POV, as t’were.

The Blogs are just sort of an online personal journal.  Retirement was approaching, the girls were growing up with lots of changes to keep track of appearing on the horizon.  I’ve never been much for talking on the phone, introverted, so it’s also a good way for family and friends to stay in touch with minimal intervention on anyone’s part.  One of the really cool things for me tho, was exercising enterprise-class network security – sort of a pro-to-hobby transition thing.

Going back even further in my professional history to the early 2000 time-frame, I helped operate a little system called ASIM for HQ AF Space Command at Peterson, along with another box called “the honeypot.”  At that time we were tracking the Russians in Moonlight Maze.  Twenty years later, I have a new pot sitting on the shelf above my desk here at home in Frederick, Colorado.  Things on the CyberSec front were mundane and boring for the most part, with normal background scanning and generic ‘sploit noise.  But the email bots increased dramatically in 2016, along with an alarming number of Russian subscribers!

It was pretty obvious what was going on, with reports starting to pop up in the mainstream media, so I just ignored it with normal user maintenance.  Then Mueller, and the rest is history.  Fast forward to 2020, and it’s time for another go.  I kept close tabs on them this time around and the results were conclusive.  At least one abuse report I submitted pointed to the Microsoft Azure gang of electioneering hackers, taken down just weeks before the election.  Somebody in Russia downloaded my entire site the day after Trump went to Walter Reed.  APTs (Advanced Persistent Threats) based in France, Romania, Hong Kong and others made repeated attempts to compromise my WordPress site – a site hosting demonstrably anti-Trump content.

So what?  It almost completely stopped on 3 November 2020.  I guess the money ran out, maybe?  Or the contract only ran until election day?  Today the Orange Fuckwit will be seen on National TV once again decrying election meddling and fraud.  Donny Boy, the biggest liar of them all – Emperor Trump – wears no clothes.

Yep – my word against his.  Not alot of links and supporting evidence.  Actual forensically-preserved relevant data could be released to the appropriate authorities upon request, but I imagine they probably know way more about it than I do by now.  People been having a hard time re-writing authentic digitally-recorded history of accounts for things that actually happened lately – eh Rudy?  Who you gonna believe?

EPILOGUE – Don’t ever forget how this election transpired remains in evidence painting a large swath of people living in the USA today being fine with White Supremacy, Racism, Corruption, Treason and other GOP-hosted niceties, regardless of the veracity of the information they so irresponsibly consume.  That’s just the unwitting supporters.  I’ll always wonder what percentage of ALL voters realized just how close we came to losing this thing – not the election.

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Internet Anonymity

It’s the new bandanna – I call it my bandito-kerchief, donned at the doorways of all public buildings I enter these days, fewer and less frequently than ever before.  100 years ago they only showed up on the occasional bank robber or cattle rustler around here.  2020’s bandito-kerchief is called Internet Anonymity.

Despite online service providers’ attempts to reign in the problem, it’s not going away, because it simply cannot.  The ease and speed with which bogus accounts may be created and exploited on various social media platforms fuels their cash engines.  Zuckerberg could not possibly care less who or what generates his revenue, as long as he can stay on the right side of the law – law only recently going into development.

Take this blog for example.  There is little to be found here not contained in public records or seen by simply walking past 5712 Wetland Loop on the sidewalk.  The problems start, where people have things to hide.  The Internet is showing it’s teeth after a 20-year gestation period.  It’s hungry and social media is feeding it the wrong information.

Knock, knock – who’s there?

In “Book III of Odes,” circa 20 B.C., Horace wrote: ‘Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires. We, their sons, are more worthless than they; so in our turn we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.’

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The Battle is Joined

Let’s do this, mutherfuckers!

Never thought I’d team up with Microsoft. I hate those fuckers, too.  Fucking rat bastards everywhere.  Funny how a common enemy brings people together.  Shifting attention to the ones we can see today…

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Editorial Note: Stuff

It recently occurred to me since becoming a brutally honest political pundit, carelessly expressing my raunchy, even sadistic-at-times political opinions, a revelatory disclaimer should be presented.  I’m not a Democrat – never was.

I’ve been a staunch conservative all my voting life. Not because I personally held any beliefs or motivation in that direction, but only because that is what influences in my life led me to think was a favorable political position, generally speaking.  Never voted for issues or people, just along party lines, when I did vote.  I voted for Trump.  My calculus was simple, in the last, best example of not doing my homework:  Not a politician – check.  Not Hillary – check.  Done deal.

Why should I spend alot of time on that crap?  Until recently, politics to me was just the elite fighting over money, nothing for me to worry about.  Maybe I was too busy to really pay any attention until after I retired.  It was like a double-whammy.  Suddenly I had the time to follow all this disturbing politics bullshit I was hearing.  Talk about cognitive dissonance!  The useful idiot I expected to keep a lid on things by inaction, incompetence and generally non-governing, turns out to be a treasonous criminal.  And those expected results from things not getting done?  Wow.  Just wow.

I’m certainly not a Republican now, either.  The difference between smart and dumb people isn’t that smart people don’t make mistakes.  They just don’t keep making the same mistakes over and over again.

It’s about time to do a little radical remodeling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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July 4th 2020

Doubt I’ll get any arguments this year is different.  We keep hearing about inflection points in multiple active national crises.  One thing is not gonna change, if I have anything to say about it.

“Our founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence more than 240 years ago, and within the document were certain unalienable rights, for many we continue to strive to live up to that promise. But we believe America is a dream, a dream worth fighting for.”
Best Fireworks from 2020 4th:

I had only the fire:

Taking a long time to get that deck done.

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Chinese Gettin' Antsy

Background network noise coming out of China has started climbing noticeably again.  Haven’t seen much in the way of email bot traffic like a few years ago, but those were mostly Russian.  Chinese scanning and generic exploit bot activity has ramped up considerably in just the past month.  The lion’s share reaching my server is shown on the thickest red line below:

Here they come again.

The scary part about this is what we don’t see.  Check your passwords, and remember Moonlight Maze.

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2020 is Ramping up in Russia

I hope the Intel and Cyber agencies not already sufficiently neutered by Trumpomania have a handle on this.  At least we’re throwing some money at it.  The propaganda campaign will be significantly more difficult to detect and thwart this time around.  eMail bots I’m seeing appear to be in some cases, actively managed, with shades of reality attached.  It’s not going to be a full frontal assault like last time.  It will be low, slow, under the radar.

Let’s hope there’s not any good AI behind the FB and Twitter accounts.

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Opening it Up

After randomly analyzing the bot traffic during and after the 2016 election, I eventually had to cut off user access here.  It wasn’t as much a security issue as building into a sheer volume of annoyance issue for me, at least.  It still amazes me how brazenly overt and easily identifiable they were.  How was it not outed far earlier?  I’ll cook up a conspiracy theory on that later next week.  OTOH the MO is familiar:  Blatant bad behavior hiding in plain sight.  Where else have we seen that lately?

Anyway, It’s been awhile now, so I guess it’s safe to see if the Russkies (or Ukraranian, or Chinese or whoever the fuck state or local bad actors) email bots are still out in force.  Registration is now enabled.  But there will be a delay getting passwords out, and they will be seen coming from acewiza@gmail.com.  

Comment requires only a “from” email.  Real registrations for real people who aren’t afraid to be themselves on the Internet are delayed as mentioned above due to new security requirements engendered in Trumpomania – the greatest shitshow on earth.

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The Russkie Bots are Back!

The pattern is so obvious, it’s literally embarrassing. And they’re known as hackers. Meh. I guess they get a little annoyed when their Buddy Assad’s chemical weapons facilities get destroyed. Oh well, better luck next time…

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Bye-bye Russians!

Please come back, but just let me know you are a legitimate subscriber! Otherwise get another email address and try again. And OBTW, it wouldn’t hurt to go vote in your upcoming election, with fresh knowledge of why you and/or your bots may not be welcome here.