Ethereum DAO Hack

The hack makes me think about the reliability of crypto-currency. If we go with the assumption that there is no bug-free software, it is always only a matter of time (hence patching is of utmost importance), then how do we have our faith in bitcoins or any other altcoins?

How can they recover the stolen money? They can't -- at least not without destroying the entire principle of cryptocurrencies

Am very curious to see what this community decides to do now. Hack details.

A synopsis of the hack and the Robin Hood hack.

Serious Security Flaw in Skype

The researchers found several properties of Skype that can track not only users' locations over time, but also their peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing activity, according to a summary of the findings on the NYU-Poly web site.

Full story is here.

Security Around Off The Shelf Softwares

IT Security consultants are very often asked to validate or scrutinize a ready to use software available in the market. Now, as everyone knows, not all softwares would be equally useful in each and every organization. Similarly, not all softwares would be equally secure in all organizations. Hence, here is a very useful and handy checklist for evaluating any off the shelf software.

An IT security expert’s checklist to buying commercial off-the-shelf software

Is Open Source More Secure?

Someone very recently asked me if Open Source Softwares were better and more secure, compared to their proprietary (read: Microsoft) counterparts.

Today I came across a blog from Jack Danahy, and he talks about this same topic is some serious depth. He also goes on to explain how companies use and misuse these misconceptions to make their own sales pitch.

Net conclusion: All software has some amount of vulnerability within them. Users should always remember to trust reputed software vendors and should always keep up with the latest security patches.