S Korean banks and media hacked

A computer virus has disrupted computer networks run by some South Korean banks and TV broadcasters.

According to a BBC report, two banks (Shinhan and Nonghyup) and three TV stations (KBS, MBS and YTN) have reported that their networks shut down without warning on Wednesday afternoon.

Computers crashed and could not be restarted.

The report makes a diversion into Independence Day-style science fiction with this insightful observation from KISA, which aims to make South Korea the "strongest country on internet":

There were also reports of skulls popping up on some computer screens, which could indicate that hackers had installed malicious code in the networks, the Korean Internet Security Agency said.

Skulls appearing on screens does indeed sound like a symptom of malware, but it's so flippant that it doesn't resemble something a state-sponsored attack would usually produce.

Rather sensibly, officials are neither ruling out North Korea's involvement nor are they claiming that it is responsible.

UPDATE: KBS employee Luke Cleary has uploaded a photo of his hacked PC's monitor (see below).

A KBS computer screen, today.

Seagate website infects visitors

A website run by hard disk manufacturer Seagate has been infecting visitors with malware for nearly a month (at least).

According to a report from Sophos:

SophosLabs has been tracking an infection of Mal/Iframe-AL on Seagate's blog since late February.

SophosLabs informed Seagate of the issue back in February, but at the time of writing the site remains infected.

Apparently the technical culprit is a couple of dodgy web server components (Apache modules) that are directing visitors to malicious websites using iFrames.

The malicious sites are using Blackhole exploit toolkits to infect victims' systems.

Secure your home network for £10

This wireless broadband router cost
less than a tenner

If you want to share your internet connection safely, separating guests' computers from your own, here's a very simple and cheap way to do it.

Essentially it involves adding a second router to your existing network and using that to create two networks - a guest zone and a private zone. Both provide wired and wireless internet connections, but guests are unable to connect to the private PCs, tablets or whatever.

I've found it increasingly common for friends and visiting family to ask to use my wireless broadband - as if it's an essential resource such as running water or access to a toilet.

While wanting to accommodate their needs, I don't want to expose my home network to the security issues that come when allowing connections from other people's systems.

These computers could be infected with malware, which in turn could capture network traffic, attempt to spread malware to other systems on the network and so on.

One answer is to create a second, secure network that only you will use. Everyone else will be restricted to a 'guest' network that is locked away from your own systems but that provides wired and wireless internet access.

Here's how you can do this for around £10.

Essentially what we're going to do is create a classic DMZ using two firewalls. Each firewall will also have its own wireless network. Those systems connecting to the 'outer' firewall can only see each other and the internet. Those connecting to the 'inner' firewall are invisible to those on the outer one.

Thus we have a guest network running on the outer firewall and an extra-secure network running on the inner one. For a basic diagram that 'explains' this idea, see far below.

In addition to your existing network you will need:

1. A wireless broadband router.
2. An Ethernet cable.

I recently picked up a new Dynamode broadband cable router for less than £9 from Amazon.co.uk.

Ensure that your new router is *not* an ADSL model. You want the internet (WAN) port to be an RJ45 Ethernet socket and not the RJ11 type that you find on ADSL modems and routers.

Before you start, check the following details from your existing systems and router:

1. What is the router's (gateway) IP address? (e.g. 192.168.1.1)
2. What is the netmask? (e.g. 255.255.255.0)
3. What are the DNS settings? (e.g. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4)
4. If you use DHCP, what is the range of addresses in the pool? (e.g. 192.168.1.2 - 254)

Decide what IP address you want to allocate to your second, private network. Let's say we'll use 192.168.1.200. You should remove this address from the DHCP pool or face potential (but unlikely) problems later.

Allow your existing broadband router (cable or ADSL) to run as usual, leaving the wireless network active. However, unplug all computers, switches and other devices from the router. We'll call this router the 'original' router.

Turn on the 'new' router and connect its WAN port to any one of the available Ethernet ports on the original router. Plug a computer into the new router using an Ethernet cable and configure it, turning on and securing the wireless network. You'll want to check the following, at least:

1. Check the router's LAN IP address. It should be in a different range to that of your original router.

(e.g. if your original router's IP address is 192.168.1.1 you could set your new router to use 192.168.0.1. Then your secure network will use the 192.168.0.x range, while your guest network will use the 192.168.1.x range. It's important that they use different ranges to each other.)

2. Change the default password. Use a strong password.

3. Disable remote management, if enabled by default. This is optional but recommended.

4. Set the WAN IP address to be 'static' and use the value you excluded from the DHCP pool earlier (e.g. 192.168.1.200).

5. Set the ISP address to match your original router's IP address (e.g. 192.168.1.1).

6. Set the DNS settings either to the IP address of the original router (e.g. 192.168.1.1) or just re-use the ones you discovered above (e.g. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4).

7. Enable the wireless network and use a strong password. Ensure that the SSID is different to the one you are using on the guest network.

8. Check that the firewall is enabled.

Additionally you'll probably want to enable DHCP on your new router.

You should now have something that, conceptually at least, looks like this (yes, the internet looks like a small cloud with an 'i' on it):

The guest network is above the red line. Its systems cannot
connect to anything in the 'private' zone beneath the red line.

What that basic diagram is trying to show is that the guest systems can access the internet freely but cannot connect to the systems in the private network, which is below the red line. Systems on the private network can connect to anything that they like.

If you really want to treat your guests you could provide a networked printer. This would have to go onto the guest network. Your private systems would still be able to use it, though.

In this example we've protected an internet-connected Personal Video Recorder (PVR) on the private network. It's only a matter of time before these types of devices are targeted by attackers. And I for one could not tolerate my telly viewing being interrupted.

DTL's test lab in 2013

Although we expanded the test lab just before New Year 2013 we've only now found time to take some photos.

This is because we've been busy ploughing through the first test for 2013, the results for which will be available in the next few weeks.

The main change to the lab is that we used to house the testers and the computers all in one cramped, hot and airless space. Now that room is devoted solely to computers. We have turned on the strong air conditioning, which was too uncomfortable for humans to bear, so the computers are happier too.

A second, larger adjoining room has been created for the testers to use. They are able to control the test computers remotely from this much more comfortable environment. The air conditioning is pleasant and the noise is considerable reduced. Here's what it looks like:

The main testing room can
accommodate at least eight testers

Just a few of our test PCs. There are more
on the other side of the computer room.

Application control test results

For nearly a year we at Dennis Technology Labs ran a test that looked deeply into the benefits and downsides to the whitelisting approach to application control.

I discussed the results, how we tested and some of the issues that we encountered at Kaspersky's Reviewers Roundup in Madrid last week.

Left to right:
Vicente Diaz (Kaspersky moderator),
John Hawes (Virus Bulletin),
Simon Edwards (Dennis Technology Labs)
and Peter Stelzhammer (AV Comparatives)

Kaspersky has just launched a video in which I explain some of the more important elements of the test, and why whitelisting may be coming of age.

Change timezones fast

In Windows 7 it usually takes at least six clicks to change time zones.

If you need to switch between zones quickly, the following tip will help.

Why might you need to swap between time zones frequently and fast?

When I schedule meetings I like to see how things stack up in Outlook. Meetings abroad, and flight schedules, can make things tricky. Changing  time zones on the computer restores some sanity to the proceedings.

Outlook has a (well-buried) option for changing the time zone and it's just as easy (and tedious) as using the Windows Date and Time window.

Luckily there's an easier way.

Windows 7 includes a command-line tool called Tzutil. Here's how I've used it to make a handy toolbar-based time zone swapper.

1. Create a file for each time zone

Create at least two empty text files and name them according to the time zones between which you wish to switch.

In this example we'll move between GMT (GMT Standard Time) and PST (Pacific Standard Time), so the files are called GMT.txt and PST.txt.

In each file enter the following command, replacing the string in quotes with the one you need*:

tzutil /s "GMT Standard Time"

Now rename the files, replacing the .txt suffix with .bat.

You should have two files called GMT.bat and PST.bat.

2. Install the files

Move the new batch files to a folder on your computer. Let's create C:\TZ and move the files into that.

3. Create the toolbar

Right-click the Taskbar and hover over Toolbars. Click New toolbar and navigate to C:\. Choose the C:\TZ folder and click Select Folder.

You should now see the letters TZ on your Taskbar, next to a pair of tiny arrows. Click once on these to show the available time zones.

To set a new time zone click once on any of the visible icons.

The icons above are actually renamed Windows shortcut files that point to my batch files. I changed the icons by opening each file's Properties and using the Change Icon option.

* Time code list
To obtain a full list of valid time zone codes run Tzutil from the command line like this (the last character is a lower-case L, not the digit one):
C:\>tzutil /l

...

(UTC-09:00) Alaska
Alaskan Standard Time

(UTC-08:00) Baja California
Pacific Standard Time (Mexico)

(UTC-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
Pacific Standard Time

(UTC-07:00) Arizona
US Mountain Standard Time

(UTC-07:00) Chihuahua, La Paz, Mazatlan
Mountain Standard Time (Mexico)

...

So to make a PST file, you'd type the following into the file:

tzutil /s "Pacific Standard Time"

Ergonomics

A chair

I am a writer. I do other things to earn money but primarily I write as a profession and have done so since 1995.

That makes me both old and chair-bound. And the attractive face of a chair advertising campaign, I am sure you will agree.

Writing is my main job. It pays my mortgage and other bills. It's not a sideline. It is not a hobby. And it has been relatively good to me over the years.

Writers (and bloggers) often claim to be poor. I can empathise with this, as I work just a stone's throw from the work house mentioned so often in the works of Dickens. I've never been inside but it's just three doors down from my office at number 30 Cleveland Street.

Its proximity certainly helps keep things in perspective.

Regardless, I decided to look into the idea of buying a really good chair. I spend a lot of time sitting on one and, as it's my job to do so, I thought that maybe I should consider buying something better than the tatty £20 object I grabbed from Staples once, years ago.

My chair is rubbish. It's not particularly comfortable and, while it does rotate (much to the amusement of very young visitors to my office), I know for a fact (or, at least, suspect deeply) that any grown-ups who pass through my main work environment look upon my choice of seat with enormous, undisguised and vigorous disdain.

So I Googled phrases like, "best office chair" and, much to my own personal revulsion, "ideal blogger chair".

It seems I have a rather limited choice.

I could buy something dreadfully similar to that upon which I already repose heavily to replace my £20 Staples horror; opt for a John Lewis £100-or-so standard affair; or spend close to £1,000 on some crazy bit of Swedish ultra-design.

£800 or more for a chair sounds simply ridiculous. I hesitate to spend more than £20 on a bottle of brandy.

At the end of the day, I've always sat on £20 chairs (and drunk £20 brandy) and managed to make a living. I doubt a £100 leather number would help my back or productivity so it's incredibly hard to justify spending any serious change even on something that is possibly the most important tool in my office.

But maybe, just maybe, a really posh designer chair would make all the difference...

So here's my proposal. If you work for a swanky Swedish chair company, please send me a middle-of-the-range chair. Something good but not bonkers-expensive.

If I make £1,000 or more over my usual income while using your product I'll buy it and let everyone know.

And, if I fail to develop back problems in the next 20 years, I'll also update this blog to that effect.

In the meantime I'll perch on my decaying, cheap seat and keep on working away. If you are an aspiring writer I suggest you do likewise. It's not your chair that will keep you going. It's the RedBull*.

* If you work for RedBull, please send me a vast quantity of your energy drink, which is the least vile option on the market**.

** If you work for Emerge, please send me a vast quantity of your energy drink, which is possibly one of the most vile, but effective, options on the market.