Security and Cryptography

Windows Defender Service Failing

Peter Stathakos — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 12:16:00 GMT

For the past few days we've been getting the following error on our machines at home:

Application failed to initialize: 0x800106ba. A problem caused Windows Defender Service to stop. To start the service, restart your computer or search Help and Support on how to start a service manually.

A quick search lead me to this post by Paul Wu regarding the Windows Defender error. It turns out that Windows Defender is out of Beta and a new version is available. Simply follow the instructions on Paul's post and install the new version of Windows Defender and you're golden.

I agree with Paul, this was a terrible error message. The whole point of Windows Defender is to make it easy for home users to protect their machines without having to bog down in administrative tasks. Most home users could not care less what a service is, let alone how to figure out why this particular service is now failing.

Anyway, it's easy enough to fix, once you know what the issue is.

Thanks Paul!

Currently listening to: So Says I - (02:49)
The Shins, Chutes Too Narrow

Post Security Virtual Conference Recap

Peter Stathakos — Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:01:00 GMT

If you missed the MSDN Security conference but still want all of the juicy information, check out the Post Security Virtual Conference Recap with more details on the Security For Canadians blog here.

MSDN Security On The Brain

Peter Stathakos — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 04:58:00 GMT

Another cool upcoming event is the MSDN Security On The Brain Series.

Date: September 27, 2006 12:00 - 4:30 PM Eastern Time

http://msdn.microsoft.com/canada/securitylockdown/default.aspx

Validating Data in SQL Server 2005

Peter Stathakos — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 04:19:00 GMT

I haven't had much of a chance to play with SQL Server 2005 too much yet, but some of the features are really great, such as inclusion of the CLR.

Security guru Dana Epp has a great example of using SQL Server 2005 as an extra layer of highly configurable data validation using regular expressions. Check out the data validation screencast and read more about Dana's Anvil project here.

Microsoft Security Webcasts

Peter Stathakos — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 03:44:00 GMT

Although I have been fairly busy with work and life and other things, I have been trying to keep up with security as always. Here's a good source of security information and Webcasts from Microsoft. Check it out, tons of information at all levels.

Also, from Michael Howard's blog here is a link to the University of Washington's cryptography class and on demand here.

Security Paranoia

Peter Stathakos — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 04:07:00 GMT

How to get really paranoid about code security?

Watch an archived Security on the Brain Webcast at 1.5x normal speed after a few hits of caffeine and I guarantee you'll feel a real need to secure your code.

Vancouver Code Camp Review Part 1

Peter Stathakos — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 03:33:00 GMT

As I mentioned before I had an awesome time at the Vancouver Code Camp this past weekend. The day started out a bit hectic since I was a little unsure about the length of my presentation, I was afraid it was going to be too long. It didn't help things when I saw the presentation schedule and found that everyone had only 50 minutes to present. The ten minutes between presentations were to give time for people to switch rooms, go to the washroom etc. and for the next presenter to set up.

By the time registration was finished and the first presentations started, things were running almost half an hour late. So I modified my presentation and made some changes to my code to have more things prepared. At 11:00 it was my turn to go on and I was ready.

I got started more or less on time thanks to Medhat compressing his talk before mine. There were about 20 people or so present and I got things rolling. I was a bit nervous at first, but once I got into the material a bit I was able to loosen up and I think that really helped. About 10 minutes or so into the talk the AJAX session next door let out and a flood of people came over, which was nice to see. I was up against the contest for the free Xbox 360, so I was happy with the turnout in the first place. This was just a bonus.

It was a good thing that I had been doing lots of digging into the Cryptography framework and reading about cryptography and the math behind it, I was able to flesh out the talk with pertinent details along the way. I also brought teh funny a little bit in my presentation, which helped me to loosen up and relate with the audience. I find that pictures and analogies always help to convey unfamiliar topics to people, so it was good.

Overall, I felt like I had done well when I was finished. I ended up going over into the lunch hour by a few minutes, and that was in speed mode so I could probably could have done an hour and a half easily. There were tons of great questions from the group, it looks like there are still lots of people either not doing this at all, or trying to write their own methods to secure data. Either way I think I helped to spread some security goodness around.

Some things that I learned that I will bring forward to future presentations:

1. Project. Project. Project. Just like I learned in my acting days back in high school, you need to project your voice. Being heads down into my notes or the laptop does not make for the best presentation.
2. Step away from the laptop. Another thing I felt I could have improved on was getting away from behind the podium and moving around a bit. I found that the presenters who do this tend to keep the audience more involved and active.
3. Simplify. Code tends to become complex, so simple examples demonstrating the key points are best. Any complex, in-depth information can be delivered later offline.
4. Don Box's talk on Channel9 about giving good technical presentations was a big help. Basically, he says:

a. Keep it simple, especially with Power Point.
b. Make code legible.
c. Keep the audience interested.

Up next: Other presentations.

Tags: Code Camp, .NET, Cryptography

Cryptography in .NET Resources

Peter Stathakos — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:47:00 GMT

I had an awesome time this weekend at the Vancouver Code Camp. I've got an in depth writeup coming soon, I just wanted to post this really quick before I forget.

Here's the list of additional resources I mentioned at the end of my talk:

Microsoft Patterns and Practices
Microsoft .NET Security Blog
Bruce Schneier's Blog

The Code Book: the Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh - Link on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca

I also forgot to mention all the information in Wikipedia on topics such as Cryptography, Hashing, and various algorithms such as SHA, Rijndael and RSA.

If anyone has any additional questions or problems, feel free to drop me an email and I'll do my best to help you out.

Tags: Microsoft, .NET, Cryptography, Security

Getting Ready For Code Camp

Peter Stathakos — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 03:39:00 GMT

Well, I have finished all of my code for Code Camp tomorrow and I just need to put the finishing touches on my presentation and practice it a bit. I'm totally psyched, it should be a really fun time.

I'll be posting my code and slide deck after the camp, so keep a lookout for that in the next few days.

Cryptography and PKI for Passive Security

Peter Stathakos — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 01:29:00 GMT

I've been getting into the security and cryptography space more and more recently, mostly because it's what I'm interested in but also in preparation for my upcoming presentation at the Vancouver Code Camp.

I had downloaded this presentation on Cryptography and PKI for Passive Security by Rafal Lukawiecki to watch this weekend but spending time with the missus took precedence, so it will have to wait for another day. I have only watched the five minute preview, but it looks great. Check it out though, it looks like there is a ton of information.

I did get to see a security-related thingy called Firewall starring Harrison Ford. Overall, it wasn't too bad, didn't learn much though.