Problems with Distributed Architecture

As reported here, a bitcoin mining pool has contributed 51% of total hashing output which theoretically allows them to double spend bitcoins or to deny other miner's transactions. I am not an expert at bitcoins but it appears that the distributed architecture is a crucial feature in ensuring ...

New Form of DDoS

I was always hesitant to use pay-as-you-use services like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google App Engine for fear that the cost might spiral out of control if I turn out to be the target of a DDos attack. I did eventually try out app engine, but only because it was possible not to link a ...

Web Development in Singapore

In light of the recent fiasco over the NDP website, I thought it would be apt for me to share my thoughts on how I believe web development in Singapore has ended up in this dismal state today. This is definitely not an isolated case, the series of breaches by Messiah last year being proof. Lack ...

How I (cheated and) won a quiz

The quiz in question. In case anyone is not familiar with it. (attractive?) prizes to be won. A quick packet capture revealed that the questions could be found here in JSON format. This is what is looked like. Interesting that the answers were included even through "marking" was done only on ...

Immigration checks

Earlier today, some MD of a security firm on channel new asia commented that it is impossible to check every single passport against the list of stolen passports due to the time needed to search the database. Such stringent checks would result in massive holdups at checkpoints. Therefore, apart ...

Encryption and blackmailing

Just read something quite interesting here. Apparently, all the research put into mathematical algorithms is a double edged sword. Encryption can be used to deny the rightful owner access to his data. Fortunately, the attacker in this case made a mistake resulting in a 128 bit key that was ...

Singtel's 5012NV-002 vulnerability

Type: Open port Affects: Singtel's firmware on 2wire 5012NV-002 Version: (HW version: 2701-000808-004, SW version: 9.3.1.29) (Unable to ascertain if other versions are affected as I do not have access to the firmware) Severity: High Ease of exploit: Low Impact: Allows an attacker to gain access ...

Multiple inboxes with same email address

Ever since google decided to nerf their google apps free account privileges(I created my account earlier and was grandfathered 10 free emails), I have been toying around with several other providers of email service for custom domains. I discovered that I could actually have 2 accounts with ...