Tag Archive for: friends

Keeping your computer safe is topic of Nov. 14 Friends of Oak Ridge National Lab lecture

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“How to keep your computer (and you) safe” is the topic of the next Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory monthly noon lecture meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 14.

The speaker will be James A. “Jim” Rome, a retired ORNL researcher who has expertise on computer security and is a webmaster for several nonprofit organizations, including FORNL.

James A. "Jim" RomeJames A. "Jim" Rome

James A. “Jim” Rome

He will deliver his lecture at the UT Resource Center, 1201 Oak Ridge Turnpike. Attendees may bring their own lunch to eat. To view the virtual noon lecture, click on the talk title on the homepage of the www.fornl.org website and then click on the Zoom link near the top of the page describing the lecture.

“Computer crime is a multi-trillion dollar business,” Rome said. “Unfortunately, the bad guys are winning. I will speak on how to proactively take steps to remain safe on the internet and how to protect your devices.”

Rome, who calls himself “a computer security paranoid,” spent the latter part of his career at ORNL providing computer security for classified systems.

After receiving four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he started his career in 1971 at ORNL as a theoretical plasma physicist with the Fusion Energy Division, where he conducted research for 25 years. He specialized in doing configuration design and following charged particle orbits in fusion devices.

In the 1970s when personal computers first became available, Rome co-write a scientific graphics program, called GraphiC, for PCs.

He later moved to ORNL’s Computer Science and Mathematics Division, where he specialized in air traffic analysis and worked on making computer workstations “multi-level secure.”

He managed ORNL computer security for the National Science Foundation’s TeraGrid, a high-speed network that connected supercomputers and facilities at many universities. He also created a public key infrastructure to enable secure, encrypted logins and access to online Lab Notebooks.

Rome is author or co-author of 155 publications, and a fellow of the American Physical Society.  You can learn more about him on his jamesrome.net website.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Keeping your computer safe is…

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Qakbot Cracked: FBI and Friends Hack the Hackers

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A duck stares at you, straight onOperation Duck Hunt shoots to kill big botnet.

Qakbot is dead. The world’s biggest “loader” botnet has ceased to be. It’s a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace—thanks to the U.S. Justice Department and European partners.

Also known as Qbot, Oakboat and Pinkslipbot, Qakbot has rung down the curtain. In today’s SB Blogwatch, we’ve gone to join the choir invisible.

Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: Blue Skies.

Or is it just resting? Beautiful plumage.

What’s the craic? Christopher Bing and David Ljunggren report—“Partners have taken down notorious ‘Qakbot’ hacking network”:

“Originates from Russia”
An international law enforcement operation [has] taken down the notorious “Qakbot” malware platform used … in a variety of financial crimes. … The operation, nicknamed Duck Hunt, [also] involved … France, Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Romania and Latvia.
…
U.S. attorney Martin Estrada said the move against Qakbot was the most significant technological and financial operation ever led by the [DoJ] against a botnet [and] as part of the operation, agencies seized 52 servers. [Qakbot] had infected more than 700,000 victim computers … and caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damage.
…
First discovered more than a decade ago, Qakbot is commonly spread through malicious, boobytrapped email. … Security researchers say they believe Qakbot originates from Russia.

How? Lawrence Abrams explains—“How the FBI nuked Qakbot malware from infected Windows PCs”:

“Authorized by a judge”
Qakbot, aka Qbot and Pinkslipbot, started as a banking Trojan in 2008. … However, over time, the malware evolved into a malware delivery service utilized by other threat actors. … In the past, Qakbot has partnered with multiple ransomware operations, including Conti, ProLock, Egregor, REvil, RansomExx, MegaCortex … Black Basta and BlackCat/ALPHV.
…
The FBI [was] able to dismantle the botnet by seizing the attacker’s server infrastructure and creating a special removal tool that uninstalled the Qakbot malware. … They accessed the encryption keys [and] used an infected device under…

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How to invite friends to Minecraft singleplayer without opening to LAN

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Modified May 18, 2023 04:14 GMT

When enjoying a Minecraft world in singleplayer, it’s possible to invite friends to make it multiplayer. However, the Java and Bedrock editions of the game differ in the way this is accomplished. Bedrock uses Xbox Live to invite friends, and Java requires players to be on the same Local Area Network (LAN) that the world is opened up to.

Thanks to a great Minecraft: Java Edition mod known as Essential, players don’t have to worry about connecting their friends to the same network to enjoy multiplayer on a traditionally singleplayer world. The mod also adds cosmetics for players to equip to their avatar, a screenshot manager, and a handy friends list for communication.

If Minecraft fans want to invite their friends to their world without using the “open to LAN” function, Essential makes the process easy.

Steps to invite friends to your Minecraft world using the Essential mod

Minecraft’s Essential mod is particularly interesting among its counterparts, as it doesn’t require a mod loader like Forge, Fabric, or CurseForge to operate. However, if fans do use a loader for their modding needs, Essential has versions for them.

For the sake of simplicity, it’s worth covering the basic way to install Essential via the Windows and MacOS installer, adding friends, and inviting them to a singleplayer world. The entire process only takes a few moments and should make the ability to play any world in multiplayer without a server incredibly straightforward.

Here’s how to install and invite friends to a Minecraft world with the Essential mod:

  1. Head to the URL https://essential.gg/download and click on the link to install either…

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U.S. Navy officer celebrates new rank with friends, family

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A Jefferson City native was pinned with a new U.S. Navy rank during a close-knit ceremony Monday at the Capitol.

About 30 people packed into Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe’s office to watch as Alan Carl Mengwasser was pinned with the captain’s rank.

Surrounded by friends and family, Mengwasser, 48, dispensed with a lot of the formality associated with commissioning ceremonies.

After a brief prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance and a story about joining the Navy, Mengwasser’s wife and daughters added the brass to his uniform.

“You may salute,” he teased attending friends and family, who replied with resounding applause.

“It’s just fun to do it here, rather than back on the base in Maryland,” Mengwasser told the News Tribune. “My friends there would do it, but it’s just too hard to get the home crowd out there.”

Monday was the first time most of Mengwasser’s family, besides his wife and three children, had seen him get pinned throughout his 26-year naval career. Mengwasser said only his parents attended basic training graduation and officer candidate school graduation.

After learning in September he would be eligible for a promotion Dec. 15, he saw an opportunity to add to his usual visit home for the holidays.

“Considering they haven’t been able to attend any previous promotions, it’s just a great opportunity that we could celebrate this together,” he said.

In addition to family, several of Mengwasser’s high school friends were present for the ceremony.

State Rep. Dave Griffith, R-Jefferson City, helped organize the ceremony in Kehoe’s office. The lieutenant governor was not on hand but approved the use of his office as the rest of the Capitol was closed for the observed holiday.

“It’s the perfect setting for it, and it’s just really a special time, especially this time of year, to be able to recognize some of the unique accomplishments that we have right here in Jeff City,” Griffith said, adding he’s known the family for years.

Mengwasser has worked on Navy submarines and ships and was deployed to Afghanistan in the past. For the past 12 years, he’s been involved in the cyber warfare arena.

Stationed out of Fort Meade in Maryland, Mengwasser is a cryptologic warfare officer focused on cyber security and…

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