Category: Web

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De-Googling my life

I started to remove all most Google products from my day to day life.

Why you may ask, first off they have way to much information about me and my daily routines. Second they have not always been good stewards of personal information they collect.

To start off I removed Google Chrome browser from my devices, and switched over to DuckDuckGo search engine and on occasion will use Microsoft Bing Search engine. This did take sometime to get used to using something other then Google, as their search functions work differently.

I have migrated my email from a Gmail account to a personal hosted email account. This took a lot longer then I originally expected, as some businesses rely solely on email as a primary ID, and their systems do not have the functionality to change this. Some required an email, to get this changed through a manual process, while others just said sorry no can do. The ones who could not change my account I just dropped them and will use something else as they were not really important to me.

I had an Android phone a long time ago (2008), I stopped using it as it was more of a hassle to work with then other phones I had used in the past. I know many people will say Android is the best phone OS and there is no comparison. My issue was there was no standards across the environment, and there were so many malicious apps in the stores then I wanted to deal with.

I actually found out that I had not been using many of Google Services as they came after something else I had been using and it was not any better then what I used.

Primarily I used Gmail, Calendar, Blogger, Domains, Drive, Voice and Maps.

Google Service NOTES / ISSUES WHAT I USE
Gmail Took a while to move accounts over for different services.BlueHost Hosted Service
Google Contacts Have not really relied on this in sometime as my Phone always was current with contactsApple / iPhone
Google Calendar Automatic add of items to calendar is fully working in othersApple / iPhone
Google Search  Have to learn how to do searches againDuckDuckGo
Bing
Google Maps Google MyMaps – Not found a suitable option
OpenStreetMaps – is basic     		Bing Maps
Apple Maps
Still doing a search for alternatives
Google Analytics Stopped using this a while back after one of their changes made it a painNot using anything currently
Google Drive Moved to OneDrive as I get 1TB of storage already with my Office suiteOneDrive for documents and photos
iCloud for other Apple items
Google Photos Moved to OneDrive OneDrive
Google Docs Moved to OneDrive OneDrive
Google Play Music Have been using Spotify for some time   Spotify
Google Play Movies/TV Think I had like one movie I purchased on GoogleMoviesAnywhere Disney+
Amazon Prime
Netflix
Hulu
Google YouTubeDid not save anything to YouTube, only used it for researchingYeah not sure what to use for this one
Google Play Audiobooks/Books Do not really use Audiobooks , but already had a bunch of books in Kindle and NookAmazon Kindle
Nook
Apple Books
Google Play Store (apps) I use Apple productsApple Store
Google Android I use Apple productsApple IOS
Google’s Android Apps I use Apple products Apple Store
Google Chrome Moved to Firefox as it was a resource hog, worse then other browsersFirefox
Google Domains Used it when I was moving away from 1 and 1 hosting as the price was cheap. Blue Host
Google Hangouts Limited use to friends who had Gmail accountsSlack
WhatsApp
Google Allo Did not have any friends using thisWhatsApp
Signal
Telegram
Google Podcasts I use Apple already Apple
Google Newsstand Never liked Newsstand The Old Reader
Google Wallet Only used it a couple of times, due to not as many places taking it PayPal  
Google Voice Unlock #, costs $3 to port out https://www.google.com/voice/unlock Need to port to new carrier Still looking for somewhere to move my number to 
Google Keep Never really liked thisOneNote
NotePad++  
Google TranslateOnly use this occasionallyScannerTranslate App on phone
Will figure this out next time I need it
Google DuoTried to use this, but did not know anyone using itWebEx – For Work
iPhone FaceTime
Google EarthWas cool at first, but never really had that much of a need for it.Not Using Anything as a replacement
Blogger Platform was not that great, moved to it from an older hosted WordPress, then moved it back to another Hosted WordPressHosted WordPress
WazeLoved this service until Google purchased it, after they acquired it I started having a bunch of issues of it not working or just giving error servers unavailable error. So stopped using it about a year ago. Apple Maps
Not The Best Maps

I started using Google Gmail sometime back in early 2005, when I got an invite from a friend. Had moved away from Hotmail after using it for many years.

I am sure some will mention that I am moving away from Google to another company that may not manage my data all that well. Yes, I have Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple as vendors for my data, but I am not utilizing just one company anymore which was one of my concerns. Albeit that many companies rely on Google for their back-end and have Google Analytics so I will still see some tracking of my searching. I do use Firefox on my devices usually in “Private Window” mode to limit some data collection.

Time will tell if I move back to some of the Google applications, as I am still looking for alternatives. The biggest I seem to have an issue with is the “My Maps” which I like to design travel maps for vacations. I have not found an alternative that does anywhere close to what the Google app does. it relies on Drive and Maps to function so I will need to keep my Google account for the short term. I also do not know what to do with my Google Voice number as I have had it since it was Grand Central and have used it for years as an alternate number to some contacts. Plus I still have five other Gmail accounts I used for various things over the years that I need to keep for the short term until I get them cleared out and all access I used them for moved to my primary or an alternate email account under my control.

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ARCYBER Puzzle

Had a former colleague post a cipher puzzle on a Slack channel I hang out on.

http://www.recruitahacker.net/Puzzle

I figured I would give it a try, since I like to do puzzles.
The site was a link to an ARCYBER web site:

Looking at the cipher text, I was like you have to be kidding me. This is too easy, so I ran it through a script I made a few years back to break vigenère ciphers for another puzzle I had worked.

While the script is not perfect, it was able to decode this cipher text.

Eexl fmoi! 
Well done!

Jabnh gsl’ze decbjrx lvtv, gsl uak hctf xyw gvltpj 
Since you’re reading this, you may have the skills

inp mqrjzrlwzq bs awiz tjc Bvdq hpdu! 
and motivation to join the Army team
Pvirz mqpf esgie bwyi xofeprjec xiexzi nqtt ATAZFVJ.
Learn more about your potential future with ARCYBER.

KEY:
iamacybersoldier

So putting the key into the website you get the full response.

You got a link to email someone that you solved the puzzle.

So I was like sure, what could it hurt, might get an offer to apply for some cool jobs with the government (not really).

The response from my email to solving the puzzle.

Congratulations on solving the puzzle and for your interest in the Army’s cyber mission. We ask that you fill out a form found at http://www.goarmy.com/info/send1/?iom=GT45-FY16-ACNP-OT-XXX-XX-XXX-CP-XX-X-XXX   so we can continue discussions about how you can best fit into our Army’s cyber professional workforce. We thank you for your inquiry and are committed to providing information as it becomes available. You may check out our website for the latest cyber career field updates at www.arcyber.army.mil.
v/r,
Mike Milord
Public Affairs Specialist
Army Cyber Command
8605 6th Armored Cavalry Road
Fort Meade, MD 20755
301-833-2007
michael.o.milord.civ@mail.mil

It takes to the Army website to request information to join.
I figure since I already have 24 years of service in the military they will not want me.

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Moving to Google Domains from 1and1.com

Well I am moving some of my domains to the Beta Google Domains, away from 1and1.com hosting. It has not been completely the easiest thing to do, I have unlocked my domains and disabled private registration. However, I have several sites that were still be locked an hour of changing their status. All of them finally were released to allow me to request the transfer to Google.
One main reason I am moving from 1and1.com is they continually raise their prices, and I am not a business so I do not make money from any of my sites. The other is that their mail services have become awful, unless you want move to their newer exchange mail service for a $5 per account/per month fee.
I have used them for about eight years, and originally started with their beginner package for $2.99 per month, but it is now up to $4.99 per month. While They do add some features, it seems that they make others worse for the older subscribers who do not upgrade to a better package.
The new MyWebsite package is $6.99 a month, with a few more options then I currently have, and I am guessing that my account will soon receive a price update to be closer to that price. Along with the price updates to all domain names I have registered, they use to cost me between $6.99 to $8.99, and are now all $14.99 per domain. Since I have 17 domains, that has made a drastic price increase to my costs to host websites. Another thing they pissed me off about was they sent a notice that they were discontinuing the use of PHP 5.2, so I migrated all of my systems to 5.4 or 5.5. They forgot to mention that I needed to discontinue the support for 5.2 in my billing, and billed me $4.99 for a month of support. They never mentioned that I had to do this or that it was added to my billing and I have to remove it.
Had always had an issue with the 1and1.com limited MySQL DB support, only allowing 100MB of data in one database is a little crappy. Especially when I can have a bunch of DB instances but only 100MB on each one, it makes it a pain to have to program to use multiple DB instances on a web site.
Transferred nine domains and was notified that it takes 5 days for 1and1.com to transfer the domain to the new provider, they stat that: “1&1 will release the domain after five(5) days as required by ICANN if there are no restrictions, disputes, etc.” I guess I will have to wait and see how things will be at Google, and will give me sometime to figure out what I want to point the domain names to. I have moved one to Bitbucket repo already, and will just keep it pointed there once it is moved.
Will see how things go, and will need to move six more domains, but they are all used for email, and am not sure how long the outage will be on them. I will have to test one to see how things go, and what the outage on email will be. Then I have one that is tied to the main account for 1and1.com, and not sure how that will work to transfer it since it is tied to the hosting package. It is also the domain that is hosting this blog, so I will need to figure out where to host this site that will have access to PHP and MySQL, to allow me to host a couple web applications.
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SANS SEC 542 – Washington DC CDI

Attended SANS SEC 542 Web App Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking class in Washington DC at the Grand Hyatt from December 12 – 17 2014.
The instructor was Eric Conrad, and the class was fairly decent, and is a good start for anyone wanting to learn web application pentesting. I already had some extensive knowledge of web app testing, but decide to take the course anyways to see what SANS course were like.
Learned a few things, but primarily new most of the course material, most of the new things I learned are tool related. I do not usually use ZAP or W3AF, and since we used them in class I learned a few things about them and their capabilities.
There was a wide variety of people in the class, with about 30 students in the class room and about 15 online students. We had some that had no pentesting abilities, and some with a couple years experience.
The class was a six day course:
      DAY 1 : Attacker’s View, Pentesting and Scoping
      DAY 2 : Recon & Mapping
      DAY 3 : Discovery
      DAY 4 : Discovery Continued
      DAY 5 : Exploitation
          DAY 6 : Capture the Flag
My team completed the CTF first, but Eric Conrad could not decide who yelled out first so he called it a tie with the team sitting just behind us.
The biggest things I learned from the class was actually not taught in the class room, it was talking to the people there who are doing pentesting and works in the security community. Plus the additional talks that were held after classes were well worth staying up late and not going sight seeing around DC.
Now I just need to figure out how to get my boss to allow me to attend another one next year.