Server Security (it’s definately a monday)

Today I got the email I kind of fear “XYZ server compromised?” - thankfully there was none of the usual ?!?@?!?@$#!? attached to the question as sometimes folks do, but just another kick in the pants to get some of these upcoming changes done, and me out of the sys-admin loop, I mean doing it for someone else is one thing, but even that, I am going to probably pull out of sooner or later, as much as it’s “fun” and makes decent money, just not worth the stress anymore, as in a situation where your truly hacked or hardware issues, etc. it’s not a happy place.

Thankfully in this instance, it was a single site compromised, nothing horrible, but will require folks to change their passwords, as it looks like they took a snapshot of their forum, as well as their database password from the config file, happens, not fun, but happens - so tonight I put a few rules in place in the mean time to try and weed out some of the junk, it’s testing on 2 servers, and running smooth, seeing lot of random denys as a lot of older apps out there lately.

If you use a blog, a online gallery, a CMS system like Typo, PHP-Nuke, etc. please please please, even if you don’t host with me, update your installs. Check for security notifications and do your part to keep your site safe, and from attacking others, the chances are you will one day get hacked if your site is in a search engine, but it’s one of those things you hope never happens - and I can safely say, the passing of the sysadmin baton is one I am not dreading in the least.

Tomorrow I do have a meeting downtown with my brother, going to be installing the 4.5mbps line (finally) - so from 2 or so until evening I’d imagine I’ll be there, or if time allows, I may goto BC and help Rosie do research in the library, worked with her tonight via me using the net, and her jotting down notes, so got her squared away some, but the paper is due on Thursda - so always tons of fun research to do

Got my taxes out in the mail today, bought a lawn mower as my old one of 5 years or so died, so it was time to shell out another $240 and get a new 6.75hp mower and begun some of the outdoor joy of mowing the backyard down a few feet so I can really get a good feel for the backyard and my project for it, going to sketch up what I want the firepit to look like don’t worry Jake, it’ll be perfect for putting things in and making them glow! (woohoo!) but it looks promising, probably about 1-2k of materials I’ll need, and some time, so hopefully after the road trip, I can start putting away some cash, pick up a few projects, sell this new inter-office server etc. so lots of cool options to consider, but just excited it’s a possiblity.

Anywhoo - Gotta get back to these two servers, if these patches look good, I have 2 others to patch now, and then I’ll do client boxen tomorrow - but they do seem to be blocking attacks, so that’s promising! Pray for me and my bro tomorrow around 3pm as that is our install time, this upgrade has been full of insanity, and the remainder of the night we will be pushing the limits of the line to ensure its properly setup and running smoothly, so gonna be a long week.. but through it all, God is Good. Night folks.