Tag: security

Password Locking Worksets with a concealed username

Luke Johnson

Until Revit comes up with some kind of advanced and granular permissions management for workshared files, we are left with a situation that requires best-practice Revit use combined with 100% obedient staff.  If you would like to take matters into your own hands in the meantime, you can use this somewhat scary hack to check out worksets using a concealed user name.  As with many posts on What Revit Wants – use at your own risk!

In short:

  1. Copy the username into Microsoft Word and change it to a different font in this example the font called AIGDT. (which is just associate symbols to letters).
  2. Copy the username (AIGDT font) back into Revit and as you can see Revit just shows it as bullets.
  3. Worksets checked out to that user will appear to others like this:

 
Image and idea by Navid at:
Locking WorkSet with a hidden user name!

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper for Offline Scan and Start Unbootable PC

Luke Johnson

Microsoft has released a beta version of recovery tool that can help the users to start their infected PC when all other anti-virus solutions fail…

Download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta version (1.0.856.0):

Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta (32 bit): mssstool32.exe
Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper Beta (64 bit): mssstool64.exe

via

Download Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper for Offline Scan and Start Unbootable PC

Microsoft Security Essentials Beta

Luke Johnson

If you are interested in trying out the new, supposedly improved, beta of Microsoft Security Essentials, head over to this link and see if you can become part of the limited beta program.

There are 32 bit and 64 bit versions available. You will need to sign in with a Windows Live account.

I found out about this over at this post at Lifehacker. Check it out if you are interested in more details.

Fighting Spam on Exchange Server 2003

Luke Johnson

We run a Small Business Server box and it primarily provides our email via Exchange Server 2003.

Recently, our ISP indicated that our server was relaying or forwarding spam messages. I have tried a number of different things to correct this, and I would like to share a few of the steps of I have taken.

  1. Ensure that Exchange SMTP is not acting as an open relay. You can run a test at http://www.spamhelp.org/shopenrelay/
  2. Use SMTP Authentication (if you are forwarding mail through an SMTP smart host).
  3. Enable Recipient Filtering on the SMTP Virtual Server. Link here. KB Article here.
  4. Enable SMTP Tarpit Time. Link here.
  5. Enable Connection Filtering on the SMTP Virtual Server. You might use something like the Spamhaus ZEN list to start with.
  6. Enable Message Logging (so that you can get an idea of where spam is coming from).
  7. Disable Non Delivery Reports (NDRs). How to here.
  8. Don’t allow anonymous access to your Default SMTP Server.
  9. Run trojan/virus scans on your server and on your Client PCs (including remote Clients).
  10. Install and run the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer.


On a slightly unrelated note, some nefarious characters kept trying to login to our server via Remote Desktop. I have defended against these attacks by using a program called 2x SecureRDP. This ‘filters’ incoming RDP connections and stops repetitive RDP attacks before they occure.

I hope some of this information has been useful to you.