My, my this has been interesting

In addition to waking up with a hangover Sunday morning from my Friday night, this day has been full of surprises.

We knew that the commenters weren’t particularly valued at Gawker as of late – that we didn’t fit into Denton’s grand scheme. However, I am surprised at the lack of giving a shit about our privacy. Other than a brief “change your passwords” post, nothing. I’m getting more feedback from the Rogue Choire than I am from Gawker editors. I had to go to Gizmodo to find out if my account was listed. Even there, I had to wonder am I communicating with a hacker or someone within Gizmodo. I received two different answers, so who the fuck knows.

It made me realize what a fragile house of cards this whole web interaction has been. I throw stuff out there to stir up a pot or see what sticks under a cloak of anonymity. Not saying I don’t believe or stand by in what I write: but let’s face it: what we put out there sometimes is what we often only dare to think, not say out loud. Gawker can be one big miasma of id, with a smattering of ego and superego just to keep things civil. (Sorry, I love Freud) I think the threat of disclosing who some are IRL, may limit some of that delicious id.

I wonder now if I will be as irreverent when I post something over there. I suspect I won’t for at least a while. What about you?

An expert’s take on the Gawker hack

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Note:

Here’s resident IT security expert bens and his analysis of the Gawker hack. He also has some tips for how protect yourself when stuff like this happens….

Gawker media got hacked, and in the hack Gawker’s master password file was stolen. What does this mean to you? Well, if you have linked any e-mail address that has any sort of real-world relevence to you to your Gawker account, you should change your password immediately. The same goes for your passwords. There’s a concept called “password entropy.” That is, if you use a login/password for one website and its compromised, you might use a similar login/pass on another site.

Change your passwords, and make sure they’re dissimilar from other passwords you’ve used.

Insofar as the “hack,” it looks like a script kiddie was looking for notoritety. From the released info, it appears that simple measures like having mildly secure passwords were not adhered to. Does it surprise me that between the Gawker Media Network there are machines running potentially inseucre software? No.

What is surprising is that even the site owner is using an eight character-long numeric password. Hey Nick, “24862486” might be a really easy password to remember, but dude, you’re running a media company with a huge online presence. You couldn’t tell me that a password like “N1ck$$d3nt0n$$$$$” isn’t a much better password that would be pretty easy to remember (its your name, with vowels as numbers, a couple non-alphanumeric characters, and its nice and long.)

A lot of brute-force methods won’t try to brute-force non alphanumerics, so signs like “$” and “!” and even more esoteric characters can slow down a brute force attack. However, if the password file is stolen it’s only a matter of time for it to be decrypted and all passwords revealed.

So what should you do? I know most of you are not technical users. The main thing you have to worry about is someone reading that your email address/password linked to Gawker is the same email account/password linked to your bank account.

So, change your bank password. Change your email password. Use multiple e-mail accounts so that if one is hacked, potentially you can compartmentalize the damage. If your bank statements go to your Gmail account, but you use a Hotmail account only for web forum passwords; you’re going to be much less exposed to risk if there’s a security leak.

Use strong passwords. Don’t rely on your password to remain secure. Change it every couple of months. Keep your software updated. If there’s a popup when you start your computer telling you that there’s a “critical software update” … download and install it! No computer system is 100% secure, but there’s a lot you can do to minimize damage.

Oh, and Gawker… who’s running your security policies? I’m not doing anything next week. Send me an email and lets run a pen. test. Were you guys running any IDS? You’re probably on the phone to the FBI right now and getting the run-around. You guys have my email address already!

Li Wei

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Li Wei is a Beijing artist and photographer who focuses on seemingly impossible human acrobatics. Wei uses wires, mirrors, scaffolds, and the gymnastic ability of the subjects to create these photos. They are not composites, and the only post production he does, is to retouch the wires.

Change Your Passwords

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If you still have the default Crasstalk password then you need to change that to something else. Don’t use dictionary words, use upper and lower case and use special characters. And for the love of Jeebus don’t use your Gawker password here.

War!!!!!!

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I am just opening this so people can stay in touch in the comments if Gawker goes down. I am currently hunting around for news on this. Can I ask that people not post live links in the comments? Let’s keep this place below the radar.

This is so much more interesting than doing my laundry.

Jokes are in the Alt Text.

Dance Break:

Wait, are we sure she isn’t on 4chan?

Sitting in front of the computer for long periods is bad for you…

For Adrian:

For Swifter:

Gnosis seems like a really lame name. Can’t they come up with something with a little sass.

More suspects:

Oh Christ, now we’re at this:

They Have All Our Bases!!!

Making Food with Stabby

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Attention! Attention! This is to inform all readers of a new, Just In Time For The Holidays, cooking and baking column. Stabby will bake/broil/fry/steam/boil it first so that you don’t have to be frightened to try it.

The inaugural column will be a doozy: the cranky and intimidating croissant. I made these in May, 2010, and live-blogged it in Crosstalk. And man, those things turned out awesome! My sister has requested them for holiday eating, so I will oblige her and make a public spectacle of myself at the same time.

We will make plain, chocolate, pumpkin pie filled, and possibly blackberry (sister babbled something about blackberries today, but I’m not going to be responsible for procuring them; if she wants ’em she can get ’em). I’ll probably make them the week of the 20th. Keep in mind that they take about 36 hours total (including mixing, rising, kneading, baking), so if you want to make some for your holiday dinner, plan accordingly so that you can Bake Along with Stabby. Also, I’ll post the recipe ahead of time so you know what to shop for.

After croissant will be Butternut Squash with Gorganzola and pecans for Christmas dinner. Homoviper suggested this one. If you have a recipe request, send it my way and we’ll get it done; the family will be more than happy to be our guinea pigs.

Movies for the Nuclear Apocalypse

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When I was a kid I lived near Strategic Air Command outside of Omaha Nebraska. One night on the news I saw a simulation of what would happen if a nuclear bomb exploded in Omaha. To say I was traumatized would be a huge understatement (fuck you Dan Rather). From that point on I was obsessed with nuclear war. I spent my teenage years as one of those insufferable nuclear freeze people until I gave up and became an angry punk who thought humanity was doomed.

Part of my obsession was a constant search for images depicting nuclear war. I wanted to know what it looked like, what it would be like, when the end came. I watched every movie or TV show I could get me hands on. This of course did not calm my fears, but I have always been a bit of a masochist so I did it anyway.

The recent flap over the START treaty brought my anxiety about nuclear way back (though with a lot less intensity). I was trying to explain to a 24 year old coworker why the treaty was so essential and why nuclear disarmament is so important. I realized that we had grown up in totally different worlds and that people younger than me don’t remember the anxiety of the “we begin bombing in five minutes” world. So I am creating an archive of the insanity here. These are some of my favorites depictions of nuclear war, the boogeyman of my childhood.

The Day After: I actually watched this at a nuclear freeze meeting. The group had a viewing during the broadcast. My friend Patty lost it and sobbed for an hour after it was over. It is really not one of my faves, but it does have the guy form Third Rock from the sun and Steve Guttenberg. Here’s the money shot:

Threads: This is the British film that is a bit like The Day After. It is actually grimmer, and it is a lot more graphic. I love the honesty of this film (there will be no escape in a nuclear war). Here is a clip, but you can actually watch the whole film on YouTube if you would like.

Special Bulletin: This 1983 made for TV movie is about terrorists detonating a bomb in Charleston, South Carolina. This is formatted like a newscast in a sort of War of the Worlds kind of format. I watched this when it originally aired and didn’t sleep for a week afterwards.

When the Wind Blows: An animated film about an older British couple in the aftermath of a nuclear attack. This movie is actually quite sweet, and it has music by David Bowie.

Miriale Mile: The ultimate love story of the Cold War starring Anthony Edwards and Mare Winingham (bonus: Denise Crosby is in it also). Edwards finds the girl of his dreams on the night LA is attacked by the Soviets and he races to escape the city with his new love. This is a great movie.

Testament: A haunting, beautiful movie about the aftermath of a nuclear war for residents of a California suburb. This movie doesn’t have the gore or violence of the others (you never see the actual attack). Instead it focuses on the emotional story of a family trying to survive and adapt to their new reality. This is a wonderful film about the inhumanity of war and the decency and courage of ordinary people. ( No embedding on the clip and sorry about the audio, this was the best clip I could find).

Watch it here.

It is interesting to me that we seem to have all forgotten about the risk of nuclear war. Because we somehow survived the Cold War we have grown complacent. However, it is foolish to think that the risk is gone. We should not let our hubris get the best of us and these movies are a little reminder of that. Sleep tight Crasstalkers, and dream of peace.