Network Monitoring for $20.98

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Dec 282014
 
Security

Looking for network monitoring of your home router and critical devices but can’t afford thousands of dollars for an enterprise-class (no, not Star Trek, think big business) event fault management system? Well, true to my name, I was looking for just such a solution.

Nasty security issues keep popping up all the time and they aren’t limited to the big boys like Target, Home Depot and JP Morgan Chase. Attacks can hit close to home like the Synolocker ransomware attack against Synology NAS users, the CryptoLocker ransomware attack against Microsoft Windows users, the shellshock vulnerability, and many others.

Scared yet? I certainly was. Read on to learn what I did…
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The Simplicity of Secure Passwords

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Sep 032014
 

Yes, you read that correctly. Creating and using secure passwords can actually be simple. With an understanding of how to make a password harder to crack through brute force (i.e., multiple, repeated attempts at guessing) and a password manager, you can greatly enhance the security of your passwords.

tl;dr – Longer passwords + a good password manager = simple security.

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GiftttDy 2.0 has arrived!

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May 292014
 

Yay! Hip-hip-hooray! Awesome! Cheers!

So what?

Well, I like this new version. I hope you will too. I put a lot more thought into how to make it easier to maintain and make your Day One entries nicer. Here are the key new features:

  • Added functionality to create Day One entries directly. 
  • The Day One command line tool is no longer needed. 
  • Since I write directly to Day One, I can create native Day One tags, too! 
  • Saving photos to Day One works with any recipe that can provide a URL to a photo 
  • Large photos can be compressed to save space. This is configurable. 
  • IFTTT recipe requirements are simpler and more flexible.
I’ve created a bunch of new IFTTT recipes that are designed for 2.0 (the old recipes won’t work). 
I’ve also created a new website dedicated to GiftttDy. This is where you’ll find setup instructions, recipes, information on how to create your own recipes and documentation on older versions for those who can’t get with the times.
See you over at the new GiftttDy Home Page.

2-Factor Authentication for ssh Sessions on Synology

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Feb 022014
 

Thanks to the good folks at Authy and a bit of UNIX foo, I’ve managed to enable 2-factor authentication to protect ssh sessions on my Synology DiskStation. If you’re not familiar with Authy and you use Google’s Authenticator app, you should go to the App Store or Google Play store and get Authy’s authenticator app. It’s a well-designed alternative with a better interface and more features like automatically (and securely) syncing tokens across devices. Authy provides authentication services to developers, which leads us to today’s adventure. Continue reading »

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