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About Kahn
Application Tips
GARAGE/WORKSHOP - Senior Technician
Job Summary
£25000 - £30000 per year
Bradford, West Yorkshire
Job Type
Full Time
Career Level
Please read brief
Job Description
Purpose Of Role
Kahn Design is an Automotive fashion house specialising in Bespoke Conversions, Classic and Supercar sales. We import and export vehicles all over the world, we also sell conversion kits where customers will supply their own vehicle and have the work undertaken in our busy Workshop.
Our CEO, Afzal Kahn is involved in the daily operations of the company and thus the business is very fluid with many exciting new Concepts, Innovations and challenges introduced constantly.
This is a fun and exciting place to work and could provide a long term future with great career prospects for a talented, committed and hard working individual.
We require a Senior Technician to supervise and involve themselves in the production of Bespoke Automobiles.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
This role will only suit a technically minded and capable individual. We have a very busy Workshop and as above; we require a Senior Technician/Workshop Controller to supervise and involve themselves in the production of Bespoke Automobiles. We convert Land Rover/Range Rover - Bentley - Jeep and sell brands such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Rolls Royce to name a few.
Desired Skills and Experience
This is a "Hands On" role requiring the relevant skills not only to lead but to carry out general maintenance, adaptions to power train & transmissions, removal and fitment of body parts, fitment of lighting and electrical systems both interior and exterior. You must be computer literate & understand DMS systems
You must be very process driven and lead other team members through the process. Our No1 priority is QUALITY CONTROL and you will be responsible for the majority of control checks throughout the production process.
We do not operate under the restrictions of Manufacturers or PLC's, thus giving the ideal candidate the licence to be creative and enhance/improve our production process. If you take pride in your work & achievements we have an ideal opportunity for you here to flourish
If you think you are up for a challenge and posses the skills to "bring something to the party" then we'd welcome your application for this unique opportunity.
Successful applicants will be invited for an informal interview in the first instance, giving you the opportunity to learn a little more about the business operations and where you would fit in.
Apply for this role
Go Back
01274 749 999
Group Web Sites
© 2020 A. Kahn Design Ltd. All rights reserved.


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So I'm on a self-editing kick and my article choices will reflect that. Today I'm sharing Ten Tips for Self-Editing. They're simple things that you can do to help you successfully get through your manuscript review.
Tag Archives: editing
Writers' Toolbox: How to Make Self-Editing Easy
How to Make Self-Editing Easy is short article about how you can use Microsoft Word to help you edit your manuscript.
Writers' Toolbox: Autocrit
Editing is never painless, even for those who are good at it. It's easy to miss the small things like repeated words or slow pacing, and beta readers aren't perfect. Autocrit.com has been a blessing. This program examines 11 different areas of your writing (pacing, clichés, repeated words, dialogue, pronouns, sentence variation, etc.). Better yet, it'll examine your entire novel at once to give you an over all picture. Go to the website and give it a test drive, you'll be amazed by what this program catches.

subset: commoncrawl


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Landmannalaugar Bus Tour from Reykjavík
Rambling lava fields, mountain lakes & soothing hot springs
Landmannalaugar Pearl of the Highlands
The bus from Reykjavík stops in Hveragerði, Selfoss, Hella, Leirubakki, Rjúpnavellir and Landmannalaugar. To travel to the attractive area of Landmannalaugar is ideal for one-day visits or an extended stay, whichever suits you better.
The road to Landmannalaugar is F-marked and therefore prohibited to drive in regular rental cars.
Price: 15.400 ISK per person (Day Tour)
Youths 10-15: 7.950 ISK per person
Kids 0-9: Free
Duration: 15-16 hours, EVERY DAY
Difficulty: Easy
Enjoy Landmannalaugar with us!
15.400 ISK per person
After a long day´s hike, the local natural geothermal pool will provide the perfect way to relax and recover whilst still allowing you to take in the amazing views. The pool is accompanied by showers and is the starting point of the famous Laugavegur hiking trail.
Camping facilities and sleeping bag accommodation in mountain cabins available. For cabin accommodation please contact the local hiking club under for overnight in sleeping bags.
From Reykjavík:
At 07:15 from the Reykjavík (Harpa Concert Hall), 101 Reykjavík - Important: THE BUS STOP NEXT TO THE HARPA BUILDING.
At 07:30 from the Reykjavík Camp Site in Laugardalur, 105 Reykjavík.
At 07:55 from Hveragerði, Sunnumörk Tourism Info.
At 08:15 from Selfoss – Campsite / N1 Gas Station
At 09:00 from Hella (Bus stop at Miðvangur).
At 09:30 from Leirubakki.
Arrival at 12:00 Landmannalaugar (cabins & campsite).
From Landmannalaugar:
Departure at 18:00 Landmannalaugar (cabins & campsite).
At 19:30 from Leirubakki.
At 20:15 from Hella (Bus stop at Miðvangur).
At 20:45 from Selfoss – Campsite / N1 Gas Station
At 20:55 from Hveragerði, Sunnumörk Tourism Info.
At 21:30 from the Reykjavík (Harpa Concert Hall), 101 Reykjavík.
At 21:40 from the Reykjavík Camp Site in Laugardalur, 105 Reykjavík.
Pls. note that the earlier bus is running from 12/6 and the later bus is running from 15/9 2019. Please be ready at the bus stop 10 minutes before scheduled departure.
Book now in three easy steps


text: I./ZG1_Dutchvdm 365 Posted October 7, 2019 Hi Guys, I must say that i enjoy the new addition's very much, but after some testing, i have a slight feeling that both the P-51 and even the P-38 "outshine" the P-47 at lower altitudes by quite a large margin. Especially below 10.000 feet the P-47 feels like a dog compared to the other two. For the P-51 this might be what someone might expect, but even the P-38 (which is a very heavy fighter) feels far more nimble and picks up speed much faster. I always thought that the P-47 was at least better then the P-38 in most regards, but in BOBP it seems the other way around. Am i missing anything? Grt M Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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|Corrigendum Badmintion (W) Tournament 2019-20
|West Zone Inter University Khabaddi (M) & Badmintion (W) Tournament 2019-20
|Detailed Advt. of JRF position for SERB - DST funded Project
|Short Advt. of JRF in Newspaper
|Invitation Letter WZ Kabaddi (M) & Badminton (W) 2019-20
|Application Form For Direct admission 2019-20
|Direct admission notification and Guideline
|Holiday Calender 2019-20
|Sports Calendar 2019-20
|Union Elections postponded


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Prints up to 26 ppm
Reduce print costs with auto duplex
Enjoy quality, cost efficient printouts with low maintenance.
Using Secure Print features, businesses can put a stop to wasteful printing and ensure sensitive documents are printed securely. This can be done through the printer's memory or through uniFLOW.
With the embedded MEAP environment, users are able to utilise a range of MEAP applications, such as uniFLOW to improve their workflows and increase productivity.
Canon's PRINT Business app allows streamlined printing of everything from photos to web pages.
A quick start up produces the first page in less than 7.9 seconds saving you time, while standby mode uses less than 22.5 watts, saving you money.
The imageCLASS LBP841Cdn is PCL enabled making it ideal for use in large businesses with established print solutions.


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Skilled Labourers – Kingston – Long Term Contract
Our client is a multi-disciplined building and civil engineering company providing a portfolio of contracting solutions and construction services to the build environment. This company work in a variety of sectors such as commercial and residential.
They are currently looking for a Skilled Labourer to join one of their projects based in Kingston.
Required: CSCS Card Asbestos Awareness Certificate Full PPE Experience in a similar role.
It is a long term contract due to start immediately, with the possibility of further extension and weekend work.
To apply call First Choice Recruitment on 02085227878 or email you cv to email@example.com


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Monthly Archives: August 2012
Weekly Photo Challenge: Urban
Not quite conforming to the challenge but I came across this photo the other day and it reminded me of another time in my life. It was … Continue reading
Posted in Down memory lane, Weekly photo challenge Tagged Berlin, Berlin-Mitte, Fernsehturm, TV tower, winter 1 Comment
How to tell you've married wisely
The Husband has devoted the last couple of days to sorting out the garage. This mainly meant consolidating overlapping sets of tools — his own and my dad's. He ended up deciding to pass on his own to a friend … Continue reading
Posted in Family, Love is... Leave a comment
Weekly Photo Challenge: Merge
The Husband and I have taken to diving in a freshwater lake about an hour's drive from our house. The lake in question used to be an open-pit coal mine, which was flooded when the coal ran out. At first, … Continue reading
Things that happen at night
The other night, I heard cat screaming in the garden and rushed outside to make sure Charlie was ok. (She tends to draw the short stick in fights — she's just too nice.) In my rush to get down two … Continue reading
Posted in Charlie, Critters, Isla, Secret garden Tagged cats, flashlight, garden, hedgehogs, night, snails 2 Comments
Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth
These photos were taken last June in the Alps, just on the Italian side of the border. I think we were somewhat above 2000 metres at this point. I like how there is growth as soon as the sun releases … Continue reading
Posted in Butterflies, Critters, Insects, On the road Tagged Alps, caterpillars, flowers, growth, Italy, postaweek 2012, weekly photo challenge 4 Comments
Hail in August
Well, it's a good thing I took those snapshots of the nasturtium this morning — for now it's gone. There was a freak hailstorm that lasted perhaps ten minutes but flattened everything unprotected. The hail banged so hard against the … Continue reading
Posted in Secret garden, Summer in the city Tagged extreme weather, hail storm, weather Leave a comment
Belated Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside
I realize I'm way too late for last week's photo challenge but I took these snaps with my phone this morning and find them rather suitable. And I love the strong colours! And speaking of stinging insects, if you have … Continue reading
Posted in Insects, Secret garden, Weekly photo challenge Tagged bumblebees, orange, postaweek 2012, weekly photo challenge Leave a comment


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Offers - 2 for 1 hire bikes (save at least $25!)
Free Lightset or Lock with Standard Service
South Beach Cycles are a cycle shop like no other - they're specialists in cargo and family bikes, and have a great range of hire bikes for adults and kids, including trailers and cargo bikes. And their 2 for 1 offer on hire bikes for Friends of Nature Play WA members means you'll have the whole family cycling for a seriously great price.
Already have a bike you love and need it serviced? The guys are experts with all kinds of treadlies, and will lovingly get your bike back to its best. And when you bring yours in, you get to take home a lightset or bike lock - free!
Find out more about South Beach Cycles at their Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/southbeachcycles/
Want to get your hands on these great offers? Join Now!
FoNPWA Partner - South Beach Cycles
Already a member? Simply show your Friends of Nature Play WA membership card in store to receive your discount and gifts!


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February is always a tough month for the fishing community. For many of the days, the wind was strong and unpredictable. The sea was choppy with a high swell, definitely not comfortable. On the bright side, when the day did dawn calm with blue skies the swell abated and fishing conditions were great.
Bottom fishing is always rewarding and this month conger eel were taking the bait providing some good sport. In the midwater gilthead sea bream and mackerel were taken in some numbers despite the small snappers that tended to pinch the bait before the larger fish could get to the hook.
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Gray Ghost Amphibian II headphones for the Garrett AT Series Metal Detectors
New Design! The Gray Ghost Amphibian II headphone gives more volume than the original Amphibian without a volume control. Same comfortable fit and durability. Waterproof connector.
These are the newest version of the amphibians and are much louder and clearer!
The Gray Ghost Amphibian II underwater headphones for the Garrett AT Pro, Garret AT Max, AT Gold, Infinium and the Sea Hunter. They are rated to minimum of 30 feet. The Gray Ghost Amphibian II use a 50mm piezo and care constructed so the units offer a sound chamber surrounding the piezo which gets the buzzer to make better tones. The volume control is the key for the Garrett AT Pro and Garrett AT Gold metal detectors.
Additional Information
|Detector Pro
Customer Reviews
- Listen to the tones!! Review by Bert C
Price Value Quality
The comfort level is TOP notch but the only problem I have is that the tones are completely different from the stock head phones. You will have to "re-teach" yourself.
I truly do enjoy the mid tones but cannot stand how the high tones differ from the stock ones. It's baffled. Little annoying and takes some time to get used to.However, I can tell with iron audio that these are far more superior. So that's a HUGE benefit.
The service from BBH has always been solid. They strive to make every customers purchase a positive one. If you have questions, just ask. They are all about helping the customer in the end .
Thanks guys!
(Posted on 9/6/2014)
- Big Improvement on my AT Pro Review by JASinBTCT
Price Value Quality
- Best Upgrade for AT Pro and Gold Review by Sandman
Price Value Quality
- Excellent Headphone Review by Robert
Quality Price Value


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Aug 26, 2015
This week the Two Guys with PhDs Talking about Comics look at three recent titles, each one an example of genre mash-up. They begin with a new book that isn't really so new. Philippe Druillet's The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane (Titan Comics) is actually a reprint of a series of stories originally published in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Pilote between 1970 and 1971, and then later made available to English speakers through both Dark Horse Comics and NBM. Each short narrative centers on the titular character, a space wanderer/adventurer who encounters a variety of pirates, robotic threats, despotic rulers, and space gods along his multi-dimensional journeys. Druillet's style is colorful, lush, and baroque, demonstrating much of the cultural psychedelia of the time, and the artwork is nicely showcased through the bandes dessinées format in which Titan Comics chose to publish this edition. Derek and Gene discuss in some detail Druillet's non-traditional panel layout and how he utilizes the mise-en-page to both generate meaning in unique ways and demonstrate a playfulness engaging reader expectations. This is the first in a series of Lone Sl0ane narratives that Titan will reproduce, the next two featuring his adventures originally published in 1972's Delirius. After these fantasy-inspired space quests, the guys turn their attention to something more earth-bound, although not necessarily of this world. Ales Kot and Matt Taylor's Wolf (Image Comics) is a curious blend of supernatural and noir conventions featuring werewolves, vampires, ghosts, demons, Cthulu, and possibly the Antichrist. The second issue was just released, so Gene and Derek are able to discuss this new series with quite a number of pages under their belts. Ironically, though, the guys aren't entirely sure what's going on in this title, despite the almost-60-pages first issue and the regularly sized second. Kot and Taylor have laid out their narrative groundwork, for the most part, but there just isn't much that happens in these first two issues. Despite the intriguing premise and the promise of socio-cultural pertinence, this may be a title that reads better in trade...or so Gene and Derek wonder. An inaugural issue with much more action can be found in Bradford Winters, Larry Cohen, and Daniel Irizarri's Americatown #1 (BOOM! Studios/Archaia). What drew the guys to this new series is its premise, a futuristic or alternative world where U.S. citizens become illegal immigrant workers in other countries, sending back their earnings to provide for their families while they evade the surveillance and deportation. Given recent political news -- thanks largely to that paragon of civil discourse, Donald Trump -- Americatown is a timely speculation on national boundaries and economic survival. Gene especially appreciates Irizarri's art, and it is for this reason, as well, that both he and Derek are likely to return regularly to this eight-issue limited series and not wait for it to be collected.


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Sales and servicing of new and used fork trucks
01376 552135
01376 552135
Yale Range
» Gas/Diesel Trucks
» Electric Trucks
» Warehouse Trucks
Hangcha Range
» Gas Trucks
» Diesel Trucks
» Electric Trucks
» XF Series Trucks
» Rough Terrain Trucks
Re-conditioned Trucks
» Gas/Diesel Trucks
» Electric Trucks
» Warehouse Trucks
» Flexi Trucks
Ameise Range
Servicing & Parts
New Hangcha electric fork lift trucks
Electric 1-3.5T
Soft Landing
Work Safely
A large low non slip step provides easy entry and exit from the ergonomically designed compartment. A clear footwell with well placed pedals gives plenty of leg room and a safe working environment. The adjustable steering column and driver's seat ensure a comfortable working position.
Hydraulic levers can be mounted beside the battery or on either scuttle giving easy access from either side. Two strong grab handles are provided. A clear footwell with well placed pedals gives plenty of leg room and helps the driver work safely.
During the lowering of the forks with no load the fork speed is reduced to ensure a soft landing allowing the forks to settle gently, reducing noise and damage.
The battery is housed in the lowest part of the frame reducing the overall dimensions of the truck and ensuring stability whilst travelling. The gas spring lock function offers easy access to the battery cover when running through the daily checkup routines.
To find out more about our new Hangcha lift trucks, please
contact us
01376 552135
Armill Lift Trucks Ltd
3a Crittall Drive
Springwood Industrial Estate
Braintree, Essex
Data Protection Policy
Design by
NetserveIT Ltd


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[custom_frame_left] [/custom_frame_left]
At Sacarellos we use the best Arabica beans from Central and South America for our well known ' 'Original Blend' traditionally known as 'Sabroso'. The higher altitude and cooler climate at which the Arabica shrub grows encourages a slower maturation ultimately producing a superior coffee bean.
[small_button text="Read More" title="Read More" url="/coffee/" align="right"]
Coffee Machinery
Sacarellos provide and maintain coffee machinery for the whole spectrum of coffee consumers in Gibraltar.
From top hotels and restaurants to cafe's, bars, offices and homes.
You can purchase the machines outright or hire them from us.
[small_button text="Read More" title="Read More" url="/coffee-machinery/" align="right"]
Sacarello's imports the very best wines from neighbouring Spain, as well as a select range of New World wines.
We supply to Gibraltar's largest restaurants and small bars alike, and we can cater for parties, weddings and special events.
[small_button text="Read More" title="Read More" url="/wines/" align="right"]
Other Products
Historically, B Sacarello Ltd were initially general merchants, wholesaling all types of foods and other products.
This is still true today, as although we remain coffee specialists, we have diversified back into many ambient foods, for the retail and catering trade.
[small_button text="Read More" title="Read More" url="/other-products/" align="right"]


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Troop our next Court of Honor will be the Chili cook off! The scouts (under the guidance of their parents) make chil to share with the troop and everyone gets to vote on which one is the best. Feel free to be creative! The winner get an Amazon gift card, 2nd place gets a pat on the back, 3rd place get's a "better luck next year" and everyone gets a full belly and a good time!
For our newer scouts. The COH is a quarterly event where scouts receive any new merit badges and awards that they earned over the past 3 months. There is a slide show created by the troop scribe to reflect on the cool stuff we did the over the last quarter too! This is also a chance for the Committee Chair and the Scoutmaster to update everyone on the lastest and greatest information. The Treasurer updates parents on the status of the scout accont (bring checkbook because scout goign to camp and other things might owe some money) and there will be a few other things. This is for the whole family!
The COH is February 26th. Arrive at 530pm for set up. The COH officially starts at 6pm. We normally finish before 8pm. I'm thinking we will have about 40-50 people there.
Please sign up for items to bring:
8 slots of Chili minimum (more scouts can bring chili if they want)
4 slots for a dozen rolls
2 slots for crackers
2 slots for salad
2 slots for shredded cheese
4 slots for a dessert
1 slot for sour cream
2 slots for a bag of tortilla chips
Please sign up for the item you will bring at the below sign up genius link!


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Growing incomes, changing tastes and improving infrastructure are boosting the ice cream industry
India's appetite for ice cream is on the rise. Growing incomes and changing tastes are boosting the growth of the ice cream industry. The industry in India generated revenue of more than $1.5 billion last year and is expected to more than double to generate $3.4 billion by 2021, according to TechSci Research.
Indian v/s Global Brands
With the increasing demand for the premium brands in India, there is a big market for both the traditional ice creams as well as the modern gelato brands. Consumers are no longer satisfied with the typical vanilla cone and are demanding new flavours, tasty toppings and innovative ways of serving the ice cream. Due to this, many national players are launching modern gelato ice creams. But Srinivas Kamath, Director, Kamaths Ourtimes Ice cream (Natural Ice Cream), believed, "Traditional ice cream never goes out of fashion. It is always preferred over gelato brands as it is according to the Indian tastes."
Till a decade back, the ice cream sector was dominated by the global brands, but now the Indian brands are leading the bandwagon in ice cream retailing. There can be a lot of factors for this change. Kamath added, "National players understand the local preferences and taste of people unlike the global brands. Another factor, which plays an important role, is the price. Ice creams flavours launched by Indian brands are comparatively 30-40 per cent cheaper."
On the same lines, Nitin Arora, CEO, Creambell Ice Cream, said, "We believe in delighting our consumers with the widest range of ice cream and surprising them from time to time with innovative combinations." Globally, the demand for stick-less extruded ice cream products is growing fast. Therefore, the company introduced India's first stick-less ice cream Chokerz.
Franchising Adding Sweetness
Major players like Kwality Walls, Amul, Creambell Ice Cream, Baskin Robbins, and Natural Ice Cream are expanding their businesses via franchising. Kamath believed: "Franchising is the best way to expand. Till now we have 123 outlets pan-India, out of which 117 are franchised. In franchising, we get to rely on the expertise of local entrepreneurs on understanding the preferences of the local people." In words of Mohit Khattar, CEO, Graviss Foods-Baskin Robbins, "We are currently operating over 700 exclusive parlours across 140 cities in India. We are also growing our distribution network for impulse products across modern trade and general trade outlets.


text: From the writing challenge Blogging from A – Z Challenge for the month of April. I decided to pick a theme for my month listing personality traits (good or bad) and to have fun with this.. I figure there may be some very raw moments in this as well as opportunities to dig deep, share, become vulnerable and laugh with everyone. Haunted ~ Hollowed eyes, harrowed soul Hurting heart, now a haggard hole… Read More


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Hiring an SEO consultant for your website is not easy. In today's marketplace, the task of an SEO expert is combination of designing, copywriting, social media marketing, deduct designing, site developing, marketing, advertising, business analyzing, market and competitor's analyzing and so on. It's very difficult and almost impossible for one person to perform all these tasks and so you should always look for an SEO company to promote your website.
Things You Should Ask An SEO Consultant Or Agency Before Hiring
1. Do they guarantee ranking?
No one can guarantee #1 position for all your keywords at all times on all Search Engines. If any company makes such promises, look elsewhere. An expert SEO company will tell you that along with rank, it is also important to have a steady flow of traffic. Don't be fooled by a dazzling website and false promises. They should also employ ethical means.
2. Will they modify your website?
Your SEO company should know what changes to make to your website so that it is optimized to the maximum. Optimizing your images, changing your navigation, flashes and menus so that it will be easy to navigate, also changing your page titles, Meta descriptions, Meta tags may also be needed.
3. What is their strategy of linking?
The link building is necessary for gaining page rank from Google, which relies on the number of links pointing to your site. The SEO company should clearly state there link building plans.
4. What communications and reporting will I receive?
It is very important that the company communicates and keeps you informed about your website's status on a regular basis. Ask about their communication process and how often you receive reports and other information and ask them if have someone to answer your questions.
5. What do the SEO services include?
Your SEO company should clearly state what services they are providing for the money they are paying. See if they charge extra for services like blog, articles, or content writing.
6. Can you provide testimonials and references from successful projects?
Ask about their projects and testimonials from clients before hiring.
Indeed, the demand of writing services have increased nowadays because many companies are in-need of these kinds of writing services either for educational purposes or for purposes of selling any kind of products. Many people have been confused between the difference between SEO and ghost writers as both do freelance writing projects. This article will help you determine the difference between the two and what their specific tasks are.
The common things about SEO and ghost writer are: first is that they both work for companies that needs writing services to be posted in their websites; second is that both of them don't get the credit for their work because they write for companies or people who pay them in a certain negotiated amount; and lastly, they both follow certain instructions given by their clients on what and how they are suppose to write.
SEO writers
SEO means "Search Engine Optimization". SEO writing does not directly require the skills in writing because it is rather a social skill. This kind of writing focus more on marketing and selling products and services through writing, thus makes you more focus on the marketing strategies rather than just simply writing. As you market your products or services, you don't utilize a pitch but rather use words to make it sellable and appealing to your readers and at the same time, your possible customers.
Ghost writers
On the other hand, ghost writing entails an understanding on all the information of the topic as writers write in an informative way. It does not involve in selling any types of products or services although the writer can focus about the advantages and disadvantages of the product.
Each of these writing techniques has its own unique strengths and its own relevance. However, SEO writers do tasks much harder than ghost writers as their content aims in selling a product and making company websites make it to the topmost results in search engines. This is the reason why SEO writers require computer skills to do html coding as the companies that hire them expects them to be good at this.
To improve the overall quality of your website and rank higher on Google and other Search Engines, you really need practical thinking. The four most important areas that you should focus while you are updating your website are the following:
Along with providing great products and services for your customers, you should also focus on advertising and SEO of your website, and improve the areas of your website that will impact your page ranking and overall quality. As a whole you need to continuously update and grow in these areas to improve your overall online presence.
Add Fresh Content
After the recent algorithm updates by Google and all other major Search Engines, the most important element of a website is rich content which is most relevant to your website and products. We've all heard the saying "content is king!" The search engine bots crawl your site and index your site based on the contents you have. The more contents you have, the more easily the search engines can gather information about your website and show it on the search result page. Your contents should not only focus on Search Engines and keywords, it should also focus on improving the experience of your visitors in other words, giving relevant contents for the visitors which they will enjoy reading as well as containing keywords for the Search Engines.
You should start adding new contents to your website for improving quality of your website and user experience.
There are thousand or even millions of websites that sell the similar products as you, therefore writing content that do not stimulate or catch the visitor's interest is not effective any longer. As you insert quality contents to your website, you naturally make the site found easily and grow your social link profile.
SEO stands for "Search Engine Optimization". This kind of writing services is widely rampant nowadays because many companies are seeking for their service. The nature of this work basically involves content writing, and computer technology skills as the goal here is to put the client's website in one of the topmost results in famous search engines like Google and Bing. However, it is also important to determine the right tools to be successful in this field. After reading this article, you will learn the necessary tools for SEO's.
Tools for SEO's:


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The Anal Triangle is the area between these three villages:
Aartselaar / Arselaar
Reet / Ass
Kontich / Butlich
These three towns are next to eachother and form a triangle on a map. You get the picture? For those who can't get enough of the idea of the anal villages. We made a shitty bike route through the anal triangle made by the best bike route generator on the planet, google maps. Good luck and smell you later! For the bike route click here!
2550 Kontich


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Book Review Sites for AuthorsReview sites for authors
Bottom is a position of 28 computer, eccines and diaries whose person position statesman careful document of hedged product and book. Here, too, the pages are sorted according to the Alekha number: the lower the number, the more people like the page. They can send your work to all of them, although it goes without saying that a filing will not necessarily have to be a review, cheap or otherwise! http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/category/ebooks/ 12,356: Book review page review highlights and separate e-book ratings. http://blogcritics.org/books/ 110,388:
This is a site that critiques novel literature with a touch of other categories. http://kindle-author.blogspot.com 284,485: A diary for self-published childle authors, run by a self-published childle-authors. It offers contributions by authors, in-depth interviewing, "sponsored contributions" by visiting authors and advertising on its website. http://www.mrsgiggles.com/index.html1,151,918: An site that repeats a number of electronic literature, mostly of the idealistic invention category, and sometimes films and sound. http://bookdout.wordpress.com/ 1,429,032:
There is a diary that repeats printing product and electronic book (which can be obtained on notebook ipod), with a conspicuous for head falsehood, female falsehood, cozy perplexity, psychology adventure story, homicide perplexity, transgression, message, paranormal/city creativity and emotion. http://candysraves.com/ 1,649,793: This is a blogs containing textbooks and ebook, with a focus on memoir, female narrative, easy paranormality, detective stories, timetravelers, horror/tension/thriller and select YA.
Review is published on the website, Goodreads, Smashwords and Amazon. http://acozyreaderscorner.blogspot.com/ 1,773,601: This is a printed book-based ( "preferred") book as well as ebook on a restricted base, with a special emphasis on women's fun / chic liter, romanticism, literary and historic fun, religious fun, YA, children's writing, memoir and cookery novels. www.dailyebookreviews.com/ 2,951,890:
There is a fictional ebook diary, with a focus on sci-fi, ghosts, fantasy stories and suspense stories, and spotlight a writer every week. http://thebooxreview.com/about 3,705,955: One site that post of summaries of new e-books by an in-house reviewers, and the post readers' book summaries filed. http://www.thesundaybookreview.com/ 3,947,099: An site that repeats suspense, crimes, true crimes and mysteries, as well as provides India publication headlines, visitor postings and Interviews. http://smashwordsreviewed.blogspot.com 5,009,611:
One diary featuring individual maker faculty appraisal new product, interview maker and adult visitor professional of all kind. http://www.ebookaddictreviews.com/ 5,406,299: A unit of writer reviewing book emotionality. www.ebookaddictreviews.com/ self-publications of all kinds of novels.


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Monday, January 14, 2008
Zizek, Slavoj. "Ideology Reloaded [on THE MATRIX Films]." LACANIAN INK June 6, 2003.
There is something inherently naïve about taking the 'philosophical' underpinning of The Matrix series seriously and discussing its implications. The Wachowski brothers, who wrote and directed the films, are not philosophers, but just two guys who flirt with and exploit, in an often confused way, some 'postmodern' and New Age notions in the service of science fiction. But The Matrix is one of those films that function as a kind of Rorschach test, setting in motion the universalized process of recognition, like the proverbial painting of God that seems always to stare directly at you from wherever you look at it‹practically every orientation seems to recognize itself in it. My Lacanian friends are telling me that the authors must have read Lacan. The Frankfurt School partisans see in The Matrix the extrapolated embodiment of Kulturindustrie, directly taking over, colonizing our inner life itself, using us as the source of energy. New Agers see how our world is just a mirage generated by a global Mind embodied in the World Wide Web. Or the series is a baroque illustration of Plato's cave, in which ordinary humans are prisoners, tied firmly to their seats and compelled to watch the shadowy performance of (what they falsely consider to be) reality - in short, the position of the cinema spectators themselves. This search for the philosophical content of The Matrix is therefore a lure, a trap to be avoided. Such readings that project into the film refined philosophical or psychoanalytic conceptual distinctions are effectively much inferior to a naïve immersion that I witnessed when I saw The Matrix at a local theater in Slovenia. I had the unique opportunity to sit close to a man in his late twenties who was so engrossed in the film that he repeatedly disturbed other spectators with loud exclamations like: "My God, wow, so there is no reality! So we are all puppets!" . . . Read the whole article here: http://www.lacan.com/zizekloaded.htm.
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Hike #1 was grueling. It was harder than I thought. I huffed and puffed like a lifelong smoker even though I've never smoked in my life. But I kept a strong pace and tried my hardest not to stop to photograph every blooming wildflower, but time was not on my side. Sweaty, tired and satisfied with the trek up Echo Mountain, I turned around soon after sunset. There's one thing to be hot and tired during the day, but on a trail alone at night? Stumbling the additional half mile to the Echo Mountain peak wasn't worth risking my safety.
What I learned on the hike:
- I'm indeed out of shape. This project is going to be an uphill battle (no pun intended) but I'm up for the challenge.
- I hike downhill a lot better and longer than I hike uphill. Some may think this is obvious thanks to the power of gravity, but hiking downhill uses different muscles than hiking uphill and many find it to be tough.
- Hiking with music has its positives and negatives. I enjoy music that motivates me to hike, but I miss out on the sounds of nature. I'll have to think about how to solve this in the future.
- Although I broke two cardinal rules of hiking (Thou Shall Not Hike Alone and Thou Shall Not Hike At Night), I really enjoy hiking alone at night. It's cooler, quieter, and a lot of wildlife comes out to look for food (soon to be blogged about at my other site, bugshutterbug.com.)
Hike #1 Trip Stats:
- Date of hike: May 5th, 2009
- Location: Sam Merrill Trail - Altadena, California
- Duration: 2 hours, 11 minutes
- Length: 4 miles
- Average speed: 1.8 mph
- Altitude at start: 1, 754 feet
- Altitude max: 2,828 feet
This map was made with the data my GPS captured on the hike. For a more detailed trip report map, check this out.


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Authentic Katana for Sale Australia
If you're looking for a katana sword for sale, then you've come to the right place. We have a huge variety of Japanese swords for sale, including Katana , Wakizashi, Tanto and much more becides.
Katana have long been a favourite of sword enthusiasts from all over the world. But, perhaps most recently with Katana featuring heavily in pop culture and films such as Kill Bill and the Last of the Samurai, the Katana has been firmly cemented into western culture.
Handmade Katana Sword Australia
At this point you might be asking yourself, what is a handmade or hand forged Katana? We created this business as we not only wanted to provide our customers with options for buying handmade Katana, but we also wanted to provide them with a range of resources to help any questions they might have.
The Katana we have for sale in our Australian store are the product of decades of sword forging experience by our master craftsmen.
We're so confident that you'll be delighted with your sword that we offer a no fuss 14 day return policy on any sword you buy through our store. Simple return it to us within 14 days of receipt and provide proof of shipping and we'll quite happily give you a refund.
Full Tang Katana
All of our swords we sell are full tang, which means the blade extends all the way into the bottom of the handle (tsuka). This method of construction ensures are Katana are strong, resilient and ideal for cutting practise.
High Carbon Steel Katana
We only create high carbon steel Katana, ensuring are blades are hard, strong and capable of taking and retaining a cutting edge. These are not poor stainless steel replicas, but functional blades that need to be cared for carefully in order to prevent oxidisation.
Our swords are available in 1060, 1080 or 1095 carbon steel. We also offer spring and T10 steel for some models. See our guide to sword steels for more infromation.
Folded or Damascus Steel Katana
Some of our Katana are available as with Damascus or Folded steel blades. This means the blades have been folded multiple times in order to hamagonize the carbon content. This process is redundant for modern carbon steel, however, it produces beautiful and distinct fold lines throughout the Katana blade.
Clay Tempered Katana Australia
Clay tempering a Katana involves adding a clay of differing thicknesses to the Katana blade which is then heated and cooled. The clay adds a layer of insulation, ensuring the cutting edge and spine cool at differing rates. The result is a blade with a strong hard cutting edge and a flexible spine, allowing the Katana to benefit from both types of steel.
Coloured Blade Katana
If you're looking for a Katana that is not the usual metalic colour, we offer several blade colours, including purple, red, black, green and blue. The coloured blade is accomplished by an anodizing process. So, wether you're looking for a black blade Katana, or something a bit lighter, we have many options.
Clay Tempered
Samurai Swords
Take a look at the best we have to offer. Clay tempered Katana made by our master forgers.
Let customers speak for us
Ai Katana Samurai Sword
Ai Katana Samurai Sword
Aika Katana Samurai Sword
Aika Katana Samurai Sword


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ORAL LANGUAGE underpins written language. It is important for students to listen and speak in order to develop language.
PAYPAL is our chosen payment gateway for safe and secure processing.See details for Credit / Debit Cards purchases HERE
PAYPAL offers payment for customers with a PayPal Account
and for one off Credit Card or Debit Card purchases


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My Extreme Bedroom Makeover, Part Two
This is a sponsored review from BlogHer and Valspar.
Am I the only person who chooses paint colors based on their names? I mean, I can't be, right? Judging by all the suggestions you guys gave me for my bedroom walls last week, I'm not the only one won over by the wonderful-sounding Birdsong Blue, the evocative Wet Pavement, or the whimsical Roaming Pony. Must be the word nerd in me, because I do this with nail polish too: ah, Sweet Aubergine sounds so delightful, who cares if my new manicure makes me look like I've slammed my hand in the car door?
So first of all, thank you so much for all the many paint color choices you gave me last week, and congratulations also to Keenie Beanie, winner of last week's $100 gift card to Lowe's. (May you dance in the aisles of Lowe's, Keenie Beanie, buying all the home hardware you need!) This week, we're going to take a look at some of the colors you chose for my new bedroom, narrow them down a bit more, and give away a second $100 gift card to someone else. If you need a refresher, here's the post where I showed you my gloriously blank white-walled bedroom and begged for your help making it look better.
Now that you're all caught up, let's look at some of the choices. The problem---if you can call it a problem, and I don't really think you can—is that Valspar just has so many colors I'd like to use; I'm fairly sure I lost a whole morning of my life playing with the Virtual Painter tool and I still wasn't any closer to making a decision. Luckily, however, you guys stepped in like little Lisa La Portas—that's an HGTV reference, for those of you who don't have a DVR crammed with home decorating shows (who are you?)---and gave me a few ideas. It was interesting, actually, to see which colors cropped up again and again. Here are a few of my favorites you chose:
What do you think? Any particular standouts? I'm drawn to the Mark Twain House Ombra Gray (English majors unite!) but is it a little too green? I must admit to being rather in love with the High-Speed Steel and I'm curious to see how brown Semi-Sweet would be in real life. Almost Charcoal would look great with a glossy white---our bed, linens, and bedside tables are all white---but would I need another accent color as well? In that case, the pretty Homestead Resort Spa Aqua might be an interesting choice; gray, turquoise, and white is certainly a palette I've used before. Wait a second: am I trying to make my bedroom look like my wedding invitations?
To refresh your memory, here's the blank and boring bedroom in question; it's small-ish (it'll fit our bed, bedside tables, a dresser, and likely another small chest for our---gasp! Cover your ears, bedroom purists!----flat screen television), but it gets great light, it has a lovely view onto the backyard, and I love the original 1943 hardwood floors.
It's cozy and calm and I think—with the right color on the walls---we could really make it something.
And for further inspiration, here's AB Chao's bedroom, which I think is one of the loveliest bedrooms in the world. I even met her this weekend and told her so. She didn't seem as creeped out as I worried she might be.
Anyway, here's how it'll go: leave me a comment below and let me know which of the colors above floats your boat and rocks your world (or find one you like here), and---just like last week---you'll be entered to win a $100 Lowe's gift card, thanks to BlogHer and Valspar. (You don't have to spend it on paint, obviously. Me, I'd probably put it towards a shiny stainless steel dishwasher, but I have become boring and domesticated in my old age. You might want a grill or a hammock or dining room chandelier, you wacky young thing, you!) No duplicate comments, please, and you can read the official rules right here. The winner will be chosen at random and notified by me, and next week I'll show you which color we decided to go with.
So what do you think? Any of the above take your fancy? Almost Charcoal? Metropolis? High Speed Steel? And we can't forget about Roaming Pony, obviously. But remember: don't pick them just for the names. That's how I once ended up with a chartreuse kitchen.


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Have you ever been down a dangerous path? If you saw someone else walking down that same path, do you think you'd warn them? I know I would. But people don't take kindly to warnings when the path they are following is an idea, opinion, or emotionally charged issue.
I used to be severely unbalanced in my views. Though I am not perfect, I believe I've come to a better understanding of where I've been misguided. Recently I had a conversation with someone who was clearly where I had been long ago. They start off with a biblical principal, they get emotionally revved up, and then they get off the reservation to chase down an opinion that doesn't carry the same weight of the biblical principle, yet they can't see the difference. This is a logical fallacy, but for the most part the person arguing their point thinks it's a solid argument.
I was sitting watching the discussion take an off-roading excursion right for the edge of a cliff and I didn't know what to say. I wanted to shout out, "Hold up! You're off the reservation. If we are going to start debating this topic we have to keep it within the parameters of concrete truth, not your subjective opinions." But I did say a thing. I tried to be tactful and bring the discussion back around to the Bible, but the emotions, like the dark force, were too strong for a young padawan preacher to overpower.
I don't think that people should give the same weight to their emotions and opinions that they give to their authority and facts. Yet, people seem to be unaffected by the facts when their emotions and opinions are in the way. While I can see that these opinions are minor in the larger scheme of things, the holder of these minor opinions holds them so high that they are unable to fellowship with other believers.
It seems we would be much more effective if we could unite our forces and attack the issues together. Unfortunately, all of the nonessential issues get in the way and keep us from working together. It's like leading an army with factions going up against a unified force. An atheist once said, "Christians could be one of the most powerful forces to change our culture, but do you know why I'm not scared? They'll never get together. And as long as their working against each other, they won't be working against me."
I hope you'll join us at WOTG as we work together to unify people under truth not divide over opinion.


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Commercial & Consumer
Section Focus
The HBA Commercial & Consumer Law Section is dedicated to all aspects related to the practice of commercial and consumer law. We meet for lunch on the second Wednesday of the month during the months of January, February, March, April, May, September, October and November. At least one hour of CLE is offered for each luncheon.
If you are interested in joining the Commercial & Consumer Law Section, or speaking to us, please contact our chair.
Join this and other sections online by clicking here, or by completing this form. If you are a new licensee, a third-year law student or an LL.M. candidate, you are eligible for free section membership for one year — learn more by calling the HBA membership department at (713) 759-1133. Click here to return to the Sections Landing Page.
Upcoming Events
There are no upcoming events at this time.
Section Officers
Katharine Allen, Midland Credit Management
Immediate Past Chair
Matt Manning, McGlinchey Stafford PLLC
Chair Elect
Stephanie Eberhardt, Office of the Attorney General
History of Commercial & Consumer Law Section Chairs
Bylaws of the Commercial & Consumer Law Section
Member Details
Section Members: 211
Section Dues: $35
Law Student Policies
$35 for lunch with reservation.
$45 for lunch without reservation.


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Discover Hoiana, a beachside haven of style, sophistication and entertainment in the cultural heart of Vietnam. Opening soon.
Drawing on the history and traditions of the ancient town of Hoi An, Hoiana brings the cultural heart of Vietnam to every visitor.
Hoiana delivers a unique brand of fuss-free luxury with sophisticated spaces and discreet service.
Hoiana's pristine beach, state-of-the-art gaming facilities and world-class golf course complement upscale entertainment and one-of-a-kind experiences.
Hoiana is a haven of local hospitality, world-class service and magnificent accommodations. Select from a bevy of stylish and sophisticated rooms, suites and villas across four luxurious hotels.
Bringing a generous dash of indulgence and inspiration with the signature Rosewood Hotels & Resorts® flair, our ultra-luxury accommodation options features beautifully designed and appointed rooms and villas.
New World Hoiana Hotel & Residences offers supremely comfortable rooms and suites, state-of-the-art facilities and unforgettably warm and genuine service.
Coming soon
Experience Vietnam's most luxurious integrated resort. Managed by New World, our residences offer fantastic opportunities for investors and homeowners. Beautifully appointed with plush furnishings and premium amenities, these sophisticated spaces offer ultimate comfort for longer stays.
Set against a spectacular coastline and unspoiled natural terrain, this is links golf at its finest. Hoiana Shores Golf Club delivers a stellar golfing experience amid undulating dunes and breath-taking backdrops.
Immerse yourself in a world of action and excitement. Play by your own rules. Managed by Suncity Group, Hoiana offers state-of-the-art gaming facilities, a dedicated VIP floor, nightly live performances and so much more.
As Vietnam's largest integrated resort project, Hoiana is offering fantastic opportunities at every level across a variety of professions. Take the next step in your career at one of Vietnam's most sought-after destinations.


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This talk page is only for discussing improvements to the page "The Pitt Uptown".
It is not the place for general discussion or sharing stories about the topic of this article. Please use the forums for these purposes.
This part of the Pittsburgh is based on The Oakland District. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oakland_(Pittsburgh)
I don't know why my edit was changed.Pittsburgh Phil 12:29, February 2, 2010 (UTC)


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On March 22, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an order in Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore. An evenly divided Court affirmed without issuing an opinion, thereby resolving the Hawkins case but leaving open the proper interpretation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), failing to resolve a circuit split between the Sixth and Eighth Circuits, and raising questions as to how the Court will approach future cases involving statutory interpretation.
At issue in the case is whether the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("Board") interpretation of the ECOA, stating that a guarantor is an "applicant," is consistent with the ECOA. The Eighth Circuit held that the Board's definition was contrary to the ECOA statutory definition of "applicant."
Read our client alert.


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Pleasanton, Calif. – November 18, 2015 – MegaPath, a leading provider of voice, data, security and cloud services in North America, today announced that TMC selected the company's Hosted Voice solution as a winner of the Unified Communications 2015 Excellence Award. This annual award recognizes products for their exceptional innovation and contribution to the telecommunications market.
"Businesses are quickly transitioning to non-traditional work models, including remote locations, requiring unique ways to communicate with employees and customers. MegaPath is addressing this change by offering feature-rich voice solutions that go beyond conventional phone systems," said Kurt Hoffman, President, MegaPath. "This award further recognizes MegaPath as an industry leader, delivering high-quality solutions that improve and simplify the way businesses operate."
MegaPath Hosted Voice provides organizations with more functionality than traditional phone systems, enabling companies of all sizes to work smarter and increase productivity. Customers can take advantage of more than 50 calling and mobility features, including Visual Voicemail with transcription, Mobile Integration and Call Recording. The solution also supports Unified Communications (UC), enabling businesses to operate more efficiently by integrating IP voice telephony with enhanced collaboration features such as Presence, Instant Messaging, SMS Text Messaging, Screen Sharing and Video Conferencing, all within the same interface. MegaPath offers UC clients for all major OS platforms, delivering a full-featured UC experience across devices.
"It gives me great pleasure to present MegaPath with a 2015 Unified Communications Excellence Award for its Hosted Voice solution and the team's commitment to addressing the real needs of customers," said Rich Tehrani, CEO, TMC. "It's inspiring to see such commitment to excellence and I look forward to seeing future innovation from MegaPath."
MegaPath is consistently recognized for its innovation and industry leadership. Most recently, the company's Hosted Voice and Unified Communications solutions were named as recipients of the Internet Telephony Excellence Award and the Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award. To view MegaPath's complete list of awards, visit www.megapath.com/promise/awards/.
About TMC
TMC is a global, integrated media company that supports clients' goals by building communities in print, online, and face to face. TMC publishes multiple magazines including Cloud Computing, IoT Evolution, Customer, and Internet Telephony. TMCnet is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries, and is read by 1.5 million unique visitors monthly. TMC produces a variety of trade events, including ITEXPO, the world's leading business technology event, as well as industry events: 2015 Connecticut Mobile Summit; Asterisk World; AstriCon; ChannelVision (CVx) Expo; DevCon5 - HTML5 & Mobile App Developer Conference; Drone Zone 360; IoT Evolution Conference & Expo; IoT Evolution Developers Conference; IoT Evolution Fog, Analytics & Data Conference; IoT Evolution Connected Transportation Conference; IoT Evolution Connected Home & Building Conference; MSP Expo; NFV Expo; SIP Trunking, Unified Communications & WebRTC Seminars; Wearable Tech Conference & Expo featuring Fitness and Sports Wearable Technology (FAST) Expo; WebRTC Conference & Expo; and more.
TMC Contact:
Rebecca Conyngham
Marketing Manager
203-852-6800, ext. 287
About MegaPath
MegaPath is a leading business communications and network provider that helps businesses fully leverage the cloud. MegaPath's award-winning service portfolio includes Voice, Unified Communications, SD-WAN, WiFi, and Internet services, backed by dedicated project management and 100% US-based technical support. MegaPath is uniquely positioned to deliver custom managed solutions to businesses that desire a broad range of high-value services from a single nationwide provider. With over twenty years of expertise, MegaPath empowers businesses of all sizes to simplify operations, improve communications, increase productivity, and lower costs.
To learn more about MegaPath's leading service offerings, please visit www.megapath.com.
MegaPath Media Contact:
Tony Welz
Welz & Weisel Communications


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Every now and then we see a flurry of news stories about the dangers of prescription drug abuse. We are told that more people misuse doctor-prescribed drugs than abuse illegal "narcotics." Then the stories disappear for a while . . . only to return again.
The problem exists, it's large, yet it's never solved.
We just live with it. Some of us are harmed. The rest of us move on.
This could preface any number of stories:
- The tragedy of the War on Drugs.
- The sheer insanity of the drug prescription system.
- The bizarre inanity of journalistic messianism, with its absurd cycles of jacked-up crises and tarted-up solutions.
Instead, take a step back: The idea of being addicted to the wrong cure — to misusing an otherwise "good" drug — is something we all understand, at least some of the time.
Misusing a cure is no mystery.
A basic truth of pharmacology, too rarely acknowledged in popular discourse, goes something like this: there is no "good medicine" or "bad medicine," just substances that, given the right diagnosis, work at the right dose. Take too little? Not enough good effect. Take too much? The effects become at first less useful, then, with more additions, positively damaging.
This principle is called hormesis. Think of it as the diminishing returns for drugs. And it applies to all sorts of things.
Medical insurance, for example.
There are reasons why third-party ("insurance") payments are something we tend to prefer. Super-convenient. But the convenience comes at a cost, as mounting evidence makes quite clear: insurance (and other third-party payers) that remunerate doctors and hospitals directly is what's driving much of the price inflation in this sector.
Automobile insurance overwhelmingly pays the insurer, and we have no crisis at all in this insured sector.
This was related with utmost clarity by Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer in his recent Wall Street Journal commentary "The Man Who Was Treated for $17,000 Less." A patient got an astoundingly better price for a surgery by simply setting aside his insurance program and paying in cash. Singer explains why:
- "Hospitals and other providers make their 'list' prices as high as possible when negotiating contracts with health plans and Medicare regulators. No one is ever expected to pay the list price."
- "[M]ost people these days don't have health 'insurance.' They have prepaid health plans. They pay premiums to take advantage of a pre-negotiated fee schedule arranged for and administered by a third party."
- "It is the third-party payment system that interferes with true price competition, so 'market clearing prices' can't develop."
Singer reminds us that specialty services like Lasik eye surgery, which tend not to be covered by insurance policies, have improved in quality and gone down in price.
Alas, as he laments, the United States is "headed in the exact opposite direction" from a real, cost-reducing solution.
We're addicted to convenience. That convenience, coupled with a controlled lack of competition, lets hospitals engage in absurd cost-plus pricing and trumped up fake pricing. We no longer act as consumers on a market, but beggars with rich uncles or Big Brothers. The market cannot work properly. Medicine has been allowed to become a "mixed economy" with few of the advantages of free markets. Progress in quality while prices decrease — the miracle of modern capitalism — has been left to other industries.
The reason lies not in markets as markets. It lies in government. And our addiction to it.
Yes, we are addicted to government — which common sense should tell us is poison in large doses.
To a nation addicted to third-party payers in medicine, Obamacare is nothing more than upping the dose of the same old drug. [further reading]
September 1, 2013
This column first appeared at Townhall.com.


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tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052392636836306032020-02-28T10:13:38.276-08:00MalwareJakeRamblings about security, rants about insecurity, occasional notes about reverse engineering, and of course, musings about malware. What more could you ask for?Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-75798377974395177412018-07-10T12:52:00.003-07:002018-07-10T12:52:53.146-07:00It's 10pm, do you know where your API keys are?

Yesterday, the social media archival service Timehop announced that they had suffered a breach. The service allows users to look back through their social media feeds to see what was happening last year for instance. In order to facilitate this, Timehop stores API keys for users' social media accounts. Timehop did a great job disabling any API keys they thought may have been accessed. Still, this breach highlights the risks of compromises in increasingly connected applications. In this video, we discuss some recommendations for individuals and organizations to inventory and understand API key usage for connected applications.

Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-3673741506425498802018-04-28T09:34:00.000-07:002018-04-28T09:34:41.043-07:00DrupalGeddon 2.1 and the state of vulnerability management
If you're running Drupal 7.x, 8.4.x, or 8.5.x, a new patch was released Wednesday. The patch was rated Critical with a score of 20/25. The Drupal team notified users two days before the patch was released so they could be ready to patch. The patch went live in the middle of the US workday, meaning that organizations wishing to patch had to take an outage window during business hours (not normally advisable). Several organizations we work with wanted to take more time to patch and scheduled a patch window for this weekend (something we strongly advised against).

Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly), attackers began exploiting this vulnerability mere hours after the patches were released. Since this is a remote code execution vulnerability, attackers that exploit it take control as the user that runs the web server software (thankfully this is rarely root). However (depending on configuration), attackers may be able to:

Upload a web shell

Dump data from a backend database

Create landing pages for spam on your domain

Exploit users who come to your site

Steal credentials from users who come to your website

Read the rest of the story on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-38192314816874729862018-03-30T12:37:00.003-07:002018-03-30T12:37:48.512-07:00New Windows 7 and Server 2008R2 out of band patch
Microsoft usually only issues patches on the second Tuesday of every month (so-called "Patch Tuesday"). However, when there is a vulnerability that is being exploited in the wild (or is likely to be) Microsoft may issue an out of band patch. That's exactly what happened yesterday. The vulnerability being patched was introduced when Microsoft patched Meltdown and Spectre in January. In that patch, Windows separates page tables between user space and kernel space to mitigate processor vulnerabilities (kernel page table isolation). But this apparently creates a new problem in Windows 7 and Server 2008R2.

The new vulnerability allows any user on the machine to read and write to the memory of any process, including the kernel. Ironically, this is worse than the original Meltdown vulnerability which only allowed attackers to read (but not write) arbitrary memory. In other words, the patch creates a problem worse than the original vulnerability the patch was written to solve.

Read the full story on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-60788153121288510522018-03-27T11:17:00.000-07:002018-03-27T11:17:00.546-07:00Atlanta government was compromised in April 2017 - well before last week's ransomware attack
Last Thursday, the City Of Atlanta suffered outages from a ransomware attack. During the press conference (recorded here), city officials indicated that they were invested in cyber security. They noted that they were working with state and federal law enforcement to resolve the incident and had even been in contact with the Secret Service. Officials noted that this type of attack (and outage) were happening to many organizations. Officials attempted to convey that despite adopting cyber security best practices, the City of Atlanta was victimized. This prompts the question "Was the City of Atlanta following cyber security best practices?"

Though little is known about the internals of the city's cyber security posture, we quickly learned that the city had exposed remote desktop protocol (RDP) to the Internet with no multi-factor authentication*. This is extremely important because if attackers get a valid username and password combination, they can directly access your information systems if no multi-factor authentication is in place.

*Full disclosure: We're a little biased on the need for multi-factor authentication, Rendition Infosec installs and monitors multi-factor authentication solutions, click here to learn more.

Cybersecurity Hygiene

Leaving RDP open to the Internet is bad, but leaving SMB (windows file sharing, or Server Message Block) open to the Internet is much worse. Most readers probably remember the WannaCry ransomware campaign that shut down services at the UK's National Health Service and elsewhere in May 2017. These attacks were powered by the leaked NSA (allegedly) exploit EternalBlue. In June, the same leaked exploit was used with the NotPetya attacks to target Ukrainian businesses (though impacts were felt worldwide). The EternalBlue exploit targets the SMB service on unpatched computers.

Read the full story on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-37042344991938709672018-03-06T07:43:00.000-08:002018-03-06T07:43:20.154-08:00Countering Russian cyber influence operations
Last Friday in SANS NewsBites, I saw an article talking about how NSA has not taken any action against the reported Russian cyber influence operations in US elections. Many laypeople have commented to me that the US can't continue to operate in an environment other countries can try to influence our elections. But my follow up question to them is always "how would you fix this?" The answers often start out strong, but when we dig into them a little, we find out there are significant problems with implementation.
*Full disclosure: I'm on the editorial board for SANS NewsBites. You should subscribe and use it for expert opinions on cybersecurity news.

Influence operations in cyberspace are a form of asymmetric warfare. As we have learned from Facebook's identification of advertising buys by Russian organizations, the cost to launch an influence operation is low. Unfortunately, the cost to counter an influence operation is very high. There are very limited options to counter a cyber influence operation and they all have serious problems. We intentionally won't address the legal issues with each – let's assume that the legislature will clear any legal hurdles that need to be addressed.

Options for dealing with cyber influence operations

Counter with your own influence operations to negate undue influence from foreign actors

Hack those performing the cyber influence operations and prevent them from performing the operations

Sanctions or other political pressure against those conducting the cyber influence operations

Conduct cyber influence operations against the aggressor hoping for a "cyber cease fire"

Force the platforms used for influence to limit their susceptibility to such operations

Criminally charge those involved in influence operations

Read the full post at the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.

Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-87901522873045272312018-02-25T01:50:00.005-08:002018-02-25T01:50:45.508-08:00Vulnerability disclosure – did we get it right with Meltdown and Spectre?
Today Rendition Infosec is releasing a blog post that we started writing more than a month ago. Why now? The dust has settled, that's why. Prior to the dust settling on Meltdown and Spectre, we think this very important conversation would have been lost in the noise. In light of these vulnerabilities, we think it is important to talk about how their disclosure was handled. What did we get right, what did we get wrong, and how should we in the security community posture for the disclosure of next round of CPU vulnerabilities (there will be more).

As most know, Intel found out about the CPU vulnerabilities as early as June of 2017. The mainstream public did not find out about these until January 2018, and then only because AMD engineers made careless comments in open forums that allowed independent researchers to reverse engineer the vulnerabilities. Normally, Google releases vulnerabilities to the public in 90 days, with exceptions given only in rare circumstances. In this case, they waited because of the seriousness of the vulnerabilities and the amount of work needed to patch them.

Read the full post on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-70629979054559668022018-01-23T09:15:00.000-08:002018-01-23T09:15:14.191-08:00Top three considerations when limiting local administrator rights
Ideally we would always remove administrator rights from all users. But in the real world, we unfortunately must deal with years of technical debt and poor architecture decisions that make the complete elimination of administrator rights difficult (or financially non-viable) for many organizations. So when faced with the task of prioritizing the removal of admin rights from users, where should you start?

There are many things to consider when removing administrator rights and these won't apply to everyone (for instance some organizations are dealing with specific legacy software that requires admin rights). But when working with clients Rendition Infosec uses these considerations as our top three.

1. Users with access to sensitive information
2. Users that use the machine to surf the Internet or open email attachments
3. Machines that have direct Internet access

Read the rest of the post (along with remediation thoughts) on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-39007756426439366612017-12-14T15:52:00.000-08:002017-12-14T15:52:30.137-08:00Infosec Advent Challenge #14 - syslog intrusion analysis
We've posted the 14th challenge in the "Infosec Advent" series. This one is a Linux server intrusion case. You get syslog and auth.log. Unfortunately that's all that was being forwarded.

We have some Linux syslog and authentication logs download here. Download and analyze the logs for signs of intrusion. Based on the log data, let us know what you think has happened.

Specifically, we're looking to understand the following:

How many attackers compromised the server?

What did the attackers do once on the server?

What steps should be taken to recover from the incident?

What, in your opinion, is the likely root cause of the incident?

In all cases, please show your work (e.g. back your analysis with facts, where available). In cases where data is not available to back your hypothesis, let us know what data you would need and where you would look to collect it.

Please limit your submissions to 1500 words. The best characterization of this web server intrusion will receive a $25 Amazon gift card (subject to contest rules). The winner will be announced 21DEC17.

If you were looking for another Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) related challenge, here you go. Have fun!

If you don't already have an account, you can register to play at https://www.infosecadvent.com.

Cross posted from the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-16749611670932735872017-12-13T19:08:00.001-08:002017-12-13T19:08:33.881-08:00Infosec Advent Challenge #13 - web server intrusion analysis
We've posted the 13th challenge in the "Infosec Advent" series. This one is a web server intrusion case where we will ask you to analyze the logs and let us know what you find.

We have a set of web server logs that you can download here. Download and analyze the logs for signs of intrusion. Based on only the web log data (yes, we know that makes it harder) write a narrative that explains what happened.

Is this a realistic scenario to only have logs and not an image of the web server filesystem? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Rendition Infosec worked a case this year where logs were available but the server image was unavailable. We would prefer more data to work with, but in infosec as in life, you have to play what you've got.

Please limit your submissions to 1500 words. The best characterization of this web server intrusion will receive a $25 Amazon gift card (subject to contest rules). The winner will be announced 20DEC17.

If you were looking for some Digital Forensics and Incident Response (DFIR) related challenges, here you go. Have fun!

If you don't already have an account, you can register to play at https://www.infosecadvent.com.

Cross posted from the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-81828030576063415592017-12-12T10:03:00.005-08:002017-12-12T10:03:43.992-08:00Introducing Infosec Advent
Rendition Infosec is sponsoring a new contest this holiday season to up your infosec skills and make you think (at least a little) about infosec each day. We're calling the challenge "Infosec Advent" and have set aside $1,000 in prizes to sweeten the pot for those who wish to participate.

In all honesty, it would have been way cooler if we could have launched this on December 1st like we planned. But unfortunately, attackers don't schedule their attacks on our clients so this project got put on hold while we did some end-of-year incident response. We almost decided not to run it this year, but then realized that was dumb. When it comes to this sort of thing does late really matter? After all, we're talking about free infosec education and free money...

We're releasing a series of hard and soft skill challenges between now and December 24th (the first 12 are posted now). While we'll admit that the initial set of challenges are relatively soft skill focused, we don't think that's a bad thing. Soft skill challenges are accessible to anyone, while hard skill challenges require more specific skills to perform. That said, you can expect some PCAP, memory dumps, and a few other surprises before Christmas.

We have no idea how popular this will be (or if anyone will care) but we wanted to give back to the broader community and this seemed like a great way to do it. We will posting the entries of the winners (and probably honorable mentions) so that everyone can learn throughout the holiday season.

If you want to play, hop on over to https://www.infosecadvent.com and register to play.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-17705062131546212192017-10-21T08:16:00.002-07:002017-10-21T08:16:34.347-07:00Cybersecurity Awareness Month - should this even be a thing if awareness isn't working?
If I'd written this last week, the post would have been very different. I would have pondered whether cybersecurity awareness month should even be a thing. Granted I live in the infosec echo chamber, but I often wonder how many out there aren't already inundated with information about staying safe online. Does one more phishing assessment or security reminder poster really matter? Sure, I regularly perform incident response and forensics, so I know attacks happen. But the extent to which we can stop them with additional training is questionable.

One idiot, two keyboards

But that was last week... This week a good friend of mine who is a high profile APT target hit me up for some cybersecurity advice. Now before I tell the rest of this story, it's important to me that you know that he's been educated in cybersecurity hygiene and receives regular briefings on security from his organization. His organization uses regular phishing tests. He's a smart guy. I'm not mentioning names, but I bet if I did most of you would know who he is and would understand why he's a no joke nation state (dare I say APT?) target.

Read the rest of the story on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-41841848635327383792017-10-08T19:11:00.004-07:002017-10-08T19:11:59.442-07:00Should Antivirus software be part of your threat model?
Should Antivirus (AV) software be part of your threat model? Strictly speaking, yes it probably should be. AV is potentially dangerous to an organization and should be tested thoroughly before being deployed. As argued in the recent WSJ article about Kaspersky (note that the article is behind a pay wall), AV software could threaten the confidentiality of a protected system.

But as any infosec professional can tell you, information security is about more than just confidentiality. The security triad is referred to by the acronym CIA, which most reading this post will know stands for Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability. In every security program, one of these items takes precedence over the other two.

In the case of the NSA contractor who placed classified material on their home computer, confidentiality was clearly the most important of the three. However, there are few organizations for whom a breach of confidentiality is really the most damaging impact. In the vast majority of organizations, devastating compromises to integrity and availability would have a far greater impact to organizational health.

Read the full post (including scenarios for compromising integrity and availability) on the Rendition Infosec blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-42127644756552286202017-09-08T10:45:00.004-07:002017-09-08T10:45:39.837-07:00Equifax Breach – Early lessons learned and six point action plan
In this post, we'll discuss a few early lessons learned from the Equifax breach announced yesterday. We'll also recommend a six point plan to avoid becoming "the next Equifax" based on what we know today about the breach. Rendition is in no way involved with the breach assessment for Equifax and we have no inside knowledge. However, we will discuss the publicly available information so organizations can take action to avoid a similar breach.

Note: In the coming days and weeks, you'll likely be inundated with vendor pitches claiming they can stop you from becoming "the next Equifax." Be wary, be very wary.  If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. In information security, there are no silver bullets. But that's okay – werewolves probably aren't part of your threat model anyway…

At Rendition Infosec, we endorse the SANS Institute six step Incident Response (IR) process. For those not familiar with the process, the steps are:

Preparation

Identification

Containment

Eradication

Recovery

Lessons Learned

This conveniently spells PICERL. A handy mnemonic to remember this is "Patched Infrastructure Could've Easily Reduced Losses." This is great because it's simple to remember AND true.

For this post, we're going to focus on the preparation and identification phases since those are what we know the most about so far.

Read the full article with our six step action plan on the Rendition Infosec corporate blog.
Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-17198314840209455052017-08-26T15:13:00.002-07:002017-08-26T15:13:46.958-07:00Five steps to prepare for a ransomware attack
Like many information security firms, Rendition Infosec has worked many ransomware attacks over the last several years. If you're reading this post, you probably know about the obvious things you can do to prepare for a ransomware event. We often talk about having good backups (and testing them). We also know that most ransomware is distributed through phishing, so having good phishing defenses helps too.

When it comes to ransomware, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…

But lets assume that you've checked those two boxes (as well as anyone can). Let's face it, sooner or later you are likely to have to deal with a ransomware threat in your environment. So what else can you do to prepare for the inevitable ransomware compromise? In this post, we'll detail a few things that can be done to quickly ensure security for your machines in the event of a ransomware attack.

The five preparation steps are:

Enable Volume Shadow Copies and increase allocated space

Remove users from the local administrators group

Limit the number of shares that a user has write access to

Use hidden file shares

Only map file shares while in use

In the rest of the post on the Rendition Infosec blog, we'll discuss the rationale for each of these recommendations.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-42433508252066616592017-08-23T15:24:00.001-07:002017-08-23T15:24:07.145-07:00The need for cyber security in law firms
An interesting article came through our feed today mentioning the need for cyber security in law firms. As an information security company that works with law firms, we couldn't agree more. The article makes a number of points, but leaves a couple of critical things out, and we'd like to cover those here. It's worth noting that the advice here applies to practically any organization (not just law firms).

The article suggests the following five items for all law firms to increase their security:

Use password managers
Update computer software
Use encryption software
Use encryption software
Use multi-factor authentication (MFA/2FA)
Risk landscape for law firms

At Rendition Infosec, we don't fundamentally argue with any of these. We do however think that this falls well short of information security best practices for most law firms. The reality is that lawyers deal with sensitive data every day and that makes them a target for attackers. Sensitive data might include mergers and acquisitions information from clients. This data, if compromised, can have major economic impacts to both the law firm and the client.

Attackers may also target law firms for more than just the data they have. Many users, even those at the most secure organizations, expect email communication from external counsel. Attackers may target law firms as a way to get into other networks more easily. Law firms should think of this as extending their cyber risk to their clients.

Read the rest of the story at the Rendition Infosec blog.
Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-78526893325749175262017-08-13T05:22:00.002-07:002017-08-13T05:22:26.409-07:00The need for dump analysis in Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI)
Over the last year, there have been numerous dumps of stolen classified data posted on the Internet for all to see. The damage from these dumps has obviously been huge to the US intelligence community. In this post, we won't discuss the actual damage of the dumps to the intelligence community (many others have already pontificated on that). Instead, this post will focus on the need for CTI analysts to perform analysis of the dumps.

For the first time, CTI analysts have a view of what appears to be a relatively complete nation state toolset in the Shadow Brokers dumps and insight into tool development and computer network exploitation (CNE) tool requirements in the Vault 7 dumps. These are game changers for CTI analysts. We define threat as the intersection between intent, opportunity, and capability. These tools and documents highlight the capabilities of an APT adversary. Whether you believe the US intelligence services have the intent to attack your network, it is likely (almost certain) that other nation state attackers have developed similar capabilities. Analyzing the data you have available (Shadow Brokers and Vault 7) can help shed light on what you don't have available (every other nation state attacker's toolset in a single dump).

Note: We understand that this is a sensitive topic. When classified data is released, it is still considered classified until declassified by a classification authority. There is no evidence that any classification authorities have declassified the data in the Shadow Brokers or Vault 7 dumps. It is likely that they remain classified to this day. The advice in this article may put those with security clearances at odds with the advice of their security officers. Please proceed with care.

Read the full post on the Rendition Infosec blog.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-32185241698867554862017-08-05T06:37:00.001-07:002017-08-05T06:37:13.196-07:00Software plugins/extensions should be part of your threat model
Over the last few months we've seen multiple cases of warnings about plugins and extensions for various software packages threatening the security of users. We've recently seen the Copyfish and and Web Developer Chrome plugins compromised and used to push malware to users.

While Chrome is likely safe and should probably not be considered a threat, perhaps your plugins should be. Plugins are developed by potentially malicious third parties. Even if your plugin developers are not themselves malicious, they have security concerns just like everyone else. And make no mistake about it: when understanding software supply chain issues, their security is your security.

Read the full story here.

Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-83645908460613672542017-08-02T06:28:00.005-07:002017-08-02T06:28:34.778-07:00An important consideration for "bug bounty" programs
The US DoJ recently released guidance on running vulnerability disclosure programs (aka bug bounties). The document is nothing earth shattering, but does provide some free advice to organizations considering such programs.

Rendition's advice to organizations considering a bug bounty program? Think VERY carefully about how it will impact your monitoring and detection strategies. People looking for bugs will create noise in your network – a lot of it. And the noise will look like attacks, because technically they ARE attacks. How will you separate this non-malicious attack traffic from real attack traffic you should be concerned about?

Read the full post here.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-333407069734048352017-07-12T06:12:00.001-07:002017-07-12T06:12:31.601-07:00Honestly evaluating the Kaspersky debate

So far, Rendition has posted on the Kaspersky debate twice. In the first post, Rendition educated the public on why a software audit would not address the fears raised by the Senate. The second post explained the damage that any antivirus software could perform in a network if its operation were taken over by a foreign government. The second post is about more than just Kaspsersky - as Rendition made clear in the post, it could apply to any antivirus software.

Bloomberg's reports previously unknown Kaspersky involvement with Russian government
Yesterday, Bloomberg wrote an article claiming that Kaspersky is far deeper involved with Russian intelligence than was publicly known. At Rendition, we think parts of that reporting were careless, especially the interpretation of the words "active countermeasures." "Active countermeasures" is not an industry standard term, a pet peeve of Rendition's founder Jake Williams, who has spoken on the topic at various industry events. Bloomberg took the phrase "active countermeasures" to mean the following.

"Active countermeasures is a term of art among security professionals, often referring to hacking the hackers, or shutting down their computers with malware or other tricks.
We know of no such standard definition for "active countermeasures." Even if Bloomberg got this definition from an infosec expert, any expert worth quoting would have told Bloomberg that their definition was one of many and not "generally accepted" by the community. That this wasn't reported makes the whole article reek of bias - where there's smoke, there's usually fire.

Kaspersky responds to Bloomberg
Eugene Kaspersky posted a retort that addresses the Bloomberg article point by point. Kaspersky calls out some of the obvious problems with the article, including talking around the point made above. But in his response, Kaspersky says something that is misleading if not outright false, and we think that needs to be addressed as well.

Read the full story here.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-66657582185843694622017-07-11T20:11:00.001-07:002017-07-11T20:11:34.840-07:00Is antivirus software part of your threat model? Maybe it should be...
Recently we learned that the US Senate was pushing to add language to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would prohibit the purchase and use of Kaspersky software anywhere in the DoD. This is nearly certainly a political move and CyberScoop's Patrick Howell O'Neill did a great job of covering this story already from a political angle. It is entirely possible that the Senate's statements about the NDAA are just political messages meant to rattle the sabers.

But should antivirus be part of your threat model? Perhaps it should. As Tavis Omandy has shown over the last year, antivirus software is often full of security vulnerabilities. This is especially concerning because antivirus runs with elevated privileges. And the elevated privileges make antivirus software so dangerous.

In considering this debate, it is important to consider the types of threats that antivirus software could pose if the vendor were subject to "influence" from a government. Obviously we are talking about this because of Kaspersky and the NDAA, but it is important to note that this any antivirus company could be subject to the same attacks. The risk is not only for antivirus companies that could be influenced – any software manufacturer with automatic updates could be used as an attack platform by a government. If one was hacked by an APT group (most likely a nation state), their customers would also be vulnerable (whether the software in question is antivirus or something else).

Read the full post here.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-23591931506856167042017-06-13T10:12:00.003-07:002017-06-13T10:12:30.195-07:00CRASHOVERRIDE guidance from NCCIC is confusing at best
After reviewing the awesome Dragos Inc report on CRASHOVERRIDE, Rendition analysts received a similar alert from US Cert and NCCIC. After reviewing the guidance from NCCIC, we were less than thrilled. The second recommendation from NCCIC (take measures to avoid watering hole attacks) is impossible by its very definition. A watering hole attack first compromises a remote site that you would already be visiting in an attempt to compromise your network. The fact is that the victim is not being tricked into visiting a rogue site as is the case in phishing. There is frankly no way for an organization to do this. Unfortunately, the fact that this "mission impossible" is set as recommendation #2 means that many will stop trying to implement anything further down the stack, assuming that the rest may also be impossible by definition.

Read the full post here.

Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-33573618263282066232017-06-12T12:16:00.000-07:002017-06-12T12:16:05.598-07:00CRASHOVERRIDE – monitor your IT networks (and OT too)
Last week Rendition Infosec founder Jake Williams contributed an article for next month's issue of Power Grid International magazine. The article highlights the need for utilities to monitor their IT networks in order to protect their OT networks from compromise. Today's release of the excellent CRASHOVERRIDE report by Dragos Inc only reinforces the points Williams' made in his article.

While a simple Shodan search will show many ICS devices directly connected to the Internet, these organizations obviously aren't following best practices in the first place. Monitoring would certainly help these organizations to detect threats as well, but they honestly have bigger problems that start with segmenting their networks.

For those utilities that have already segmented IT from OT (operational technology), monitoring the IT network is absolutely critical. Most attackers enter the OT network from the IT side of the network through phishing emails or other commodity exploits. They then noisily stumble through the network looking for the bridge between IT and OT. Even if the networks are completely airgapped (few truly are in our experience), attackers will eventually find a way to get malware to the OT side. But along the way, attackers usually make a ridiculous amount of noise trying to find the places where the IT and OT networks are joined.

Read the full story here.
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-47410257026407439602017-05-22T05:06:00.003-07:002017-05-22T05:06:35.542-07:00The problems of PUA (Potentially Unwanted Alerts)
Recently we had a client call us about a problem on their network. Rendition Infosec runs a 24×7 security monitoring service and had a client call about an antivirus alert for PUA (potentially unwanted application). This class of alert is often difficult to tune out since attackers and administrators often use the same software tools.

Frequent examples of this are netcat (nc.exe) and psexec from SysInternals. These tools are like the infamous "dual use technology" we hear so much about when sanctioning oppressive regimes. When we receive an alert like this, we most frequently find that the alert can be attributed to the activity of a systems administrator. However, there is a possibility that the alert represents the activities of an attacker.

Read the rest of the article here.

Anonymoushttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-19383273264986893502017-05-08T16:07:00.000-07:002017-05-08T16:07:15.738-07:00Petition for Microsoft to disclose data about MS17-010
Rendition Infosec is sponsoring a petition asking Microsoft to disclose telemetry data around MS17-010. We've highlighted a number of reasons why we feel this is important for the security community as a whole.

It is almost certain that Microsoft has data around how these vulnerabilities were exploited by attackers. Revealing this data will help us better understand decisions made in the vulnerability equities process. It will also enhance understanding about how likely it is that vulnerabilities discovered by APT attackers are independently rediscovered by others attack groups. Finally, it will help policy makers assess whether the exploits reportedly stolen (and subsequently released) by Shadow Brokers were likely used to exploit other targets before being released to the general public. If you work in infosec, think computer security is a good thing to have, and/or believe in transparency, please consider signing our petition, linked below:

https://www.renditioninfosec.com/2017/05/call-to-microsoft-to-release-information-about-ms17-010/
Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-505239263683630603.post-50177851087117011712017-04-27T07:25:00.001-07:002017-04-27T07:25:08.770-07:00Observations from the latest Internet-wide DOUBLEPULSAR scan
I've posted some notes from the latest Rendition Infosec Internet wide scans for DOUBLEPULSAR. Despite some reports to the contrary, it's not getting any better. In fact, it's a bit worse than earlier this week despite the uninstallation scripts moving around the Internet (note that Rendition Infosec does NOT recommend using these tools).

You can read the rest of the story here.

Anonymoushttp://firstname.lastname@example.com