Archive for December 9, 2014

The IT Nerd Award For The Best Entry Level Smartphone Goes To: Motorola Moto G LTE

Posted in Products with tags , on December 9, 2014 by itnerd

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Not everyone needs a iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S5. Some of us simply need a basic smartphone that does everything we need it to do at a low price point. Now, it used to be if you were looking for something at the low end of the market, you’d have to live without a feature or two. However that isn’t the case Motorola Moto G LTE. Just look at this feature set:

  • Android OS 4.4 KitKat
  • 1.2Ghz quad-core processor which makes this phone feel quick.
  • 1GB of RAM
  • 4.5-inch display (1280 x 720 resolution) which is very impressive.
  • 5MP camera with a 1.3MP front-facing camera which does a great job of taking stills and 720p video.
  • 8GB of internal storage
  • Micro SD Slot for more storage
  • LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth

None of that sounds entry level does it? It also for the most part did not perform like an entry level smartphone. For example, it was insanely fast on Rogers LTE network which is the last thing that I expected from an entry level smartphone. However the price both on contract ($0 at Rogers) or outright ($224.99 at Rogers) sure says entry level smartphone. That makes the Moto G LTE the perfect smartphone for someone who wants to get their child their first smartphone, or someone who needs a low cost smartphone. It’s also a deserving winner of the award for the best entry level smartphone.

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Netflix Releases Canada ISP Speed Index For November

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 9, 2014 by itnerd

The day that Netflix releases their monthly ISP Speed Index the day that makes ISPs cringe as they hope they aren’t on the bottom of this list. This time around, there aren’t really any major changes with the exception of Videotron moving up two spots. Other than that, the differences between ISPs are slight. The top 10 ISPs are very close together. That’s good as it shows that ISPs take this seriously. That means at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who your ISP is if you’re a Netflix user as you’ll get decent performance.

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The Poodle Flaw Is Back

Posted in Commentary with tags on December 9, 2014 by itnerd

You might remember that I posted a story on an exploit called Poodle which affected the SSL protocol used by web browsers among other pieces of software. The exploit was patched and it was thought that life was good.

It turns out that life is not good.

Researchers have discovered that the P00dle vulnerability also affects implementations of the newer TLS protocol:

Initially, researchers believed it affected only SSL 3.0, an aging protocol superseded by TLS 1.0, 1.1. and 1.2. That still put users at risk, since most browsers and servers still supported SSL 3.0 for backward-compatibility reasons. Attackers were able to force a connection downgrade from TLS to SSL and then exploit the vulnerability.

Security researchers have now discovered that the issue also affects some implementations of TLS in products that don’t properly check the structure of the “padding” used in TLS packets.

Lovely. What’s worse is that if you use a load balancer from F5 Networks and A10 Networks to balance your network traffic between multiple servers, then you might have a bigger problem on your hands because they handle TLS connections. Now the former has patches that are available to fix this and the latter will have them shortly. But it does show how complex computer security is as you have look at multiple layers of your network to ensure that it is secure.

If you’re worried about this, and you should be worried if you are responsible for the security of your network, you can use the Qualys SSL Labs server test to see if you’re exposed. I’d strongly suggest doing that ASAP. Then I would watch for any updates that address this issue and install them ASAP as well.

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