Roundcube Virtual Keyboard
Roundcube Webmail is a is a browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides the full functionality you would expect from an e-mail client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching, calendar, notes and spell checking.
There are an array of plugins available for Roundcube but to date, there is no "Virtual Keyboard" plugin. A virtual keyboard is a software application which allows a user to enter characters via an onscreen keyboard. Unlike typing a password using a hardware keyboard, a virtual keyboard cannot be logged using a keystroke logger. This provides an additional layer of security and is particularly useful when using web mail from an Internet Cafe or other untrusted location.
I've compiled a package which includes a virtual keyboard interface and is available for download here. Installation instructions are included in the ZIP file.
You can view a demo of the virtual keyboard on Aorta's Secure Email website at www.aorta.me.
Plesk PCI Compliance
To reduce the risk of compromising sensitive data hosted on your server, you might want to implement special security measures that comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). The standard is intended to help organizations protect customer account data and enhance system security.
Parallels has released a comprehensive PCI Compliance guide for the Plesk hosting panel for both Windows and Linux. A full PDF copy is available here and an online version is available here.
I recommend using Parallels guide as it is maintained inline with industry standards.
Thai Cyber Law Compliance
I often receive question from customers and partners regarding Thai Cyber Law Compliance.
Thailand's Computer Crime Act of 2007 requires any company or organization that provides Internet access to their employees, customers or visitors (that includes hotels providing broadband to their guests and staff) to retain certain header information for various types of internet activity (email, web surfing, instant messenger chat, FTP downloads) for 90 days as well as maintain a log of the users' identities. Thailand's full Computer Crimes Act (B.E. 2550 / 2007) is available in English here.
Thailand has a history of media censorship including printed news, TV, videos (DVD, VHS), satellite TV and has taken a number of steps to address Internet censorship in the past five years. The Thai Computer Crime Act is a component of this in providing Internet access history, records and tracking capabilities at end user sites.
There are a number of open source based Internet firewall solutions which include authentication and logging capabilities such as Untangle, IP Cop and Smoothwall.
A number of school's and organizations in Bangkok and Chiang Mai which have been investigated by the Thai Police (Section 5) for failing to meet the compliance requirements so Thai based organizations should take the laws seriously.
Create a Linux Server Status MOTD
For those of us who manage multiple servers in multiple locations it can be beneficial to have a quick "system briefing" provided when we login to a Linux server via SSH. The Linux Message of the Day (MOTD) can be used for this.
I've created a simple script which will provide basic system information including the servers name, public IP, OS version, load averages, uptime etc.
To install the script:
1. Create a new text file named systemstats.sh:
# nano -w /usr/local/bin/systemstats.sh
2. Paste the following into the text file:
#!/bin/bash
#
# Server Status Script
# Version 0.1.3 m
# Updated: July 26th 2011 m
CPUTIME=$(ps -eo pcpu | awk 'NR>1' | awk '{tot=tot+$1} END {print tot}')
CPUCORES=$(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep -c processor)
UP=$(echo `uptime` | awk '{ print $3 " " $4 }')
echo "
System Status
Install ClamAV on CentOS 6.0
To install ClamAV antivirus on CentOS 6.0 along with automatic updates and a nightly full system scan please use the following process:
1. Change to your SRC install directory:
# cd /usr/src
2. Download the ClamAV installation package, ClamAV database, ClamAV development libraries and ClamAV daemon for your operating system type (32 bit of 64 bit):
For 32 bit:
# wget http://pkgs.repoforge.org/clamav/clamav-0.97.1-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm http://pkgs.repoforge.org/clamav/clamav-db-0.97.1-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm http://pkgs.repoforge.org/clamav/clamav-devel-0.97.1-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm http://pkgs.repoforge.org/clamav/clamd-0.97.1-1.el6.rf.i686.rpm
For 64 bit:
# wget http://pkgs.repoforge.org/clamav/clamav-0.97.1-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm http://pkgs.repoforge.org/clamav/clamav-db-0.97.1-1.el6.rf.x86_64.rpm