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The Beacon Bulletin

Acquire Abandoned Domains & Unusual Law Firm Names

by Lina M. Maini
President
Beacon Network Investigations, Inc.

A curious, but not unexpected, occurrence is happening online; that of domain name abandonment. Curious in that you would think that by now someone would have created a personal domain tracking app, (much like Roboform, a personal password tracker), that maintains your domain expiration dates for you, as opposed to entrusting a registry company, such as godaddy or Network Solutions. Domain registration abandonment is expected, however, as people and companies move on, go out of business, shift focus... and simply forget to renew the domain or decide not to.

Our friend, Bill Myers, discovered a great free tool to check the availability of great domain names. This free tool searches all available combinations of any given word (and synonyms) instantly and shows what domain names are available. Suppose you have a niche market you are curious about, e.g. "learning", this search tool will even give you available domains with the word "study" in it.

I'll let Bill explain it in his video: http://www.bmyers.com/public/1546.cfm

(You can skip the video, though I recommend viewing it, and go directly to the free domain name finder: http://domain.domainsection.net/domain.php?action=domain_suggest.)

Happy hunting.

Now, because it's a Monday (and we are not the only ones working this President's Day) and well, it's my sense of humor, the WSJ posted these funny law firm names and or domains:

First prize goes to:

Payne & Fears

Followed very closely by:

MoFo

With runners-up:

Slaughter & Slaughter

Bickers & Bickers

Ball & Weed

It isn’t the firm name that’s funny, but Holland & Knight has two partners, one named Harry Potter and the other, Frank Sinatra.

Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen in Chesterfield, Va.
Only two of the allens are represented in the domain name: http://www.allenandallen.com/

Ice Miller

Held, Held and Held

Freeborn & Peters: site: freebornpeters.com

Bull & Lifshitz, LLP

Lawless & Lawless

Angst & Angst

Butts & Johnson – the firm's site is bjlaw.com

Slappey & Sadd

BNI Operatives: Street smart: web savvy; humor inclined.

As always, stay safe.

Technorati Profile

Free Laptop Lojack

by Lina M. Maini

Relating to stolen laptops, below are the latest (U.S.) stats (from networkworld and slashdot):

- Every 55 seconds, a laptop is stolen.
- 12,000 laptops a week are stolen from airports.
- 600,000 laptops are stolen each year.

There are many laptop physical recovery aid pay services one can subscribe to such as lowjackforlaptops and brickhousesecurity.

Recently, however, we tested (and are completely sold on) a free, unique open source laptop tracking service, Adeona. Created (and with continuing research and upgrading) at the University Of Washington, Adeona is technologically miles ahead of its privately-developed rivals; primarily due to continual upgrading from UW's computer lab students, joined now by researchers from UC, San Diego and UC, Davis. Here's the best part: there is no third-party or middleman involved. Only YOU can track YOUR laptop.

This short video explains the free downloading and installation.



Also, straight from the Adeona site, for those of us that are very security conscious and carry sensitive information on our portable devices, below is a brief overview and one-line use direction:

Overview
What is Adeona?
Adeona is the first Open Source system for tracking the location of your lost or stolen laptop that does not rely on a proprietary, central service. This means that you can install Adeona on your laptop and go — there's no need to rely on a single third party. What's more, Adeona addresses a critical privacy goal different from existing commercial offerings. It is privacy-preserving. This means that no one besides the owner (or an agent of the owner's choosing) can use Adeona to track a laptop. Unlike other systems, users of Adeona can rest assured that no one can abuse the system in order to track where they use their laptop.

Adeona is designed to use the Open Source OpenDHT distributed storage service to store location updates sent by a small software client installed on an owner's laptop. The client continually monitors the current location of the laptop, gathering information (such as IP addresses and local network topology) that can be used to identify its current location. The client then uses strong cryptographic mechanisms to not only encrypt the location data, but also ensure that the ciphertexts stored within OpenDHT are anonymous and unlinkable. At the same time, it is easy for an owner to retrieve location information.

How do I use it?
Using Adeona only requires downloading and installing a small software client. Adeona is free to use.

I cannot stress strongly enough how important this software is for legal and law community professionals.

BNI Operatives: Street smart: web savvy.

Stay safe.
Beacon Network Investigations, Inc.

The Best Things In Life Are Free (Software)

by Lina M. Maini

This week's Bulletin comes from our IT head, Jonathan Caspian; a timely update regarding computer virus software.

Most firms have fairly good firewalls in place but that protection generally does not extend to individual laptops, home PCs, smart phones...

This week's Bulletin is a short and sweet list of free security app tips for those can't-do-without gadgets:

Tip 1 (For Windows users, any version):
Free Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft. This software, which should be run once a month (at least) whether you think your computer has been infected or not, scans your computer and removes the most popular and pernicious viruses and malicious software. This software is free from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Note: FOR THE FREE VERSIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO APPS, GO TO DOWNLOAD.COM. (dl.com also has many other tools, software, patches... that you can download for free and with very accurate editor and reader reviews. CNET tested.)

Tip 2 (Spyware Removal)
SPYBOT. For immediate removal of those pesky cookies, spyware and malware, Spybot is the best in the business. The computer security industry gives Spybot high points for ease of use, efficiency, effectiveness and it constantly updates itself for new hacker threats.

Tip 3 (All around firewall, virus protection)
AVG. There is no better security monitor and virus removal software. Again, it's free.

All three of these protection softwares will offer a report at the end of a session (which you can program on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis).

BNI Operatives: Street smart: web savvy.

Stay safe.

Small Phones; Big Ears: Phone Security Breaches

by Lina M. Maini

(This week's Bulletin carries updates to our BB Vol. 7, May 12, 2008 edition regarding widespread telephone tapping and how to avoid having your firm fall victim to cell phone security breaches. The related video below cotains an actual conversation between a TV producer and her attorney. They are on the 36th floor of an office building; the intruder is FOUR MILES away.)

Small Phone, Big Ears: Cell Phone Tapping
Particularly disturbing law firms these days is the potential that client meetings, conferences... can be secretly monitored via the attorney's own cell phone.

How it is done:
To remote access your cell phone's "firmware" (hard drive), an interested party can:

1. scan for your phone's frequency signature and bounce back an electronic tracer signal. In less than a nanosecond, your cell phone now serves as a broadcaster or

2. install spy software on your phone.

The obvious ethical issues of client/attorney privilege aside, firm operating procedures, sensitive case information, negotiation tactics... are delivered on a silver headset to outsiders with a desire to know.

How to tell if your phone is tapped:
The tech and investigation experts in the below video demonstrate cell tapping techniques , threat management and elimination. (Important note: the video concentration is on spy software installed on your cell, but your phone can be remotely tapped. There is no need for the thief to have physical possession of your phone.)

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCyKcoDaofg

Spoiler: the three main clues that your cellphone is tapped are:
1. It feels unusually warm.
2. The battery drains more quickly.
3. You get static feedback from speakers on other electronic equipment within range of your cell.
How to prevent cell phone tapping:
1. Remove the battery before sensitive meetings.
2. Don't take the cell phone into any high-stakes meetings.
3. Carry a signal jammer. Many are disguised as business card holders or similar small accessories and are extremely effective.

BNI Operatives; Street smart; Web savvy.

As always, stay safe.

Who's Your Daddy? Paternity Testing

Whether for personal knowledge or court-directed, paternity tests are now as common as the phrase "locked in an Albany political boondoggle". (Snarkiness can be expanded to other states' capitals political machinery.)

There are many "off the rack" paternity testing kits that one can order online. The purpose of this week's Bulletin is to provide information regarding a) sample types, b) gathering techniques and c) admissibility.

The full article is in your mailbox if you are a registered Beacon Bulletin reader. If you have not registered with us yet, we invite you to do so now. It's free, delivered each Monday and full of reader-requested information. Please note that registration is limited to licensed legal professionals and law enforcement. We do verify our registrants.

Email - True Or Scam?

by Lina M. Maini

We're barely into the new year, and already the scammers are flooding our inboxes with fake email, promising riches.

Below is an email I received. In that it was sent to me by a very skeptical Bulletin reader as a heads-up, I double-checked with the best source for scam busting: Hoax-slayer. (More on HS below the scam email.)

Subject: Please Read This. It Was On Good Morning America!

What do you have to lose?

This was sent to me by my accountant... if you think this is ridiculous I have no problem giving you his contact information...Read carefully...THIS TOOK TWO PAGES OF THE TUESDAY USATODAY - IT IS FOR REAL. To all of my friends, I do not usually forward messages,But this is from my friend Pearlas Sandborn and she really is an attorney. If she says that this will work - it will work. After all, what have you got to lose?

SORRY EVERYBODY.. JUST HAD TO TAKE THE CHANCE!!! I'm an attorney, And I know the law. This thing is for real. Rest assured AOL and Intel will follow through with their promises for fear of facing a multimillion-dollar class action suit similar to the one filed by PepsiCo against General Electric not too long ago. Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running e-mail beta tests. When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user) for a two week time period. For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00 For every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00. With in two weeks, Microsoft will contact you for your address and then send you a check.

Regards. Charles S Bailey General Manager Field Operations1-800-842-2332 Ext. 108 5 or 904-1085 or RNX 292-1085

What's particularly clever (other than none of the text) is the use of an 800# that generates a message that the caller "cannot reach this party from (your) area code". If you get email that you'd like to verify, visit the the guys over at Hoax-Slayer.

"Hoax-Slayer is dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues. Hoax-Slayer allows Internet users to check the veracity of common email hoaxes and aims to counteract criminal activity by publishing information about common types of Internet scams. Hoax-Slayer also includes anti-spam tips, computer and email security information, articles about true email forwards, and much more. New articles are added to the Hoax-Slayer website every week." - Hoax-Slayer

Stay safe.