Author Archives: ericlaw

HTTPS Only Works If You Use It

It should be obvious, but everyone seems to be making the same mistake. HTTPS only works if you use it. Everywhere. If you don’t use HTTPS everywhere, a bad guy can intercept an insecure request and prevent the user from reaching your secure site. HSTS is a good start to mitigating the threat of accidentallyContinue reading “HTTPS Only Works If You Use It”

Testing HTTPS In Native APPs

Over on Twitter, Paul asks how to verify that a native application is using TLS. For a PC, it’s pretty simple, just run Fiddler and watch the traffic. If you see any HTTP requests (other than those labeled “Tunnel to”, indicating a HTTP tunnel used for HTTPS traffic) from the Process of interest, that trafficContinue reading “Testing HTTPS In Native APPs”

Photoshop and Save For Web

Adobe recently announced that “Save for Web” in Photoshop is a “legacy feature” which won’t be improved. I decided to have a look at Adobe Photoshop CC (2015.0.0 Release 20150529.r88 x64) to see the impact of its many different “save” commands on the resulting file size. First, I created a trivial 20×20 image and drewContinue reading “Photoshop and Save For Web”

Content Blocking: Unintended Consequences

Our company uses a web firewall device called IronPort to attempt to block unwanted network traffic; it blocks access to known phish and malware domains, and, more annoyingly, domains thought to be related to gaming or “questionable” topics (e.g. politics). Whatever. Today the IT department pushed a new rule set which blocks some requests to domains likeContinue reading “Content Blocking: Unintended Consequences”