This week the Data Leaks series explores another troubling piece of hackery, the rootkit. Today we are going to investigate what they are, what they do, and why you should care about them.
Unfortunately, there will be neither be a “how to detect them” or a “what to do about them” segment. Why? Despite the existence of rootkits on traditional computing platforms for years, i.e. desktops and laptops, the ability to detect and/or prevent their installation is a hard problem. Personally, I’d rather tackle world peace than the rootkit problem–it is that hard to solve. Continue reading →
There’s just five more days to get your video response in on YouTube to win one of the three tremendous prize packages from Revision Eyewear. We’ve had some fantastic submissions so far, so don’t forget to add yours this weekend!
Head on over to the original article we put up a few weeks ago for all the contest details and instructions for submitting a video response. Don’t miss this great giveaway from Revision!
Here’s just a few of the great entries we’ve received so far, we’re loving them guys! Keep em’ coming and thanks for the laughs! Continue reading →
We’d like for all our readers to check out the new additions we’ve made to the ITS Forum, especially the newly created sponsor boards. You now have the ability to directly communicate with our sponsors in the forums and abuse them ask them anything you’d like!
Seriously though, our sponsors are good people that truly support our community and whom we have a close personal relationship with. That’s the difference between our sponsors and some of the generic advertising you see out there. Our sponsors truly support you and the resources we provide.
Make sure you’re checking them out and don’t forget to head over to the ITS Forum to talk to them directly! While our site is largely member supported, our sponsors contribute directly to the information we’re able to provide to you.
Thank you to every one of you for your support, friendship and making ITS Tactical not only what it is today, but all that we’re still going to become! ~ Bryan Black, Editor-in-Chief
Something we’ve wanted to do for a long time is demonstrate that rappelling with a Rigger’s Belt CAN be done.
There are a lot of close friends of mine that have trusted their lives to Rigger’s Belts in the service, but I’ve never heard of them being used for anything much other than a tie-in to a helo or other similar anchor point.
There’s also a lot of skepticism floating around about how the AustriAlpin Cobra Buckle used in the 215 Gear URB shouldn’t be used for lifesaving devices, particularly rappelling. Continue reading →
There’s a great Wiki that Wired has just put together that provides the low-down on how to disable Facebook Places, a new feature of Facebook that allows you to share your “whereabouts” with your friends.
So why would you want to disable this? Besides the obvious security reasons, like how you shouldn’t be leaving your current location anywhere on your social media outlets, this new service can be used by your friends without you knowing it.
Just like they can tag your face in a photo, causing that photo to be associated with your account, your Facebook friends can tag you as being at a location, “checking you in” to a place on your behalf. The fact you’re at a location will show up on your Wall, and your friends will see your face appear on the Facebook page of that bar, restaurant or strip club under a list of “People here now.” You’ll receive a notification that you’ve been tagged (just like a photo) and you can go into Places and un-tag (un-check-in) yourself.
Today we’ll be demonstrating the last steps in completing your rope, which are whipping and fusing the bitter end. Whipping and Fusing are traditionally methods to prevent a rope from unraveling and to stop fraying. We’re essentially using these techniques in the same way on our Fast Rope, to strengthen and protect the end.
The reason we chose to terminate the Fast Rope in this fashion is that in reading the Mil-Spec for Fast Rope construction, it distinctly mentions that “The free end shall be seared and whipped.” Seared is just another word for fused and fusing is actually the proper terminology.
Whipping
The first part of this process is to whip the bitter end with paracord. What’s great about the techniques we’ll show you for whipping and fusing, is that they can be applied to any rope that you might need to whip and fuse.
On our whipping, we used around 25 feet of paracord that created a 6″ length of whipping. In counting the wraps it comes out to about 50 times that the paracord wraps around the circumference of the fast rope.
The important thing about whipping is that you must ensure that each wrap is tight, and continued pressure is placed on each wrap. This is how you’re able to see the dimension of the rope pattern through the paracord in the photos. While looking cool, it reflects that that paracord wrapping is extremely tight and will hold properly.
Fusing
After whipping the rope, which we demonstrate below in the video and photos, you’ll then need to fuse the ends of the 4-Strand Braid together. To do this, you have a few options. As you’ll see in the video as well, the point at which the whipping starts is just above where your final taping started to secure the end of your Fast Rope. Hopefully you did tape the end to prevent it from unraveling.
The first and best option in our opinion is to purchase a Rope Cutting Gun. These are very inexpensive, and if you regularly work with rope or paracord, will pay for themselves time and time again. By using one of these tools, it will not only save you time, but your fusing will come out much better. The gun will make short work of even the eight strands of your Fast Rope and as it presses through the rope it will fuse each individual strand together with the others.
If you’re attempting to do this without a Rope Cutting Gun, you’ll need to ensure that after you cut each of the eight strands that you not only fuse each one, but that they get fused to each other as well. Honestly it’s a pain in the ass without this gun and we’d highly recommend picking one up.
You can remove the tape after your whipping is set in place, right before you start your fusing. The whipping should hold everything in place nicely, but be careful if manually cutting each strand without the gun.
Wrap Up
Our Fast Rope construction started with those eight sections of 35 ft. 7/16″ Bluewater Assaultline Static Rope and wound up being right at 22 feet in the end. We’d originally hoped to end up with a 30 ft. Fast Rope, but you can now see exactly how much the braiding, eye splice, whipping and fusing really eat up in terms of length. Keep this in mind when you’re calculating the desired length on your Fast Rope.
We’ve included photos and video below, so be sure to check those out for instructions. Now all that’s left to do is girth hitch your Fast Rope and start climbing! We’ve got an article in the works on proper climbing techniques that we’re looking forward to completing, as we get a lot of questions on what the proper form is.
Hope you enjoyed the series and are looking forward to building your own Fast Rope. It’s a challenging project and one that is truly empowering to undertake. It will certainly give you a new appreciation for working with rope and what you’re capable of creating!
An awesome new product we’ve just recently come across is the LaCie XtremKey, which boasts an impressive array of features and resistance to heat, cold, water, pressure and dropping.
We were recently able to source one of these, despite the lack of stock hitting the market and look forward to bringing you an in-depth review after we’ve had a chance to beat up on it. While we won’t see if it blends, we have some testing in mind to see how the drive performs in the elements.
The LaCie XtremKey features capacities up to 64GB with an “impenetrable shell,” that can apparently withstand the pressure of a 10-ton truck!
Here are the additional features and specs on the XtremKey from LaCie:Continue reading →
Last week we kicked off a four-part series on Data Leaks with a lead article about vehicular data leaks. In today’s article, we’ll be diving into the realm of free WiFi.
This series is designed to look at how ordinary things we take for granted encroach on our perception of privacy. This series isn’t about ridiculously risky, yet highly popular, opt-in social networks–like blippy, a web site that divulges recent shopping details via sharing credit-card bills among friends.
If any member of this site participates in blippy.com, stay put–the black rendition van is on its way to your location at this very moment to knock some sense into you.
Instead, the Data Leaks series focuses on unexpected data leaks; ways you might be leaking the personally identifiable information that data thieves profit from. This week’s article leaves the car in the garage and focuses on the coffee joint around the corner where you login to pay your bills each month. Continue reading →
That DVD series has now been officially released and I’d encourage everyone to check it out. My recommendation has nothing to do with you seeing me get my ass handed to me by Val Riazanov in the Dealing with Armed Opponents DVD and everything to do with how effective his techniques are.
Whether you’re well versed in Systema, or you know absolutely nothing about it, you won’t be disappointed in the quality and effectiveness of Val’s teaching. He has a unique way of breaking down each movement into instruction that everyone can understand.
If you haven’t read it yet, take a few minutes to peruse the Dealing with Violent Confrontations article, and send in any questions you might have for Val, we’re still taking them.
I had a great time learning from Val during the filming of this DVD series and am grateful for the opportunity to work with him.
We just completed adding some awesomeness to the ITS Tactical Store a few minutes ago and are super excited to be offering our first PVC patch design!
Our friend Mil-Spec Monkey has recently started offering PVC patches and since he’s our mastermind patch designer, we inquired about an ITS PVC design. A lot of you have been asking about a smaller ITS Patch, so here you go, the Mini PVC ITS Patch!
The SOFTT-W is the result of an exhaustive 24 month research initiative compiling end-user research and laboratory studies to develop a more effective, easier to use tourniquet for all environments.
