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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cloud Computing & Virtualisation

 1.    Recently got an opportunity to give a presentation to a school/college audience about whats all the fuzz of Cloud Computing and Virtualization about?I tried building up the presentation from scratch to handling some secuity issues in the cloud.The copy is for you to see for reference : 

Cloud computing and Virtualisation

Power Searching with GOOGLE :Get Certified


1.   Few weeks back I came across a link in some blog that said the following :

"Google is offering a new free, 13 days, certification program on 'Google Power Searching' .The course is totally free and registration ends on July 16th. The course will sharpen your internet searching skill and help you learn advanced tricks to make internet searches. There are several short activities as a part of the course. Once the course is completed, a printable Google certificate will be emailed to you."

So the next thing I looked for was registering for the same....and yes it happened exactly the same way as was expected....the course started on time....i attended on line classes with wonderful simple videos to understand by google itself...became more crued up with the serch engine tools and tricks...appeared for the exams and i got the certificate as shown below.



2.  Would like to recommend this to everi one who googles....it really makes you a stronger searcher....for more details what else...u GOOGLE....

Saturday, August 11, 2012

FinFisher : THE LAWFUL INTERCEPTOR


1.  Some thing to read here about one security software named FINFISHER thats making some news...a sequence wise time line of events related to this is produced below : 

-  FinFisher is security software. 

-  Marketed by Gamma International to various government security officials assuring that it could be covertly installed on suspect's computers through exploiting security lapses.

-  In the name of Lawful Interception (LI), FinFisher was found in the Egyptian Secret Police Spy headquarters used to track people down during the revolution when Egyptian dissidents ransacked the office's of Egypt's secret police during the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak 

-  Egyptian dissidents who ransacked the office discovered a contract with Gamma International for £287,000 for a license to run the FinFisher software.

-  A security flaw in so called "designed secure" applications like Apple's iTunes allowed unauthorized third parties to use iTunes online update procedures to install unauthorized programs.Gamma International offered presentations to government security officials at security software trade shows where they described to security officials how to covertly install the FinFisher spy software on suspect's computers using iTunes' update procedures.

FEATURES OF FINFISHER

-  FinFisher is able to record Skype and other voice over IP communications.

-  Logs keystrokes and turn on a computer's webcam and microphone. 

-  Can also steal files from a hard disk

-  Built to bypass dozens of antivirus systems.

-  Presently found across 12 C&C servers in 10 countries: the US, Indonesia, Australia, Qatar, Ethiopia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Mongolia, Latvia and Dubai.

-  Not confirmed by any govt agencies as being used officially but then who else would at such a large scale???

-  Expected to be particularly difficult to detect. 

-  Used to access target Systems to give full access to stored information with the ability to take control of target systems' functions to the point of capturing encrypted data and communications. 

"When used in combination with enhanced remote deployment methods, the Government Agencies will have the capability to remotely deploy software on target systems".............................extract from official finfisher site at http://www.finfisher.com/FinFisher/en/portfolio.php

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Bitter Truth : If NOT on FB,u r INSANE!!!

1.   Read this article today vide a TOI post that says that if you are not on FB ur insane.Facebook revolution has become so important aspect in people's lives, that increasing number of employers, and psychologists, believe people who aren't on social networking sites, could be insane....does that bring a exclamation mark on ur face...it did to me.....the post is available here

2.   It is strange that such things come as a analysis/study reports from psychologists......it lets us know how psycho are these psychologists who r deeply gripped by the FB revol...

Monday, July 16, 2012

Cross OS Trojan : @ If...Then...else :-)

1.    Got this at THN.We often feel stronger when we use some kind of a open source linux OS instead of the regular pirated or even genuine Windows OS incl XP/WIN7 etc.But what i got here was a simple trojan dropper code that is based on the found out OS...IF LINUX then this trojan...or if windows then the other one....the snap shot from the original THN site is here @ http://thehackernews.com/2012/07/cross-platform-trojan-mac-windows-linux.html

2.    F-Secure has found this web exploit that detects the OS of the computer and drops the relevant trojan to match.The attack was first seen on a Columbian transport website which had been hacked by a third party. This malware is known as GetShell.A and requires users to approve a Java applet installation.It detects if you're running Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux, and then downloads the corresponding malware for your platform. The malicious files developed for each type of OS connect to the same Command & Control server that F-Secure has localized at IP address 186.87.69.249.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

The Amazing Spider Man BINGS!!! does not Google

1.    Watched yesterday...the new spider man movie that's THE AMAZING SPIDER MAN...and noticed one special thing which few of you might not have...the search conducted by our hero was on the search engine Bing....and I could see the Microsoft guys smiling.....but it snapped quiet a funny number of tweets of which my fav one is this one by one Sarahtb0

The Amazing Spider-Man was pretty realistic until Peter Parker used Bing as his search engine.

2.   Now was this some kind of a tie up between Microsoft and Spider Man to lure audience further damage the Google proprietary in the search engine web....or was it scripted like normal..it could have been google also!!!!

Sunday, July 08, 2012

9TH JULY 2012 : R u a Victim?

1. All the fuss about 9th July that says about the risk of "DNSChanger" malware, which will result in your computer getting disconnected from the Web on July 9 if you don't clean it up. You won't be able to go online, and you'll need to contact your service service provider for help getting the malware deleted before you can reconnect to the Internet....strange it may sound...but it is true...even the FBI has given a warning sort at its link here at https://forms.fbi.gov/check-to-see-if-your-computer-is-using-rogue-DNS

2.  Just to check if u r a likely victim,McAfee has created a link at www.mcafee.com/dnscheck for you to find out if u r a likely victim or not ? I checked out the same on my PC....it showed the following screen shot.....

3.   Do check out urs....and rectify if need be....

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Cloud Computing : A dummies over view!!!! - 1


1.   Cloud computing is ALREADY the next stage in evolution of the Internet. The cloud in cloud computing provides the means through which everything from computing power to computing infrastructure,applications, business processes to personal collaboration — can be delivered to you as a service wherever and whenever you need.Cloud computing is offered in different forms:

- Public clouds
- Private clouds
- Hybrid clouds, which combine both public and private

2.   In general the cloud is similar to fluid that can easily expand and contract. This elasticity means that users can request additional resources on demand and just as easily deprovision (or release) those resources when they’re no longer needed. This elasticity is one of the main reasons individual, business, and IT users are steadily moving to the cloud.In the traditional data center it has always been possible to add and release resources but we all know how much effort generally goes in. 

3.   This doesn’t mean that all applications, services, and processes will necessarily be moved to the cloud. Many businesses are much more cautious and are taking a hard look at their most strategic business processes and intellectual property to determine which computing assets need to remain under internal company control and which computing assets could be moved to the cloud.

4.   The cloud itself is a set of hardware, networks, storage, services, and interfaces that enable the delivery of computing as a service. Cloud services include the following :

- IaaS(Infrastructure as a service) : Infrastructure as a Service is a provision model in which an organization outsources the equipment used to support operations, including storage, hardware, servers and networking components. The service provider owns the equipment and is responsible for housing, running and maintaining it. The client typically pays on a per-use basis.

- PaaS(Platform as a Service) : Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a way to rent hardware, operating systems, storage and network capacity over the Internet. The service delivery model allows the customer to rent virtualized servers and associated services for running existing applications or developing and testing new ones.

- SaaS ( Software as a Service) : Software as a Service (SaaS) is a software distribution model in which applications are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet.


6.   Now that goes as the most simple intoruction for a cloud computing over view...the main part starts now...how about the security aspects for each of these...that will be in slightly more detail in subsequent posts...

Sunday, July 01, 2012

The Hackers Conference: Delhi@29 July 2012


1.   This is a wonderful opportunity for those who wish to see the latest in the world of Hacking...if not the latest...u might hear few golden words from renowned speakers.This is about the HACKERS CONFERENCE @ Delhi on 29 July 2012.

2.   The Hackers Conference is a unique event, where the elite of the hacker world, leaders in the information security industry and the Internet community meet face to face to join their efforts to cooperate in addressing the most topical issues of the IT world.



3.   Conference will be held in New Delhi and aims to get together Industry, Government, Academia and Underground hackers to share knowledge and leading-edge ideas about information security and everything related to it.

4.   This will see a galaxy of renowned speakers presenting 0-Day Vulnerabilities, Exploits and Android/Blackberry/iPhone Hacks. Apart from Speakers presenting on WI-FI and Web Application Security the Special invitees from government Intelligence agencies will also speak on National Security Issues emerging from Scada Hacking. 

5.   More details at http://www.thehackersconference.com/

Mantralaya fire@Mumbai and Cloud


1.   The recent Mumbai Mantralaya Fire wherein few sad and undesired casualties took place and more then 2000 computers were destroyed is one example which shows the sad state of affairs in terms of fire fighting preparations and state of taking critical backup in important institutions like mantralaya's and ministries....Offcourse,the loss of human lives has no substitute and my sincere condolences to the berieved families...



2.   In the given case,no one would actually cry over the damage of 2000 computers...all would be worried about all the files and data that were stored on them(..infact few would have been happy to bid good bye to the 486 and celerons with 256 mb that they used to fight day in/out :-).....now had some one realised the importance of CLOUD here at some point of time earlier,the damage of data could have been averted.How ?


3.   It is indeed surprising for me that in the blog's five year existence,there has been very limited text on CLOUD COMPUTING....so let me start a Part series (in subsequent new posts)starting from Introduction to the advantages and the more important security threats that emanate on adopting the cloud.....
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