Imagine that you are asked to test a web application. You decide to first look at the application to get an idea of what it does and how. The login page. You try to put yourself in an attacker’s shoe. How would he try to gain access to our application through the login page. One of things that come to your mind is
Endpoint security has been gaining ground in the IT Security world in the last couple of years, though they have been around for more than a decade and a half. The first product from the Endpoint Security stable was the anti-virus software. Now endpoint security includes personal firewall, host IDS, anti-spyware, client anti-spam, client remote access etc apart from many other tools. This article delves more into the concept of endpoint security.
A 28-year-old man was charged with the largest credit card theft ever in the United States, in which more than 130 million card numbers were stolen, the US Justice Department said. Albert Gonzalez, of Miami, Florida, and two co-conspirators were accused of hacking into the computer networks of firms supporting major American retail and Financial organizations and stealing data. Continue reading “What does the largest credit card theft teach us?”
It is quite common these days to hear of sensitive information being lost when laptops are either stolen or lost. Rarely does a month go by without an organisation revealing the loss or theft of a laptop brimming with sensitive data. Full disk encryption, or FDE, is the preferred mechanism to address this threat. Continue reading “Full Disk Encryption-Software based or Hardware based?”
Human intelligence has always been trying to find newer ways of searching. With advancements in technologies such as voice recognition, Natural language processing and Artificial Intelligence, it shouldn’t surprise many if in the future, systems connected with the internet can be configured to respond to the user queries in a casual manner . Continue reading “ALICE – The Chat Bot”
When we speak about network security, we often hear about terms like firewalls, Intrusion Detection System and Intrusion Prevention System. In this article, let us gain some understanding of these jargons.
The following table brings out a comparative analysis of firewalls, IDS, IPS and routers:
Continue reading “A comparative analysis of IDS, IPS, firewalls & routers”
Network Solutions had an IT Security incident in June this year that compromised more than 573,000 credit and debit cardholders. In what is becoming a very regular post incident debate the issue being asked is – Do certifications such as ISO27001, PCI really beef up IT Security in companies? Continue reading “Another incident and more questions”
How safe is internet banking? Online banking fraud has doubled in the first half of 2009.
Some customers are still falling foul of ‘phishing’ schemes i.e emails that pretend to be from a bank and then direct customers to bogus websites where their passwords are stolen.
But more careful online bank customers are also suffering at the hands of underground hacking technology – ‘Keylogging’ – and is largely held responsible for the rise in online fraud. Unlike Phishing, this is not an attack that alert and sophisticated users can avoid.
Continue reading “Keyloggers – 6 Simple Tips to avoid being a victim of Keylogging”
OSI Layer Model developed by ISO, which is a 7 layer networking model, defines how networks should be designed and how devices on a network talk to each other. Each layer in the OSI model works directly with the layer above or below it and has a set function for moving communication across a network. The following table gives a quick overview of each layer and devices / tools / protocols used by each layer for communication.
Continue reading “OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Layer – Functionality, Tools and Protocols”
What is a network packet?
It turns out that everything you do on the Internet involves packets. For example, every Web page that you receive comes as a series of packets, and every e-mail you send leaves as a series of packets. Networks that ship data around in small packets are called packet switched networks. Continue reading “What is a Packet”
