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What Is Cybersecurity Compliance And How Businesses Can Get It Right

With cyberattacks on the rise against businesses this year, more attention is being paid to how businesses and organizations can protect the sensitive information they hold. This year has seen some of the largest companies become targets to massive cyberattacks like Mariott, Experian, and even The World Health Organization. Unfortunately, although cybercrime is growing steadily across the globe, most countries are yet to implement legal and regulatory frameworks addressing cybersecurity for businesses. That does not mean that there hasn’t been some progress, however. Over recent years, countries have moved to propose cybersecurity legislation and monitoring bodies. For instance, The Australian Securities and Investment Commission released a cyber resilience report. As compliance meets cybersecurity in today's digitally-driven environment, cybersecurity compliance is quickly no longer becoming an option.

4 Basic Steps to Protect Your Computer From Malware and Attacks

You’ve heard of malware, but what is it? Malware, which is short for malicious software, is one of the biggest threats we face online. It’s a code developed by cyberattackers that specifically target user data and computer functions. It can be extremely damaging and invasive.

11 Work from Home Cybersecurity Tips for Employees

The recent changes in work styles experienced by many businesses and individuals due to the coronavirus pandemic have put a heavy burden on the IT departments and technological structures of these companies. Working from home is becoming more and more popular among employees because they believe they are more productive. Moreover, they do not need to commute for a long time to work and distracting factors do not have much influence on their work efficiency.

5 Ways to Secure School Networks

If you're working as an IT specialist in a K-12 school or a university, odds are that you've seen your fair share of cyberattack attempts. Cybersecurity intrusions have become a major point of contempt in academic institutions in 2020 due to a majority of schoolwork being shifted to remote platforms.

Make Life Difficult for Hackers

We hear about data breaches on a daily basis, and it's no surprise. You do not need to be a large corporation or an oligarch to fall victim to a cyberattack. By understanding what cyberattacks are, you'll be able to detect and prevent common cyberattacks and protect your devices and online accounts from hackers.

12 Types of Cyberattacks Every Business Should Know About

Cyberattacks should not be taken lightly, as fraudulent techniques are constantly changing and improving. Last year alone, 1,001 companies and about 155.8 million users experienced identity theft. To avoid falling into this trap and protect your business, it's helpful to know the most common types of cyberattacks. Whenever there is a large sum of "money transfer" involved, extra caution should be given to ensure the transaction is legitimate.

5 Tips To Protect Your MacBook From Hackers

Cybercriminals are not the same as those who rob people on the street. These are well-educated, tech-savvy individuals who do not care whether you prefer expensive or low-cost devices. They appear to be capable of hacking anything. This issue contributes to the formation of specialist departments comprised of the best minds in the IT sector, whose main task is to identify software flaws and protect smart devices from potential hacking. Do you know how to protect your Mac from hacking attempts?

Android vs iOS: Which Is More Secure?

While many argue that this issue is decided by branding and status, we believe the reasons go beyond swears by the convenience of a particular software system.

Android and iOS have been competing with each other for almost an eternity. Android and iOS both have a large user base and are constantly borrowing features from one other. This is one of the reasons why both operating systems are so difficult to compare. Despite their similarities, there is one with a more unique and secure interface.

Working from home? Here Are 5 Work Security Mistakes that Create Cyber Risks

When COVID-19 was first discovered in 2019, most people thought their lives would remain unaffected by the outbreak, which eventually turned into a pandemic. Fast-forward to 2021 and most people that could work from home are doing so, and it is staying for the long haul.

The perks of working from home are numerous. You can roll out of bed in your pj’s and still make it on time for the Monday 9 am meeting. Having the comfort of your own home, avoiding the commute, saving money on those office lunches because you forgot your packed lunch…. I could go on. It’s not all perks though, as there are always thieves and scammers on the lookout and with most workers using their own devices and laptops, cybersecurity could range from financially devastating to easily avoidable.

GDPR for Bloggers: How to Be Compliant in 6 Simple Steps

Becoming GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliant is a vital step for the success of your blog or website. If you want to keep high ratings and make visitors trust you, a set of simple steps is a must-do.

7 Companies Affected By Cyberattacks

Cybercriminals operate on stealth mode. They will often catch you unawares and can cause a lot of damage. Unfortunately, anyone in the online space can be a target. Governments, organizations, and individuals have come under attack. Vulnerability levels are especially high for small and medium businesses. At-risk industries are healthcare, government agencies, the energy industry, and higher education.

Google's Advanced Protection Program for high-risk users

We've recently heard that about a half-billion Facebook accounts were breached, and posted on hacker's forum for anyone to grab. We often hear the world's largest companies were hacked, and our personal data are leaked. A website like HaveIBeenPwned search data breaches, and tells you if your email or phone number has been pwned. It's not your fault that your personal data has been breached, but you'll be the next victim of identity theft if you don't protect yourself.

My Facebook is hacked and someone is asking money

We often hear a Facebook account is hacked, and someone is using the stolen account to ask for money from friends, family, and business acquaintances. If you become a victim of a stolen account, there is a good chance that you'll not be able to access your Facebook account as the hacker probably changed your password. You'll have to let your friends and family know that your Facebook account is hacked, but you will have to contact them individually as you have no access to your Facebook account.

How to protect yourself from doxxing?

There are many reasons someone wants to dox you and share all your confidential information with the public to target you. Hackers have been using "doxxing" to revenge their rivals and enemies, but this practice has been extended to regular people like us. Gathering personal information online is not an easy task, but someone will go through the trouble of collecting the data to harass you is mind-boggling.

6 Cybersecurity Tips for Writers & Bloggers

Cybersecurity studies say that around 30,000 websites are hacked every day.

Many hackers break into websites without their owners realizing the issue, so it might take months before the breach is detected. At that point, making repairs is way too late.

The best protection is prevention, and this rule applies to cybersecurity. To keep a blog or author website safe from hackers, writers need to follow the best practices of cybersecurity.

How do you use a proxy server?

Every computer on the Internet has an IP address, and it obtains one from the ISP that provides the Internet. The IP address is the identity of your computer, and the servers providing service to you will know what IP it is communicating with. Some people want to hide IP address and browse the web anonymously. There are several ways you can hide your IP address, and using a proxy server is one way to achieve it.

What is FIDO?

We have been using a username and password pair for all of our accounts, and this is the weakest link in the chain for our security. The industry is pushing to develop a passwordless authentication system that will replace passwords, and FIDO is the one. The goal of FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) is to secure web and mobile applications and use biometric mechanisms (fingerprints, voice recognition, and face IDs) to protect the identity.

What is Webauthn?

Ever since we began using computer systems, we are all accustomed to username and password pair to protect our accounts whether that is a computer, bank account, smartphone, or personal email. We also know that password is not the most secure authentication method available today, and there are so many hacks and data breaches that threaten our security. Username and Password are purely based on what the user knows, and this knowledge can be stolen or breached which is a big concern for account security.

How do you protect your website from hackers?

Online security and keeping your server security is the utmost responsibility of any website owner. Cybercriminals use automated bots to identify sites by scanning search engines for specific URL patterns used by some of the popular open-source software, and once identified use automated scripts to attack them. Internet is not a safe place to hang out anymore, and it is getting worse each year. It's our job to protect ourselves and fight against cyber attacks.

What is California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)?

With growing trend in consumer privacy concerns and exponential growth in data breaches, the state of California has created the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in 2018, and fully in effect on January 1, 2020. CCPA gives consumers more control over how businesses collect and use their personal information, and gives them the right to know, opt-out, delete, and non-discriminated for exercising their privacy rights.

What is GDPR and why is it matter to you?

GDPR is a European privacy and security law that requires any organization that handles personally identifiable data of EU citizens to comply with its regulations. European Union mandated all organizations to comply with GDPR beginning on May 25, 2018. The GDPR imposes hefty fines for those who violate its privacy and security standards. With more and more personal data stored in the cloud, the EU is signaling the world that personal data must be treated private and stored securely. The GDPR is not only applicable to large corporations but also abides by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Demystifying Zero-Click Attacks

We often hear protecting our online privacy requires us to follow security hygiene and beware of phishing and link baits and do not click on suspicious links from untrusted sources and follow best security practices. We also hear that we need to protect our online accounts with strong passwords and 2FA. Keeping up with the latest software patches, installing anti-virus and anti-malware software are all good practices to protect your devices.

What are data breaches?

In a recent data breach discovered by the Accellion incident, many of its clients including Kroger, Washington State Auditor, Jones Day customers are affected. Data breaches are not unusual, and it often happens to the largest companies in the world. The scale of data breaches has grown in recent years, and millions and even billions of people are affected by connected incidents. The data breaches occur from hacking and software vulnerabilities, and nothing is invincible from attacks and leaks

8 Useful Security Websites in 2021

Internet helps us live our lives better, but it's not a safe place to hang out. There are hackers, spammers, and phishers trying to steal our personal data, and we're exposed to dangers every day. There are, however, websites and browser extensions that we can utilize to protect our privacy. We've found 5 websites and 3 browser extensions that will use to protect yourself in some ways.

Securing Your Privacy on Video Conferencing Platforms

With all of us stuck inside, video conferencing apps have become a default way to communicate with colleagues and some tech-savvy family members. Video chat apps have advanced in recent years, and have gotten easy to use, collaboration-ready, and accessible.

At the same time, due to the popularity of video conferencing platforms, many security flaws were discovered and used to exploit users. Some people were exposed to unwanted oversight and online trolls, and companies got an earful.

What is a brute force attack?

Burte force attack is a method used to guess username and password combination continuously until the valid login is discovered. Hackers use password cracking software to guess all possible passwords for a known username to gain access to the target system.

What is a YubiKey?

The YubiKey is a hardware device that generates passcodes for 2-factor authentication (2FA). It is not a password manager and does not store username/password pairs for your online accounts. It is a pure 2FA device that generates HMAC-based One Time Passwords (HOTP) and Time-based One Time Passwords (TOTP) that you can plug (or NFC) into your smart device. The YubiKey is recognized as a human interface device (HID) and delivers password as if the keystrokes are coming from a keyboard.

What is iCloud keychain?

Apple's iCloud keychain is a password manager for macOS and iOS devices including Macs, iPhones, and iPads. Username/password pairs, credit card information, Wi-Fi credentials, and other personal data can be stored in iCloud, and shared amongst all of your Apple devices. Your personal data are encrypted with 256-bit AES, and saved in your iCloud, and transferred to and from iCloud to your devices encrypted so it is very secure. The data stored in your keychain can be accessed through Safari, and some third-party Apple apps but not with Google Chrome, unfortunately.

What is 2FA?

2FA (2-factor authentication) is a form of MFA where a user is required to supply 2-forms of authentication to allowed access to the system. The traditional authentication system (or single-factor authentication) used the username/password pair to grant access to an account, but with a growing number of hacking due to the use of weak passwords prompts industry to offer an additional form of authentication to enhance the security of login access.

How to determine if online business is legitimate?

When you're in-market to purchase a product and find a very attractive price but the website doesn't look very professional. Would you take the risk and purchase the product at the site where it offers the best price, or will you research the product and determine if the company is legitimate before purchasing a product?

Cybersecurity risks in online gaming

Online gaming has evolved drastically and has almost replaced video games. As a gamer, not every user is aware of the risks in gaming. Online gaming attracts people of different age groups and different geographical regions. With so many being excited to play online games, this certainly opens doors for various cybersecurity threats.

Cybersecurity threats in cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrencies is a hot and trending topic. There have been various research and experiments done in cryptocurrencies and this is still evolving. Bitcoin is one of the most popular cryptocurrency available in the market, and there are others following such as Ethereum, Litecoin and etc.

What is Ethical Hacking?

Ethical hacking plays a key role in network security. The term "white hat" is often used to refer to ethical hackers. Ethical hacking is a key component of the computer and network security that checks security hygiene. The key responsibility of an ethical hacker is to employ different modes of well-defined practices to break the security of the system.

Can a VPN Be Hacked?

Privacy-conscious Internet users know that VPNs are a very useful tool to have when interacting with the online world. They are very efficient and effective in keeping your sensitive information safe and private from the outside world. But, even the most secure VPN services can be compromised. With that in mind, can a VPN get hacked and if so, how can it happen? Let's get right into it.

Is HTTPS enough to protect your privacy?

Most casual users only take a glance at the green HTTPS padlock when they open up a website, not paying attention to some of the more precise details of the platform itself. In practice, this is most often a good way of telling if a site is safe. But, there's one question that a growing number of privacy-oriented users are asking - as most websites nowadays can boast with HTTPS, can such a feature maintain the same reputation and security levels as before? In this post, we go into the details of HTTPS to find out if it can be enough to protect your online privacy and security.

How to secure Magneto website

Magento is one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms behind Shopify and WooCommerce. With popularity comes with increased security risks, and many Magento sites often become the target of hacker's attack as customer data amassed from online stores is worth a lot in the black market. Magento has a scalable architecture with many plugins to offer features not available on other platforms, but the biggest problem for average webmasters is keeping the website secure from hackers. In recent years, many Magento sites are converted to Shopify due to security and maintenance reasons. In this article, we'll discuss a few simple steps to secure Magento Websites.

Simple steps to secure Wordpress website

Wordpress is the most popular blogging platform and it represents about 34% of all websites hosted worldwide. With gained popularity, hackers target Wordpress websites to infect with malware and viruses. As your site grows in traffic, hackers find your website through search engines and infect with malicious codes or redirect users to another website. There are known vulnerabilities in every open-source platform including Wordpress, and it is important to update your site with the latest patches and protect your website from hackers by securing your site. In this article, we'll discuss simple steps to secure Wordpress website.

What is a CDN?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a geographically distributed network of servers working together to provide fast delivery of web contents. Use of CDN makes the webpage load faster by transferring web contents including HTML pages, JS, CSS, Images and even video files from the distributed servers geographically closer. Some of the most popular javascript libraries, fonts and CSS frameworks are hosted on public CDNs, and utilizing such CDNs for your web pages will improve your site performance. Use of CDN may also help protect your website from DDoS attacks.

Is password manager needed?

Nearly every website and smartphone apps we use require you to create an account. Creating an account means you'll have to create a username and password. Some websites allow you to use your email address as the username, but you'll have to create a password for each website or an app you intend to use. Due to strong password requirements, many websites mandate a hard-to-guess password that is comprised of letters, numbers and symbols. Some websites require capital letters while others won't allow certain character symbols. You tried to use one password for every website (or an app), but the password you created in the past doesn't meet a new password requirement so you're creating a new one with some variations. Having to use one password for every website is dangerous as not all websites are bullet-proof to hackers, and they are all vulnerable to some level of security threats. Our memory cannot even keep up with a half-dozen passwords, and having to remember all password used is next to impossible. Some folks write down the password in a notebook (or in a cloud), but we all learned that storing password is not a good thing to do. So, how do we keep up with all the passwords we created for each website and smartphone apps we use?

What are the Risks for Average Torrent Downloader?

The exponential growth of file-sharing services and peer-to-peer networks over recent years has made it extremely easy to share any kind of media content. Through simplified file-sharing services such as BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella, it has become very easy to share and obtain copyrighted materials and pirated versions of popular applications. However, with this growth in peer-to-peer networks that allow users to share files with other users worldwide comes risks for the users, which have increased dramatically at the same time.

Online Shopping Safety Tips

In today's world, more and more people use the internet to shop online. Being able to purchase online and have goods delivered to your door at your fingertips makes our daily lives easier. However, there are without a doubt some risks involved when purchasing goods and services online. There will always be criminals and nefarious actors out there who intend to take advantage of tools to get your money or your information and sell it; especially with websites such as Amazon and eBay becoming more and more popular. To that end, we'll be taking a look at a few tips you can pick up to protect you while shopping online.

How to Secure Your Smart Home and IoT?

A smart home is very similar to an everyday ordinary house. The main distinction between a smart home and a normal home is that ordinary mundane appliances, gadgets, and devices within the house (such as refrigerators, stoves, washing machines, etc) are replaced with a smart device version of it. These smart devices are capable of connecting to the internet and are used to help with everyday tasks. For example, a refrigerator which monitors if the food within it has reached its expiration date or a washing machine that remembers your washing settings and cycle. This grouping of smart items is commonly referred to as the Internet of Things (IoT).

What is Cybercrime?

Cybercrimes can be described as computer-related crimes which occur over a network. The computers involved in these crimes are either used as a means of attack or are the target the crimes. As a result of this, these attacks can be used in a plethora of ways and can range from attacking chat rooms and database systems to individual social media accounts and web applications. This allows the scope of these attacks to be capable of crippling a nation as they pose a threat not only to individual people but also to a country's security and economy.

Are Free VPNs Worth Considering?

A virtual private network (VPN) is a network technology used to extend two or more private networks over a public network (i.e. Internet). It accomplishes this by creating a secure connection between two endpoints where all of the data shared between these two are encrypted. This disallows a third-party from tampering with the data trespassing through the public network. It also means that the IP addresses of both devices on either side of the tunnel is secure from the public. This is because the IP address used on both endpoints are only used as internal IP, and they are assigned a new public IP address outside of the tunnel.

What is Adware?

Adware is a form of malware which displays advertisement on user's screen with (or in most cases without user's consent) for the benefit of creator. Sometimes, a user's search request is redirected to an advertising website based on the marketing data stored on a user's computer. The creator gets paid for redirecting or referring traffic to advertising website on a pay-per-click basis. This has led to adware becoming quite intrusive on numerous websites and applications in a constant attempt for its developers to benefit from it. These methods included having a banner, video, pop-up, static box, or any other container appearing someone on the user's screen, usually in a position that makes them click it accidentally or otherwise.

How to Create a Stronger Password?

With the advent of the Internet, there are countless applications we use on a daily basis for business and personal purposes. Social media, email, cloud services and even game applications require security and we use a password to protect our account. Each application makes use of a user profile to store user's characteristics and personal information to provide more streamlined access and functionality to its users. To protect user's account, a password is introduced and later augmented with 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) Naturally, a stronger password means a more secure account that ensures the protection of a user's account and we'll be looking into why this is a good thing and how we can achieve this.

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a shorthand way of saying "ransom malware", and much like its name implies, it is a type of malware which denies the user access to a part of their system in exchange for a ransom payment. The creator of such a program reaches out to the victim with a set of instructions (usually to send the money in the form of a cryptocurrency or through a credit card) in exchange to regain control over their machine or that part of their system.

What is Hacking?

Hacking is a popular term that denotes the action of a nefarious actor in an attempt to gain unwanted access to a system. In a simpler way of wording it, this is the process of a person attempting to break into a machine or account to do some malicious activity. This isn't something limited to just the Internet either as hacking is something that can occur offline as well if the bad actor can gain physical access to your machine or account. In most scenarios, hackers do these actions to either access a user's private information such as their bank/credit card information or to use the user's account/machine in some other nefarious action such as a zombie in a DDoS attack.

What is Ad Blocker?

Not everyone likes to be interrupted by unprecedented Ads. To block such ads, you'll have to use a software generally referred as Ad blocker. This is a content filter and is an ad blocking extension which can be added to most popular browsers. The Ad Blocking extensions work on Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge.

What is Malware?

Malware is software that can cause potential damage to your computer services and network. It stands for "Malicious Software" and is designed to disrupt the target's computer. Malware gets installed in the target system by unauthorized access, executable code, scripts, or software.

What is Catfishing?

With increasing social media presence, terms such as catfishing have come into existence. The name Catfishing was picked from the 2010 documentary film "Catfish", which introduced the term. Catfishing is a behavior where a user pretends to be who they are not.

What is phishing?

Phishing attacks are something that is very common these days. While its evident that phishing attacks can have several repercussions, not many are aware in terms of what exactly gets classified as a phishing attack or is termed as phishing.

What is Single Sign On Authentication?

In the most rudimentary explanation, Single Sign-On authentication allows a single user to access multiple applications using the same credentials. Single Sign-On is also commonly referred as "SSO". SSO is commonly used in Enterprise level systems which require access to multiple applications within the same Local Area Network, which is now expanded to include Wide Area Network.

Privacy and Security issues with Big Data and Cloud

Several organizations deal with a large amount of data on a daily basis. Such organizations constantly look for solutions to optimize the storing of such huge data. Along with storing another concern is to analyze a huge volume of data. This together with the scalability of infrastructure and a budget-friendly solution is something that organizations look for.

What is Multi-factor authentication?

Multi-factor authentication also commonly known as MFA is an authentication process where more than one authentication mechanism is incorporated. A common implementation of MFA is the 2FA, which stands for 2-factor authentication. In a 2FA, two different authentication mechanisms are combined to successfully authenticate a user.

What is WAP?

WAP stands for Wireless Application Protocol. This is a well-known and commonly used standardized protocol which defines how wireless communication can take place between mobile devices and a wireless network. This could include devices such as radio transceivers, cell phones, world wide web, newsgroup, instant messaging and any device that can be used for Internet access. Devices which are based on WAP can interoperate as technology advancement happens over time.

What is Computer Forensics?

Since the WWW (World Wide Web) came into this world in 1990, fast growth is taking place in the professional, criminal and personal use of e-mails, the Internet, social networks, and computers. Those devices capture and create huge amounts of digital data which are stored in different places than most users realize. A user has less opportunity of terminating details-trails perfectly than of committing the great crime. Same as the fingerprint left on the chair adjustment of a vehicle used in the crime, a rough digital evidence (Fingerprint) always kept on speaking the truth.

How to secure your home network?

Our home router has become an internal part of the global communication footmark when the use of the Internet has developed to contain home-based telework, entertainment, personal financial management, social network, school work, and businesses. Router facilitates the broadened connection. Almost all these devices are pre-configured in the company that those made and are plug and play for immediate use. After installing a router at home, people frequently connect directly to the world wide web without conducting any additional configuration. People might be reluctant to enhance safeguard configurations because those configurations may seem a bit difficult or people are unwilling to spend more time with these advanced configuration settings.

Is my Incognito Browser Private?

Incognito has a pretty catchy name - it sounds private, secure, and makes you feel like you can browse the web without leaving a recordable trace. However, the reality of incognito browsers is quite contrary.

What is Kerberos?

In simplest words, Kerberos is an authentication protocol which can service requests over an untrusted network such as the Internet. Kerberos formed its name from Greek mythology which was a three-headed dog that guarded the gates of Hades. Similarly, in Kerberos authentication, we have three heads representing

What is Data Loss and How do you Prevent it

Data loss is an error condition in information systems that causes stored information to be destroyed by some critical failure or neglect while in storage, transmission, or processing. Most of these systems would implement some form of backup or disaster recovery equipment to both prevent or recover from data loss.

What is SQL Injection?

SQL stands for Structured Query Language and it is a domain-specific language designed to manipulate data in a Relational Database Management System (RDMS) and for stream processing in a Relational Data Stream Management System (RDSMS). The two main advantages of the language is that it was the introduction of accessing multiple records with one command and it discarded the need for administrators to express how to reach a record. At the point in time, the language revolutionized read/write operations for databases and became the popular choice for RDMSs and RDSMSs.

What is ARP Spoofing?

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Spoofing attack, also called ARP Cache Poisoning or ARP Poison Routing, is a technique by which an attacker sends spoofed ARP messages onto a Local Area Network (LAN). It is used to allow the attacker access to incoming internet traffic on a LAN by having their Media Access Control (MAC) Address be linked to the Internet Protocol (IP) Address of another host (usually, the default gateway). Through this, they’re able to receive incoming traffic intended for that IP Address which allows them to intercept the data, modify traffic, or even stop all traffic on the network. Because of this, the technique is often used to open up the possibility of other attacks such as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, a man in the middle attack, and a session hijacking attack. The success of the attack depends heavily on the attacker gaining direct success to the targeted local network segment and it can only be used on networks which use ARP.

What is LDAP Injection?

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a standard application layer protocol in the Internet Protocol (IP) Suite used for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over a network. This is achieved by the protocol's methods to query and manipulate these directory services. Directory services are integral in setting up an Intranet and internet applications through allowing the sharing of the user, system, network, service, and application information on the network. For example, a corporate email for an organization and a telephone directory are both only achievable through directory services. As such, these records are always stored in an organized and often hierarchical structure.

What is Cache Poisoning?

Cache Poisoning (or DNS Spoofing) is an attack technique where corrupted Domain Name Server (DNS) data is stored into the DNS Resolver’s cache and causes it to return an incorrect Internet Protocol (IP) Address. As a result of this, the network traffic is then redirected to the attacker’s (or any other) computer instead of the intended recipient. From here, the attacker could use this to supplement other types of attacks such as a Denial of Service (DoS) attack or a man-in-the-middle attack. It can even be used in aiding them to spread computer worms and other malware or even redirecting users to a malicious site owned by the attacker (this method can be used in phishing attacks).

What is the Keystroke Logging?

Keystroke logging, also called keylogging or keyboard capturing, is the action of recording and saving each keystroke on a keyboard over sometime, usually covertly. This is so that the person who enters the information onto to the keyboard remains unaware of having their information be monitored. The action is done through a logging program which is called a keylogger and it can be either software or hardware.

What is a Man in the Middle Attack?

A man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack is a special type of attack in which an attacker covertly relays and potentially alters data between two parties on a network. These parties are usually oblivious to this attack and believe their connection and communication between each other is secured and their messages have integrity; however, that is not the case. The basis of the attack is to circumvent mutual authentication between the two parties and it can only be considered successful if the attacker can successfully impersonate the involved parties to each other. That is to say, the attacker must appear like Person A to Person B and like Person B to Person A. While it is a very common form of attack, most protocols do provide some kind of endpoint verification process to prevent MITM attacks; such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) which can authenticate both parties via a mutually trusted certificate authority.

What is a Botnet?

The most recent news of huge cyber-attacks using “Zombies” and “Bots” will not be alarming. This will not create this enthusiast think, even for a second, that the digital world has been taken by the living dead creatures or yet alien armies. But one thing will come to realize the "Botnets".

What are cyber threats?

Ransomware is a type of malware that locks users from accessing their data in their computer or any mobile device. To unlock their data, the users must pay a certain amount of ransom, this is mainly done by the payment method which uses Bitcoin. Although paying is an option in recovering your data, it is recommended not to pay because we cannot guarantee the promise of the attackers.

What is Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF)?

A Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is a type of attack whereby a website with malicious intent will send a request to a web application that a user is already verified for. In other words, the request is sent from a malicious website the user visits to another website which the attacker believes the user is already authenticated for. These requests are routed to the target site which the user is validated for via their browser because their browser is authenticated against the site. This means that the vulnerability for this type of attack does not lie with the website which issued the CSRF nor the user, but with the web application. This will allow the attacker to access the functionality of the web application via the victim’s already authenticated browser. It is a type of attack that is frequently used against web applications which deal with social media, in-browser email clients, online banking, and web interfaces for network devices.

What is Carriage Return, Line Feed Injection (CRLF Injection)?

Carriage Return and Line Feed (CRLF) are special character elements typically embedded in Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) headers and some other software code. The inclusion of these character elements is to denote an End of Line (EOL) marker. These character elements are actually very common as many protocols of the Internet Protocol (IP) Suite, such as HTTP, MIME, and NNTP, use them to discretely split the text into elements. As such, CRLF injection is when an attacker can inject a sequence of CRLF into one of these protocols or software applications; such as an HTTP stream. This is one of the attacks most common uses and as such, has the alternative names of HTTP Response Splitting and Neutralization of CRLF Sequences in HTTP Headers.

What is buffer overflow?

Firstly, we must define what a buffer is. A buffer is an allocated section of memory which can hold anything from a string of characters to an array of integers. That being the case, a buffer overflow (or overrun) is what happens a buffer with a fixed-length receives more data than what it can handle. In this case, the extra data has to be stored somewhere and spills over into an adjacent space in memory which can corrupt or overwrite the data stored there. These overflows usually result in a system crash; however, they also create opportunities for an attacker to run some malicious code or manipulate coding errors. The success of these attacks are very high as most programming languages, such as C, C++, and Fortran are vulnerable to these types of attacks.

What are the most secure encryption algorithms?

Encryption of data has become an integral part of data security. Encryption can protect sensitive information and also provide secure network connections. Encryption generates a ciphertext from your original data, which can be decrypted by the intended recipient. This makes brute force attacks and Man-in-the-middle attack almost impossible.

What is TLS/SSL?

Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) are two cryptographic protocols used for providing secure communication over a network. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) prohibited the use of SSL which led the way for TLS to succeed it. The protocols have several variations and iterations used in web browsing, email, Internet faxing, instant messaging, and voice over IP (VoIP). Websites, in particular, are known for using TLS for securing communications between their servers and web browsers. This is accomplished by TLS providing privacy and integrity to data between two communicating nodes on a network.

What is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)?

In the world of technology which is constantly growing and improving comes with increased risks and security vulnerabilities that those with malicious intent seek to take advantage. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) is one such method which is primarily used in web-applications to allow the attacker to inject client-side scripts onto web pages. This type of attack is called code injection. Unsuspecting users then view these web pages which then give the attacker a means of bypassing authorization for access controls. One such access control is the same-origin policy which follows that a script running on a web page is allowed to run on the same web page only if they are both of the same origin (URI scheme, hostname, and port number). Typically, this would prevent a malicious script from one web page to go to another web page and access sensitive data and information; however, XSS bypasses this by taking advantage of security flaws in web applications' servers or plug-in systems. Once the attacker has successfully taken advantage of one of these vulnerabilities and compromised the site, unsuspecting victims have basically granted the script the same level of permissions they would have given to the site, such as access to cookies. This would then allow the attacker to view any sensitive information a user might be inputting onto the site ranging from passwords to credit card information. The website's page content, session cookies, and browser-maintained information would all be accessible by the attacker at this point.

What is Cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity deals with the protection of computer systems, networks, and data from cyber theft and damage to hardware, software and information. Cybersecurity is equally important for companies as well as individuals.

My IP address is hacked. What can I do?

Many readers of our website are contacting us for help on *allegedly* hacked IP address, and remedies for getting it back. One of the user is telling us his IP address used to be 64.3.x.y in Dallas and now it's 67.72.x.y located in Utah (per ip lookup); and hence his IP address is stolen, and his computer is running very slow and acting abnormal.