Security Enhancements Search Results

How To: The Hacks Behind Cracking, Part 1: How to Bypass Software Registration

If you've ever wondered how software pirates can take software and crack it time and time again, even with security in place, this small series is for you. Even with today's most advanced methods of defeating piracy in place, it is still relatively easy to crack almost any program in the world. This is mainly due to computer processes' ability to be completely manipulated by an assembly debugger. Using this, you can completely bypass the registration process by making it skip the application'...

Community Byte: HackThisSite Walkthrough, Part 4 - Legal Hacker Training

Another Community Byte announcement from Null Byte! The Community Byte projects serve to teach people in a co-operative, hands-on manner. Learning from experience and immersing yourself in a subject is the best way to learn something foreign to you. In our sessions, we have started to both code and complete HTS missions. There is something for everyone here, so make sure you join in on the fun learning experience.

Goodnight Byte: HackThisSite Walkthrough, Part 1 - Legal Hacker Training

Friday's Community Byte was weird. The intent was to do a HackThisSite mission, but upon time to begin, everyone in there was programming without my assistance, with the help of Sol Gates. This is great! It's really awesome that everyone enjoys programming that much and will make the effort to learn even when I am not present. So, a tip of my hat to Mr. Sol Gates and the rest of you fine people.

How To: Chain VPNs for Complete Anonymity

Big name individual hackers and hacker groups everywhere in the news are getting caught and thrown in jail. Everytime I see something like this happen, I won't lie, I get a little sad. Then I wonder, how are these guys getting caught? If a group like LulzSec, with all the fame and "1337-ness" can get caught, I think my hacker comrades are doing something wrong.

How To: Make a Redstone Death Machine

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Oh, the power of redstone! But, what good is any technology if it can't be harnessed for killing? Here's a redstone build for the mad scientist in each of us.

Dumpster Drive: Exchange Your Digital Trash with Strangers

Do you ever wonder if the files you're trashing on your Mac are actually trash? Let's say there are 80 million computer owners running Mac OS. If each user trashes at least 10 files each day, that's 800 million deleted files that cease to exist every 24 hours. If that doesn't sound like a lot to you, a month would equal 24 billion junked files, a year—nearly 1 trillion.

How To: Clean Up Hard Drive Space by Deleting iOS Device Backup Folders from iTunes

By now, you probably know that your iPhone secretly tracks and stores the locations you've visited in a backup folder on your computer's hard drive. The files are unencrypted, which means anyone with access to your computer or device can retrieve the information, which is downright scary. But Pete Warden and Alasdair Allan are making it fun with their iPhone Tracker application, which lets you map out everywhere you've been with your smartphone.

How To: The Essential Newbie's Guide to SQL Injections and Manipulating Data in a MySQL Database

No doubt you've seen some of the hack logs being released. One part that stands out over and over again is the heavy database usage. It used to be early on that virus and hackers would destroy data, usually just for lulz. However, with the explosive commercial growth of the Internet, the real target is turning into data theft. You should learn how this happens so you can protect yourself accordingly. Let's take a look at what makes this possible and dare I say, easy.

KONY 2012: Propaganda At It's Finest?

The most recent viral video on YouTube is just that. A viral video. After seeing all the hype and 'support' that the 'movement' is getting, I want to tell you that this is a misleading video and somewhat of a propaganda campaign. These are strong accusations against such a 'humanitarian' cause, but I'm here to show you why.

How To: Recognize Crowd Control - Part 3

For our final part of recognizing crowd control, we shall look at the mind. It's the most complicated thing in the universe, but also the most easily influenced. What makes us to gullible? What methods to commercials, companies and the media use to influence our position on things? These are just a few of the questions we will answer.

Uncrackable: Secure Your Secrets with 4096-Bit Encryption

As you progress in the world of information security, you'll find yourself in situations where data protection is paramount. No doubt you will have files to hide and secrets to share, so I'm going to show you how to use the GNU Privacy Guard (GnuPG or GPG for short) to encrypt and decrypt as you need. GPG is a great open-source version of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), a similar application used for encryption, but licensing and patent problems led to the development of GPG in its wake.

How To: Encrypt Your Sensitive Files Using TrueCrypt

Hello and welcome to another InfoSecurity World tutorial. The intent of this article is to teach one how to encrypt sensitive files. When set up correctly with a strong password, it would be almost impossible to hack. Even the FBI have had issues decrypting this software. I'm here to teach you how to create a general encrypted container—not the complex hidden TrueCrypt volume.

How To: Code Your Own Twitter Client in Python Using OAuth

This is my attempt to show people some cool things we can do with programming, and to give a small incentive for people to join the weekly Community Bytes. I wanted to make a tutorial on how to use Twitter from the command line with Python. This would have been an easy project to do not too far back, and a good bit of practice for a beginner to programming. It teaches that you can do useful stuff with programming. However, a while ago Twitter started using something called OAuth to access the...

News: Should Kids Be Allowed to Use Facebook and Google+?

It's a question I've been pondering a lot lately. Technically, children under the age of 13 are not allowed to join Facebook. But according to a Consumer Reports in May, 7.5 million children 12 and younger are already on the site. Currently, federal law prohibits websites from collecting personal data from children without parental permission. The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, as it is more commonly known, has been in effect since 1998, but has not been updated since.

How To: Make Your Laptop Theft Proof

The dreaded moment you hope never happens—someone has stolen your laptop. You could have private information, pictures, or even private information belonging to the company you work for, all lost forever. It can cause you pain, money, or even a job.

News: 3 Long Awaited Indie Games at PAX That Should Be Released Already!

The small size of most indie game development teams is a strength, but also a weakness. It allows them to take risks and explore revolutionary ideas that a larger company could never justify to its shareholders, but also means they must navigate the game development labyrinth with minimal help, taking much longer than those with big development teams. Some of the most exciting indie games currently in development have been so for years, or look like they will be.

How To: Create Strong, Safe Passwords

Movies like to show hackers breaking passwords with fancy software and ludicrous gadgets. The reality of busting passwords open is much more mundane. Simple as it may sound, most passwords are broken purely by guesswork. Check out this infographic from ZoneAlarm, as well as this list from the Wall Street Journal of the fifty most common passwords gleaned from the 2010 Gawker hack. If your password is on one of those lists, you need to change it. Right now.

How To: Protect Your PHP Website from SQL Injection Hacks

As a web developer, I often read articles about hackers (from the lowly to the knowledgeable) infiltrating websites via the dreaded 'SQL Injection' method and completely taking control, changing, gaining access, or destroying the owner's data. As a fellow web developer, I'm sure you want to know how to protect against it. Well, here it is! In this article, you will find out what SQL Injection is, what you can do to protect against it, and additional recommendations that are easy to do and onl...

How To: File a Last-Minute 2010 Income Tax Return: Save Money, Get Free Tax Help & More!

Ever since high school, I've been preparing my own taxes. Each year it gets more and more complicated, which results in me filing later and later, avoiding it until I have the time or just can't wait any longer. I even resorted to using TurboTax online to help do some of the grunt work for me these past couple years, but that hasn't stopped me from being lazy about it. I have yet to file my 2010 taxes, but I will very soon. Tomorrow, in fact—before TurboTax raises their prices.

News: The Infant Drop

For this crazy insane prank it will involve 3 people and it will have to take place in a mall with two floors for shopping. You will need a fake baby, with a loud voicebox installed so everyone can hear it cry, you will need to drill a hole into the fake baby's head and fill it up with fake blood, and you will need to make sure that when the baby is dropped the blood will explode from the head on instant impact. The prank starts out with a careless woman walking to close to the guardrail with...

News: Wake Up Sunshine

One night after partying, find the most wasted person in the group. For security purposes, don't be afraid to slip him a roofie or two throughout the night. The next morning, while he is still sleeping, strip him down butt-naked, put a blindfold and a pair of ear muffs on him, and carry him out to the car (this can also be done the night before) and drive to the airport early the next morning. Carefully carry him onto the plane, equip him with a parachute (either this or take him on a tandem ...