Cyber Security

[DanPickUp]

hmmm.. very interesting malware. I wonder if one can protect the computer by always running it in vmware or deepfreeze.. any ideas ??

Most of such bad malware come in true not following this posted rule:

But you still have to follow the following rule which is also posted from Einstein. A rule for any thing you do not know what it is when you download it: So, do not open any attachment (especially but not limited to .vbs, .bat, .exe, .pif and .scr files), unless you are sure it came from trusted source. Do not get lured or conned by phishing mail.

 

[Einstein]

For an average user, prevention is better than cure. simply use latest operating system and softwares, I personally use most updated windows 8 with kaspersky antivirus + malwarebyte antimalware+ commodo firewall. this bring down the possibilities of any infection by 80%.

technically speaking these types of worms and trojans uses zero day or open vulnerabilities(un patches java, not-updated popular OS) to spread from one computer to another. code red the famous chinese worm or mellissa or morris worm till today's government hacking all are based on old hacking techniques of exploiting un patches software. (buffer overflows etc).. so one should always use latest software..

https://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/

 

[DanPickUp]

A graphics vulnerability exploited through Word documents: Posted 21 hours ago, so it is very actual. Affected Word Documents:

Office 2003 Affected
Office 2007 Affected
Office 2010 Affected when run on Windows XP/Windows Server2003
Office 2013 Not affected

Recently we become aware of a vulnerability of a Microsoft graphics component that is actively exploited in targeted attacks using crafted Word documents sent by email. Today we are releasing Security Advisory 2896666 which includes a proactive Fix it workaround for blocking this attack while we are working on the final update. In this blog, we’ll share details of the vulnerability and the Fix It workaround and provide mitigations and suggestions to layer protections against the attack.

Here some more about that: http://blogs.technet.com/b/srd/archive/2013/11.aspx?Redirected=true

And here the fix link for the moment: https://support.microsoft.com/kb/2896666

 

[DanPickUp]

Hi

Here a subject which needs some study to understand it: What is RC4?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RC4

Now RC4 is no more valued safe, as it is known that NSA has managed to crack the code and can read more or less live what is sent through or with RC4.

https://community.qualys.com/blogs/securitylabs/2013/03/19/rc4-in-tls-is-broken-now-what

https://community.qualys.com/blogs/...sl-pulse-now-tracking-forward-secrecy-and-rc4

One solution I can show is for Firefox. Type in: about:config . A page will open where you see all about how your browser is configured. Here you search for RC4. A list will show up. Here you go to value and double click on any true. This will change it to false. Now the browser encryption should have changed automatically to AES which is valued as more safe. (It is your choice if you want to change that. With this post all of you are at least informed about the problem)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Encryption_Standard

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/A/AES.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-aes-encryption.htm

Take care / DanPickUp

Edit: If it does not change to AES after you restarted your Firefox, it also can change to an other encryption which is not wrong. If you do on line banking, you may also check there what kind of encryption is used.

And here an add on for Firefox which will show you what kind of encryption is used on which page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cipherfox/

 

[bearishbull]

Nanga nahayega kya aur nichodega kya

Hackers are proactives, antivirus/antispywares/antimalwares..etc. are all reactives. They react to the threat/breach and provide update. Even the phone of German chancellor was hacked. What standing do you have compared to that? Don't get paranoid. Being a general computer user, you have been hacked many a times and will be hacked in the future many a times. The lesser you know the less paranoid you will be.

 

[Einstein]

What is a DNS leak and why should I care?

When using an anonymity or privacy service, it is extremely important that all traffic originating from your computer is routed through the anonymity network. If any traffic leaks outside of the secure connection to the network, any adversary monitoring your traffic will be able to log your activity.

DNS or the domain name system is used to translate domain names such as www.privacyinternational.org into numerical IP addresses e.g. 123.123.123.123 which are required to route packets of data on the Internet. Whenever your computer needs to contact a server on the Internet, such as when you enter a URL into your browser, your computer contacts a DNS server and requests the IP address. Most Internet service providers assign their customers a DNS server which they control and use for logging and recording your Internet activities.

Under certain conditions, even when connected to the anonymity network, the operating system will continue to use its default DNS servers instead of the anonymous DNS servers assigned to your computer by the anonymity network. DNS leaks are a major privacy threat since the anonymity network may be providing a false sense of security while private data is leaking.

Check if your DNS is leaking ( or can be monitor easily)

https://www.dnsleaktest.com/

Solution:-

Step1:
http://www.labnol.org/internet/tools/opendsn-what-is-opendns-why-required-2/2587/

Step2:
http://dnscrypt.org/
http://download.dnscrypt.org/dnscrypt-proxy/dnscrypt-proxy-win32-full-1.3.3.zip

download dnscrypt, extract it to safe location, create shortcut to your drive and add shortcut to your windows startup folder so you don't have to start it every time you start your PC.

additional: http://www.opendns.com/technology/dnscrypt/

 

[Einstein]

@DanPickup

I just saw, My bank is using that encryption ssl_rsa_with_rc4_128_MDS, 128 bit key... its a big bank, so Am i vulnerable to man-in-middle attack? or only nsa can do this??

 

[DanPickUp]

@DanPickup

I just saw, My bank is using that encryption ssl_rsa_with_rc4_128_MDS, 128 bit key... its a big bank, so Am i vulnerable to man-in-middle attack? or only nsa can do this??

@Einstein

I am not an absolute pro on that stuff, but any one with deeper knowledge about how to hack into any operating system will be able to do it. If it is now NSA or any other group of people which have such knowledge, they can and if they really go on any one they will succeed. No doubt about that. But that surely does not mean that we should not educate us about what can be done from our side to protect us a bit better. I do not agree with the view of Bearishbull about that and about his comment.

Now if you want to change to an other encryption regarding your bank, try the way I explained in the above post. If you use Firefox you can install the add on mentioned and then disable RC4 and see what happen. In the worst case you will not be able to reach the bank, so you enable RC4 again and that's it. Or you do it manually by using: about:config.

Take care / DanPickUp

 

[Einstein]

seems like some peoples don't understand the basic concept of freedom.!!lol

 

[bearishbull]

seems like some peoples don't understand the basic concept of freedom.!!lol

What freedom? What you consider freedom is a lease regulated by rules and regulations of the country, family...yada..yada..yada.. Like I said, the lesser you know the lesser....