Mobile Malware Is on the Rise, but Is It a Real Threat?

Smartphones and tablets may be the hottest tickets in electronics today, but with that marquee status comes a dark side. Mobile viruses on the rise, and 2010 saw a huge increase in malware on mobile devices, up 46 percent from 2009, says a new threat report from security software maker McAfee.

The increase in mobile malware isn't unexpected, as smartphones have become more popular in the last year, with smartphones recently passing PCs in sales for the first time ever. Adam Wosotowsky, an engineer at McAfee, says Symbian is the most at-risk mobile platform, though Google Android devices and jailbroken iPhones are popular targets, too.

"I wouldn't call it unexpected," he says. "We've seen mobile malware growing exponentially year-over-year for a while. It's much more of a big deal now that smartphones are basically becoming little computers."

Besides being greater in number, mobile malware is getting more sophisticated, Wosotowsky says. Viruses that infect cell phones typically force the phone to do things like send texts or make calls to specific numbers and at specific times so the malware creator profits. Now that phones are capable of so much more, the viruses that infect them are following suit.

"There are a lot more ways for the criminal enterprise to make money," he says. "You have the ability to infect the phones and actually build some kind of botnet infrastructure. We have seen indications of ways to start to establish command and control [on phones]."

Seeing "indications" and seeing a virus are two different things, however. Ondrej Vlcek, CTO of Avast, a security software company that gives away its product, says the mobile malware threat, while a problem, isn't anywhere near as threatening as malware on PCs.

"It's still relatively small compared to the traditional platforms," Vlcek says. "Also, the payloads are usually less invasive—sort of like Windows malware ten, fifteen years ago."

Vlcek is on board with the McAfee report's conclusions about the vulnerabilities with Adobe products, however. The report says malware developers "heavily" exploited weaknesses in Flash and PDF applications. Flash videos are especially ripe targets, Wosotowsky says, since the application runs code on both the client and server sides.

"Flash is extremely popular and everybody's using it. That makes it a big target," he says. "I'm sure Adobe is going to re-architect some of the security that's associated with it."

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What Is Doxing? – Doxing And It’s Uses

Doxing is the process of gaining information about someone or something by using sources on the Internet and using basic deduction skills. Its name is derived from “Documents” and in short it is the retrieval of “Documents” on a person or company.

You’re probably thinking, “Okay, so basically it’s getting information from searching someone’s email on Google right?” in a sense yes, but there are actually easier ways to get someone’s information online. The most popular and most common method is to use a website called Pipl(http://www.pipl.com/). Pipl allows you to search for full names, emails, usernames, and even phone numbers, thus making it a very useful tool for hackers. Another source hackers can use is Facebook (http://www.facebook.com). Sure, Facebook allows full name searches, but most hackers aren’t using it for its name search; they’re using it for its email search.

The main goal when Doxing is to find the target’s email (if you don’t have it). Your email is essentially your passport online; you sign up for websites using it, you have personal information on it, and if someone has access to it, they can essentially pretend to be you online. Once the hacker has the email, all he has to do is put it into Facebook or Pipl and he will be able to find you, assuming the email he has is connected to some account you have online. On the flipside of this, in order to find your email, the hacker either has to guess your email, befriend you on Facebook,or, hack one of your vulnerable friends and view your email that way. Once he’s done that, you’re in trouble.

Now, you’re probably thinking, “How’s he going to hack me with just my email?” well, that’s where Doxing comes in handy. If he can view your Facebook account, or he can find some other bit of information about you using Pipl, he can do what’s called reverting. Reverting is the process of using the target’s email’s recovery questions to gain access to the target’s email. Now, you may be thinking, “How’s he gonna guess my recovery question answers?” well, take a second look at your recovery questions and ask yourself, “Can someone find this answer online?” If you answered yes, then you’re vulnerable to reverting.

Any hacker reading this, that didn’t previously know about reverting, would probably look at this and say

“This would never work!” but you have to remember… we’re all humans, and we all make mistakes. Surprisingly, this method works more often than you’d think, but it is not for anyone who is lazy. Doxers tend to spend a while searching around the web for information that they can use.

Chances are, you’ve made some mistakes online, and if a skilled Doxer finds that mistake, then you’re in trouble. The Doxing method is based purely on the ability of the hacker to recognize valuable information about his target and use this information to his benefit. It is also based around the idea that, “The more you know about your target, the easier it will be to find his or her flaws.”

How can you insure that you won’t be Doxed? Well, as the Internet becomes more and more useful and addicting, it will become harder to not get Doxed. The main issue for most victims is their security questions, and their password security. If a victim has a very easy-to-find recovery question, then the victim will be easily reverted within a matter of seconds. Also, if the victim has a simple password, it could get brute forced simply by using a wordlist that applies to the victim’s interests, likes, and fancies (of course, this method is not as popular).

So, the main rule to not getting hacked is: Have secure passwords, and almost impossible to guess recovery questions. The main rule to not getting Doxed is… to just stay off the Internet; but, who wants to do that?

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How to Change MAC Address

In computer networking, the Media Access Control (MAC) address is every bit as important as an IP address. Learn in this article how MAC addresses work and how to find the MAC addresses being used by a computer...

What Is a MAC Address?

The MAC address is a unique value associated with a network adapter. MAC addresses are also known as hardware addresses or physical addresses. They uniquely identify an adapter on a LAN.

MAC addresses are 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (48 bits in length). By convention, MAC addresses are usually written in one of the following two formats:

MM:MM:MM:SS:SS:SS

MM-MM-MM-SS-SS-SS

The first half of a MAC address contains the ID number of the adapter manufacturer. These IDs are regulated by an Internet standards body. The second half of a MAC address represents the serial number assigned to the adapter by the manufacturer. In the example,

00:A0:C9:14:C8:29

The prefix

00A0C9

indicates the manufacturer is Intel Corporation.

How to find MAC Address?

Go to start -> Run ->Type cmd and press Enter

A DOS window will appear. This is also commonly called a Command Prompt

Now type IPCONFIG /ALL at the command prompt and hit ENTER. This window will now display the configuration of all of your network adapters. If you have multiple network adapters in your PC you'll see multiple addresses. The MAC Address you're looking for will be listed under the heading Ethernet Adapter

Now look for the Physical Address. It should look something like 00-50-BA-D1-BA-71

To close the window when you are finished, type EXIT at the command prompt and hit the ENTER key

How to change MAC Address?

Go to Start > Control panel > Network and Internet connections , then right click on the that network connection whose network card’s MAC address you want to change and click Properties.

In the General tab, click on the Configure button.

Then click on the Advanced tab.

In the Property section, you have to see an option saying Network Address or Locally Administered Address. Select it and change the radio button to Value ( Not present means that your network card will use the default MAC address programmed by the manufacturer ).

Now type in a new MAC address and click OK.

Restart the computer.

To make sure that the change is successful go to command prompt ( Start > Run, type in cmd and click OK ) then type in ipconfig /all.

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White hat hacker exposes NASA servers' vulnerabilities

White hat hacker exposes NASA servers' vulnerabilities

A Romanian "white hat" hacker has claimed to have broken into a site of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and published a screenshot of the compromised server on his site.

White hat hackers are programmers who break into computer systems for the sake of exposing security flaws, instead of exploiting them for malevolent purposes.

In this case, "TinKode" hacked a file transfer protocol (FTP) server related to NASA's Earth Observation System at Goddard Space Flight Center.

"I don't do bad things. I only find and make public the info. Afterwards I send an email to them to fix the holes. It's like an security audit, but for free," TinKode said in an interview posted on NetworkWorld.

The NetworkWorld story said that, after hacking into servir.gsfc.nasa.gov, TinKode sent an email alert of the hack to NASA's webmaster.

His screenshot shows folders like RADARSAT, ASAR, ASAR_Aus, ASAR_Africa, and ASAR_Haiti.

ASAR is short for Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar, a technology used by NASA.

One month ago, TinKode exposed a similar security hole at another space agency by hacking into a server operated by the European Space Agency at www.esa.int.

He then leaked a list of FTP accounts, email addresses and passwords for administrators and editors.

Early this year, TinKode and hackers Ne0h and Jackh4x0r hacked into the Web servers hosting MySQL.com, proving it was vulnerable to SQL injection as well as XSS.

In the NetworkWorld interview, TinKode said making the breaches public makes the companies fix the vulnerability faster.

He also said finding security holes is a "hobby" for him.

"I am doing this because finding security holes represents a hobby for me. If someone wants to hire me, we can discuss, isn't a problem," he said.

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Private and Public IP Addresses

What are Private and Public IP Addresses

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are usually of two types: Public and Private. If you have ever wondered to know what is the difference between a public and a private IP address, then you are at the right place. In this post I will try to explain the difference between a public and a private IP addres in layman’s terms so that it becomes simple and easy to understand.

What are Public IP Addresses?

A public IP address is assigned to every computer that connects to the Internet where each IP is unique. Hence there cannot exist two computers with the same public IP address all over the Internet. This addressing scheme makes it possible for the computers to “find each other” online and exchange information. User has no control over the IP address (public) that is assigned to the computer. The public IP address is assigned to the computer by the Internet Service Provider as soon as the computer is connected to the Internet gateway.

A public IP address can be either static or dynamic. A static public IP address does not change and is used primarily for hosting webpages or services on the Internet. On the other hand a dynamic public IP address is chosen from a pool of available addresses and changes each time one connects to the Internet. Most Internet users will only have a dynamic IP assigned to their computer which goes off when the computer is disconnected from the Internet. Thus when it is re-connected it gets a new IP.

You can check your public IP address by visiting www.whatismyip.com

What are Private IP Addresses?

An IP address is considered private if the IP number falls within one of the IP address ranges reserved for private networks such as a Local Area Network (LAN). The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has reserved the following three blocks of the IP address space for private networks (local networks):

10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 (Total Addresses: 16,777,216)

172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 (Total Addresses: 1,048,576)

192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 (Total Addresses: 65,536)

Private IP addresses are used for numbering the computers in a private network including home, school and business LANs in airports and hotels which makes it possible for the computers in the network to communicate with each other. Say for example, if a network X consists of 10 computers each of them can be given an IP starting from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.10. Unlike the public IP, the administrator of the private network is free to assign an IP address of his own choice (provided the IP number falls in the private IP address range as mentioned above).

Devices with private IP addresses cannot connect directly to the Internet. Likewise, computers outside the local network cannot connect directly to a device with a private IP. It is possible to interconnect two private networks with the help of a router or a similar device that supports Network Address Translation.

If the private network is connected to the Internet (through an Internet connection via ISP) then each computer will have a private IP as well as a public IP. Private IP is used for communication within the network where as the public IP is used for communication over the Internet. Most Internet users with a DSL/ADSL connection will have both a private as well as a public IP.

You can know your private IP by typing ipconfig command in the command prompt. The number that you see against “IPV4 Address:” is your private IP which in most cases will be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.1.2. Unlike the public IP, private IP addresses are always static in nature.

Unlike what most people assume, a private IP is neither the one which is impossible to trace (just like the private telephone number) nor the one reserved for stealth Internet usage. In reality there is no public IP address that is impossible to trace since the protocol itself is designed for transparency.

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