Rk Thakur

■  Wireless networks are accessible to anyone within the router’s transmission radius.  This makes them vulnerable to attacks. Hotspots are available in public places such as airports, restaurants, parks, etc. In this tutorial, we will introduce you to common techniques used to  exploit weaknesses in wireless network security implementations . We will also look at some of the countermeasures you can put in place to protect against such attacks. What is a wireless network? A wireless network is a network that uses radio waves to link computers and other devices together. The implementation is done at the Layer 1 (physical layer) of the OSI model. How to access a wireless network? You will need a wireless network enabled device such as a laptop, tablet, smartphones, etc. You will also need to be within the transmission radius of a wireless network access point. Most devices (if the wireless network option is turned on) will provide you with a list of available networks. If ...

●  What is IP and MAC Addresses IP Address is the acronym for Internet Protocol address.  An internet protocol address is used to uniquely identify a computer or device such as printers, storage disks on a computer network. There are currently two versions of IP addresses. IPv4 uses 32-bit numbers. Due to the massive growth of the internet, IPv6 has been developed, and it uses 128-bit numbers. IPv4 addresses are formatted in four groups of numbers separated by dots. The minimum number is 0, and the maximum number is 255. An example of an IPv4 address looks like this; 127.0.0.1 IPv6 addresses are formatted in groups of six numbers separated by full colons. The group numbers are written as 4 hexadecimal digits. An example of an IPv6 address looks like this; 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334 In order to simplify the representation of the IP addresses in text format, leading zeros are omitted, and the group of zeros is completed omitted. The above address in a simplified for...

Some of the skills that hackers have are programming and computer networking skills. They often use these skills to gain access to systems. The objective of targeting an organization would be to steal sensitive data, disrupt business operations or physically damage computer controlled equipment.  Trojans, viruses, and worms can be used to achieve the above-stated objectives . In this article, we will introduce you to some of the ways that hackers can use Trojans, viruses, and worms to compromise a computer system. We will also look at the countermeasures that can be used to protect against such activities. What is a Trojan horse? A Trojan horse is a program that allows the attack to control the user’s computer from a remote location . The program is usually disguised as something that is useful to the user. Once the user has installed the program, it has the ability to install malicious payloads, create backdoors, install other unwanted applications that can be used to compromise t...

•  An organization can use the following methods to reduce the chances of the passwords been cracked Avoid short and easily predicable passwords Avoid using passwords with predictable patterns such as 11552266. Passwords stored in the database must always be encrypted. For md5 encryptions, its better to salt the password hashes before storing them. Salting involves adding some word to the provided password before creating the hash. Most registration systems have password strength indicators, organizations must adopt policies that favor high password strength numbers. Hacking Activity: Hack Now! In this practical scenario, we are going to  crack Windows account with a simple password .  Windows uses NTLM hashes to encrypt passwords . We will use the NTLM cracker tool in Cain and Abel to do that. Cain and Abel cracker can be used to crack passwords using; Dictionary attack Brute force Cryptanalysis   Password cracking steps             ...

There are a number of  techniques that can be used to crack passwords . We will describe the most commonly used ones below; Dictionary attack – This method involves the use of a wordlist to compare against user passwords. Brute force attack – This method is similar to the dictionary attack. Brute force attacks use algorithms that combine alpha-numeric characters and symbols to come up with passwords for the attack. For example, a password of the value “password” can also be tried as p@$$word using the brute force attack. Rainbow table attack – This method uses pre-computed hashes. Let’s assume that we have a database which stores passwords as md5 hashes. We can create another database that has md5 hashes of commonly used passwords. We can then compare the password hash we have against the stored hashes in the database. If a match is found, then we have the password. Guess – As the name suggests, this method involves guessing. Passwords such as qwerty, password, admin, etc. are comm...

.  Cryptography is the study and application of techniques that hide the real meaning of information by transforming it into nonhuman readable formats and vice versa. ·           Let’s illustrate this with the aid of an example. Suppose you want to send the message “I LOVE APPLES”, you can replace every letter in the phrase with the third successive letter in the alphabet. The encrypted message will be “K NQYG CRRNGV”. To decrypt our message, we will have to go back three letters in the alphabet using the letter that we want to decrypt. The image below shows how the transformation is done. The process of transforming information into nonhuman readable form is called encryption. The process of reversing encryption is called  decryption . Decryption is done using a  secret key  which is only known to the legitimate recipients of the information. The key is used to decrypt the hidden messages. This makes the communication sec...

Password cracking is the process of attempting to gain Unauthorized access to restricted systems using common passwords or algorithms that guess passwords. In other words, it’s an art of obtaining the correct password that gives access to a system protected by an authentication method. Password cracking employs a number of techniques to achieve its goals. The cracking process can involve either comparing stored passwords against word list or use algorithms to generate passwords that match What is password strength? Password strength is the measure of a password’s efficiency to resist password cracking attacks . The strength of a password is determined by; Length : the number of characters the password contains. Complexity : does it use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbol? Unpredictability : is it something that can be guessed easily by an attacker? Let’s now look at a practical example. We will use three passwords namely 1.  password 2.  password1 3.  #password1...

What is Social Engineering? Social engineering is the art of manipulating users of a computing system into revealing confidential information that can be used to gain unauthorized access to a computer system. The term can also include activities such as exploiting human kindness, greed, and curiosity to gain access to restricted access buildings or getting the users to installing backdoor software. Knowing the tricks used by hackers to trick users into releasing vital login information among others is fundamental in protecting computer systems In this tutorial, we will introduce you to the common social engineering techniques and how you can come up with security measures to counter them.   Gather Information : This is the first stage, the learns as much as he can about the intended victim. The information is gathered from company websites, other publications and sometimes by talking to the users of the target system. Plan Attack : The attackers outline how he/she intends to execut...

Skills allow you to achieve your desired goals within the available time and resources. As a hacker, you will need to develop skills that will help you get the job done . These skills include learning how to program, use the internet, good at solving problems, and taking advantage of existing security tools. In this article, we will introduce you to the common programming languages and skills that you must know as a hacker. What is a programming language? A programming language is a language that is used to develop computer programs. The programs developed can range from operating systems; data based applications through to networking solutions.     Why should you learn how to program? Hackers are the problem solver and tool builders, learning how to program will help you implement solutions to problems. It also differentiates you from script kiddies. Writing programs as a hacker will help you to automate many tasks which would usually take lots of time to complete. Writing pr...

Security Threat is defined as a risk that which can potentially harm computer systems and organization. The cause could be physical such as someone stealing a computer that contains vital data. The cause could also be non-physical such as a virus attack. In these tutorial series, we will define a threat as a potential attack from a hacker that can allow them to gain unauthorized access to a computer system. What are Physical Threats? A physical threat is a potential cause of an incident that may result in loss or physical damage to the computer systems. The following list classifies the physical threats into three (3) main categories; Internal: The threats include fire, unstable power supply, humidity in the rooms housing the hardware, etc. External: These threats include Lightning, floods, earthquakes, etc. Human: These threats include theft, vandalism of the infrastructure and/or hardware, disruption, accidental or intentional errors. To protect computer systems from the above mentio...

  Hacking is identifying weakness in computer systems or networks to exploit its weaknesses to gain access. Example of Hacking: Using password cracking algorithm to gain access to a system Computers have become mandatory to run a successful businesses. It is not enough to have isolated computers systems; they need to be networked to facilitate communication with external businesses. This exposes them to the outside world and hacking. Hacking means using computers to commit fraudulent acts such as fraud, privacy invasion, stealing corporate/personal data, etc. Cyber crimes cost many organizations millions of dollars every year. Businesses need to protect themselves against such attacks. Who is a Hacker? Types of Hackers A  Hacker  is a person who finds and exploits the weakness in computer systems and/or networks to gain access. Hackers are usually skilled computer programmers with knowledge of computer security. Hackers are classified according to the intent of their acti...