http://bigthink.com/videos/brad-templeton-todays-surveillance-society-is-beyond-orwellian Here is an interesting video: Brad Templeton (former chair of EFF) argues that we’re all a part of a surveillance apparatus that would even be beyond the imagination George Orwell. The problem, he says, is the belief that privacy and security are mutually exclusive. →
https://opensource.com/article/17/1/rsync-backup-linux?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY All companies, regardless of how large or small, run on their data. There is not a business today ranging from the smallest sole proprietorship to the largest global corporation that could survive the loss of all or even a large fraction of its data. So backups are imperative to ensure the long-term safety of data. There →
https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-security.html Securing your Linux server is important to protect your data, intellectual property, and time, from the hands of crackers (hackers). The system administrator is responsible for security of the Linux box. This article will provide 40 hardening tips for default installation of Linux system. →
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/08/a-repair-shop-could-completely-hack-your-phone-and-you-wouldnt-know-it/ Booby-trapped touchscreens can log passwords, install malicious apps, and more. People with cracked touch screens or similar smartphone maladies have a new headache to consider: the possibility the replacement parts installed by repair shops contain secret hardware that completely hijacks the security of the device. The research, in a paper presented this week at the 2017 Usenix →
http://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities—threats/taking-down-the-internet-has-never-been-easier/a/d-id/1329580 Is there a reason why the Internet is so vulnerable? Actually, there are many, and taking steps to remain protected is crucial. On October 29, 1969, two computers linked via telephone exchanged a couple of letters, then crashed. Fast-forward 48 years, where everything — including the kitchen sink, in the case of smart kitchens — is →
https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/encrypted-usb-drives-audit/17948/?utm_source=kasperskysocialchannel.com&utm_medium=Kaspersky+Lab+%28Employees%2C+USA%29&utm_campaign=kasperskysocialchannel.com How can you be sure the “secure” USB drive you’re using is really secure and the data you store on it can’t be extracted? That’s exactly the question Google’s security researchers Ellie Bursztein, Jean-Michel Picod, and Rémi Audebert addressed in their talk, “Attacking encrypted USB keys the hard(ware) way,” at the recent Black Hat →
http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/computing/software/researchers-embed-malicious-code-into-dna-to-hack-dna-sequencing-software This sounds like plot from scifi movie: University of Washington researchers successfully stored malware in synthetic DNA strands, and used it to gain control of the computer analyzing it. Researchers at the University of Washington have shown that by changing a little bit of computer code they can insert malware into a strand of →
https://access.redhat.com/blogs/766093/posts/3031361?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY The SSL/TLS protocol uses RSA, Diffie-Hellman (DH) or Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) primitives for the key exchange algorithm. RSA is based on the fact that when given a product of two large prime numbers, factorizing the product (which is the public key) is computationally intensive, but a quantum computer could efficiently solve this problem →
https://opensource.com/article/17/6/3-security-musts-software-developers?sc_cid=7016000000127ECAAY 1. Don’t encrypt passwords, hash them. 2. Don’t put secret backdoors in software. 3. Authenticate users on every page—not only on the login page. →
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTwnopvY7UYcSf-1QOkHTFUkow4mPeuses7ibDRAxPs7BptQ/viewform It is not uncommon to see trolls tricking new Linux/Unix users run commands as a joke. This page tries to collect the commands you should be warned of. →