House passes cybersecurity bill as privacy concerns linger

House passes cybersecurity bill as privacy concerns linger

The House of Representatives go for the second round of Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act as it passed legislation on Thursday.

The newly granted powers are intended to stop computer security threats against a company’s rights and property. But the definitions are broad and vague. The terms allow purposes such as guarding against “improper” information modification and ensuring “timely” access to information, functions that are not necessarily tied to attacks.

Once handed over, the government is able to use this information for investigating crimes that are unrelated to the underlying security threat and, more broadly, for “national security” purposes, which is a poorly defined term that includes “threats to the United States, its people, property, or interests” and “any other matter bearing on United States national or homeland security.”

The bill’s vague definitions like “cybersecurity purpose” and “cybersecurity system” also raise the frightening possibility of a company using aggressive countermeasures. If a company wants to combat a threat, it is empowered to use “cybersecurity systems” to identify and obtain “cyber threat information.” But the bill does not define exactly how far a company can go, leaving it open to the possibility of abuse [...]

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Security Holes

Vulnerabilities

The larger and more complex information systems are, the greater the possibility of error in logic and loopholes in algorithm.

These are weak points that could enable hackers to breach a system and compromise the integrity of information stored. Programmers themselves who are not yet adept in writing software code can unknowingly misuse the code and lead to a vulnerability.

A classic example of vulnerabilities that can be exploited is a weak password or its repeated use on various services or software. There are also websites containing malware that installs automatically once visited. Even legitimate software could be a venue for an exploit [...]

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Tips & Tricks

Handy tips and tricks on the web, operating systems and major programs for hacking n00bs and the general population. Discover useful (and mostly  amusing) easter eggs on the most basic programs and functions — from browsing the web, to converting files, to finding a more practical and easier way to circumvent an ISP block.

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Hacker Ethics

Believed to have originated from MIT between the 50s and 60s, hacker ethics are like unwritten rules, guiding philosophy and morals, that are silently observed by the hacking community. They are not actually discussed or debated but understood, accepted and agreed (by their community) implicitly.

Hackers are staunch supporters of open-source software and freeware because of the nature behind those that allow them to access the source code (useful in reuse and improvement). Access to anything that can teach people something should not be limited as we understand more on how things work the more we tinker [...]

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Data Leaks

Publicized data dumps from black hats and hacktivists (grey hats) that are either in their plain text or encrypted forms. (This list is only a reference and not hosted on this website, so, no we are not giving away the actual loots.)

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Grey Hat

Grey Hat

Grey hat hackers are those who do not identify with black hats or white hats. Their lot differs in hacking technique and in disclosing findings. Usually, grey hats do not hack to gain notoriety or money unlike the black hats but are quite ready to do something illegal to attain their goal in exploiting security holes or gaining information.

Moreover, grey hats would not necessarily let the companies know at once, as opposed to white hats, but will neither endeavor to conceal it for gaining money [...]

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Black Hat

Black hat hackers are the quintessential ‘bad guys’ of the hacking community and should be correctly referred to as “crackers”. They breach security for personal gain or to simply cause a nuisance. Because of this, they are portrayed as the computer criminals responsible for wreaking havoc and breaking into secure systems, which range from destroying data, stealing information and messing operations [...]

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Internet users familiarize with scam thus scammers find new tactics

Maybe you are wondering that there are sorts of emails in your inbox that does sounds unfamiliar but very pleasing. And, keeping you posted which sometimes goes like this. “I know this will come as a surprise to you, because you do not know me. My name is Abdul Al-Shallah and I am the son of a deposed government official in Nigeria.”

This is just an example of the growing cases on the web in which anyone can be shrouded- SCAM. This is the Nigerian scam’s boilerplate opening; it is one of the most popular scam in the world. Whatever you call it, Nigerian scam, “419 scam” or advance fee scheme, the elements is always the same. A royalty or some sort of official has come into a lot of money and he is in need of another person outside of the country to use their money for a bribe to spring the money free or sometimes to pay legal fees among other means.

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Ransomware leverages victims’ browser histories for increased credibility

A researcher says: Visited websites are listed as source of illegal material in order to make the bogus police messages more believable.

According to an independent malware researcher, the authors of police-themed ransomware have started using the browsing histories from infected computers in order to make their scams more believable.

Ransomware is a type of malicious applications intended to extort money from users by immobilizing chief system functionality or by encrypting their personal files. A specific distinction of this class of threat flaunts messages camouflaged as notifications from law enforcement agencies.

The scam varies depending on location of the victims, its language, tone of the message and the agency names. Although this may be the case, in most cases ransomware in general will make their victims believe that their computers have been locked because they accessed or downloaded illegal content. Then users are asked to pay a fine to recover access to their computers.

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Online scams to watch out for this year: Cyber-blackmail and the Royal baby

This is one birth of a baby we are not suppose to feel happy about, the birth of the Royal baby.  This will deliver viruses around the world and will target you mobiles and tablets.

Innocence isn’t an excuse besides staying safe online is easy as 1 2 3. Start by being familiar of the online threats expected to be born this year.

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