Types of attacks

From Microsoft Encyclopedia of Security (direct quote)

Types of attacks
Access attacks: The intruder tries to gain access to resources on your network by exploiting flaws in software such as buffer overflows and information leakage and by elevating the intruder’s privileges to execute arbitrary code.

Denial of service (DoS) attacks: The intruder tries to deny legitimate users access to resources on your network.

Reconnaissance attacks: The intruder ties to map your network services in order to exploit vulnerabilities detected.

Effects on systems being attacked
Active attacks: These involve trying to modify data either during transmission or while stored on the target system. Examples include inserting backdoors and Trojans, deleting or modifying log files, disrupting services or communication, and so on.

Passive attacks: The goal here is not to modify the target system but rather to capture data being transmitted by eavesdropping or by using a packet sniffer in order to obtain sensitive or confidential information such as passwords or credit card numbers. Passive attacks are also used for capturing information that can help the attacker create a map of the target network’s hosts and services, which
usually forms the preamble of an active attack.

Salient Ads

I seem to be getting many emails from a company called Salient Ads. They are a email advertising company. It follows the format, where the email contains a link advertising a service with image promoting the service.
So if you receive any of these emails below, it probably is because a company you have given your email to has sold you out and I do not recommend you get caught up in the hype of the email. I do not know the sender and you probably don't too.

Example of spam emails

Email: College Loans (FinancialAid@largeperiod.com)
Subject: Education is expensive. Get a student loan now.‏
Message: Student loans help finance further study.

Email: LearnAccounting (AccountingSchools@chrismaspeace.com)
Subject: A Chance To Switch Careers
Do your own taxes and charge others

Email: GI Bill Express (MilitaryBenefits@mysnowballfight.com)
Subject: Legislative Alert for the Military‏
Message: Legislative Alert for the Military

Email: Cash Department (Loans@first9949.com)
Subject: Quick Loans! Up to $500 in 1hr! Approval in minutes!‏
Message: Up to $500 in hour..approval in minutes!

It supposedly not spam messages, because it states at the bottom of each email: "You are receiving this advertisment because you have opted-in to receive third-party marketing messages If you do not want to receive this type of emails from us, please unsubscribe here.
Salient Ads Ltd: 8171 Yonge Street Suite 136, Thornhill ON, L3T 2C6, Canada"

Salient Ads is an online marketing company and you can opt out there email service by clicking the link at the bottom of the email or by visiting their website.

Ethical Hacking cont. (2)- Finding public information

This is a continuation of the post: Introducing Ethical Hacking.

One of the important steps to ethical hacking is to assume you have no information about company (in other words, to forget everything you know about your corporation) and start from ground up. So let's start with only your corporation's name (you have to know which organisation to hack).

Gathering information from public sources
1- Google: "Google" your company and see what information you can gather.
2- Hoovers and Yahoo! Finance: Detailed information about companies available to the general public.
3- U.S Securities and Exchange Commission: SEC filings that the company has made.
4- United States Patent and Trademark Office: For patent and trademark information.
5- Whois- DNS Servers responsible for hosting.

What information to look for:
1- Employee's Names/Contact Information.
2- Key Dates
3- SEC filings
4- Patents
5- Presentations, Articles, Webcasts

I'll stop there. There's plenty of work there for you to do. In the meantime, I will be writing up the next section.

For more information (detailed information) check out Hacking: The Art of Exploitation:

Apple introduces iAds to the mobile platform

iAds enable software engineers and corporate advertisers a new road to advertising.

From CNET: But this sets up a battleground for how advertising evolves on mobile platforms. Apple is declaring that the best way for marketers to reach mobile users is through iPhone applications, rather than the Web at large. Google and AdMob, on the other hand, are much more focused on ads delivered in the browser on mobile Web pages. And Apple made some compelling arguments Thursday about why its plan could be more effective.

Jobs said that the average iPhone owner spends 30 minutes a day using applications. So there's an awful lot of potential ad impressions at play, but mobile ads inside iPhone apps are even more annoying than desktop ads because should you happen to click on one, you're taken away from the app and into the browser.

My experience with advertisement in the sides of screens are normally not clicked by end users. The users are focused on the middle of the screen where most of the "action", one could say, is happening. However, my opinion applies to computer screens about 17 inches or wider. This may be different with 3.5 inch display screen, as the focal point is closer to the ads.

Also, users probably will not like the idea as in reality, 3.5 inch (diagonal) display is not really that large. iPhone users would like to use their screen to maximum capacity, and not have some of their precious screen space be taken up by an advertisement.

For developers/business owners reading this and wondering whether it is a business opportunity:

iAds work on a simple revenue split. 60% of revenue is given to the developer (10% lower than iPhone apps). However, apple will host and deliver all the ads to the end users.

Mac4Lin: Make Windows Look Like Mac the easy way

Even since I have entered the linux world, I have seen many skins that attempt to replicate the look of Mac/Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 with the use of themes and skins with specific desktop managers (and programs).

But for those who are not technically capable, Mac4Lin is a linux distribution that can make your PC look like a Mac. Of course, there are programs that are exclusive to Mac and have not been ported to linux. I have never been a fan of making one OS look like another. However people do things just because they can. So, if this is your thing, try it. (My thoughts: looks like Mac in some ways, but does not "feel" like it though)

The Inquirer: Designed by Anirudh Acharya of San Diego, California, Mac4Lin looks like the real thing. Only instead of a fully blessed by Steve Jobs Leopard OS X under the bonnet, it runs something which is not proprietary and is free.

Mac4Lin supports GNOME 2.26 and is backwards compatible. It is unlikely to appeal to the Linux purist, who probably wouldn't stoop to stick anything like a Windows 7 look on Linux either.

Maybe it is just the fact that one has a OS that resembles a proprietary for free that makes people want to do things like this. I would like to hear your thoughts if you do like to skin your operating system.

The end has arrived for Bebo

AOL announces that Bebo is going to be sold or closed down. AOL decided this as it would take “too much additional investment” to keep the social networking site worthwhile.

John Brod, Executive Vice President at AOL:

“The strategy we set in May 2009 leverages our core strengths and scale in quality content, premium advertising and consumer applications, positioning us for the next phase of growth of the Internet. As we evaluate our portfolio of brands against our strategy, it is clear that social networking is a space with heavy competition, and where scale defines success. Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space. AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking.

“AOL is committed to working quickly to determine if there are any interested parties for Bebo and the company’s current expectation is to complete our strategic evaluation by the end of May 2010.”

According the WSJ, Bebo was never really a success.

The site never gained a foothold in the U.S. and steadily fell behind the competition. Bebo attracted 5 million unique U.S. visitors in February, down 12% from the same period last year, according to comScore Inc. In contrast, Facebook attracted 111.8 million unique U.S. visitors in February, nearly double the size of its audience in February 2009.

"We've known this has been a declining asset since just beyond day one that they bought it," says Ross Sandler, an Internet analyst with RBC Capital Markets. "It is a sunk cost at this point."

Well, there is the end of the Bebo, which was a flop since day 1. Good Bye Bebo, but I doubt many people will miss you.

Run Google Chrome inside Internet Explorer

From Google:Google Chrome Frame is a free plug-in for Internet Explorer. Some advanced web apps, like Google Wave, use Google Chrome Frame to provide you with additional features and better performance.

It brings new technologies that are not supported yet in Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 into Internet Explorer. It literally is like running Google Chrome. I highly recommend this plug in, not that I use it, but because I use Google Chrome.

Additional benefits include internet Explorer runs 8 times faster using Google Chrome frame, according to Techworld.

Techworld: Microsoft's Internet Explorer zips through JavaScript nearly ten times faster than usual when Google's new Chrome Frame plug-in is partnered with the browser, benchmark tests show.

According to tests run by Computerworld, Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) was 9.6 times faster than IE8 on its own. Computerworld ran the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite three times each for IE8 with Chrome Frame, and IE8 without the plug-in, then averaged the scores.

To try Google Chrome Frame, visit the Google Chrome Frame website. Please comment if you have used it.