Lingoes, Tool for offline dictionary (and thesaurus)

Posted on 21 November 2011 by Admin

Lingoes is one of the free alternatives for offline dictionary. Common use is for translating words between languages, but it has other use as well. Results from different dictionaries are visible at once (see below).

lingoes1

 

Positive:

  • huge collection of dictionaries available from the main site
    • not only languages but english definitions as well!
  • offline only possible (has online possibility as well)
  • hot keys for quick lookups from any program
    • might need some tuning
    • one can use clipboard capture in the worst case

Negative:

  • No good support for creating your own dictionaries (no tool)

It is easy to add or delete dictionaries.

lingoes2

Posted in Basic Tools, Recommended Free Tools, Writing | Comments Off on Lingoes, Tool for offline dictionary (and thesaurus)

Public Key Infrastructure

Posted on 15 November 2011 by Admin

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is a set of hardware, software, people, policies, and procedures needed to create, manage, distribute, use, store, and revoke digital certificates (from wikipedia).

Usage Example

  • Encryption
  • Authentication
  • Signatures

There are several tutorial videos available.

  • Cryptography tutorial (30 min)
  • Digital Certificates tutorial 1, 2 and 3 (3*10 min)
  • SSL tutorial (11 min)
  • Public Key encryption show for students (5 min), and another demo with students

 

More advanced example related to Cisco VPN videos 1, 2 and 3 (3*10 min)

  • Video 1
    • pre-shared key and scalability problem, solved by Certificates
    • Certificate Authority

 

A great set of training videos are available, including PKI!!!

6.3 – Public Key Infrastructure
Certificate Authorities (5:37) | Key Revocation (2:54)
Digital Certificates (3:04) | Public Key Infrastructure (3:33)
Key Recovery (3:10) | Public and Private Keys (4:13)
Key Registration (2:24) | Key Escrow (2:47) | Trust Models (3:41)

6.4 – Implementing PKI
Implementing Certificate Authorities (3:16)
Implementing Key Revocation (2:19) | Implementing Digital Certificates (2:57)
Implementing PKI (3:09) | Implementing Key Recovery (2:30)
Implementing Public and Private Keys (5:38)

 

To see certificates on your MS Windows:

Start -> Control Panel -> Internet Options -> “Content” tab -> Certificates

 

Documents and links:

Public key certificate

Certificate authority

Implementing PKI in a Heterogeneous Environment, A Primer on Digital Certificate And Key Formats

What is a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI & Windows PKI)?

More about Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

 

More congrete example set:

Posted in Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on Public Key Infrastructure

Example Analysis of Spear-phishing email

Posted on 3 November 2011 by Admin

There is a good example of a detailed investigation of a malware, available on SANS reading room.

It is good for learning, not only about spear phishing threats, but also about investigation techniques.

Case highlights:

  • Spear-phishing email with attachement
  • The malware is multi-partite in nature, which includes, a dropper, a droppee and at least three Trojan-Spies.
  • The malware uses encrypted HTTP traffic to transmit collected intelligence back
    to C&C, which makes it difficult to be discovered.
  • The intruder has performed intensive prior reconnaissance on the targeted victim
  • Emphasis on spying functions, including: generating screen captures, gathering email and messaging passwords and every file names information from the victim’s machine.

Following tools were used:

  • Autoruns
  • Process Explorer
  • Process Monitor
  • ListDLLs
  • TCPView
  • VMmap
  • Winobj
  • BinText
  • Regshot
  • CaptureBAT
  • HandleDiff
  • Wireshark
  • Malcode Analysis Pack
  • REMnux
  • UPX
  • FileInsight
  • OllyDbg
  • IDA Pro Freeware
  • PEiD
  • Stud PE
Posted in Forensics, Security Threats, Security Training, Awareness and Reports | Comments Off on Example Analysis of Spear-phishing email

Notepad++, Tool for editing various text files

Posted on 1 November 2011 by Admin

Notepad++ is good free alternative for editing text files.

notepaddplusplus

 

It support syntax highlighting, for example for java etc.

notepaddplusplus-java

Note, several files are accessable via tabs.

Note, there might be some installation issues with Windows Vista. As an alternative way, one might need to use Notepad++ without installation (zip archive).

Posted in Recommended Free Tools | Comments Off on Notepad++, Tool for editing various text files

Audio book “Jane Eyre”

Posted on 31 October 2011 by Admin

LibriVox is one of those sites which holds free audio books. Audio books might fit nicely especially for travellers.

I was happily surprised of the quality of the audio book “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë, and read by Elizabeth Klett.

Jane Eyre 1002

Entire book is about 540 MB zip file, and takes 18 hours to listen.

It is worth to have a look on other books at LibriVox as well. Elizabeth Klett has read also other complete books. It is a pleasure to listen to her voice 🙂

Posted in Books | Comments Off on Audio book “Jane Eyre”

Duqu, beginning of future Stuxnet variants

Posted on 31 October 2011 by Admin

Symantec has published a study of a new threat called Duqu. Main components and modules are shwon below.

duqu

Highlights from Symantec report:

  • The threat was written by the same authors
  • Duqu’s purpose is to gather intelligence data and assets from entities such as industrial infrastructure and system manufacturers, amongst others, in order to more easily conduct a future attack against another third party.
  • The attackers used Duqu to install another infostealer that can record keystrokes and collect other system information.
  • Duqu uses HTTP and HTTPS to communicate to a command and control (C&C) server

It is worth to look another study by SecureWorks as well.

Posted in Security Threats | Comments Off on Duqu, beginning of future Stuxnet variants

Security Certification directory

Posted on 28 October 2011 by Admin

CSO Online article “The Security Certification Directory” contains a good list in this subject.

The directory is divided into categories:

  • Information Security certifications, like
    • Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge
    • Certified Information Systems Professional, CISSP
    • Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC)
    • Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
    • Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
  • Application Security and Software Security certifications
  • Physical Security and Loss Prevention certifications
  • Fraud, Investigation and Forensics certifications
  • Privacy certifications
  • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery certifications
  • Audit certifications, like
    • Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
  • Risk Management certifications
  • Project Management certifications, like
    • Project Management Professional (PMP)
Posted in Security Certifications, Security Management | Comments Off on Security Certification directory