--Originally published at Computer security

Since we were little we were taught not to enter places which we don’t trust or just look too good  to be true, just as we are taught to not download pirate software because most of the time it contains programs with modified code which have a different objectives to what we intended to do with them, they do not ask for permissions and do more harm than good to our computers, all these programs are known as badware or malware and today we’ll talk about them and how to avoid them.

Malware, short for malicious software, is any software used to disrupt computer operations, gather sensitive information, gain access to private computer systems, or display unwanted advertising. This means that this type of software is created with the sole purpose of creating harm to a computer system or a network of multiple computers acting as a greater system. So you should better be aware of where you are going into on the Internet.

This term includes viruses, Trojans, worms, rootkits, ransomeware, spyware, adware intrusion, crimeware and other unwanted software, also it is a common misconception that the software that does not work is the same as a malware and this is a total lie, since tht real malware is created to harm directly to the user, unlike the other that is simply created with a bad practice so you can break or enter easily because of a silly mistake.

There are many types of malware, but the most important to know about are the following:

• Rootkit: This malware installs a new account or steals an existing one, to elevate the security level of that account to the highest degree (can be root on Unix or administrator on Windows) so that the attacker can take full control of the machine.
• Trojan
  
  
  Continue reading "Dark Side of the code (Malware)" →

--Originally published at Computer security

In this post I will explain one of the most frequently used attacks in the Cyber Security industry, the Denial of Service attacks, and with this you will understand more about the subject and why it is important to know how to avoid it at all cost, let’s begin.

First let’s explain what Denial of Service attack is, Denial of service attack or for more casual expressions a DOS is an attempt to prevent a user to access any type of information or a service provided by an organization. Targeting a network or a computer, an attacker can prevent you from accessing webpages, email accounts, banking accounts, etc.

So it can be said that a Denial of Service(DoS) attack is characterized by an explicit attempt by attackers to prevent legitimate users of a service from using that service. The main reason one would want to use this types of atttacks is to accomplish the folowing:

• Attempts to flood a network to render it useless.
• Attempts to disrupt connections between two machines, thereby preventing the access to a service.
• Attempts to prevent an specific user from accessing the server or to access a service.
• Attempts to disrupt service to a specific system.

Sometimes a DoS attack is part of something else much bigger, that is when a Distributed Denial of Service comes into play, a DDoS can be said that is the next step of a DoS, its like an evolved form, by using multiple IP addresses to target a specific host and make it totally useless, a normal DoS attack is just one address and that can do a pretty decent damage, but a DDos is plain overkill, so one should better watch out for this and avoid it at all costs.

But how do I  prevemt this?

If you want don’t want

Continue reading "My server is failing, why? (DoS)" →

--Originally published at Computer security

As I mentioned on my previous post a safe measure to protect any important file is by means of encryption, but most people don’t know how to do this or donn’t even what encryption is, so to enlighten all the people in the dark on encryption matter I wrote this useful post.

What is encryption?

Encryption is the practice or procedure of cryptography, and this is a simple procedure which uses an algorithm with certain patterns or key that transforms a message without changing it and turns it into an alphanumeric string that is not possible to understand without the possetion of the the original key  that will be able to return it or translate it into the original message.

There are different encryption techniques, some may ve safer or more complicated to perform and they all return a structured form, in the future it is expected that the resultant key of this method should be extensive and complicated to crack as this would take to long amd to much effort of decrypting power and thus it would deemed safer.

The most popular cryptography algorithm at hte moment is the Blockchains encryption, this is because of its efficiency and facility of use, this works by dividing all of its elements in blocks, as the name should suggest, each block is encrypted differently so that all parts of the structure can not be identified and similarly can not get the original, each key is based on a principal key and this mathematically changes to avoid problems.With this technique the effectivness of the security is assured, all files encrypted with this algorithm can be cosidered as safe as they can possibly be, that is why this is what they used to create the popular bitcoins that have gained so much fame in the recent years, surely

Continue reading "Cryptography 101" →

--Originally published at Computer security

So why should we know more about Cyber Secutity?

I bet that this a question that most of you have in your mind at the moment, after all one may think that this kind of things takes to much effort and is very complicated to understand so it isn’t worth the trouble for an ordinary person , but believe me it is worth it, at the current era that we are living in to know about this things its a necessity, let me explain why.

First off, we should start with what is cyber security, cyber security can be defined as the protection of any computer or informative system for any possible threats to its well being, this includes hardware, software and data protection, all this things are almost indispensable in our every day lifes if we want to be a part of todays society, so it is in our best interests to keep them as secure as possible, after all we don’t want our personal belongings or personal information to be taken and used for any stranger’s bad intentions or personal agenda.

One normally thinks that this kind of threats can only happen to important figures or public persons of our society, but this isn’t the case, a normal person like you or me is also vulnerable to this kind of things, after all we both use the Internet every day and that is enough to be in risk of a cyber attack. It only takes a click on a web page that you should not be in or a bad privacy configuration on a social network, maybe you downloaded an app of dubious origins and all your privatel information, bank accounts, all that you have stored in the web may be at risk, so you should be in alert

Continue reading "How Cyber Seurity affects you" →

--Originally published at Computer security

Hello everyone, this is my very first blog and therefore my first blog post. This blog was created for my computer security class sake, so most of the content will be related to that area, if I may feel like it I will post about other topics of my interest but that is in debate at the moment.

A little about me, I’m a Software Engineering student, every day a little closer to my graduation, a proud Mexican and my likes are videogames, all kinds of sports, reading books, traveling, and all that has to do with technology. Just another passenger in this train that we call life. Also it should be noted that english is not my first language, that will be spanish, so bear with me if you see any grammatical mistake and feel free to correct me so that I can improve for later posts.

With all that said I think this will be it for now.. See you in a later post!