IT security

“"The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear"”.

Almost every family own a computer or have access to one, some might even have several. Today when the smartphones and tablets are established on the market it is almost impossible to answer the question how many there are in the world. That does not even include all the servers or company owned computers. Needless to say, there are a lot of them.

Society is growing, really fast. The need for more internet connected devices is increasing. In less than 70 years the internet and the way we communicate have gone from much questioned, to something that people expect every restaurant to offer with free Wifi. And in same phase as the software and hardware industries are growing so are also the threats and the way to exploit these systems. Almost every week there is an update from local news how "hackers strike again" or how vulnerable you are while you are surfing the Webb. The thing that these people forget to tell you is how to protect you. Let’s put it in perspective.

Imagine that you lived on a street, there are 8 houses and 1 government facility. One day you get a warning that a thief is going to break in and steal all of your belongings. What do you do? Well of course you make sure that all of your windows and doors are locked and your house is secured. The next day you get the news that the thief tried to enter the government facility instead of one of the houses. The similarity to the world online is that it is more likely that a "Hacker" will target a government or a company instead of you as an individual, but as it is with the regular burglar, he probably will try to steal from the house that has forgotten to close the window. And to put this in a perspective, the US navy has noticed that they are targeted by over 110.000 attacks every hour. (Source: V3 News) There is, to my knowledge, no known database of how many attacks the average user is facing. The focus is mostly on the companies and the governments. Even if you may think you are to no one´s interest, you still should remember the importance of “closing your window” at home, and this is what we will teach and guide you through here at Webbhatt.

There are two basic philosophies in the computer security world and we are gonna cover them both briefly for you.

We have Defensive and Offensive security, the words says alot about them but not everything.

Defensive security

I would say that this is the most known and used strategy to make sure that your computer is safe. Its easy and dont take alot of effort from your side. The tools that would count as defensive security is for example

Firewall

software or hardware-based network security system that controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic by analyzing the data packets and determining whether they should be allowed through or not, based on a rule set. A network's firewall builds a bridge between the internal network or computer it protects, upon securing that the other network is secure and trusted, usually an external (inter)network, such as the Internet, that is not assumed to be secure and trusted source: Wikipedia

Anti malware software

A basic strategy for all defensive computer users is to install and use anti-malware software. Firewalls may not completely protect a computer. Malicious software may be able to get through a firewall and onto a system. Anti-Malware such as anti-virus, anti-phishing and email filtering software offer some protection against harmful software that reside within a computer. The amount of malicious software available over the Internet is steadily increasing. It is important for defensive users to use anti-malware that is both effective and easily updated in order to combat new strains of malicious software that are developed. We will at Webbhatt post a series of tests on free anti virus programs that are available online, and post here on our page so you guys can se what is the best one for you. source: Wikipedia

Skepticism

An important aspect of defensive computing is for users to be skeptical of the data to which they have access via the Internet. Malicious software can exist in a multitude of different forms and many are misleading to general computer users and even some anti-malware software. So the most important thing, be Skeptic!

Offensive security

Offensive security is a proactive and adversarial approach to protecting computer systems, networks and individuals from attacks. Conventional security -- sometimes referred to as "defensive security" -- focuses on reactive measures, such as patching software and finding and fixing system vulnerabilities. In contrast, offensive security measures are focused on seeking out the perpetrators and in some cases attempting to disable or at least disrupt their operations. Source:Techtarget

But enough with the facts, join us at the learning page instead. And lets see the fundamentals in offensive security, GLHF here at Webbhatt

Regards: Johan and Pierre