protonic.blog

It’s Not Always "Just A Game!"

diane — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 17:40:54 +0000

An important discovery has been made in the structure of an protein-cutting enzyme produced by an AIDS-like virus found in monkeys.

Click here to read about how gamers helped solve the AIDS protein puzzle

Click here to read about how Fold It is contributing to finding a cure for many diseases.

All About IP Addresses

diane — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:37:03 +0000

Every machine on the Internet has a unique identifying number, called an IP Address. A typical IP address looks like this:

216.27.61.137

The four numbers in an IP address are called octets, because they each have eight positions when viewed in binary form. If you add all the positions together, you get 32, which is why IP addresses are considered 32-bit numbers. Since each of the eight positions can have two different states (1 or 0) the total number of possible combinations per octet is 28 or 256. So each octet can contain any value between 0 and 255. Combine the four octets and you get 232 or a possible 4,294,967,296 unique values!

Out of the almost 4.3 billion possible combinations, certain values are restricted from use as typical IP addresses. For example, the IP address 0.0.0.0 is reserved for the default network and the address 255.255.255.255

http://whatismyipaddress.com/

Cyber Attacks

diane — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:12:24 +0000

A cyber attack is an attempt to compromise the function of a computer-based system, or attempt to track the online movements of individuals without their permission. These types of attacks may be not be delectable to the user or network administrator and they may lead to a total disruption of the network that none of the users can perform even the most rudimentary of tasks. Because of the increasing sophistication of these kinds of network attacks, the development of effective software defenses is an ongoing process.

Click here to read the details about a cyber attack that occurred in South Korea.

A More Secure Gmail

diane — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:56:39 +0000

Google already changed Gmail to use encryption by default, a mode indicated by the “https” at the beginning of a browser address bar. That means outsiders sniffing network traffic can’t read your e-mail. People could still get to the unencrypted version by typing “http://gmail.com,” but they cannot do that in Google Chrome.

Click here to learn more.

Net Neutrality

diane — Tue, 24 May 2011 01:02:06 +0000

Net Neutrality is all about creating a neutral internet. In other words, all Internet traffic should be treated equally.

The internet should be an open platform like any other utility used in our home like electricity as Internet has already become a large part of our lives and has been pretty much indispensable.

Net Neutrality advocates no restrictions by Internet service providers (ISPs) and governments on content, sites, platforms, the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and the modes of communication.

Click here to learn more.

World’s Fastest Supercomputer

diane — Sun, 01 May 2011 02:02:51 +0000

Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for specialized applications that require immense amounts of mathematical calculations. For example, weather forecasting requires a supercomputer. Other uses of supercomputers include animated graphics, fluid dynamic calculations, nuclear energy research, and petroleum exploration.

Click here to read about it.

Beware Of Keyloggers

diane — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:35:12 +0000

A Keylogger is a software program or hardware device that is used to monitor and log each of the keys a user types into a computer keyboard. The person who installed the program or hardware device can then view all keys typed in by that user. Because these programs and hardware devices monitor the keys typed in a user can easily find user passwords and other information a user may not wish others to know about.

A keylogger program runs in the background, recording all keystrokes. Once keystrokes are logged, they are hidden in the machine for later retrieval, or shipped directly to the attacker. The attacker then studies them carefully in the hopes of either finding passwords, or possibly other useful information that could be used to compromise the system or be used in a social engineering attack. For example, a keylogger will reveal the contents of all e-mail composed by the user. A keylogger is commonly included in rootkits.

A keylogger normally consists of two files: a DLL which does all the work and an EXE which loads the DLL and sets the hook. Therefore when you deploy the hooker on a system, two such files must be present in the same directory. There are other approaches to capturing information about what you are doing.
Some keyloggers capture screens, rather than keystrokes.
Other keyloggers will secretly turn on video or audio recorders, and transmit what they capture over your internet connection.

Software keyloggers are the most widely used keyloggers as some of them support remote installaiton which means that you can monitor any computer anywhere in the world.

It is difficult for the victim to detect keylogger’s presence as it runs in complete stealth mode, It hides itself from task manager, startup etc.

Once the keylogger is installed, it is almost impossible for the victim to trace it.

A simple keylogger can be detected by antivirus software, but sometimes the attacker can use methods like crypting, binding, or hexing that make it harder for antivirus software to detect the keylogger. In order to protect yourself you should use a piece of software that I wrote about before called Sandboxie. this software runs the choosen computer program in an isolated space so if the file you receive is a keylogger, you need not worry because it won’t affect your other programs, Firefox users can use the free version of keyscrambler which encrypts each and every keystrokes you type, so even if a keylogger is installed in your computer, the attacker will only receive the encrypted keystroke

Google Earth 6 Now Available

diane — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:32:03 +0000

Google has just launched the sixth version of its popular Google Earth application. Google Earth 6 allows users to drop from “outer space” into virtually any location in the world and take a low-altitude or even ground-level tour of the terrain. New features included in Google Earth 6 include an enhanced “Pegman” virtual travel assistant, a 3-D tree and 3-D building feature that allows users to get additional information on both natural and man-made features in the area, and new button on the navigation bar that brings up historical views of the location being surveyed. Google Earth 6 is available free as a download from Google.
Click here to download the new version.

Clip Cube: A Free Productivity Tool

diane — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 16:50:31 +0000

Many times as we are exploring the Internet, we find information that we would like to save. There is a neat little free tool called Clip Cube that can be used to gather information to be pasted into a document or email.

Click here for more information.

Know Your Enemy: Botnets

diane — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 15:31:53 +0000

A botnet is a group of computers running a computer program controlled only by the owner or the software source. a group of computers infected with the malicious kind of robot software, the bots, which present a security threat to the computer owner. Once the robot software (also known as malicious software or malware) has been successfully installed in a computer, this computer becomes a zombie or a drone, subservient to the commands of the bot commander.

A botnet may be small or large depending on the complexity and sophistication of the bots used. A large botnet may be composed of ten thousand individual zombies. A small botnet may be composed of only a thousand drones. Most of the time, the owners of the zombie computers do not know that their computers and their computers’ resources are being remotely controlled and exploited by an individual or a group of malware runners through Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Click here for more information.