Don't Look Now But You Have Been Hacked!

Most every home and business office now has a firewall that separates your internal computer network from the wild west of the world wide internet. The good news is that firewalls have become increasingly more sophisticated and properly configured can do an excellent job in securing your internal computer network devices. Modern firewalls now include intrusion detection and prevention, email spam filtering, website blocking and most are able to generate reports on who did what and when. They not only block evil doers from outside your network, but they police the users on the inside from accessing inappropriate resources on the outside internet. Employees can be blocked from visiting sites that can rob your business of valuable productivity time or violate some security compliance requirement. Prime business hours is really not the time to update your Facebook page! Nor do we want our medical and financial service folks using an instant messaging service to chat with and outsider!

The Firewall is the electronic equivalent of the "front door" to your computer network and there is an endless parade of potential evil doers spray painting your doors and windows, relentlessly looking for a way in. A properly configured, managed, and regularly updated Firewall can be very effective in protecting your computer network, both in the office and at home. Behind the firewall, must desktop computers and office servers have local software based firewalls installed that also provide virus protection. Hopefully if something does get past the firewall, the internal virus and desktop firewall solutions will provide an additional level of security.

Firewalls are both reasonable and appropriate but here is the bad news. Most of the hacking you now hear and read about is not done by evil doers coming through your firewall! The real damage is done by those inside your network! Malicious users and dishonest employees will always a treat. There is always the treat of the unscrupulous employee swiping credit card data or passing security information for money. The real danger, however, is from users who are just ignorant of today highly sophisticated security vulnerabilities. The most honest employee can unwittingly become the source of a major security breach resulting in the loss of their own personnel data, or the personal and financial data of your customers.

Take your average laptop user as a perfect example. How many times have you gone down to Starbucks and setup shop? Beautiful day, open air, sun and a high speed internet connection, wireless phone and it is business as usual! If I told you how easy it is to setup a "man in the middle" attack at Starbucks you would give up coffee for the rest of your life. You think you are on the Starbucks WiFi, but actually that kid in the back of the Starbucks with the Wireless Access Point attached to his USB connector, has spoofed you into thinking he is your door to the Internet. He has been monitoring every key stroke on you laptop since you logged in. In fact he now has your log in, password and most everything else on your computer. Now when you head back to the office and plug in, you just unleashed a bot on the company network and he will be back later tonight!

If laptops were not enough, everybody is now walking around with a Smartphone! Did you know that your Smartphone keeps a list of all the WiFi networks you have used recently? Remember when you were down at Starbucks checking your email while waiting for that cup of coffee? Now everywhere you go your phone is sending out a beacon request that sounds like "Starbucks WiFi are you there?" hoping it will get a response and auto connect you to the internet. Remember that kid we were just talking about? He decided to answer your beacon request with a "yeah here I am, hop on!" Just another "MITM" attack and what he can do to your Smartphone, especially those Androids makes your laptop look like Fort Knocks!

Sometimes for fun and entertainment, while sitting at a gate in an airport waiting room, I will net scan the WiFi to identify how many phones, computers and iPads are online and connected. Not saying that I would do this, but I think you could execute a Netbios attack in less the five minutes? It is amazing how many people leave their printer a network sharing options on when they travel. Even more people leave their "Network Neighborhood" settings in the default configuration! The drill is always the same: map the network to see what hosts are connected; port scan for known vulnerabilities; out the exploit tool kit and the rest is actually getting relatively boring for the ethical hacker. Now credit card thieves on the other hand...

Chances are your Internet browser is worst enemy when it comes to securing your privacy. Every website you visit, every email you send and every link you follow is being tracked by hundreds of companies. Don't believe me? If you are using Firefox, install an add in extension named DoNotTrackme and study what happens. Assuming you are an average internet surfer, in less that 72 hours you will have a list of over 100 companies that have been tracking your every move on the internet! These companies don't work for the NSA, but they do sell your "digital profile" to those willing to pay for the information. Where has your GPS been? What sites did you visit, what movies did you watch, what products did you buy, what search terms did you select - all of this dutifully reported back by you and your unsuspecting employees. Ever wonder if your competitors want to know what your viewing on line?

Voice Over IP phone systems offer an entirely new range of vulnerabilities waiting to be exploited by the unscrupulous evil doer! We recently illustrated to a client Law Firm (as a paid intrusion detection and penetration testing consultant and with the clients permission) just how easy it is to covertly switch on a conference room based speakerphone and broadcast the entire conference to a remote observer over the internet! In fact, capturing voice packets for replay is the first trick script kiddies learn in hacking school!

VoIP, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, RFid, file and print sharing and even the "cloud" all add up to a list of vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited. What can you do? You need to educate yourself and develop your own "best practice" for safe computing. You need to educate your employees and co-workers about the various vulnerabilities we all face every day as we become more "wired" and more Mobile. Hire a competent Computer Network Security professional to do "penetration testing" on your corporate network and firewall. It would be better to pay a professional to "hack" you, then pay to fix it after you have been hacked! Remember if we can touch your network, we will own your network!

Protect Your Computer From Being Hacked!

The thought of people being concerned that NSA is listing and monitoring their activities is a hysterically funny concept to me. Whatever you think of Edward Snowden, know that he is a day late and a dollar short. Most of these very same people that worry about the NSA, have a "Tracebook", Twitter, Instagram or a half a dozen other social media accounts that should be significantly reducing the NSA operating budget. In fact, let's just disband the NSA and hire Google! It seems that most of us have no issue publicly posting our most intimate details on Facebook including everything short of our Social Security numbers. Posting our current location and "checking in" so that the entire planet knows not only where we are, but what we are doing seems to be an absolutely essential public service and should also include pictures of the meal I am about to eat. How many of these same individuals are aware that every picture posted contains Meta Data that also memorializes the GPS co-ordinates and the camera type used to take the picture? I know you want to share picture of the family, but do you really want ISIS to know exactly where they live?

As everyone is so willing to publicly disclose these personal details, it explains why so many remain ignorant of the data mining that goes on that you do not knowingly consent to. I assume we all know that Google is in the business of selling digital user profiles to advertisers? Every type an email to a friend about planning a trip to the Italy only to find your inbox now populated with travel agency "hot deals"? If your email does not fill up with travel deals to the Italy, you can bet your internet browser will now display a travel agency advertisements, "learn to speak Italian" and top Italian Restaurants on every page you view fin! Now ask me what we think about using Google Docs! We suggest that you consider DoNotTrackme extensions to your Chrome and Firefox browsers. We also recommend that you install "self-destructing cookies" and watch how many cookies are exchanged with your browser each use. Remember, we really don't need your username and password, we need your cookies all of which are transmitted in clear text over that Starbucks wireless you have been using! All available using FireSheep!

Now if this is a vulnerability that effects individuals, what vulnerability effects enterprise level environments? Forget the notoriously leaking Windows Operating system and your hopelessly porous laptop, in the wake of the 55 Million credit card numbers stolen from Home Depot and the 45 million stolen from Target, we now have to worry about the credit card machines at the checkout counter. Actually the TJ Maxx heist was in many ways much larger! You might be considering how did the hackers get through the Firewall? As we have pointed out before, most computer network security exploitations are not executed through the firewall, they are executed by "social engineering" with the assistance of an ignorant employee or paid hit man. It is suspect that at least one of the above break ins was assisted by a third party trusted partner like the heating and air conditioning service company. Nothing like a starving janitorial night service crew to earn a few extra bucks plugging a USB device into any desktop computer releasing a new and improved malware version of BlackPOS! Most of these stolen credit card numbers can be purchase here or on the Darknet using a Tor browser to reach silk road type websites.

It seems you can't turn on an electronic device today without it alerting you that a software update is available for download. From the TV set, to the mobile phone, tablet and now even your car, all are subject to software updates. Do you even question what is being downloaded to your device when you do a software update? You just assume you are connecting with Apple, Amazon or Samsung? What if some evil doer was really just spoofing a software update and you just willingly downloaded a super basket of spy goodies that turn on your phone camera, activate your microphone and email snapshots to back to the mother ship. NSA, are you kidding? You would never know if it was your spouse, or employer would you? Yet millions of people do this without care, day after day and think nothing more about it. If you want to be tracked everywhere you go, risk having your most intimate communications published (just ask Jenifer Lawrence and the other celebrity Nude hack victims) just carry your Smartphone with you at all times!

Cyber-crime, next to the Ebola virus and violent terrorism is the single most economically destructive phenomenon to threaten the American way of life since the Cuban missile crisis. Yet the average business owner winces at the cost of engaging a computer network security audit and thinks that penetration testing is lovemaking foreplay. When the IT team asks for a Firewall upgrade or an increase in budget to cover a subscription to virus, spam and bot net filtering they somehow can't justify the added expense. Educating your employees on the safe use of the Internet over WiFi should be part of the healthcare preventive medicine program, but most business will ignore "social engineering" vulnerabilities until a major data thief publicly embarrasses them.

CISSP and Its Features

The Certified Information Technology Security Systems Professional (CISSP) examination is administered by the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium or (ISC) 2, a worldwide nonprofit organization devoted to education and credentialing in information technology security. The examination process has been in operation since 1994, and makes use of a 6-hour test that consisted of multiple choice questions until 2014. In the 2014 examination, "advanced innovative" questions were introduced, which may have more than one correct answer. The examination is 6 hours in duration and has 250 questions yielding 1000 possible points, on which a score of 700 or greater is needed to pass.

Certified Information Systems Security Professional

The exam is given at numerous Pearson VUE testing centers and can be taken in Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German and Simplified Chinese as well as English. The examination fee is $599 US or its equivalent as of 2015. The examination seeks to test knowledge of 8 domains of the Common Body of Knowledge (CBK) which have been codified since 1992. These are software development security, security operations, assessment and testing of security, identity and access management, communication security, security engineering, asset security and risk management. This was done with the traditional multiple choice questions prior to 2014, but the present and future examinations also include "drag and drop" questions, in which the candidate is asked to select answers from one column and drag them to another column, as well as "hot spot" questions, such as those in which the candidate indicates a particular place in a schematic or diagram as the answer.

These new questions are intended to cover wider areas than can be done with standard examination questions, measure a broader range of IT security abilities, test more than the traditional cognitive processes and more accurate replicate the in-the-field experience of IT security. The (ISC)2 has suggested that appropriate candidates for the examination include network architects, security architects and auditors, security directors, IT managers and corporate information security officers, security systems engineers and managers and analysts and consultants working in the field of IT security. The CBK tested in the examination is described in a number of publications and websites, and a revise of the CBK can be obtained from the (ISC) 2. This organization also publishes an outline of the examination, and operates an official training seminar.

Many books and websites offer information useful for CISSP preparation, "boot camps" are available for intensive review prior to the examination and courses are offered by educational institutions and at meetings related to IT security.

CISSP and Your Paycheck

The SANS Institute estimated in 2005 that IT professionals with CISSP certification were not only paid more than those with only a bachelor's degree but also earned more than IT professionals with other certifications. Certification magazine has estimated from survey data that achievement of CISSP certification results in a pay increase of 5 to 30 per cent.

CISSP^® - Certified Information Systems Security Professional

PayScale.com has reported on the basis of a survey of some 4000 individuals in the IT field in 2015 that the salary range for an information security analyst was $59,000-117,000.00, while information security managers made between $79,000 and $139,000.00. The range for security architects was $91,000-154,000.00, and for information security officers $68,000-142,000.00. Salaries ranged from $68,000-132,000.00 for security engineers.

The same survey suggested that the average salary for web designers was $28,000-73,000.00. Base salaries ranged from $30,000-68,000.00, and bonuses from zero to approximately $5,000.00. Profit-sharing also varied widely with company of employment, from a low of $493.16 to a high just under $10,000.00. Commissions varied from zero to almost $5,000.00. Individuals with CISSP certification in architecture averaged $136,000.00 a year in 2009, according to Certification, while the average salary for those with the CISSP-ISM credential in management was $134,000.00 a year.

Network administrators have a wide range of responsibility and seniority, and work in a variety of business and institutional settings; consequently their annual compensation has a wide range. The Infosec Institute estimates that the median salary for network administrators is approximately $85,000.00 per year, although starting out in desktop support may bring as little as $30,000.00 per year. This same institution estimates that lead network administrators with wide-ranging responsibilities can make up to $120,000.00 annually, and that specialists in specific operating systems start at higher salaries and are likely to be better paid. Linux network administrators were estimated to earn $73,000.00, while Cisco network administrators commanded $85,000.00 and network administrators with EMC2 earned around $92,000.00 annually.

CISSP-credentialed network architects can look forward to a six-figure income, averaging $108,000.00 according to Pay-Scale. Salaries in 2014-2015 were estimated at $77,000 to approximately $153,000.00 a year, with bonuses as high as $20,000.00 and a profit-sharing range of $1,500.00-22,000.00. Nearly all network architects reported generous medical, dental and other benefits, and not surprisingly, network architects surveyed by Pay-Scale were highly satisfied with their compensation.

In all these surveys of CISSP professionals, major determinants of salary and benefits were experience, seniority and location. IT professionals in major metropolitan areas or places with high concentrations of businesses and institutions with substantial IT security requirements were more readily employed and generously compensated, and expertise in multiple operating systems or CISSP certification in sub-specialty areas as well as longer duration of experience and employment did much better in salary. It is generally agreed that a CISSP credential can result in better compensation at work, and it may well also contribute to greater job security.

*CISSP^® - Certified Information Systems Security Professional

Home Solutions to Clean an Inkjet Coder Printer Head

We all are familiar with those ungainly streaks and blotches that tend to ruin our print-outs and drain precious printing fluids. A clogged or dried-up printer head is to be blamed for all your plights. The 'cleaner' software in your inkjet coder helps solve this problem to some extent. However, do not worry if it fails to clear the blockage. There are always some hacks in life so try a few easy methods to physically clean your printer and resume ink-flow.

However, before we get into the cleaning procedure, here are the causes of clogging that you must know.

When you leave your inkjet coder unused for a considerably long time, the ink dries up inside the print head's nozzles, and the hardened mass of dyes and pigments block the extremely narrow ink passageways. This disrupts the ink-flow, causing changes in drop trajectory, ultimately leading to its complete failure.

Steps to Clear Blockage:

• Inkjet coders comprise of removable print heads. In order to eliminate the blockage, first you will have to manually take out the print head from the ink cartridges. Keep the cartridges inside a sealable plastic bag for the entire span of the cleaning procedure. Make sure to keep them in an upright position.

• Now you will have to soak the printer head in a solution of ammonia and distilled water. The solution should have a lukewarm temperature. Take a shallow pan and place a couple of paper towels at its bottom. The padding will prevent the parts from getting damaged. Make sure that there is at least half an inch of liquid at the bottom of the pan. Soak them for at least three to four hours.

• After you place the printer head into the solution, you will see some of the dried ink coming out. To ensure that all of its parts get completely immersed into the solution, move the print head in different directions. Give it a gentle shake, too. All these will help clear the ink blockages.

• Alternately you can rinse the unit thoroughly under running water. This will help clear the ink build-up. Use warm water for better results.

• Now, consult the 'Printer Head Alignment' section in the manual to complete the insertion.

• Run the usual cleaning cycle before you start using it once again.

Next time, when the inkjet coder print head gets clogged, resolve the problem on your own at minimum cost. As a preventive measure, regularly print a page or two at least once a week to keep the print heads clear.

Luca Edward Brown is a professional writer and blogger having many years of experience in these respective fields. He loves spending his time in doing research on different topics and thus he prefers sharing his innovative ideas with his readers through writing articles and blogs.

Notebook or Desktop Computer, What`s the Best Buy?

The idea of purchasing a personal computer may be appealing to a lot of people, however they may feel undecided as weather to go for a traditional desktop computer or for a light weight portable notebook. Several aspects should be taken into consideration as for the purposes of such acquisition. If the main purpose of buying a computer is for occasional use, regardless if it is for work or entertainment activities, one may consider buying a traditional desktop computer taking in consideration that its price is usually lower than the portable version.

The maintenance and eventual upgrade of a desktop computer is also much easier to perform and less costly. If the buyer is looking to spend the least amount of money, definitely the desktop computer models offer more choices of finding better deals weather it is used or new. One may look around the local computer stores for special deals or may consider browsing the many possibilities offered online stores.

Perhaps the greatest feature a desktop computer has is the fact that quite often it can be upgraded and personalized to suit the user needs without having to be sent back to the manufacturer. In most cases a local authorized computer store can perform the technical changes or upgrades to satisfaction. The desktop computers are meant for work and leisure as well and regardless of its configuration or how fast it can perform, it seems that it became an everyday tool of modern times.

On the other hand, if the main reason for the purchasing of a computer is portability, then in this case the notebook will be the right choice. There are several brand names available on the market offering all kinds of configurations, from very basic up to the most sophisticated and powerful late models of notebooks. After a careful research on which model will better suit your needs, then you will still have the option to choose to buy a new, reconditioned or used unit for the sake of saving some money. Keep in mind that a reconditioned laptop purchased from a computer store, usually comes will full warranty, just like as if you had purchased a brand new model but for a much less cost.

Just like any other purchase, it is important to do a careful research to find out what exactly your needs are and what are you going to do with it. The lightweight and portable notebooks are much nicer to carry around even though they are usually more expensive. Also the lightweight models almost always have a smaller screen and a more compact keyboard than traditional models of notebooks. So, in this case if weight is not a critical issue, than you may just consider to purchase a traditional regular-model notebook as long as it meets your requirements. If you choose this later option you will certainly be saving a great amount of money.

If you are the kind of person who feels skeptical about purchasing a reconditioned computer, because it has been previously returned from the manufacturer, relax, some times there is absolutely nothing wrong with the returned unit. It may have just been a matter of model preference or some minor detail that didn`t quite match the previous owner`s preference. Keep in mind that a reconditioned notebook with a full warranty is just as good as a brand new one and maybe even better for the great discount it usually offers.

Also you may find some good deals in refurbished notebooks. Beware that the difference between refurbished and reconditioned notebooks is that the former is usually an older notebook that has been used and then reconditioned, often by a third party, and the later usually means that it had some problem, went back to the manufacturer, got fixed and now it is available at a fair discount price with full manufacturer guarantee.

The right solution for one`s computer related tasks, whether desktop or notebook, will depend mostly on one`s working or leisure needs. Search carefully for the best deals and avoid paying extra for accessories you will hardly use. Also take a look at reconditioned (full warranty) computers. The price will certainly surprise you. And the performance might too!

Roberto Sedycias
IT Consultant

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article and biography must be kept.

This article can also be accessed in portuguese language from the News Article section of page PoloMercantil

Roberto Sedycias has a bachelor degree in Business Administration and over 20 years experience in systems analysis and computer programming. Currently working as IT consultant for www.PoloMercantil.com.br