Black Hat USA 2010 and DEF CON 18 took place last week in Las Vegas. In order to really appreciate the magnitude of each conference proceedings, it is important to understand where each conference focuses its attention.
Black Hat is a security conference largely addressing all things computer and communications security. It is where industry comes together, describes attack vectors, and openly talks about malware, hackers, and threats to innocent systems and privacy. Black Hat is big business, both expensive to attend and sponsored by big name companies such as IBM and Adobe. If Black Hat were personified as a female actor, it is probably most analogous to an Angelina Jolie. Mostly prim and proper, strong reputation, easily discussed in polite conversation.
In sharp contrast is DEF CON, a conference in its 18th year. This year’s theme: 18 and barely legal. If that doesn’t set the tone for this conference, consider that DEF CON would be best personified as Lindsey Lohan- often drifting into illegal situations. DEF CON is an all-cash conference, no attendance records by design. It is where electronics and software gurus—hackers in proper parlance, meet for 3 days to discuss—and demonstrate—the unthinkable. [Read More…]
There’s an interesting Website we stumbled upon the other day that provides a secure, auto-deleted messaging service.
So what exactly does that mean? This Message Will Self-Destruct offers the ability to send an encrypted email-like message to another person either with or without a password. As a reassurance that your message is secure, it’s never stored with TMWSD, just hashed using a heavy-duty hashing utility called bcrypt. The optional password salts the encryption key for even more security.
In addition, whenever the intended recipient reads your message (with or without the password you may have given them) the encrypted message is deleted forever.
Try it out for yourself, but just remember that if you forget the password, not even TMWSD can recover your message!
DEF CON 18 is in full swing at the Riviera hotel at the end of the Las Vegas strip. If you haven’t heard of DEF CON before, it’s ok; the conference is focused at the über geeks among us.
Attendees at DEF CON include computer security professionals, journalists, lawyers, federal government employees, crackers, and hackers with a general interest in computer code and computer architecture.
From demonstrations of turning Pringles cans into directional antennas, through interactive discussion on hacking ATMs, physical penetration (e.g. lock picking), Internet routers, and building your own UAV to map WiFi and capture videos of your neighbors skinny dipping in their pool, DEF CON pretty much covers it all in gory technical detail. [Read More…]
Everybody’s has secrets. Everybody has things worth protecting. It could be your family photos, your saved browser passwords, your bank records, or maybe just that totally legal MP3 collection.
Your laptops, thumb drives and even regular desktop computers all have a treasure trove of data that I’m sure you would not want an unscrupulous person to freely rummage around in.
You’re not alone. The military, rebels, banks and corporations have the same infosec concerns. While your information leaking may not cause a national security crisis, it’s a crisis to you. As a prepper, that means you do something about it now, and not when you come back from the coffee shop bathroom to find your computer gone. [Read More…]
If you’d like a better perspective on how dependent we are on digital services, imagine your bank account being looted, locked out of your email, and your Facebook page vandalized.
While we in the preparedness community like to focus on the beans, bullets, and bullion for someday, information security affects the now.
An AR and a stockpile of Mountain House may give you peace of mind, but until your online services and personal data are secured with strong passwords, you should feel exposed. It is by no means the only aspect of information security to be aware of, but for most regular people, it is the weakest link.
Fortunately, this is one of the threats that is free and extremely easy to neutralize. First I will explain the “why” behind passwords, and then the “how.” By the end, you should have an easier time managing passwords and have a way to secure your sensitive documents. [Read More…]
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