PKI stands for Public Key Infrastructure and represents a wide array of devices,  software, agencies and protocols that create and control electronic certificates. Some PKI systems are used for registration methods and keeping track of users. For example, when a game manufacturer sells you a copy of their game, you will be asked to fill out a form with your personal information to help the company form an idea of what kind of people are buying their game. The game may also require you to enter a serial number to Read More

A boot sector virus is a computer virus which infects the boot sector on hard disks, floppy disks, and theoretically also other bootable media such as CD’s and DVD’s. A boot sector virus does not need to be able to successfully boot the victims computer to infect it. Because of this, even non-bootable media can spread a boot sector virus. Once the infected computer successfully boots, the boot sector virus stays in memory and infects floppies and other media when they are written to by the infected computer. Boot sector Read More

Browser hijackers are malicious programs that redirect computer users to websites that the hacker wants and deploy the computer malware. The hijacker may change a computer’s default homepage or redirect computer users trying to visit legitimate websites such as their bank or Google to a maliciously crafted copy of the site to deploy computer malware to the computer or steal the user’s data. Most browser hijacks are based on adware, and to a more limited degree, spyware functions. How do Browser Hijackers Infect Computers? When a computer browser is hijacked, Read More

RC4 is a symmetric stream cipher with an arbitrary key size. RC4 was created by Ron Rivest of RSA Security in 1987. RC4 is used in many applications, including TLS (Transport Layer Security), WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy), WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol), Microsoft XBOX, Oracle SQL, Microsoft PPTP, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Acrobat. RC4 is not patented, but it is a trade secret of RSA Security. An alleged copy of the RC4 source code was published anonymously in 1994. This code behaves identically to the official Read More

A computer virus is designed to infect computer files through self-replication, and is able to infect other computers on its own. Viruses infect computers through boot sectors of portable drives, email attachments, other files, and by exploiting vulnerabilities in instant messaging and other real-time communication systems online. Not all computer viruses harm computers, but many steal the user’s private information. Although every computer virus is designed a bit differently, there is a common method of removing viruses from computers. How to Remove Viruses Removing viruses, though technical, is yet a Read More

Browser helper objects (BHOs) are primarily software programs that enable website authors to gain control and customize different components of IE. Usually, BHOs get loaded whenever IE browser starts and tend to share IE’s memory context. “Internet speed monitor” is a type of browser helper object. Simply, an “Internet Speed Monitor” can be termed as an extremely irritating and invasive Adware toolbar program that gets installed into the system through an adware called BndDrive, thereby generating an uncontrolled stream of popup advertisements that are titled “internet speed monitor”. In this, Read More

0 Day, or Zero Day, refers to a type of malware which attacks a computer or application by exploiting vulnerabilities that the developer of that application does not yet know about. In traditional sense, 0 Day refers to the first day that a developer notices a vulnerability in an application he/she created and begins creating a fix for that vulnerability. Therefore, 0 Day attacks can theoretically be carried out any time between the release of the application and the discovery of the vulnerability by the developer.   How 0 Day Attacks Read More

ROT-13 is a simple substitution cipher used to obfuscate Usenet posts. ROT-13 is not meant for use as a data encryption cipher. ROT-13 is so named because every character is rotated 13 places. ROT-13 “Encryption” Chart Plaintext A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Ciphertext N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M Read More

Cryptography is very difficult. It is even more difficult to tell if you have done it correctly. If you design and implement your own cryptographic algorithm, the odds are that you will fail to create a secure system. It is much better to code your application to use an existing cryptographic library which has been tested with extensive peer review. Adam Shostack maintains a good list of cryptographic libraries at Source Available Cryptographic Libraries. PCL is an interesting cryptanalysis library with functions for dictionary attacks and brute force attacks.  

Generic.dx is a rather common trojan virus that infects the computer and weakens its security in order to allow other viruses and malicious software to infect the computer. It enters the computer via an email that the user opens, a website he/she visits, or a third party software that he/she downloads and installs. Generic.dx trojans tend to hide rather well, but can be eliminated with anti-virus software. Typically, Generic.dx trojans can be found in the primary hard drive’s Programs Files folder.   How Generic.dx Trojan Works Generic.dx trojans begin by Read More