Qubes OS. A Security Oriented Operating System.

What is Qubes OS ?

Qubes OS is a security-oriented operating system (OS). The OS is the software that runs all the other programs on a computer. Some examples of popular OSes are Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android, and iOS. Qubes is free and open-source software (FOSS). This means that everyone is free to use, copy, and change the software in any way. It also means that the source code is openly available so others can contribute to and audit it.

Why Security of an Operating System is Important.? 

Most people use an operating system like Windows or OS X on their desktop and laptop computers. These OSes are popular because they tend to be easy to use and usually come pre-installed on the computers people buy. However, they present problems when it comes to security. For example, you might open an innocent-looking email attachment or website, not realizing that you’re actually allowing malware (malicious software) to run on your computer. Depending on what kind of malware it is, it might do anything from showing you unwanted advertisements to logging your keystrokes to taking over your entire computer. This could jeopardize all the information stored on or accessed by this computer, such as health records, confidential communications, or thoughts written in a private journal. Malware can also interfere with the activities you perform with your computer. For example, if you use your computer to conduct financial transactions, the malware might allow its creator to make fraudulent transactions in your name.

 Aren't Antivirus and Firewall enough .?

 Unfortunately, conventional security approaches like antivirus programs and (software and/or hardware) firewalls are no longer enough to keep out sophisticated attackers. For example, nowadays it’s common for malware creators to check to see if their malware is recognized by any signature-based antivirus programs. If it’s recognized, they scramble their code until it’s no longer recognizable by the antivirus programs, then send it out. The best of these programs will subsequently get updated once the antivirus programmers discover the new threat, but this usually occurs at least a few days after the new attacks start to appear in the wild. By then, it’s too late for those who have already been compromised. More advanced antivirus software may perform better in this regard, but it’s still limited to a detection-based approach. New zero-day vulnerabilities are constantly being discovered in the common software we all use, such as our web browsers, and no antivirus program or firewall can prevent all of these vulnerabilities from being exploited.

How Does Qubes OS provide you security ?

Qubes takes an approach called security by compartmentalization, which allows you to compartmentalize the various parts of your digital life into securely isolated compartments called qubes.
This approach allows you to keep the different things you do on your computer securely separated from each other in isolated qubes so that one qube getting compromised won’t affect the others. For example, you might have one qube for visiting untrusted websites and a different qube for doing online banking. This way, if your untrusted browsing qube gets compromised by a malware-laden website, your online banking activities won’t be at risk. Similarly, if you’re concerned about malicious email attachments, Qubes can make it so that every attachment gets opened in its own single-use disposable qube. In this way, Qubes allows you to do everything on the same physical computer without having to worry about a single successful cyberattack taking down your entire digital life in one fell swoop.
Moreover, all of these isolated qubes are integrated into a single, usable system. Programs are isolated in their own separate qubes, but all windows are displayed in a single, unified desktop environment with unforgeable colored window borders so that you can easily identify windows from different security levels. Common attack vectors like network cards and USB controllers are isolated in their own hardware qubes while their functionality is preserved through secure networking, firewalls, and USB device management. Integrated file and clipboard copy and paste operations make it easy to work across various qubes without compromising security. The innovative Template system separates software installation from software use, allowing qubes to share a root filesystem without sacrificing security (and saving disk space, to boot). Qubes even allows you to sanitize PDFs and images in a few clicks. Users concerned about privacy will appreciate the integration of Whonix with Qubes, which makes it easy to use Tor securely, while those concerned about physical hardware attacks will benefit from Anti Evil Maid.

How does Qubes OS compare to running VMs in a conventional OS?

Not all virtual machine software is equal when it comes to security. You may have used or heard of VMs in relation to software like VirtualBox or VMware Workstation. These are known as “Type 2” or “hosted” hypervisors. (The hypervisor is the software, firmware, or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines.) These programs are popular because they’re designed primarily to be easy to use and run under popular OSes like Windows (which is called the host OS, since it “hosts” the VMs). However, the fact that Type 2 hypervisors run under the host OS means that they’re really only as secure as the host OS itself. If the host OS is ever compromised, then any VMs it hosts are also effectively compromised.
By contrast, Qubes uses a “Type 1” or “bare metal” hypervisor called Xen. Instead of running inside an OS, Type 1 hypervisors run directly on the “bare metal” of the hardware. This means that an attacker must be capable of subverting the hypervisor itself in order to compromise the entire system, which is vastly more difficult.
Qubes makes it so that multiple VMs running under a Type 1 hypervisor can be securely used as an integrated OS. For example, it puts all of your application windows on the same desktop with special colored borders indicating the trust levels of their respective VMs. It also allows for things like secure copy/paste operations between VMs, securely copying and transferring files between VMs, and secure networking between VMs and the Internet.

How does Qubes OS compare to using a separate physical machine?

Using a separate physical computer for sensitive activities can certainly be more secure than using one computer with a conventional OS for everything, but there are still risks to consider. Briefly, here are some of the main pros and cons of this approach relative to Qubes:

Pros

• Physical separation doesn’t rely on a hypervisor. (It’s very unlikely that an attacker will break out of Qubes’ hypervisor, but if one were to manage to do so, one could potentially gain control over the entire system.)
• Physical separation can be a natural complement to physical security. (For example, you might find it natural to lock your secure laptop in a safe when you take your unsecure laptop out with you.)

Cons

• Physical separation can be cumbersome and expensive, since we may have to obtain and set up a separate physical machine for each security level we need.
• There’s generally no secure way to transfer data between physically separate computers running conventional OSes. (Qubes has a secure inter-VM file transfer system to handle this.)
• Physically separate computers running conventional OSes are still independently vulnerable to most conventional attacks due to their monolithic nature.
• Malware which can bridge air gaps has existed for several years now and is becoming increasingly common.

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Encrypt Files Using TrueCrypt

Introduction

If you save anything on your computer, it is likely that you do not want just anyone to be able to see what you have saved. You want a way to protect that information so that you can access it, and absolutely no one else except those you trust. Therefore, it makes sense to set up a system which protects your information and safeguards it against prying eyes.
The best such system for this is called “True Crypt”. “True Crypt” is an encryption software program which allows you to store many files and directories inside of a single file on your harddrive. Further, this file is encrypted and no one can actually see what you have saved there unless they know your password.
This sounds extremely high tech, but it is actually very easy to set up.
Setting up Truecrypt

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1. Go to http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads (or go to www.truecrypt.org, and click on “Downloads”)
2. Under “Latest Stable Version”, under “Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000?, click “Download”
3. The file will be called “True Crypt Setup 7.0a.exe” or something similar. Run this file.
4. If prompted that a program needs your permission to continue, click “Continue”.
5. Check “I accept and agree to be bound by these license terms”
6. Click “Accept”
7. Ensure that “Install” is selected, and click “Next”
8. click “Install”
9. You will see a dialog stating “TrueCrypt has been successfully installed.” Click “Ok”
10. Click “No” when asked if you wish to view the tutorial/user’s guide.
11. Click “Finish”

At this point, TrueCrypt is now installed. Now we will set up truecrypt so that we can begin using it to store sensitive information.

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1. Click the “Windows Logo”/”Start” button on the lower left corner of your screen.
2. Click “All Programs”
3. Click “TrueCrypt”
4. Click the “TrueCrypt” application

And now we can begin:

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1. click the button “Create Volume”
2. Ensuring that “Create an encrypted file container” is selected, click “Next”
3. Select “Hidden TrueCrypt volume” and click “Next”.
4. Ensuring that “Normal mode” is selected, click “Next”
5. Click on “Select File”

Note which directory you are in on your computer. Look at the top of the dialog that has opened and you will see the path you are in, most likely the home directory for your username. An input box is provided with a flashing cursor asking you to type in a file name. Here, you will type in the following filename:
random.txt
You may of course replace random.txt with anything you like. This file is going to be created and will be used to store many other files inside. Do NOT use a filename for a file that already exists. The idea here is that you are creating an entirely new file.
It is also recommended though not required that you “hide” this file somewhere less obvious. If it is in your home directory, then someone who has access to your computer may find it easier. You can also choose to put this file on any other media, it doesn’t have to be your hard disk. You could for example save your truecrypt file to a usb flash drive, an sd card, or some other media. It is up to you.

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6. Once you have typed in the file name, click “Save”
7. Make sure “Never save history” is checked.
8. Click “Next”
9. On the “Outer Volume” screen, click “Next” again.
10. The default Encryption Algorithm and Hash Algorithm are fine. Click “Next”
11. Choose a file size.

In order to benefit the most from this guide, you should have at least 10 gigabytes of free disk space. If not, then it is worth it for you to purchase some form of media (such as a removable harddrive, a large sd card, etc.) in order to proceed. TrueCrypt can be used on all forms of digital media not just your hard disk. If you choose to proceed without obtaining at least ten gigabytes of disk space, then select a size that you are comfortable with (such as 100 MB).
Ideally, you want to choose enough space to work with. I recommend 20 GB at least. Remember that if you do need more space later, you can always create additional TrueCrypt volumes using exactly these same steps.

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12. Now you are prompted for a password. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. READ THIS CAREFULLY

READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY

The password you choose here is a decoy password. That means, this is the password you would give to someone under duress. Suppose that someone suspects that you were accessing sensitive information and they threaten to beat you or worse if you do not reveal the password. THIS is the password that you give to them. When you give someone this password, it will be nearly impossible for them to prove that it is not the RIGHT password. Further, they cannot even know that there is a second password.
Here are some tips for your password:
A. Choose a password you will NEVER forget. It may be ten years from now that you need it. Make it simple, like your birthday repeated three times.
B. Make sure it seems reasonable, that it appears to be a real password. If the password is something stupid like “123? then they may not believe you.
C. Remember that this is a password that you would give to someone if forced. It is *NOT* your actual password.
D. Do not make this password too similar to what you plan to really use. You do not want someone to guess your main password from this one.
And with all of this in mind, choose your password. When you have typed it in twice, click “Next”.

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13. “Large Files”, here you are asked whether or not you plan to store files larger than 4 GIGABYTES. Choose “No” and click “Next”
14. “Outer Volume Format”, here you will notice some random numbers and letters next to where it says “Random Pool”. Go ahead and move your mouse around for
a bit. This will increase the randomness and give you better encryption. After about ten seconds of this, click “Format”.
15. Depending on the file size you selected, it will take some time to finish formatting.

“What is happening?”
TrueCrypt is creating the file you asked it to, such as “random.txt”. It is building a file system contained entirely within that one file. This file system can be used to store files, directories, and more. Further, it is encrypting this file system in such a way that without the right password it will be impossible for anyone to access it. To *anyone* other than you, this file will appear to be just a mess of random characters. No one will even know that it is a truecrypt volume.

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16. “Outer Volume Contents”, click on the button called, “Open Outer Volume”

An empty folder has opened up. This is empty because you have yet to put any files into your truecrypt volume.

DO NOT PUT ANY SENSITIVE CONTENT HERE

This is the “Decoy”. This is what someone would see if you gave them the password you used in the previous step. This is NOT where you are going to store your sensitive data. If you have been forced into a situation where you had to reveal your password to some individual, then that individual will see whatever is in this folder. You need to have data in this folder that appears to be sensitive enough to be protected by truecrypt in order to fool them. Here are some important tips to keep in mind:
A. Do NOT use porn. Adult models can sometimes appear to be underaged, and this can cause you to incriminate yourself unintentionally.
B. Do NOT use drawings/renderings/writings of porn. In many jurisdictions, these are just as illegal as photographs.
C. Good choices for what to put here include: backups of documents, emails, financial documents, etc.
D. Once you have placed files into this folder, *NEVER* place any more files in the future. Doing so may damage your hidden content.
Generally, you want to store innocent data where some individual looking at it would find no cause against you, and yet at the same time they would understand why you used TrueCrypt to secure that data.
Now, go ahead and find files and store them in this folder. Be sure that you leave at least ten gigabytes free. The more the better.
When you are all done copying files into this folder, close the folder by clicking the “x” in the top right corner.

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17. click “Next”
18. If prompted that “A program needs your permission to continue”, click “Continue”
19. “Hidden Volume”, click “Next”
20. The default encryption and hash algorithms are fine, click “Next”
21. “Hidden Volume Size”, the maximum available space is indicated in bold below the text box. Round down to the nearest full unit. For example, if 19.97 GB
is available, select 19 GB. If 12.0 GB are available, select 11 GB.
22. If a warning dialog comes up, asking “Are you sure you wish to continue”, select “Yes”
23. “Hidden Volume Password”

IMPORTANT READ THIS

Here you are going to select the REAL password. This is the password you will NEVER reveal to ANYONE else under any circumstances. Only you will know it. No one will be able to figure it out or even know that there is a second password. Be aware that an individual intent on obtaining your sensitive information may lie to you and claim to be able to figure this out. They cannot.
It is HIGHLY recommended that you choose a 64 character password here. If it is difficult to remember a 64 character password, choose an 8 character password and simply repeat it 8 times. A date naturally has exactly 8 numbers, and a significant date in your life repeated 8 times would do just fine.

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24. Type in your password twice, and click “Next”
25. “Large Files”, select “Yes” and click “Next”.
26. “Hidden Volume Format”, as before move your mouse around for about ten seconds randomly, and tehn click “Format”.
27. If prompted “A program needs your permission to continue”, select “Continue”
28. A dialog will come up telling you that the hidden TrueCrypt volume has been successfully created. Click “Ok”
29. Click “Exit”

Congratulations! You have just set up an encrypted file container on your hard drive. Anything you store here will be inaccessible to anyone except you. Further, you have protected this content with TWO passwords. One that you will give to someone under threat, and one that only you will know. Keep your real password well protected and never write it down or give it to anyone else for any reason.
Now, we should test BOTH passwords.
Testing TrueCrypt Volumes
Once you have completed the above section, you will be back at TrueCrypt. Go ahead and follow these steps to test the volumes you have made.

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1. Click “Select File…”
2. Locate the file you created in the last section, most likely called “random.txt” or something similar. Remember that even though there is both an outer and
a hidden volume, both volumes are contained in a single file. There are not two files, only one.
3. Click “Open”
4. Choose a drive letter that you are not using (anything past M is probably just fine). Click on that, For example click on “O:” to highlight it.
5. Click “Mount”
6. Now you are prompted for a password. Read the below carefully:
The password you provide here will determine WHICH volume is mounted to the drive letter you specified. If you type in your decoy password, then O:\ will show all the files and directories you copied that you would reveal if forced. If you type in your real password, then O:\ will show the files and directories that you never intend anyone to see.
7. After successfully typing in your password, you will see additional detail to the right of the drive letter, including the full path to the file you selected as well as the kind of volume it is (for example, hidden).
8. Right click on your “Windows Logo”/”Start Menu” icon, and scroll down to the bottom where you can see your different drive letters. You will see the drive letter you selected, for example: “Local Disk (O:)”. Click on that.
9. If you selected your decoy password, you will see all the files and folders that you moved there during the installation phase. If you selected the real password, you will see whatever files and directories you have placed so far into the hidden volume, if any.

If you selected your hidden volume password, you may now begin moving any sensitive information you wish. Be aware that simply moving it from your main hard disk is not enough. We will discuss how to ensure deleted data is actually deleted later in the guide.

“What is happening?”

When you select a file and mount it to a drive, you are telling your computer that you have a new drive with files and folders on it. It is the same thing as if you had plugged in a usb flash drive, a removable harddrive, or an sd card into your computer. TrueCrypt causes your computer to think that there is an entirely new disk drive on your computer. You can use this disk drive just as if it *was* actually a usb flash drive. You can copy files to it, directories, and use it just as you would use a usb flash drive.
When you are done, simply close all open windows/folders/applications that are using your truecrypt drive letter, and then click “Dismount” from within TrueCrypt while you have the drive letter highlighted. This will once again hide all of this data, accessible only by re-mounting it with the correct password.

VERY IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION

When a true crypt hidden volume is mounted, someone who has access to your computer can access anything that is inside that hidden volume. If for example you left your computer running while a truecrypt volume was mounted, then if someone gained access to your computer they would be able to see everything you have in that volume. Therefore:

ALWAYS REMEMBER TO DISMOUNT ANY TRUECRYPT VOLUME CONTAINING ANY SENSITIVE INFORMATION WHEN YOU ARE NOT USING YOUR COMPUTER

You can tell that it is dismounted because the drive letter inside of “TrueCrypt”‘s control panel will appear the same as all of the other drive letters, with no information to the right of the drive letter.
You should practice Mounting and Dismounting a few times with both passwords to make sure you understand this process.
Once you have copied files/folders into the hidden volume, do NOT touch the files or folders in the outer volume anymore. Remember that both volumes occupy the same single file, and therefore changing the outer volume can damage the hidden volume. Once you have copied files/folders into the outer volume during the installation process, that is the last time you should do so. From that point forward, use ONLY the hidden volume. The outer volume exists only as a decoy if you need it.

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Proxy Server. How does it works.?

A proxy server is a function that is used to obtain Web pages by other computers. It acts as a go-between from a computer to a target server. There is no communication between the computer and the server. Rather, the computer requests a Web page or a file housed on the target server. This request goes to the proxy server

Go, which, in turn, sends the request to the server. The proxy server then obtains the file and sends it to the requesting computer.

      An example would be if you use your computer to request a Web page on the internet. The server requests the data and other files for you from the target server. When you type in a Web address, the request is sent to a proxy server. The server then sends the request to the target server that houses that particular website. Then the target server sends the Web page to the proxy server, which in turn, sends it to you. The target server sees the proxy server as the visitor, not you.

These servers improve the efficiency of your internet access. If you request a Web page or file, it is then stored on the proxy server. Once the data saves to the proxy server, it does not have to request the file again the next time you access it. The file automatically loads from the proxy server.

There are several types of proxy servers and uses. A proxy server that acts as the go-between for the requesting computer and server is a forwarding proxy. Another kind of forwarding proxy server is called an open proxy. You may use a public proxy if you want to conceal your IP address so that you remain anonymous during internet activity. An elite proxy offers the most anonymity. Not only does it not identify itself as a proxy, but also it does not reveal the IP address of the requesting computer.

A reverse proxy is different from the forward open proxies. With a forwarding proxy, the requesting computer is aware that it is connecting to a target server by way of a proxy, but a reverse proxy appears as an ordinary server. The computer thinks it is connecting to the target server when it is actually communicating with the proxy server.

Whatever kind of proxy you are using, remember that you must trust it. The proxy server provides both security and anonymity   that is its job. However, the proxy must decode your information in order to send it through to the target server. This means that the proxy sees everything that you are doing, unless you are using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connections. This is security technology that establishes an encrypted link between a Web server and the browser. The SSL ensures that any data passed between the Web server and the browser stays private. Therefore, if you do not have an SSL connection, make sure that you trust the proxy that you use. It is the one thing that knows your real IP address.

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Top 5 Linux WiFi Hacking Tools

In this Top 5 Wifi Hacking Tools we will be talking about a very popular subject: hacking wireless networks and how to prevent it from being hacked. Wifi is often a vulnerable side of the network when it comes to hacking because WiFi signals can be picked up everywhere and by anyone. Also a lot of routers contain vulnerabilities which can be easily exploited with the right equipment and software such as the tools included with Kali Linux. A lot of router manufacturers and ISPs still turn on WPS by default on their routers which makes wireless security and penetration testing even more important. With the following Top 5 Wifi Hacking Tools you are able to test our own wireless networks for potential security issues. For most tools we’ve supplied a link to a tutorial which will help you get started with the tools. Let’s start off the Top 5 Wifi Hacking Tools with the first tool:

1 Aircrack-ng

Aircrack is one of the most popular tools for WEP/WPA/WPA2 cracking. The Aircrack-ng suite contains tools to capture packets and handshakes, de-authenticate connected clients and generate traffic and tools to perform brute force and dictionary attacks. Aicrack-ng is an all-in-one suite containing the following tools (among others):

– Aircrack-ng for wireless password cracking
– Aireplay-ng to generate traffic and client de-authentication
– Airodump-ng for packet capturing
– Airbase-ng to configure fake access points

The Aicrack-ng suite is available for Linux and comes standard with Kali Linux. If you plan to use this tool you have to make sure your Wifi card is capable of packet injection.



Website: https://www.aircrack-ng.org/

Tutorial: https://www.hackingtutorials.org/wifi-hacking/how-to-hack-upc-wireless-networks/

 2 Reaver

Number 2 in the Top 5 Wifi Hacking Tools is Reaver. Reaver is another popular tool for hacking wireless networks and targets specifically WPS vulnerabilities. Reaver performs brute force attacks against Wifi Protected Setup (WPS) registrar PINs to recover the WPA/WPA2 passphrase. Since many router manufacturers and ISPs turn on WPS by default a lot of routers are vulnerable to this attack out of the box.

In order to use Reaver you need a good signal strength to the wireless router together with the right configuration. On average Reaver can recover the passphrase from vulnerable routers in 4-10 hours, depending on the access point, signal strength and the PIN itself off course. Statistically you have a 50% chance of cracking the WPS PIN in half of the time.



Website: https://code.google.com/p/reaver-wps/
Tutorial: https://www.hackingtutorials.org/wifi-hacking/pixie-dust-attack-wps-in-kali-linux-with-reaver/

3 Pixiewps

 

PixieWPS is a relatively new tool included with Kali Linux and also targets a WPS vulnerability. PixieWPS is written in C and is used to brute force the WPS PIN offline exploiting the low or non-existing entropy of vulnerable access points. This is called a pixie dust attack. PixieWPS requires a modified version of Reaver or Wifite to work with. Since this tools has become quite popular in little time, it earns the number 3 in our Top 5 Wifi Hacking Tools list.




Website: https://github.com/wiire/pixiewps/

Modified Reaver: https://github.com/t6x/reaver-wps-fork-t6x

Tutorial: https://www.hackingtutorials.org/wifi-hacking/pixie-dust-attack-wps-in-kali-linux-with-reaver/

 

4 Wifite

Wifite is an automated tool to attack multiple wireless networks encrypted with WEP/WPA/WPA2 and WPS. On start-up Wifite requires a few parameters to work with and Wifite will do all the hard work. It will capture WPA handshakes, automatically de-authenticate connected clients, spoof your MAC address and safe the cracked passwords.

Website: https://code.google.com/p/wifite/

5 Wireshark

Wireshark is one of the best network protocal analyzer tools available, if not the best. With Wireshark you can analyse a network to the greatest detail to see what’s happening. Wireshark can be used for live packet capturing, deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, browse and filter packets and is multiplatform.
Wireshark is included with Kali Linux but also available for Windows and Mac. For certain features you do need a Wifi adapter which is supports promiscuous and monitoring mode.

Website: https://www.wireshark.org

Tutorial: https://www.howtogeek.com/104278/how-to-use-wireshark-to-capture-filter-and-inspect-packets/

Or follow one of these online courses:
– Wireshark Crash Course
– Wireshark Tutorial – Get Wireshark Certification

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Setting Up Your Own Virtual Private Network

VPN i.e  Virtual Private Network  is  a network that helps you to creates a virtual tunnel between your computer and a server to exchange data. It is private because it is supposed to require a username and a password to be accessed and it is a network because it links more devices to one or more servers all over different locations. A VPN helps you surf the web anonymously for two reasons:

• the websites you visit, see the VPN server’s ip, not yours.
• VPN basically encrypts all the traffic before ISP (internet service provider) can intercept it.

There are free versions and paid ones. But still the VPN provider can read your traffic. So you have to trust someone one way or another. What if you could set up your own VPN instead ? It would be totally free and totally (really ?) secure.

 There are many ways to setup a private virtual private network . Some softwares are also available that provide you to create your own network some of them are mentioned below :-

1. ExpressVPN

 

PROS:

• Self-installing, easy-to-use app
  
• Versions for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Linux
  
• Software for routers and set-top boxes
  
• Kill switch
  
• IP leak protection
  

CONS:

• Only three simultaneous connections allowed
  

 Try the best VPN software around!

Visit ExpressVPN »30-day money-back guarantee

 

2. CyberGhost

 

PROS:

• 77% off 3-year plans!
• Cool app
  
• Fast network speeds
  
• Automatic settings to suit activities
  
• System-wide and per-app kill switch
  
• Apps for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android
  

CONS:

• Can't get into Netflix
  

Visit CyberGhost »

 

3. TunnelBear

 

PROS:

• Animated interface
  
• Free version
  
• Good speeds
  
• Cloaking technology
  
• Kill switch
  

CONS:

• Doesn't allow peer-to-peer (P2P) downloading
  

Visit TunnelBear »

 

4. Windscribe

 

PROS:

• App for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, and Linux
  
• Manual installation for routers
  
• Browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera
  
• Free version with 10 GB data per month
  
• Ad and tracker blocker
  

CONS:

• Account sharing not allowed
  

Visit Windscribe »

 

5. NordVPN

 

PROS:

• Easy-to-use app for Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, and Android
  
• Manual setup for Linux, Blackberry, set-top boxes, routers, and game consoles
  
• Kill switch
  
• Private DNS servers
  
• Gets around detection at streaming services
  

CONS:

• Customer support can be slow
  

Visit NordVPN »

Concluding, always remember: if you do something stupid enough to anger people with enough 
resources, there’s no hope for you to remain anonymous. Anonymity is a fact of not carrying out a stupid action, more than worrying about how to hide that action.

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How does WannaCry, Petya and Other Ransomware spread so fast.

For thousands of people, the first time they heard of “ransomware” was as they were turned away from hospitals in May 2017.

The WannaCry outbreak had shut down computers in more than 80 NHS organisations in England alone, resulting in almost 20,000 cancelled appointments, 600 GP surgeries having to return to pen and paper, and five hospitals simply diverting ambulances, unable to handle any more emergency cases.

But the outbreak wasn’t the birth of ransomware, a type of computer crime which sees computers or data hijacked and a fee demanded to give them back to their owners.

Some of the earliest ransomware claimed to be a warning from the FBI demanding a “fine”, simply tricking users into paying up, or blackmailing them with accusations of trafficking in child abuse imagery.

Their tactics didn’t work for long. Bank transfers were easily tracked, cash payments were difficult to pull off, and if any variant got successful, people would trade tips on how to defeat it rather than pay the bill.

The modern ransomware attack was born from two innovations in the early part of this decade: encryption and bitcoin.

The modern ransomware attack was born from encryption and bitcoin.

• Ransomware such as Cryptolocker, which first appeared in the wild in 2013, didn’t just lock up the screen – it encrypted all the data on the computer.
• The only way to get it back was to pay the toll in return for the unlock key.
• Even if you managed to uninstall the ransomware itself, the data was still locked up.

Bitcoin suddenly meant ransomware authors could take payment without involving the trappings of the conventional banking system such as pre-paid credit cards.

For almost five years, so-called “cryptoransomware” bubbled below the surface, struggling to spread. Generally it was centrally controlled, attacking new victims through direct mail campaigns, tricking users into downloading it, or through botnets of computers infected with other malware– going in through the front door, so to speak, rather than using weaknesses in computer systems to spread.

WannaCry changed that.

Ransomworms

May’s ransomware outbreak was notable for a number of reasons: the scale of the damage; the unusual way in which it came to an end, with the discovery of a badly hidden “kill switch”; and the growing belief that its architects were not cybercriminals, but state-sponsored actors, most likely working for or with the North Korean government.

But the most important aspect is why it managed to go from unknown to taking out a significant chunk of the NHS in a matter of days.

WannaCry was the first “ransomworm” the world had ever seen.

A “worm”, in computing parlance, is a piece of malware able to spread itself to be far more damaging than your typical computer virus.

They self-replicate, bouncing from host to host, and obeying all the epidemiological rules that real diseases do, growing exponentially and taking off when they infect well-connected nodes.

• As computer security techniques have improved, worldwide worm outbreaks have become rare.
• It is hard to engineer a piece of malware that will automatically execute on a remote machine without any user involvement.
• Before WannaCry, the last major worm to hit the wild was Conficker.
• One variant spread to almost 20m machines in one month in January 2009, infecting the French Navy, the UK Ministry of Defence and Greater Manchester Police.

But since Conficker, major worms had been rare other than the Mirai worm and botnet infecting badly-designed Internet of Things devices such as webcams.

WannaCry had a helping hand to break through. In April 2017, a mysterious hacking group called The Shadow Brokers released details of a weakness in Microsoft’s Windows operating systems that could be used to automatically run programs on other computers on the same network.

• That weakness, it is believed, had been stolen in turn from the NSA, which had discovered it an unknown period of time before, code-naming it EternalBlue.
• EternalBlue was part of the NSA’s toolbox of hacking techniques, used to attack the machines of US enemies – before one of them turned the tables.
• The true identity of the Shadow Brokers is still unknown, although every piece of evidence points strongly to them being affiliated with the Russian state.

The Shadow Brokers first made themselves known in public in August 2016, auctioning a job-lot of cyber weapons which it said were stolen from the “Equation Group” – code-name for the NSA’s hacking operation.

Four more leaks followed including EternalBlue in April.

Microsoft fixed the EternalBlue weakness in March, before it was released by the Shadow Brokers, tipped off by the NSA that it was likely to be made public. But two months later, many organisations had yet to install the patch.

Outbreaks

A message demanding money on a computer hacked by a virus known as Petya in June 2017.

• Ultimately, WannaCry was too successful for its own good, spreading so fast that security researchers were tearing it apart within hours of it appearing in the wild.
• One of them, a young Briton called Marcus Hutchins, discovered that affected computers tried to access a particular web address after infection.
• Curiously, the address wasn’t registered to anyone, so he bought the domain – and just like that, the malware stopped spreading.

It’s still unclear why WannaCry included this kill switch. Some researchers think it was because the authors had watched the progression of Conficker, which attracted undue attention.

Others speculate the version of WannaCry “accidentally” escaped the network it was being tested on.

Even with the kill switch active, the outbreak caused enormous damage. A report released in October focusing just on the effects on the NHS concluded that “the WannaCry cyber-attack had potentially serious implications for the NHS and its ability to provide care to patients”.

It said that WannaCry “was a relatively unsophisticated attack and could have been prevented by the NHS following basic IT security best practice” such as installing the fixes that had been released in March.

“There are more sophisticated cyber-threats out there than WannaCry so the Department and the NHS need to get their act together to ensure the NHS is better protected against future attacks.”

A month later, one of those attacks arrived dubbed NotPetya, due to an initial, erroneous, belief that it was an earlier variant of ransomware called Petyna.

The malware was clearly built on the lessons of WannaCry, using the same EternalBlue weakness to spread within corporate networks, but without being able to jump from one network to another.

Instead, NotPetya was seeded to victims through a hacked version of a major accounting program widely used in Ukraine.

It still took out companies far and wide, from shipping firm Maersk to pharmaceutical company Merck – multinationals whose internal networks were large enough that the infection could travel quite far from Ukraine.

NotPetya had another oddity: it didn’t actually seem created to make money.

The “ransomware” was coded in such a way that, even if users did pay up, their data could never be recovered. “

I’m willing to say with at least moderate confidence that this was a deliberate, malicious, destructive attack or perhaps a test disguised as ransomware,” UC Berkley academic Nicholas Weaver told the infosec blog Krebs on Security.

That realisation meant the focus on Ukraine took on a new light. The country has long been at the forefront of cyberwarfare, constantly trading digital blows with its neighbour Russia even while the two countries trade actual blows over the Crimea.

If a nation state were to write malware with the aim of crippling the economy of its target, it might look a lot like NotPetya.

More to come

With Eternalblue slowly being patched, the age of the ransomworm might be over until a new, equally damaging vulnerability is found.

Instead, it looks like old-school ransomware will begin to take back the limelight – with a twist.

• “People have become desensitised to common ransomware, where it just encrypts your files,” says Marcin Kleczynski, the chief executive of information security firm Malwarebytes.
• Widespread backing up of data means fewer are willing to pay up.
• So instead of just locking data away, attackers are threatening the exact opposite: publish it for all the world to see.
• Such attacks, known as “doxware”, have already been seen in the wild, but currently just at a small scale or carried out manually, as when a Lithuanian plastic surgery clinic saw its files published for ransoms of up to €2,000 (£1762).

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Top 10 Hottest Artificial Intelligence technologies till yet.

Now in today's fast growing technologies where people want more outcome in less duration of time Artificial Intelligence is playing an important role. Now today I am going to tell you about some high tech advance technologies till yet in Artificial Intelligence.


Natural Language Generation: Producing text from computer data. Currently used in customer service, report generation, and summarizing business intelligence insights. Sample vendors: Attivio, Automated Insights, Cambridge Semantics, Digital Reasoning, Lucidworks, Narrative Science, SAS, Yseop.

Speech Recognition: Transcribe and transform human speech into format useful for computer applications. Currently used in interactive voice response systems and mobile applications. Sample vendors: NICE, Nuance Communications, OpenText, Verint Systems.

Virtual Agents: “The current darling of the media,” says Forrester (I believe they refer to my evolving relationships with Alexa), from simple chatbots to advanced systems that can network with humans. Currently used in customer service and support and as a smart home manager. Sample vendors: Amazon, Apple, Artificial Solutions, Assist AI, Creative Virtual, Google, IBM, IPsoft, Microsoft.

Machine Learning Platforms: Providing algorithms, APIs, development and training toolkits, data, as well as computing power to design, train, and deploy models into applications, processes, and other machines. Currently used in a wide range of enterprise applications, mostly `involving prediction or classification. Sample vendors: Amazon, Fractal Analytics, Google, H2O.ai, Microsoft, SAS, Skytree.

AI-optimized Hardware: Graphics processing units (GPU) and appliances specifically designed and architected to efficiently run AI-oriented computational jobs. Currently primarily making a difference in deep learning applications. Sample vendors: Alluviate, Cray, Google, IBM, Intel, Nvidia.

Decision Management: Engines that insert rules and logic into AI systems and used for initial setup/training and ongoing maintenance and tuning. A mature technology, it is used in a wide variety of enterprise applications, assisting in or performing automated decision-making. Sample vendors: Advanced Systems Concepts, Informatica, Maana, Pegasystems, UiPath.

Deep Learning Platforms: A special type of machine learning consisting of artificial neural networks with multiple abstraction layers. Currently primarily used in pattern recognition and classification applications supported by very large data sets. Sample vendors: Deep Instinct, Ersatz Labs, Fluid AI, MathWorks, Peltarion, Saffron Technology, Sentient Technologies.

Biometrics: Enable more natural interactions between humans and machines, including but not limited to image and touch recognition, speech, and body language. Currently used primarily in market research. Sample vendors: 3VR, Affectiva, Agnitio, FaceFirst, Sensory, Synqera, Tahzoo.

Robotic Process Automation: Using scripts and other methods to automate human action to support efficient business processes. Currently used where it’s too expensive or inefficient for humans to execute a task or a process. Sample vendors: Advanced Systems Concepts, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, UiPath, WorkFusion.

Text Analytics and NLP: Natural language processing (NLP) uses and supports text analytics by facilitating the understanding of sentence structure and meaning, sentiment, and intent through statistical and machine learning methods. Currently used in fraud detection and security, a wide range of automated assistants, and applications for mining unstructured data. Sample vendors: Basis Technology, Coveo, Expert System, Indico, Knime, Lexalytics, Linguamatics, Mindbreeze, Sinequa, Stratifyd, Synapsify.

So today I have today you something about some hottest technologies .

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