Tag hacker

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Ghost in the Wires Describes Riveting Details Of A Legendary Hacker Kevin Mitnick

Dec 31, 11 3:45 PM
Kevin Mitnick

Image by Vítor Baptista via Flickr

Kevin Mitnick was a man who had witnessed his reputation preceded him in ways that he could not have ever imagined.  His past reputation was so prolific in unbelievable manner which had myths built higher in stack, and the myths were about how he had stolen software worth more than $300 million, secrets from covert agencies, and much more.  In fact, he was more of a hacker who had taken the challenges to hack into various phone companies and big tech companies, and the successful penetrations of their servers and networks would most likely be his greatest trophies.  Instead of selling his trophies of source codes of various software he had siphoned away from various well known corporations, he kept them as proofs for how he had hacked into what thought to be digital fortresses.

Even after Kevin Mitnick was able to walk out of the prison, he was forbidden by law not to use any communication technology.  According to Wikipedia and I quote, “Mitnick fought this decision in court, eventually winning a ruling in his favor, allowing him to access the Internet.”  – source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick.  Now Kevin Mitnick is living a lifestyle which in a way is way better than how he had lived before, but he can go on hacking without getting into troubles with the law and getting jailed for.  How?  He is making more money by consulting various companies on computer security and ethically hacking into the companies that hire him for his knowledge.  He is currently running Mitnick Security Consulting LLC as a computer security consultancy company.

Kevin Mitnick has a book out which he tells all about his past experiences of avoiding the law and on the run while he was deeply into hacking phone companies and various other tech giants.  Ghost in the Wires was written by two men team.  Kevin Mitnick had teamed up with bestselling author William L. Simon for the writing of Ghost in the Wires.  In the acknowledgements section, Kevin Mitnick called William L. Simon as Bill Simon if I’m not mistaken.  Within this book, Kevin Mitnick described how he was able to social engineer just about anybody on the other end of the phone so he could gain valuable information to further his hacking activities.  With quick thinking and was able to be uncanny in remembering long phone numbers, Kevin Mitnick had no trouble in combining his social engineering and computing skills together to successfully hack into well known phone companies and tech giants.  In fact, Kevin Mitnick was so successful at social engineering and computer hacking, he was able to manufacture his own fake identities.  The book goes on describing how Kevin Mitnick had to hack social security administration, department of motor vehicles, and others so he could manufacture his own fake identities.  Even fake birth certificates were within Kevin Mitnick’s reach.

Ghost in the Wires has some funny moments that describe how naughty Kevin could be with his hacking skill.  I don’t want to spoil such funny moments for you, and so it’s best that you read his whole book on your own and laugh at how naughty Kevin Mitnick was with his social engineering and hacking skills.  Besides the few hilarious moments, I have to admit Ghost in the Wires shows us that determined hackers can accomplish digital magics which we like to think such tricks cannot be done.  Fortunately for those entities which Kevin Mitnick had hacked into while he was living the life of a fugitive, Kevin Mitnick wasn’t out to sell their secrets and made big profits for himself.  Nonetheless, can we say the same for some hackers of today?  Of course, there might be few hackers who have the same spirit as the old and the new Kevin Mitnick, but I think there might be more crackers than hackers.

In summary, Ghost in the Wires was a great read for me.  The writing style was down to earth.  I’d moments of laughter as how Kevin Mitnick had coyly tricked the adversaries through his social engineering and computer hacking skills.  The book was written with everyday people in mind, and so even the readers who could not understand the technical details might not have to miss much.  In fact, reading Ghost in the Wires, I thought I was reading a thriller novel or watching a thriller film.  Honestly, it was great to finally read what Kevin Mitnick had to say for himself in his very own book.  I found his details were riveting.  Especially how he had described his encounters with law enforcement.  Hard to forget moments were how law enforcement officials convinced the judge that Kevin Mitnick could start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone and how Kevin Mitnick himself would think the judge at one point thought he could connect to the Internet in prison through a laptop which had not a connection to the Internet (she did not allow Kevin Mitnick the use of a laptop to review the evidences that pertained to his case with a lawyer).

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Can Hacking Be A Financial Instrument?

Nov 26, 11 7:18 PM
Globe icon.

Image via Wikipedia

As financial instruments that keep nations stay healthy find to be less effective, nations are facing direr prospects of having to see their economies slowly inch closer to unsustainable conditions.  Imagine China continues to see United States prints more dollars out of thin air to devalue the dollar so United States’ exports can be competitive against the rest of the world, and China will face higher import costs to produce lesser profitable export goods since Chinese yuan is pegging against dollar.  As China isn’t so willingly to revalue yuan and allowing yuan to appreciate against dollar, China forces United States to print more money than ever to devalue the dollar so United States can stay competitive in exporting its goods.  United States knowing that exporting more will create jobs at home, consequently taming the wild beasts of deflation and unemployment that will lead to a healthier economy in near term or however long the United States can print money and China won’t scream foul.

Let assume China and United States are going to be locked in a currency war for a long time to come, and the financial instruments of both sides aren’t that effective since both sides might be able to dish out comparable damages, a tic for tac kind of things.  Seeing from this perspective, one can see why United States is so concerning about cyber security.  Once the usual financial instruments aren’t that effective, an oppose entity (e.g., nation, country, faction, coalition, and so on) can try to use a stealthier and more malicious mean to gain some advantages in regarding to world trade and a nation’s financial matters, and we’re talking of hacking.  Of course, there are many other means that might be as vicious as hacking or even more vicious than hacking such as intentionally manipulating an opposing nation’s derivative market to a point that such market would crash and create havocs within a nation’s economy.  Nonetheless, hacking is probably one of the easiest maneuvers which one nation can carry out against another nation.

Hacking can be inexpensive for the hackers and yet sometimes hackers can get more than what they want.  Hackers can also stay anonymous if they’re good, therefore hacking can be stealthy if stealth is important to the hackers.  Knowing hacking can be carried out with precision and with almost no consequence at state sponsor level, I don’t see why hacking is not one of the desirable methods in acquiring financial information and gaining sensitive data to manipulate another nation’s economy.  This is why it’s not unimaginable for the United States to consider hacking as an act of war and might lead to military actions.  As more facets of an economy come online or digitize, hacking can become an evermore dangerous and powerful instrument among other financial instruments to be used by nations.  Of course, hacking isn’t always motivating by financial means, sometimes it’s more about gaining military advance weaponries.  This is why hacking can become even more important than just a covert financial instrument for any nation.

So, I guess we can expect China and United States to continue playing a game of blaming each other on how they got hacked by the opposing nation.  I suspect that the United States and China won’t go as far as declaring war on each other if indeed they find out that the opposing party is hacking them, but I can see United States and China won’t be hesitating in punishing weaker opposing enemies in all means, even things has to boil down to carrying out some military actions.  Don’t be surprised to see more headlines of how one nation is hacking another in the news, because hacking can be quite a useful financial instrument and more.  It’s that serious!

Source —  Currency Wars:  The Making of the Next Global Crisis by James Rikards (book).

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Facebook Fails To Protect 600,000 Accounts Each Day?

Oct 29, 11 1:28 AM

According to redtape.msnbc.msn.com, about 600,000 Facebook accounts could be compromised each day.  It’s a huge number in anyway you look at.  Each day bring anew the possibility of more people’s Facebook accounts are going to be compromised, and these people will have to worry about what the hackers will do to their lives.

Digital life is no longer isolated in the digital world!  In fact, digital life can be pretty much effective in enhancing one’s real life or vice versa.  Imagine if someone has your Facebook account credential and is able to log into your Facebook to change strict privacy settings to everyone can see settings for personal information, it can be quite embarrassing and at times troubling.

Here is a worse imaginative situation, what if someone pretends to be you using your Facebook credential to post child pornography?  Will the police and other bodies of authorities go after you or the true culprit?  As you can see, it’s quite scary indeed!

This is why I think it’s so important for people like us to be paranoid about our computer security at all times.  Do not let your guard down for one moment!  So, in regarding to securing your Facebook credential, it’s not stopping just at tightening up your Facebook’s privacy settings and changing weak password to strong one, but it’s more of the whole nine yards.

The whole nine yards?  It’s more of making sure the computer you are on is free of Trojans and malware and viruses and rootkits.  It’s more of making sure the computer network you are on is secure and requiring known users to enter latest and strongest encrypted/algorithmic passphrase before they can use the network.  It’s more of making sure securing one’s email accounts with strongest passwords so hackers cannot easily obtain the email accounts’ credentials, otherwise hackers can use these email accounts to reset passwords for your other important online accounts.  It’s more of making sure keeping your many passwords safe and secure, and it’s best to encrypt your passwords and store encrypted passwords in encrypted hard drives — you don’t have to lose passwords and yet prevent hackers from easily obtaining these passwords.  It’s more of making sure not to download strange software and communicate with strange people and open up strange emails and click on strange links in emails and click on strange links in instant messengers and so on.  Oh my, it’s more of a lot more, but I think you get the gist!

Anyhow, Facebook users best to change password at least once a month, and make sure password is strong enough to beat dictionary brute force cracking password method and memorable/unique enough so you don’t have to forget it.  It’s hard to create such password, but it’s worth it in the end!  Once log into Facebook, make sure change the privacy settings to stricter settings.  Don’t forget to remove applications that you are not trusting from having permission to interact with your Facebook account.  An example would be do not allow strangers to view your mobile numbers.

If you have a Facebook account, you must maintain it.  Even if you do not maintain it, you still have to make sure you visit it once a month at the least.  This way you can be sure your Facebook account is alright and isn’t doing something malicious without your knowledge.

OK, let me backtrack a bit, don’t try to install unknown antivirus software and computer security software, because these software might be malware themselves.  It’s best to use well known computer security software such as Norton of Symantec.  I’m sure there are other great computer security software out there, but I don’t have them at the top of my head at the moment, and so you have to do some research!

Let end this post by me saying more of the same, if you know how to make it super hard for hackers to hack your Facebook account, then you’re halfway success in preventing hackers from hacking many other accounts of yours, assuming you’re as devoted to securing other accounts the same way you have with your Facebook account.  Why halfway?  The other half is rest on the shoulders of the web service providers and various factors that are outside of your control.  If the web service providers lack in security measures, hackers don’t have to hack you but they can just hack the web service providers directly and obtain your credentials along with every other user who uses the same web service providers.

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