Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Title:


About Botnet





Word Count:



359





Summary:



BotNet, also called zombie network and network of bots is a group of computers which are used to discreetly send data like spam and viruses to other computers on the internet. These actions are carried out by malicious programs without the knowledge of the users.







Keywords:



About Botnet







Article Body:



BotNet, also called zombie network and network of bots is a group of computers which are used to discreetly send data like spam and viruses to other computers on the internet. These actions are carried out by malicious programs without the knowledge of the users. These malicious programs mainly consist of viruses, Trojans and worms. Infected computers are called bots or zombies. Most computers which are infected are personal home internet PCs which are inadequately protected.





When a PC becomes part of a BotNet, it can be instructed to do almost anything by the creator of botnet. In effect it becomes a drone which cannot resist the commands of its master. In this case, the master is the creator of the malicious software (malware). Most Bots are employed in propagation of spam and viruses. Often malware is used for key-press logging which can result in mass identity theft. Zombie computers can also be used for denial of service attacks in which many bots simultaneously log onto a particular server, thus exceeding the server's bandwidth and crashing it. This technique is particularly effective when the Botnet is large and contains thousands of computers. Many advanced malware can even spread themselves via email while the malware of smaller botnets lack this capability.





BotNets are programmed in such a way that they are difficult to find and analyze. Normally they receive instructions from their creators through IRC (Internet Relay Channels). As of April 2008, the Storm BotNet and the Kraken BotNet are the largest BotNets in the world with an estimated 400,000 bots. Other significant BotNets are Rbot and Bobax with an estimated 20,000 bots each.





So on a day to basis, the best way to protect your computer properly is to frequently scan and update your antivirus and firewall software. Special sensors called 'honeynets' have also been set up on the internet these nets mimic the characteristics of computers with known security flaws in an effort to lure hackers into them and track down malware creators. It has been recently quoted by Kaspersky Labs (creators of Kaspersky anti-virus) that botnets pose more of a threat to the internet community than individual viruses and worms.


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Title:


What is ISAKMP?





Word Count:



153





Summary:



ISAKMP stands for Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol. ISAKMP is a protocol used for establishing the security associations and the cryptographic keys. A security association is used to support secure communication and it refers to the establishment of the shared security information between two networks.







Keywords:



ISAKMP?







Article Body:



ISAKMP stands for Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol. ISAKMP is a protocol used for establishing the security associations and the cryptographic keys. A security association is used to support secure communication and it refers to the establishment of the shared security information between two networks.





Security Associations contain all the information required for various security services and ISAKMP defines the required procedures and the packet formats so as to establish, modify and delete Security Associations.





ISAKMP is different from the key exchange protocols as ISAKMP clearly separates the details of the security association management from the details of the key exchange. ISAKMP defines packet formats which provide a framework for transferring the authentication and the key data.





It is possible to implement Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol over any transport protocol but the implementation must include the send and receive capability for ISAKMP using User Datagram Protocol on port 500.


Sunday, August 7, 2011

Title:


Filtering Out the Lies





Word Count:



546





Summary:



The internet is filled with lies and truth, rumors and facts. Here are a few tips to differentiate between them.







Keywords:



free, websites, website, wiki, wikis







Article Body:



The internet is filled with information and every second of every hour of every day, new information is being poured into the forever-growing network. Whether the source can be from a research scientist involved in finding some new breakthrough discovery to a young child in her school's computer lab, information can be inputted by just about anyone who has the basic know-how of how to use the computer. However the internet is filled with all kinds of information. From facts and truths to rumors and lies, all kind of data is being inputted into the network.





For a student trying to write an extensive research paper of some random peculiar topic this turns out to be a disaster since now the internet is one of the most commonly used mediums of research. Be it for a research paper for your stringent professor, a report for your ambitious employer, or even a presentation for a committee, with rumors and lies floating about in the internet it will be difficult to extract only the truths to your target audience. However there are a few methods that you can use and as well as help from others that can help you with this tedious task.





The most common method to help you find out if the information that you hold is a fact rather than some made up rumor by an ominous person holding a grudge or maybe it was done completely by accident by a misinformed student or even something that started as a harmless joke by a person who was looking for a good laugh, is the use of cross referencing. Cross referencing is the first defense for a researcher to weed out the rumors and lies in their internet research. However it is not entirely fool proof as it may seem.





Cross referencing relies on the basis that if enough people believe that if a certain data is the truth then the so called data in question must be a fact. But using this basis today with the knowledge of how it turned out for our ancestors, we know for a fact that this is a rather foolish method to apply to when trying to find out whether if something is a lie or a truth. With the biggest example of how people blindly believed that the world was flat rather than round even though it was proven before them that the world was round by the use of mathematical calculations and scientific observations; because more people believed that the world was flat it was therefore concluded that the world must be flat.





Another method within cross referencing you can use to further purify your data is by cross referencing your information through different mediums such as print. Again this can only help with the process of filtering your data and is not foolproof. Nothing can completely remove the information you find on the internet but it is much more work for a person to put their rather poorly researched material onto print as it costs money as to putting false information on the internet is free.





However the best method you can probably use is your own judgment to see whether or not the information that you found is some random rumor or a fact.