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10 ways to secure your online accounts and Computer

10 ways or tips to secure your online accounts and Computer – As there is a increasing number of online transactions and also use of social networking sites, hackers tend to get all the credentials of bank accounts or any other confidential info, so here are the tips which can help a user secure against unauthorized access from hackers.

Here it goes, 10 ways to secure your online accounts and Computer :-

Removal of the pre-installed apps: The pre-installed apps and software really seem to be very dangerous. Most of the times it is just a bloatware, unless user really has some use of all these apps, hence getting rid of this definitely safeguards the computer against any security threat. Further it is better to get rid of any pseudo antiviruses accompanied with the new computer.

Choosing a secured web browser : Most of the malicious malware comes through the web browser. Setting the right web browser is essential because the correct web browser can help user to safeguard against all the malwares and also help user to use their computer to the best. Further, Google Chrome is one of the best web browsers which provides security via Sandbox feature. The user can use the Mozilla Firefox extensions also if any additional features required. The user needs to check the features before using any browser.

Use a strong password for the user account: Setting a strong password is the key for the security of the PC as well as the online accounts. Users must remember certain important points while choosing a password:
 First of all it should be minimum of 8 characters, the longer the better.
 It should be a combination of lower and upper cases of alphabets.
 Adding numbers, punctuation and symbols will further make the password complicated.
 Never keep the same password for different accounts.

Opting for Virtual Private Networking: Enabling the Hotspot Shield VPN helps user to protect their privacy, secure their internet, get protection against malware, it also enables public Wi-Fi security so any malicious intruders on the same Wi-Fi network cannot access user’s data. This is a free service. Further, OpenDNS services can further add to the browser security from various other malicious sites. The only drawback here is that the internet speed might be slowed down.

Setting up 2F Authentication for online account: Here, user needs to use their password for first step of log in and then the account would send a pin number or code to a secured and trusted device like user’s smartphone. This authentication is one of the best security for all the social network sites and a must for all online accounts.

Protection from the “Phishing Scams”: Online identity theft wherein users give their personal details on illegitimate websites which is then used for various frauds is known as Phishing. Some of the tips to safeguard aginst Phishing attacks are listed below:
 Guard against spam: Users need to be cautious of spam emails sent by unrecognized users that ask for online transaction or other confidential details.
 Always check for “https” rather than “http” during any online transaction.
 Do not give any personal details on phone call. Never click on links or download files or open attachments in emails from unknown sender, even if has it has been sent from some known sender scan the attachment before opening it.
 Never enter any personal information on any pop-up screen.
 Regularly check for bank transactions or credit card statement by which user can recognize any unknown transaction ever done.
 Install a good anti-virus and anti-spyware which protects against malwares and phishing pages.

Ensuring a strong anti virus software: Users should install a good Anti-virus, Anti spyware software and Firewall software for ensuring security of their computer and online accounts.
 Antivirus software: Users would need to check if their anti virus software provides real time scanning or is it on demand. Further a regular update of the anti virus software can help user to keep their computer away from all the modern malware. Hence a strong anti-virus is a must for all computer users.
 The Antispyware software that plays a role in removing the unwanted advertising installations from the computer.
 Firewall Software protects the computer from any kind of external malwares and any penetration to user’s network with the aim of getting personal information of the user.

Add “HTTPS Everywhere” plugin for all the web browsers: Users can secure their web browser if they use the “HTTPS Everywhere extensions” for web browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome etc.

Anonymous browsing: TOR is a free software and open source system which enables users’ for anonymous browsing. The TOR software shuffles user’s identity due to which any hacker or intelligence agency cannot read user’s browsing history. So with TOR user can ensure their browser security and privacy.

• Ensuring physical security of the PC: Users can setup the BIOS password and this will ensure that the unauthorized use of the computer is prevented. BIOS is a program that controls the computer’s initial booting cycle as well as the hardware initialization. Remembering the BIOS password by the user is essential because if user forgets the password then it is not possible to boot the computer and it can be reset only with help of the vendor.

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Immediate Self Destruction On Kali Linux in Emergency

During a penetration test , one needs to download and store the confidential data related to an organisation . Kali Linux comes with an Option to be Installed with full disk encryption .Hence its advisable to have a full disk encryption enabled on the Kali Linux machine in order to protect the sensitive information .

Full disk encryption is easy to setup in Kali Linux. A detailed doccumentation of how to install a Kali Volume with Full Disk Encryption can be found here .

The Kali installer comes with a straightforward process for setting up encrypted partitions with LVM and LUKS. Once encrypted, the Kali operating system requires a password at boot time to allow the OS to boot and decrypt your drive, thus protecting this data in case your laptop is stolen.

One can manage decryption keys and partitions by using the cryptsetup utility.

Nuking Kali Linux Installation for emergencies

Often one might need to destroy all the contents of the encrypted hard-drive in certain scenarios to avoid data leakage of sensitive information. Kali linux makers have introduced the option . Kali Linux now allows to gave a Boot Password the would allow the destruction , rather than decryption of the data on your drive .

This is done by adding the Nuke Password to the cryptosystem . This Nuke Password when used will delete all the keyslots and makes the data on the hard-drive inaccessible .

The Kali Linux has not yet officially introduce the feature in the version releases and hence one must use this feature at their own risk (hackingloops.com holds no liabilities) .

If you wish to try this feature , the following are the build Instructions .
One can start by running the LVM encrypted installation in Kali Linux and set a Decryption Password . Once this is completed , download the crypto setup package source and apply the Kali Linux patch on it .

Proceed as folllows :

root@kali:~# apt-get source cryptsetup
 root@kali:~# git clone https://github.com/offensive-security/cryptsetup-nuke-keys
 root@kali:~# cd cryptsetup-1.6.1/
 root@kali:~/cryptsetup-1.6.1# patch -p1 &lt; ../cryptsetup-nuke-keys/cryptsetup_1.6.1+nuke_keys.diff
 patching file lib/libcryptsetup.h
 patching file lib/luks1/keymanage.c
 patching file lib/setup.c
 patching file src/cryptsetup.c
 root@kali:~/cryptsetup-1.6.1# dpkg-buildpackage -b -uc

This will build and install the cryptosystem packages in order to get the Nuke option implemented .

root@kali:~/cryptsetup-1.6.1# ls -l ../*crypt*.deb
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 149430 Jan 4 21:34 ../cryptsetup_1.6.1-1kali0_amd64.deb
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 250616 Jan 4 21:34 ../cryptsetup-bin_1.6.1-1kali0_amd64.deb
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 105226 Jan 4 21:34 ../libcryptsetup4_1.6.1-1kali0_amd64.deb
 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49580 Jan 4 21:34 ../libcryptsetup-dev_1.6.1-1kali0_amd64.deb
 root@kali:~/cryptsetup-1.6.1# dpkg -i ../libcryptsetup*.deb
 root@kali:~/cryptsetup-1.6.1# dpkg -i ../cryptsetup*.deb

Now that our patched cryptsetup package has been installed, we can go ahead and add a “nuke” key to our setup:

root@kali:~# cryptsetup luksAddNuke /dev/sda5
 Enter any existing passphrase: (existing passphrase)
 Enter new passphrase for key slot: (nuke passphrase)

On any subsequent reboots, you will be asked for the LUKS decryption password each time as usual. If for whatever reason, you were to enter the nuke password, the saved keys would be purged rendering the data inaccessible.

#Disclaimer : Hackingloops.com holds no liabilities to this feature . This is just for Information Sharing Purposes . If your sensitive information is inaccessible due to what so ever reason , we are not to be Blamed

BEHC Hacking Class 2nd book Online : Footprinting or Information Gathering

BEHC Hacking Class 2nd book Online : Footprinting or Information Gathering : BEHC (Born Ethical Hackers Club) has came up with second issue of its Ethical Hacking Class and Network security campaign. In our last issue we have learnt about basics of terms related to Ethical Hacking or simply Hacking and about how a hacker prepares or launches a hacking attempt or simply say hack attack. We have also discussed brief about different phases that involves in launching a hacking attempt like information gathering, scanning, gaining access, maintaining access and covering tracks respectively. This is what we have discussed in our last issue.

The topic of this issue is Footprinting or Information Gathering. This issue will teach you guys how to gather information about any victim or website. The information gathered can be used for launching Social Engineering attack, DDOS attack, Domain Hijacking attack, Domain Poisoning attack or even we can use this information to prepare word file which can be used for brute force attack.

Online Hacking class

In this issue we will learn about Information Gathering or Footprinting techniques. Because of lot of techniques involved in Foot Printing we have decided to publish the issue into two parts.

Below is the list of Footprinting techniques we are going to learn in first part.1

1. Finding IP address

2. Ping Sweeps
3. Tracing routes
4. Who is data
5. DNS queries and DNS health check

What we will learn in Footprinting Part 2 Issue:

1. Search Engine discovery or Reconnaissance
2. Spiders, Crawlers or Robots discovery
3. Web data Extraction
4. Reviewing Meta data and Javascript’s
5. Web application fingerprint
6. Web server fingerprint
7. People Search

This issue contains detailed tutorials of all the above mentioned techniques i.e. how to find IP address (own or victim’s or websites), ping sweep technique, Flood ping DDOS attack, Trace route and its benefits, WHO is Information gathering and DNS health check and DNS basics. So download the latest issue now.

DOWNLOAD BEHC HACKING ISSUE : FOOTPRINTING PART-1 (direct)

5 Ways to Ensure Security of Networks

5 Ways to Ensure Security of Networks : Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days each year – it’s happening. Whether you are awake or asleep, in a meeting or on vacation, they are out there probing your network, looking for a way in. A way to exploit you; a way to steal your data, a place to store illegal content, a website they can deface, or any of a hundred other ways to mess with you for the simple joy of it all. And they can do this with relative ease, even in an automated fashion, with simple tools that are readily available to all. So friends lets learns how to ensure security of networks using different ways.

5 Ways to Ensure Security of Networks

I’m talking about network scanners. The bad guys use them all day every day to assess networks around the world because a network scanner is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to find the cracks in your armor. If you want to see your network the same way an attacker would, then you want to use a network scanner.

Network scanners perform automated tests of systems over the network. They don’t require agents or any other software to be installed on the “target” machines. They assess a system based on what they can get from it over the network. It’s the same sort of reconnaissance that is performed against your network around the clock, and that is why you want to do it too. Here are five checks you should perform regularly using your network scanner.

5 ways to ensure network security :

1. Vulnerability assessments

Network scanners can use databases of known vulnerabilities to check for anything that might present a risk to your systems. Update that database regularly since new vulnerabilities are discovered all the time.

2. Port scans

A port scanner is a very fast way to determine what sort of systems are running on your network, and are probably the most common sort of recon you will see. Determine what should be accessible on your network from the Internet, validate that with a port scanner, and then use a combination of firewall rule cleanup and system hardening to shut down anything that doesn’t belong.

3. Default password access

There’s a reason there are tens of thousands of default password lists on the Internet-they make for a very easy way to get in. Don’t make it easy for an attacker. Make sure everything on your network has been configured with a strong password to prevent unauthorized access.

4. Running services

To compromise a service, it first has to be running. Every server has to run certain services, otherwise it’s just a space heater, but many run unneeded services either because they are on by default, or the admin who set it up didn’t know any better. Use your network scanner to find all running services, and then shut down the ones that are not needed.

5. Remote access

Speaking of default passwords, in about half of the security audits I have performed for customers, I have found remote access software that they didn’t know about, running on systems that made it very easy to get in. Use your network scanner to find all of the Telnet, SSH, RDP, GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, PCAnywhere and other applications that can provide remote access to a system, and shut down all the ones that shouldn’t be there. Finding all those “secret” ways in, and closing up the unapproved ones, will greatly reduce the risks to your network.

Using a network scanner, set up a regular schedule of scanning your systems for these five critical checks. Scan from the outside to see what the firewall cannot stop, and scan from the internal network so you understand just how much damage an inside threat can cause. Knowing your systems the way an attacker will, helps you to ensure everything is safe.

This guest post was provided by Casper Manes on behalf of GFI Software Ltd. Learn more about the importance of network scanning by downloading the free eBook: A first aid kit for SysAdmins. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Source :The hacker news