cyber security

Cryptography Tools and Techniques

June 20, 2013 Michael Gregg Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Consider how many financial transactions are performed on the Internet everyday. Protecting all this data is of upmost importance. Cryptography can be defined as the process of concealing the contents of a message from all except those who know the key. Cryptography can be used for many purposes, but there are two types of cryptographic algorithms you need to understand, symmetric and asymmetric. Symmetric uses a single key, whereas asymmetric uses two keys. What else is required to have a good understanding of cryptography? It’s important to start with an understanding of how cryptography relates to the basic foundations of security: authentication, integrity, confidentiality, and non-repudiation.

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WPS — The Wireless Network Backdoor

May 22, 2013 James Michael Stewart Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

WPS or WiFi Protected Setup (a.k.a. WSC or WiFi Simple Config) is a handy feature of a wireless base station that allows easy connection of new clients by the press of a physical button. WPS is required to be enabled by default for a manufacturer/vendor to achieve WiFi Alliance certification on their products. This means that most devices have it enabled right out of the box.

Are You a Cybersecurity Risk to Your Business?

May 15, 2013 David Willson Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Despite all of the negativity in the world, as individuals we have a very positive or inflated opinion of ourselves. If you are a business owner, such inflation may be your greatest risk. A positive attitude and high self-esteem are great. But, when it comes to business decisions and recognizing risk, a positive, self-promoting attitude can actually create unrecognizable and elusive risk.

Think about this: how many people believe they are bad drivers, loud, or disliked by others? Not many, right? Similarly, most average business owners consider themselves intelligent, very capable in all areas, and smarter, more influential, and much more savvy than the next guy or gal. That mindset creates a certain level of risk, and the risk increases as the power and influence increases.

Wireless Attack: Evil Twin

May 8, 2013 James Michael Stewart Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

WiFi enabled devices have a little known idiosyncrasy that can be exploited by hackers. This issue is the automatic reconnection to wireless networks that your device has previously successfully connected to in the past. The typical device saves the details about the wireless network in a profile. When the wireless adapter is enabled and not currently connected to a network, it attempts to reconnect to a network it had a successfully connection to previously. The wireless adapter does this by making a connection request to the networks for which it has a stored wireless network profile. This connection request includes the network’s name (i.e. SSID) and the base station’s MAC address.

Living Social was Hacked…What Should You Do?

May 3, 2013 Kathy Miller Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Big news hit the online world over the weekend, over 50 million Living Social subscribers were notified of a major cyber-attack which led to the unauthorized access to data on their servers, including names, e-mail addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords (hashed and salted).

Living Social is a major daily deal site where people can seek out discount deals on things from a day at the spa to dinner for two. Consumers see these sites as safe but all it takes is something as harmless as a password in the hands of the wrong person to lead to so much destruction