In cyber security, there are a vast number of malicious threats. Many of these threats write malware, though there are plenty of other ways for cybercriminals to be malicious. The skill level between them varies a lot, though. Many “hackers” are just script kiddies, only able to run existing tools and to lack the skills to make their own. Many hackers have the skills to make … [Read more...] about What Is an APT?
What Is a Bug Bounty?
With how complex software is, it’s challenging to ensure that there are no bugs. This is simply the way of things that are human-designed and highly complex. To minimize the issue, software development companies include code reviews in their software development life cycle. But even careful expert review can’t catch everything. The very real-time and budgetary limitations … [Read more...] about What Is a Bug Bounty?
What Is a Boot Sector Virus?
A boot sector virus is a particular kind of virus named after the location it can be found. That would be the boot sector of floppy disks or the Master Boot Record of more modern hard disks. In some cases, they can infect the boot sector of said hard disks instead of the MBR. … [Read more...] about What Is a Boot Sector Virus?
What Is a Pentest?
Software is guaranteed to have bugs. There can be many thousands of lines of code in software, and human fallibility means that at least some of them won’t be entire as intended. The software development life cycle is a process designed to try to minimize these issues by regularly testing. … [Read more...] about What Is a Pentest?
What Is a Grey Hat?
The law tends to be very black-and-white when it comes to the legality of things like hacking. Either something is - or is not - a crime. Ethics, however, can be much more nuanced. While the ethics of something may be taken into account in a criminal setting, either with a lack of enforcement or softer sentences, this is not guaranteed in any way. … [Read more...] about What Is a Grey Hat?
What Is a Black Hat?
A “black hat” is a hacker that acts maliciously and illegally. The term originates from old western films in which the bad guys typically wore black or dark hats while the good guys wore white or light hats. In the real world, the hacker in question generally doesn’t wear a physical hat, but the concept of good and bad still applies. … [Read more...] about What Is a Black Hat?
What Is an Ethical Hacker?
It’s easy to have the simple view that all hackers are bad guys out to cause data breaches and to deploy ransomware. This isn’t true, though. There are plenty of bad-guy hackers out there. Some hackers use their skills ethically and legally. An “ethical hacker” is a hacker that hacks within the remit of a legal agreement with the legitimate system owner. Tip: As the opposite … [Read more...] about What Is an Ethical Hacker?
What Is a Cybercriminal?
Cybercriminals commit crimes via technology, usually but not always via the Internet. Although some still think so, the Internet is no longer a lawless space. There is plenty of legislation to cover most types of internet crimes. Cybercrime ranges in severity from relatively 'minor' things like faking your identity online to large-scale cyber attacks that can have real-world … [Read more...] about What Is a Cybercriminal?
What Is Cyber War?
Cyberwar - typically called cyber warfare - is using cyber attacks against an enemy. Most often, the term is used to describe one country or ideological group attacking another country or group in a large-scale, targeted attack. The goal can vary – from simple information gathering to disrupting vital computer systems, causing chaos, and more. … [Read more...] about What Is Cyber War?
What Is a Cryptographic Nonce?
In the field of cryptography, it's important that things that are supposed to be secret stay secret. One issue that is faced is precomputation. This is where an attacker can spend considerable processing power to determine what outputs a combination of inputs pre-emptively makes. With enough processing power and time, you could test what output you get with a selection of … [Read more...] about What Is a Cryptographic Nonce?