Two-Factor Authentication Using Your Cell Phone

Cell phones have become ubiquitous in recent times. Everyone has one. Use of the cell phone as an authentication method is not only a convenient method of raising asurrance levels for logins, but it can also be a significant cost savings when compared to traditional methods.  (continue reading…)

WhatWeb tool for pen testers

The tool WhatWeb needs to be added to any pen tester’s arsenal. WhatWeb is not a web vulnerability scanner such as Nikto, Acunetix, and Skipfish, but rather identifies the platform the CMS is running on, a feature not so widely supported. WhatWeb has over 160 plug-ins used to identify many platforms. It uses two types of plug-ins, passive and aggressive. The passive plug-ins will try to identify the web applications using simple GET requests while the aggressive plug-ins use techniques such as URL guessing. (continue reading…)

Suricata Intrusion Detection and Prevention Engine 1.0.0 released

Suricata is a multi-threaded intrusion detection/prevention engine. This engine claims it is not intended to just replace or emulate the existing tools in the industry, but will bring new ideas and technologies to the field. The Suricata Engine is funded by the Department of Homeland Security’s Directorate for Science and Technology HOST program (Homeland Open Security Technology), by the the Navy’s Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR).

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[Security Scripts] Whois for Python

Whois.py is a script that makes it fast and easy to store Arin information about specific IPs. The script was written with no library dependencies or setup steps. It runs on multiple platforms. (continue reading…)

Three things to harden OpenSSH on Linux

The OpenSSH package comes installed on most Linux distributions; however, the default configuration has some potential security risks as it favors functionality over security. Here are a three things you can do to greatly reduce your attack foot-print. (continue reading…)

Using Insecure Protocols – FTP

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How to address the common stumbling blocks of your PCI Assessment – Logging

Part 2 – Logging

Complying with PCI DSS logging and audit trail requirements can be very challenging
for many organizations. We will be stepping through a selection of logging and audit
trail requirements that are among the more challenging requirements to meet and outline
possible approaches and solutions for each. (continue reading…)

How to address the common stumbling blocks of your PCI Assessment – Encryption

Part 1 – Encryption

Properly meeting the encryption related requirements for the PCI DSS can be one of
the most challenging areas for many organizations. We will be reviewing specific challenging
encryption requirements and breaking them down to help clarify what is really intended
by each requirement and what are some possible approaches to meet the requirements. (continue reading…)