Learning Journey

Why Security Penetration Test is required?

With the advent of sophisticated, automated exploitation tools, anyone with a network connection is potentially vulnerable. Although there are many ways to secure systems and applications, the only way to truly know how secure you are is to test yourself.

Penetration testing, occasionally pentest is the process of attempting to gain access to resources without knowledge of user-names, passwords and other normal means of access. The goal is to ensure that the software performs reliably and securely under reasonable and even unreasonable production scenarios.

The process involves an active analysis of the system for any potential vulnerabilities that could result from poor or improper system configuration, both known and unknown hardware or software flaws, or operational weaknesses in process or technical countermeasures. This analysis is performed from the position of a potential attacker and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. A successful penetration may resulted in obtaining or subverting confidential documents, pricelists, databases and other protected information.
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Basic intro to Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)

Understanding the basic of Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is essential for network manager or engineer who are involved with the management of network equipment.

The protocol is defined in RFC (Request For Comments) by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). It is widely used for monitoring the health and welfare of network equipment like routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers and more. UDP port 161 and 162 are used in SNMP. UDP port 161 for sending and receiving requests, and port 162 for receiving traps from managed devices.

SNMP is based on the manager/agent model consisting of an SNMP manager, an SNMP agent, a database of management information, managed SNMP devices and the network protocol.

A SNMP managed device is a network node that implements an SNMP interface that allows unidirectional (read-only) or bidirectional access to node-specific information with Network Management System (NMS). Example of managed device includes switches, routers, server, printer or copier machines.

A SNMP agent is a network-management software module that resides on a managed device. An agent has local knowledge of management information and translates that information to or from an SNMP specific form.

A SNMP manager or NMS have the task of monitoring or managing a group of managed devices. NMSs provide the bulk of the processing and memory resources required for network management. One or more NMSs may exist on any managed network.

The local management information on the managed device are defined as variables. The variables accessible via SNMP are organized in hierarchies. These hierarchies, and other metadata are described by Management Information Bases (MIBs).

How to make vmware Mac image run faster

A search on the web give me the following solution to this issue:

1) Set the Guest OS type to Other > Linux
2) Go in the VMWare BIOS at boot time (F2), then disable the floppy and serial ports.

Worth a try, good luck!

Basic legal knowledge and expertise

Apart from lawyers, very few people like to discuss about law. Law is essentially a set of rules. However, it forms the foundation on which any civilized society is based today.

According to WikiAnswers, law is important because it acts as a guideline as to what is accepted in society. Without law there would be chaos and conflicts between social groups, society, construction, etc. Laws are everywhere and it is pivotal that we follow them. Law allows for easy adoption to change that occur in society.

Getting quality legal service is a costly affair and it needs lot of follow-up too. If a person lacks the basic legal knowledge, he may have to sacrifice his interests and may sustain huge loss in the course. Today’s professionals and educated should possess the basic legal knowledge as they may not know as to when they get an idea or opportunity to start their own organization.

Basic legal knowledge and expertise not only essential to entrepreneurs and business people, but also any individual. Various aspects of a business, such as setting up the business, buying or leasing a place for the business, hiring employees for the business, involve legal implications. Read the rest of this entry »

Go green, protect the environment, save the planet

Green is everywhere these days — in the news, politics, fashion, and even technology. As globalization makes the world become smaller, it becomes increasingly easy to see how the lives of people, plants and animals are closely synced up with one another.

More and more people are beginning to understand the impact of going green by adopting energy saving measures recycling or consuming only organic products to save our planet. Environmental consciousness is even beginning to extend into the business environment and having an environmentally friendly workplace is becoming more than just a trend today.

It is the time that each individual takes up the cause personally and works towards saving the environment. We have the power to control most of our choices and, therefore, the impact we create: from where we live to what we buy, eat, and use to light our home to where and how we vacation. All these activities can have global impact. Although there are small but valuable contributors we can make individually towards creating an eco-friendly environment and make this world a better place to live in.

As for example, we can eat more organic foods to decrease the amount of pesticides we consume. Choosing organic foods means helping promote organic agriculture and responsible land use. It helps protect the environment from overloading with toxic chemicals. We can also grow our own delicious, healthful organic food. Start small, even with just a single plant or two. Buying local means supporting the local economy and reducing the greenhouse gas emissions required to get food from its origin to your plate.
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Which image file type to use – GIF, JPEG, PNG

There are quite a number of image file types available such as PNG, GIF, JPEG and etc. What does each of these file types mean, and which format should we use especially in web site?

In the case of web site design, in order for users to view an image, they need to download it. In this case, slow internet connection or limitation of mail box size is something to be considered. In the worst case, an email system may reject to receive any email that is too big in size. Graphics in their natural state are too big to be quickly downloaded over the Web, so you have to compress them. As such, file size is usually the most important criteria in choosing a format for the web, or to send images by email.

The other important criterion when choosing an image format is image quality. There is typically a trade off between file size and quality – you can compress an image to a smaller size, however, you may need to sacrifice its quality. So, having a fair balance between loading time and quality of the image is not an easy task.

GIF — Graphics Interchange Format

GIF is an indexed format. This means that it uses a fixed list of colors instead of encoding every color separately.

Graphic images are normally not continuous tone. Graphics are drawings, not photos, and they use relatively few colors, perhaps less than 16 colors in the entire image. GIF is very efficient for images with a small number of colors, like a five-color corporate logo.

GIF files can be saved with a maximum of 256 colors (This is called as 8-bit color – 256 is 2 to the 8th power). Typical photographs have many more colors than that, so saving a photograph in GIF format will usually result in very poor quality. Even worse, with 256 colors, the file will usually be larger than a full-color JPEG version of the same image! The lesson is clear: don’t use GIF for photographs, only for simple icons and logos.

The GIF format offers two very useful features: transparency and animation. With transparency, you can make an icon with a clear background. This means that if you place a transparent GIF in a blue table cell, the background color of that image will turn blue. GIF only allow single-bit transparency. This means it does not allow for partial transparency; a pixel is either fully transparent or not transparent at all.

GIF can be animated – which allows you to create images that move. This is another reason GIF became so successful. Most web browsers support animated GIF images.

GIF can also be interlaced. This is a way of saving a graphic so that it loads progressively — appear first with poor resolution, low-detail version is loaded, and then successive layers of detail are added. This allow the viewer to get a quick idea of what the picture will look like while waiting for the rest. This is beneficial in many situations, as it gives the impression of a speedier download.

JPEG – Joint Photographic Experts Group

The 16-bit JPEG format was designed with photographs in mind. It is capable of displaying millions of colors at once, without the need for dithering, allowing for the complex blend of hues that occur in photographic images. Read the rest of this entry »

Six Actions toward transmitting desire into reality

According to Napoleon Hill, the author of “Think & Grow Rich!”, the method by which DESIRE for riches can be transmuted into its financial equivalent, consists of six definite, practical actions:

1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire. It is not sufficient merely to say “I want plenty of money.” Be definite as to the amount. (There is a psychological reason for definiteness which will be described in a subsequent chapter).
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire. (There is no such reality as “something for nothing.)
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money you desire.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.

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Wishing vs. Believing

There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being READY to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until he believes he can acquire it.

In his poem “My Wage”, Jessie B. Rittenhouse has stated that:

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
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FlvPlayer4Free – play FLV file downloaded from Youtube

One of the way to download video from Youtube to your computer is to use the following web site:

http://clipnabber.com/

Just paste the Youtube web page address (URL) for the video into the Paste URL and then click FLV download link to download the video in FLV format.
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How to set default printer in Linux or Unix

If you are using terminal setup in Unix systems like Linux, you can configure your default printer by:

1. csh shell version (by editing ~/.cshrc or ~/.tcshrc configuration files)

setenv PRINTER your-printer-name

2. bash shell version (by editing ~/.bashrc configuration file)

export PRINTER=your-printer-name

If CUPS is available in your system, you may issue the following command to have this change:

lpoptions -d printer-name

The ‘d’ option sets the default printer.

In the case of Ubuntu Linux, you can just go System->Administration->Printing to set up a printer as the default printer. Just click the Make default button on the Settings tab.