Students taught computer hacking

[Power Lunch Club]

Students are taught how to hack

A Scottish university claims that this will help them understand how to protect systems better.

Granted a student could be earning a nice salary at the end of the course as they would be in high demand by companies for their skills.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Tayside and Central | Students taught computer hacking

But who wouldn't be tempted by the "dark side" to cause chaos and mayhem with these skills.

Gordon

 

[Gordon N]

I had the same thought a few years ago when these courses first started within IT Training providers. The point to note is that anybody who takes a course in 'ethical hacking' is registered and if done professionally signs an agreement not to give out techniques to others and not to use it for non-ethical reasons.

Obviously it is down to the individual, but to be honest with you it is not an easy subject to learn so most people that are capable of any harm should be intelligent enough not to use it for such reasons.

You are right about the potential earnings though, some 'penetration testing' service providers charge a lot of money to highlight weaknesses in a network. I've got a mate in Fife that is qualified and even he was surprised at what he could charge for it!

Regards,

Gordon

 

[stugster]

No doubt Alison will be on in a second

Hiding your tracks is becoming ever more difficult, and the laws are being updated to catch the criminals and actually get a prosecution. The real problem we face is the hacking coming from a country outwith our jurisdiction, and because there's no legal repercussions for those hackers, they're more inclined to "just do it".

 

[IainKay]

I have friends of friends studying at Abertay on that course. I think it's great that people are being taught it properly securing servers is a money maker. And as stugster says it's very hard not to get caught these days the problem is really people doing it outwith our juristiction.

 

[stugster]

It's an interesting subject.

Slightly related, one of my specialist modules this year (September onwards) is Computer Forensics! oooooh

 

[Power Lunch Club]

It's an interesting subject.

Slightly related, one of my specialist modules this year (September onwards) is Computer Forensics! oooooh

Okay Quincy....how do they track these people down?

 

[IainKay]

Well I'm not Quincy but hey I have something to add

It's actually very easy to track down hackers online. Everything you access online is logged and part of these logs is the IP address of the visitor.
One can look up the IP address to see who owns it, this is usually the ISP or organisation the offender has used.
Then one would contact the ISPs abuse department (e.g. [email protected]) quoting part of the logs and what the offender attempted to do.

Said ISP will then disconnect the offender and if necessary contact appropriate legal authorities giving the offenders name, address, phone number etc.

Of course clever hackers will hijack innocent users computers and connect through them making the innocent users people ISPs and authorities are being informed about. Sometimes, this can cause to severe legal problems for the innocent users.

 

[stugster]

Which brings us to why you need to call Easy PC Scotland right now!!! And get your Wireless Internet secured

(N.B.: Those in the 'Deen, Angus, etc. will need to make a Curry/Mince 'n' Tatties for me coming)

 

[Power Lunch Club]

Which brings us to why you need to call Easy PC Scotland right now!!! And get your Wireless Internet secured

(N.B.: Those in the 'Deen, Angus, etc. will need to make a Curry/Mince 'n' Tatties for me coming)

I have to put in a network key to get my system connected....does this mean I am secure or am I missing something? What else do I need to be considering?

 

[IainKay]

If you are using a WPA key all is well, if you are using the less secure WEP assuming all your devices are fairly new you should be upgrading that to WPA. Most routers support both.
The difference is major - it takes around 15 seconds to crack a WEP key or weeks for a WPA.

You should also be looking at MAC address filtering. Every device you have has a MAC address which is the physical identifier of each wireless card. If you limit access to only these MAC addresses no one else can get in without finding one out and copying it.

And of course there's the obvious - make sure the actual key is secure! It takes no time to crack a key of 'apple' but 'a8v79AbS62gA09' will take far longer.

 

[Power Lunch Club]

WPA2 is what mine seems to be telling me.....so does the 2 means I am extra extra secure?

 

[IainKay]

Indeed WPA2 is newer and more secure than WPA but less devices support it. You must have some pretty new kit

 

[Power Lunch Club]

Indeed WPA2 is newer and more secure than WPA but less devices support it. You must have some pretty new kit

Well I like to think I am at cutting edge of things when it comes to technology....I WISH!!!! I have just mastered the microwave oven!!

It's nice to know that at least I have some good security on my internet access...thanks for the post!

Gordon

 

[IainKay]

No problem
I don't understand why manufacturers don't put in a good quick setup guide so that -every- user knows this stuff.
It's not hard to get your head around. But then it would put me (and stuart and others) out of a job

 

[sign-age-graphics]

As a wardriver and wifi enthusiast, i can speak quite confidently when it comes to wireless security!

 

[stugster]

Hey! Interesting to see another wifi enthusiast!

A lot of my income over Jan-July was through "wardriving" and posting flyers through the doors of insecure wifi houses.

Brought a fantastic return (in fact, I should go out and do it again, I still have about 2000 flyers kicking around!).

When I was using Netstumbler, I slapped my GPS into the laptop too to record the co-ordinates, and then overlayed them using another piece of software onto Google maps.

It was very very nice! i might do it again soon and post the info

 

[sign-age-graphics]

I love wifi!

building antennas, etc and trying to crack signals (just for fun, never for any materail gain!!)

downloaded the 3rd release of backtrack the other day actually, just not had any time to play around with it!

like Iain said above, WPA2 is the best encryption available at the moment. If you use that, use MAC address filtering, hide your ESSID and use a really obscure password, you should be fine!

just remember to be vigalant though, no wireless signal is unbreakable!

 

[IainKay]

For the record if I recall correctly Trend Micro Internet Security comes with a handy tool that pops up when a new user connects to your wireless network.
Great to catch people out and block their MAC address at the router

 

[IT Training UK]

We run a coures here at new horizons called "ethical hacking" I attended it. the first thing our trainer done was he hacked into a well know flower shop and changed the rrp of 24 roses to 1 pence, he proceeded to purchase the roses and send them to his wife.

It was quite incredibble!

He assured me that he contacted the site after the lesson to inform them of the breach

Scott

 

[pdu]

Interesting reading this, but please people, remember having a secure wifi isn't even half of the battle. Antivirus and Anti-spyware software is a must, and to those of you still running that 'free' copy of norton that came with your PC 3 years ago, your virus definitions are 2 years and 9 months out of date, unless you kept paying
AVG Free - AVG Free - Download antivirus and antispyware software for Windows XP and Vista for your antivirus
Lavasoft Adaware - Ad-Aware @ Lavasoft - The Original Anti-Spyware Company - Lavasoft
Also, if you find either of those report you have a keylogger and you shop online, its time to ask your friendly bank manager to replace your cards before they get used in pakistan/russia/other dodgy country.