A person or other entity such as a computer program that attempts to cause harm to an information system; for example, by unauthorized access or denial of service. Human attackers are also called "crackers" and "hackers." See attack.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- Microsoft finds security hole in Google Chrome Frame
- A security researcher in the Microsoft Vulnerability Research MSVR has discovered a "high risk" Google Chrome Frame security vulnerability that could allow an attacker to bypass cross-origin protections. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-11-19
- Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploit
- Ummm interesting....so just block 139 and 445...445? great that port aggain.Is SMB blocked to/from internet by th firewall by default?RE: Microsoft confirms 'detailed' Windows 7 exploitPorts 139 and 445 are blocked by default for Internet access by Windows firewall in Windows 7 and any commerical hardware firewall. They are enabled...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-16
- Street Combat - Fire arms 1.0 (Mobile)
- Being attacked with a firearm turns the situation into a life and death matter.The firearm should never be your focus, the focus should remain on causing injuries and disabiling your attacker. Here are four routines on how to defend yourself against a frontal and rear attack. Here''''s the thing: If...
- Software downloads 2009-11-13
- Microsoft probing Windows 7 zero-day hole
- Microsoft said it is looking into a report of a vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server 2008 Release 2 that could be used by an attacker to remotely crash the computer. Microsoft said on Wednesday it is looking into a report of a vulnerability in Windows 7 and Server...
- News items 2009-11-12
- Mac OS X mega patch covers 58 security vulnerabilities
- Yikes, that sounds bad[i]The majority of the flaws could allow a remote attacker to gain complete control of an unpatched system, meaning that this update carries an "extremely critical rating."[/i]Makes me glad I run an alternate OS.473MB?!?!?!How do dial up users get this update?There is a potential positive spin on...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-09
- Mac OS X mega patch covers 58 security vulnerabilities
- The most serious of the flaws could allow a remote attacker to gain complete control of an unpatched system. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-11-09
- Counting vulnerabilities is pointless
- Suddenly it doesn't matter any more? Vulnerability count is an indication of software qualityIt goes directly to the process the vendor went through to root out vulnerabilities before shipping. At least if you compare products with the same general purpose and which receives the same amount of scrutiny.Time to fix...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-09
- Street Combat - FireArms (Mobile)
- Being attacked with a firearm turns the situation into a life and death matter. The firearm should never be your focus, the focus should remain on causing injuries and disabiling your attacker. Here are four routines on how to defend yourself against a frontal and rear attack.Here''s the thing: If...
- Software downloads 2009-11-08
- Planet Attacker 2009 20091014 (Mac)
- Planet Attacker 2009 is a simple 3D flight action game. The purpose of the game is to destroy all the enemy fighters and ground objects by flying your fighter. The objects in the game are imaginary space fighter sort of, but there is an additional configuration called "USAF version" in...
- Software downloads 2009-10-30
- Planet Attacker 2009 20091014 (Windows)
- Planet Attacker 2009 is a simple 3D flight action game. The purpose of the game is to destroy all the enemy fighters and ground objects by flying your fighter. The objects in the game are imaginary space fighter sort of, but there is an additional configuration called "USAF version" in...
- Software downloads 2009-10-30
- US-CERT warns about BlackBerry spyware app
- A free BlackBerry spyware application has been released to allow an attacker to call a user's BlackBerry and listen to personal conversations. by Ryan Naraine
- Blog posts 2009-10-28
- Facebook password-reset spam is Bredolab botnet attack
- For haven sake ...Could we be a little bit more specific."...password-reset messages to trick PC users into downloading a dangerous piece of malware."Do "PC" means Windows? I'm guessing because I see the words "PC" and "malware" in the same sentence, oh, and your screen shot is Windows. ...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-27
- 'Evil Maid' USB stick attack keylogs TrueCrypt passphrases
- nonsenseanybody who is truly concerned about security will have set the BIOS to require a password at boot...and will set 'boot from USB' to 'Disabled'.Can't you password protect from even booting up?I assume we are talking about business class laptops.InterestingPhysical security is paramount - especially when it comes to data...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-19
- 'Evil Maid' USB stick attack keylogs TrueCrypt passphrases
- Security researcher Joanna Rutkowska has released a PoC proof of concept of a keylogger that is capable of logging TrueCrypt's disk encryption passphrase enabling the attacker to successfully decrypt the hard drive's content. Dubbed, the 'evil maid' attack due to its 'plug-and-exploit' functionality requiring 1-2 minutes for...
- Blog posts 2009-10-19
- Microsoft: Human error caused critical SMB2 vulnerability
- did not explain why the fix was not back-ported to Windows Vista and other That very bad. I was wondering this myself when news broke that Win 7 was not vulnerable.What were they thinking? Fixing a bug and "forgetting" that other versions may actually be vulnerable?Or had they actually recorded...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-19
- Internet Firechrome Safari: A browsing identity crisis
- Chrome + Extensions = ^_^I am glad this article was written. I managed to rid myself of Internet Explorer 9 months ago, and haven't needed it since. My college campus has firefox pre-loaded onto every machine, and with Windows 7 "udpates" being handled within explorer instead of the IE browser,...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-15
- Google Chrome update doesn't remove older, vulnerable version
- But how would an attacker cause the vulnerable code to execute?Frankly, this seems to be a minor issue. If you are launching Chrome you will launch the latest version. The older version is just cruft. I don't see any scenario where you inadvertently or an attacker can execute the older...
- Discussion threads 2009-10-01
- Authentication Mechanisms for Physical Access Control
- The Protocol for Lightweight Authentication of IDentity PLAID is an authentication protocol that uses standards-based symmetric and asymmetric cryptography in a unique way to protect the communications between smart cards and terminal devices. Extremely fast and highly secure strong authentication of the smart card and data objects is possible without...
- White papers 2009-10-01
- Modern banker malware undermines two-factor authentication
- Ok, ill buy that..Yes Two-factor authentication doesnt help avoid the already infected. Now what the bank SHOULD have one other than the user having a fully patched system and AV if hes on Windows is when the website detected that there was activity from another IP address - represented another...
- Discussion threads 2009-09-23
- Mozilla patches 'drive-by download' security flaws
- Whoa! This batch patches 10 critical vulns!The "secure alternative" version 3.5 has already in its short life bypassed Internet Explorer 8. Firefox 3.5 now hit 18 vulns, IE8 has 12.Version 3.0 of Firefox which is of roughly the same age as IE has been hit with 114 (!) vulns.It seems...
- Discussion threads 2009-09-10
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