Hey everyone—if anyone has actually visited my page (probably not, lol). I just wanted to share why I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ve been buried in studying and didn’t want to put out half-baked content. But I realize I need to put more energy into sharing what I’ve learned to help others. Lately, I’ve…
Author: Shawn
Smoke loader targets Ukraine
The Ukrainian Government’s Computer Emergency Team, UA-CERT has published some significant findings regarding an email compromise scheme believed to have begun in April of this year after review of associated Domain registrations and file compilation times during malware analysis. The attack begins with the posed zip archive file, which in actuality is something called a…
Von Neumann Architecture
The internal components of most modern computers follow the Von Neumann architecture, which consists of five total components including three hardware components: These units are connected via buses and are used by the units to send control information to one another. A bus is a communication channel that transfers binary values between the various senders…
Operating System Fingerprinting for N00bs. How to Not Be a Creep…
What is OS Fingerprinting? Operating System Fingerprinting is the process that is done when you are trying to determine the identity of an endpoint or host by analyzing packets that originate from the device. This can be performed by security professionals or dirtbags or even you. It can be used as a method of reconnaissance…
Spooky CIDRs, Triads, and Ports
Sorry to disappoint you this lovely Halloween season…. But I am not giving away hot cider and taking you on a ghost tour. But giving you some CIDR notation specifics and a few ports to inspect and make sure there aren’t any ghosts creeping in your network…. What is a port? From Cloudflare, “A port…
Book Review | THE FIFTH DOMAIN
THE FIFTH DOMAIN DEFENDING OUR COUNTRY, OUR COMPANIES, and OURSELVES in the AGE of CYBER THREATS By Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake THE FIFTH DOMAIN Richard A. Clarke and Robert K. Knake are considered to be some of America’s top cybersecurity experts and in THE FIFTH DOMAIN they show us exactly why. These…
NMAP – The Network Mapper
NMAP (AKA “Network Mapper”) is a free and open source network scanner created by Gordon Lyon and originally released in September of 1997. It is a free and open source tool that is used for security auditing and network discovery. The power of NMAP lies in the hands of the user and can be used…
What is the SS7? (Signaling System 7)
So, what is SS7? Good Question. Signaling system 7 or for US readers CCSS7, was first developed in 1975 and is a signaling system used to support all global communication. It is the system used to route and bill telecommunications and it is the same architecture that supports SMS, 5G, and all mobile and landline…
Passed my Sec+ 601! Woohoo!!!
I’m more than a little late sharing this but, what can I say? I keep myself busy. I have been studying for this exam and was fortunate enough to pass on my first go. For anyone studying this exam I recommend Professor Messer, the official CompTIA study guide, as well as the Exam Prep application…
What is an Internet Exchange Point (IXP)?
What are Internet Exchange Points? According to Cloudflare, Internet exchange points, or IXP for short are “a physical location through which Internet infrastructure companies such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and CDNs connect with each other. These locations exist on the “edge” of different networks, and allow network providers to share transit outside their own network. By…