Learning Security with Mayur

I wrote a blog post in the month of December where I detailed about the new CISSP CAT format being launched by the (ISC)2. The post gave details about the new exam – what would it be all about, what does the new exam mean for you and important points to consider. Well, since I had passed the exam way back in July, there was no way, I would decide to sit for this difficult exam again. Luckily, few of my friends gave the CISSP CAT exam and passed it, so I spoke to them to understand their experience with this new exam format and decided to write about it. So here it goes… The Study Material The first question that comes to everyone’s mind is – Do I need to look for a new study material since the exam format has changed. The answer is NO. The CISSP study material remains the same. My friends referred to the following material, but this is not an exhaustive list in any way. My recommendation would be to stick to one particular book and get to know every word and line of it.

YourDomain.com was a big name in the domain management of various fortune 500 companies. Whenever a person or an organization wanted to buy or renew a domain name, “yourdomain.com” was the place to be for everyone. In a way, it was the market leader in this industry holding a 90% market share. It was the early morning of 13th February, when Jason, the lead engineer noticed something strange in the name servers of the company. The domains owned by the various customers were not reflecting on the administrative page. He immediately called his boss informing him of the problem. He also called the help desk of the company inquiring if any issues had been reported to them. Jason was surprised to hear that a number of customers had called and logged in grievances. The domain names and websites of various top customers were either being redirected to objectionable websites or reported as offline. The messaging services were also affected as the domain was not reachable. Jason’s

Many years ago, when social engineering  started  via mails, you could appreciate and easily identify, if careful, that this is a phishing mail. You could find mistakes in the emails which were sent - different font sizes in different lines, absurd mail ids etc. With time everyone improves and so have the social engineers. It’s a new world and the rules of the game have changed completely. Welcome to the new age of social engineering. Warrior Alone For most users, the experience of dealing with a phishing mail is a solitary one. When you receive a mail in your inbox, you are the one who decides whether to open it or discard it, reply to or flag it etc. If you take a wrong step, you can get the organization in grave danger. Occasionally, everyone has an inkling to either respond to or click on a link which is provided in a mail.  Today’s social engineering schemes are a step ahead. Let’s consider some of them: 1 .Let’s Reply Back -  In earlier times when phishing

Mark was the head of the Marketing Department in the company “IloveITSolutions”. He had spent 25 long years in this organization. He was working on a marketing plan for an upcoming product launch. He had communicated his requirement of two interns for his department which had still not been fulfilled. He called up the HR department to understand the delay in getting the two interns. The HR communicated that the interns would be arriving today; however, would be busy in a 2-day induction workshop organized for the new joiners. Mark was in no mood to let another 2 days pass by. He instructed the HR to send those interns immediately to him. He was the opinion that such induction sessions where the HR elaborated the policies of the organizations were of no use. Around an hour later, two nervous faces entered Mark’s cabin. Mark instructed them to prepare a marketing proposal by the end of the day. Annie and John looked at each other and enquired about the credentials to be used

Recently, one of my friends told me about an application (mobile app) which could easily fetch a lot of details about a vehicle and its owner. I was quite intrigued and decided to check this app out. When I logged onto the Google Play store, I found that there was not just one app but multiple apps which are offering anyone’s details free of cost to everyone in this world. Well, the first one of them is “ RTO: Vahan Vehicle Registration ”. It is quite simple. You just need to enter the vehicle’s number and voila, you get a trove of data. The app claims to provide you the following details - Owner Name, Address, Age, Engine Number, Chassis Number, Vehicle Registration Date, Vehicle Registration City, Type, Model, City, and State. The second one is “ RTO Vehicle Information ”. It also offers same details free of cost to you. These apps only work for vehicle registration in India.  Screenshots of the apps - courtesy Play Store:        While the free service is ap

Imagine you are sipping cold coffee and enjoying the view outside your room, when you receive a message on your smartphone that you have spent 5 million rupees at a shopping mall in Dubai. After the initial shock when you enquire about the transaction, you are shocked to know that you have swiped your fingerprint and approved the transaction. Well, don’t look at me in this manner and neither dismiss this as a wild fantasy. This is neither a fantasy nor a scene from an upcoming movie. If you would like to know how this will happen, read ahead. Fingerprint – Just a bitmap Image!!! With the introduction of the finger print scanner on iPhone, it became natural for other smartphone manufacturers to follow suit. The market was flooded with fingerprint scanners on smartphones. To understand the weakness which can be exploited, you need to understand the basics of how a fingerprint is stored in a smartphone. Most smartphones store fingerprint images in an unencryp

Ramnath was quite happy when he received the “card” from the bank. This was no ordinary “card” given to him. He could withdraw money from his account at any point of time by using this card and could also swipe it at any shop to buy goods for his family. The villagers thought it to be a Magic Card. You may think as to why would anyone consider a debit card as so special and extraordinary. Well, for Ramnath and other villagers in his village, this was the first time they had seen such a card. The bank had opened a new branch in this remote village and opened a new bank account for every villager under the “Khata Yojna” of the bank. Ramnath was also a beneficiary of this scheme. The villagers were then encouraged to deposit some amount in their bank accounts. Ramnath decided to put all his savings of Rs. 18000 in his bank account. He had saved this amount over years for the higher education of his only daughter, Kalavati. Kalavati wanted to be a doctor from childhood. She h