Cracking Encryption Keys

We all know we need to protect sensitive, confidential or customer related data, with strong encryption algorithms and lengthy keys.

But where does the buck stop? How much security is too much security, for something with absolutely no financial value - like for example a calculator’s Operating System?

Texas Instruments Signing Keys Broken

History of Hacking

An interesting time-line, for casual reading: History of Hacking

Using Twitter as a Botnet Command Channel

Just when you thought you knew everything there is to know about Twitter, here comes another surprise..!!

Brazilian ID thieves are using Twitter streams to send commands to their botnets. The bots are programmed to monitor RSS feeds from these Twitter accounts.

Sounds pretty innovative, right?

Analyzing Tr.im's Sad Demise

www.Tr.im, a popular URL shortening service, is shutting down its business. Hence, in a few months from now, all the tr.im links over the internet may die.

So, this makes me wonder:

1. What is going to happen in case more and more of these types of services go out of business? Ever wondered how that could adversely affect our "World Wide Web"? How frustrating it would be to not be able click and navigate to the useful links we find, in gazillions of blogs, whitepapers, news articles, etc. over the net?
2. What if a spammer or a hacker buys the domain name after tr.im (or another similar service) ends its ownership? Instead of killing all the tr.im URLs on the internet, he may decide to point them to any malicious website of his choice!

This just goes on to prove that our internet still needs some more time to mature and be a smarter and safer place to hangout.

There Is No Honor Among Hackers

Holy smokes, hackers don't even spare each other...

Hanging with hackers can make you paranoid

The Economics of Botnets & 0-Day Market

Ever wondered what all can a botnet actually do? How much damage can it cause? Or how much does it cost to rent a botnet or even better - how much can you earn from a botnet..??

All this and more answered by Yury Namestnikov in his blog.

Another very good paper to read, is by the famous Dr. Charlie Millar
The Legitimate Vulnerability Market: Inside the Secretive World of 0-day Exploit Sales

Update 03-Apr-2012:
Some current figures around how much a 0-day can be worth.

Update 01-Jun-2012:
Mr. Schneier finally speaks on this topic

Update 13-May-2013:
Very interesting, the US government is a big buyer of 0-day exploits!!

Web App Security Portfolio

Ever wondered how to go about documenting and securing all the web applications in your organization?

This article from Nick Coblentz will definitely be of help.