Encryption made simple

Encryption is a word you may have heard used in the computer world, but what you may not know is that as scary as it is, it really isn’t too complex. Actually way back in early Rome, Caesar used a simple method of encrypting messages he passed along to his soldiers and those who needed top secret information. What he did was used a style of encryption that’s now referred to as a Caesar Shift Cipher which in essence sounds really complex but is relatively simple.

In a caesarian cipher, the encryption is basically just a substitution that looks like this

Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz being the regular alphabet

Defghujklmnopqrstuvwxyzabc with the cipher using a shift of three

Basically what that means is that if you wanted to write something out you would use the 3rd letter over from where it would be in the regular alphabet

For example:

P svol fvn is the encrypted text

I love you is the decrypted text using a shift of eight instead of three

That being said, this method is very useful for manually encrypting passwords, network keys, or even just sending cute messages to your significant other given they’re as nerdly as you.
In modern encryption there are probably about a million different things you can use to encrypt anything and everything from files to messages.

This brings me to my next point of discussion; password security. Your password is not and will not ever be entirely safe. That being said, there are a number of ways to help beef up your security. Passwords can be encrypted using the method above, thus making your security greater, but what’s the use of all that if your password recovery question is something like

“What high school did you graduate from?” That kind of information is easily obtainable from any social networking site such as Facebook or even just Google if you’re a higher profile target.

Actually there is even a website that can randomly generate passwords for you here https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

On top of that, you can even encrypt your files using a program called truecrypt which can be found at http://www.truecrypt.org/

Hackers

Being online or even just near a computer is a gift and a pleasure but as with all things there are people who abuse the might they’re given. Specifically in these terms I’m talking about those referred to as “hackers,” however the thing that you may not understand is that the term hacker doesn’t imply anything malicious at all and can actually be a positive term.

Hackers are typically divided into 3 subcategories and a couple of variances that aren’t necessarily hackers but more so the leeches that feed off hackers’ designs and tools. The three main groups are black hat, grey hat, and white hat.



Let’s start with the most infamous subclass of hacker, the black hat. Black hats are most commonly seen as crackers or those would break into systems to corrupt or steal data. For example, the 2008 election was a huge target for hackers and one managed to break into Sarah Palin’s yahoo account by guessing the security question and exposed her personal e-mails to the world via WikiLeaks. That would be considered black hat hacking even though what was found in the e-mails may or may not have been official business being done through personal accounts.

A grey hat hacker is essentially just your average hacker who may or may not at some point in his or her hacking career crossed a legal or ethical boundary. These are the kind of people who break into systems just to do it. While they may not be looking for anything specific, often times a grey hat will hack into a system and leave it alone. This is because they aren’t looking to corrupt files or steal data; they’re simply broadening their knowledge of system structures and testing new techniques.

A white hat hacker is one who understands system security and uses hacking/cracking techniques to better improve system security. In some cases white hat hackers will break into systems to reverse effects of a black hat intrusion. We’ll use the election 2008 as an example once again. After the black hat gained control of the account and had already leaked the documents, a white hat or sometimes called “white knight” re-hacked the account to restore its security. He couldn’t undo the leaked documents because once they’re out there it’s almost impossible to contain their replication and keep them from going viral.

So what do we see in these three sub classes? Personally I see a misunderstanding perpetrated by the general population in regards to the term “hacker.” Then there must be some kind of definition that encompasses all three sub classes right? The answer is yes and no. People too often just plug in solutions that have already been established without coming up with something themselves, these are the leeches mentioned above. Everyone encounters problems in their lives; hackers are just regular people who create solutions to the problems presented to them.

- Art by Avi Ithier

Java Anonymity

So a few years ago I stumbled across a java based program that lets you hide your identity on the web. Back then it was still pretty glitchy and not really useful for the average person. Now its fairly stable and incredibly useful.

You might be saying to yourself "Ok... get to the point..." Well here it is; in recent years Google has started a new trend of tracking everything you do online.

How? With tracking cookies, search history, and your gmail account. Ever notice those suspiciously placed ads on your search page? Yeah well it's no coincidence.

Anywho, thats just the tip of the iceberg, it's not just Google, all of your favorite social media sites do it too. And that is why I'd like to take the time to tell you about JonDo.

Taken directly from the website "JonDo is a free, open-source and highly portable (Java-based) client software for accessing the JonDonym services. Its primary use is the anonymisation of web site requests against web site operators, internet providers and the anonymisation service Operators."

Translation: This little guy will let you use java to tap into internet anonymity and rid yourself of all those pesky little tracking bastards.

The interesting thing about this software is that its free and open source but has a paid for service if you so choose. I don't understand why you would want to pay for something that's free unless you're helping fund the research but even then I'm not entirely sure it goes to the founders of this service (if I had any clue who they were I'd mention them).

Another excerpt from the website "Moreover, the system provides so-called forwarding functionality. Users can connect to the service even if it is blocked by their provider. This is often the case in countries that are known for heavy censorship. Unblocked users of the service (Forwarding servers) may voluntarily forward other JonDonauts (Forwarding clients) to the Mix Cascades."

Translation: Even if something is blocked by your service provider, state, or country you can get access to it. Say you're in china and you want to use Google, this will aid you in your quest for por-... I mean legitimate searching of the interwebs.

All in all, this is a must have for your computer savvy tool kit. If you didn't catch the link above, you can read more about the program and get yourself a copy at http://www.jondos.org/en/jondonym

SkyDrive Returns

It's back with a vengeance. The office live team and the SkyDrive team decided to make a brain child and what came out was the upgrade to SkyDrive that lets you view and edit documents online IN REAL TIME.


Did I mention this service is free? Oh yes, I did way back in April or May when I talked about SkyDrive which by the way HAS ALWAYS BEEN FREE. Google Docs and Office Live used to be comparable, but this upgrade steamrolls the competition into a digital dust bunny. To those that designed and worked on this project: I tip my hat to you sir's and madame's of the world, thank you for this coded metaphysically disruptively awesome creation.

3rd party Zune HD apps and how YOU can get them

I got my Zune HD back in December and I was reading that Microsoft had no plans of releasing a developer kit for the Zune. I guess they finally realized that in order to compete with Apple's increasingly large library of apps, they'd have to give the public the same option as apple. Right now the process is a little screwy but I'm going to compile everything you need to get started right here.

First off you're going to need Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Express Editions with SP1 and XNA Game Studio 3.1

Once you have those two things you're getting closer to completing your training grasshopper, but first you must learn to utilize your new tools.

Yes, I know you thought you could skip ahead without reading the rest of this post but the funny thing is, you probably got an error that says something to the effect of untrustworthy files? Thought so.

You need the extensions for XNA game studio before the .ccgame files will actually work.

It get's to be quite tricky if you run into files that aren't wrapped in coded pink bows like the .ccgame files, in which case what you've got to do is deploy the app like a developer would! Sounds fun right?

If your file isn't a .ccgame file it most likely will end up being a zip/rar file. If that is the case, unrar the file and boot the .sln in Visual Studio. After that all you've gotta do is right click the title in the menu on the right side of the screen and click 'deploy'

Some of the apps you can find out there are still on the glitchy side so be very careful on what you modify.

Looking for apps to go with the instructions? Zune Clan and zhdapps.com have tons of great stuff for your 3rd party developed, pleasure.

Blogging 101

In the world of blogging many questions are asked but most go left unanswered. This video doesn't really cover a lot of information but provides a few tips and tricks for those of you just getting started or who are having technical difficulties.

Office 2010

All I can really say is