Experts Talk

Hacking Quotes!

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:08:00 +0000

A computer makes as many mistakes in one second as three men working for thirty years straight.

A computer program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do.

A computer program will always do what you tell it to do, but rarely what you want to do.

A computer scientist is someone who fixes things that aren’t broken.

A fellow who is always declaring that he is no fool usually harbors suspicions to the contrary.

A friend in power is a friend lost.

A logician trying to explain logic to a programmer is like a cat trying to explain to a fish what it’s like to get wet.

A man will believe anything that does not cost him anything.

A misplaced decimal point will always end up where it will do the greatest damage.

A narrow mind has a broad tongue

Hacking Quotes!

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:02:00 +0000

Do you program in Assembly? she asked. NO, he said.

INSERT DISK THREE? But I can only get two in the drive!

Intel Inside is a Government Warning required by Law.

Intel Inside: The world’s most widely used warning label.

2 + 2 = 5, for extremely large values of 2.

2400 Baud makes you want to get out and push!

586: The average IQ needed to understand a PC.

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk I have a workstation…
A C program is like a fast dance on a newly waxed dance floor by people carrying razors.

A closed mouth says nothing wrong; a closed mind does nothing right.

A complex system that does not work is invariably found to have evolved from a simpler system that worked just fine.

A computer is like an Old Testament god, with a lot of rules and no mercy.

Technological Singularity

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:56:00 +0000

Imagine a society where one could upload, or download a personality from a supercomputer, or increase intelligence by artificial means. This illustrates a society that transcends to the metaphysical, making conventional human ability obsolete. Think this as a far-fetched idea? Think again. Trans-humanism: the philosophical movement that merges technology with humans, eventually leading to the next evolution in the human cycle. This evolution results in sophistically engineered posthumans. Once humans advance anatomically and neurologically beyond genotypical, and phenotypical patterns they can no longer be named as biological humans.

One area of the Trans-humanist progressive expansion lies in the field of Neurotechnology or Neurobionics. Neurotechnology: a set of instruments that analyze and influence the brain, and central nervous system in a desired effect. Neurochips, the silicon devices that are implanted inside neurons connected to the brain, allow brain manipulation. Transhumanist movements lead to neurological advancements in these neurochips. Despite its many possible advantages, disadvantages appear that could lead us into a negative technological singularity.

With progressive movements in Neurotechnology and Neurobioncs, many advantages for the neurologically impaired increase. New medical instruments are being created in areas of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, and Neurotechnology to help those with neurological disorders in ways that were not previously open for patients before. Some of the possible advancements include nanomachines that interact with anatomical structures of the brain, which perform microsurgery inside the neural network system on cancerous cells, or damaged tissue.

Nanomachines, or nanites are submicroscopic robots that can perform medical functions within bloodstreams, or neurons of a living organism. This includes intracellular surgery on tumors, and the removal of clotted material in living cells. Nanites can store gigabytes of medical information on human anatomy to preform such task. ("Nanites"). Brain Interface Chips could be used as chips that link with the nanomachines using the Central Nervous System, and send messages and tasks to 'Task Forces' from the Command Chip which is linked directly to the Interface Chip. There will most likely be a neurochip that acts as a command and control chip which feeds information from the Central Nervous System to nanomachines, in the brain to carry out different task, such as destroying viruses, speeding up the healing process from different wombs and tissue in the brain; to detailed information from a database on human anatomy to perform microsurgery on areas such as the eyes, ears, and nerve repair.

"Aside from the more obvious tasks of destroying a virus, speeding the healing process from wounds, and taking out cancerous cells, the nanomachines would help in creating much healthier and fitter people for specific jobs such as astronauts, soldiers etc." It may even be possible to explore the brain and use the information to one day awakens the apparently dormant parts of the human mind. (Langley, Jason). If these nanomachines where to preform such complex task, they would have to have advance artifical intelligence; or intelligence that would require a task to be done by a human.

Different type of intelligence that would be incorporate into these machines would depend on the task it is carrying out. For example algorithms are certain rules to solve a problem, while heuristics are general steps that humans take in order to solve a problem without the knowledge of success; or trail and error type problem solving. One could assume that both of these methods would be incorporate into these nanomachines for advance problem solving abilities. (Levive, Talking Tech pg 49-50). Artificial intelligence in the neural network system allows for other technological advances such as nanobombs to blow up, and destroy tumors inside the nervous system on the submicroscopic level without human surgery. People with neurological diseases such as Cerebral Palsy can be treated with advance technological advances in neuroprothetics, with promising results from animal testing.("Neurobionics What The"). "Neurobionics has a future in neuroprothetics and robotics." ("Neurobionics What the"). Neurons are specialized cells that carry out messages through an electrochemical process throughout different regions of the brain. ("Types of Neurons"). Neurochips has a promising future for people with learning disabilities and neurological disorders. Neurochips can manipulate external mechanical devices such as a prosthetic arms, legs, and even paralyzed muscles. ("Foundation For People"). Neurochips stimulates single neurons, or group of neurons in the biological neural network system. Many great steps has been made in sensory substitution in recent years. Especially in areas in vision due to the increase knowledge of the visual system and eye implants. ("Brain Implant"). Sensory substitution is the principle that transform characteristic of one sensory modality into a stimuli of another sensory modality. ("Sensory Substitution"). Implantation of electrodes deep inside the brain can "recalibrate" areas of normal function by constant weak electrical simulation to certain areas for sensory modality. ("Trudeau, Michelle") This has important advantages for people with Alzheimer's disease, because silicon chips implanted inside the brain can mimic the hippocampus. The hippocampus is an area known in the brain for storing and creating memory. This chip could potentially aid people suffering from memory loss form new memories, and store old memories for longer periods of time. ("Sandhand, Lakshi"). Neurochips might also substantially increase the intelligence of mentally disabled people. The thought that people have would this new found freedom, could open up a virtual pandoras box of chaos which will be explained later. Other possibilities for paralyzed patients are neurosensors that would be connected by electrodes and fiber optics cable into the motor cortex which would allow that person to manipulate their electronic environment around them. Such as operating a computer by thought alone, turning on and off light switches in their house, to manipulating their oven's heat temperature. ("Brain Implants ..2").

If history shares any economic relationships with the past one may argue that those who foresee these changes and can ride the technological wave may have much to invest in. Biologist have came a long way achieving great success in the Human Genome Project, which has sped up sequencing of DNA by many magnitudes .According to Kurzweil an analysis of the history of technological evolution is exponential contrary to intuitive linear view. “So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century– it will be more like 20,000 years of progression.” (“Kurzweil”). The “returns” which involves microchip speed and cost-effectiveness also obeys this law, The Law of Accelerating Returns. Mathematically there should even be an exponential growth within the rate of exponential growth. Futurist predict that within a few decades machine intelligence or artificial intelligence will transcend human intelligence. Technological change would be so rapid, and significantly profound that it would forever change the fabric of human history. As discussed previously these changes include merges with biological and non-biological technology, and possibly ultra-intelligent software, and intelligence.

Mathematically exponential trends in the past were so flat that there appeared to be no trend. Lack of technological expectations have been fulfilled. Most long term forecast of technological feasibility in the future is underestimated in the power of evolutions. This is the paradigm based on intuitive linear view of technological progression rather than exponential historical view of technological progression. Kurzweil mathematically predicts that we will see 100 years worth of technological progression in 25 years. Rapidly accelerated technological progression and societal change due to the event of superhuman intelligence would change society in one night, more than society has changed in 1,000 years. This fast pace movement would be so advance, that whatever we predict to happen now in the pre-singularity age, will probably be surpassed in the post Singularity age due to smarter than human intelligence. The uncertainty in the direction of this technological progression is called Singularity.

"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will end." ("Vinge, Vernor"). "The theory of transformation states that humans will incorporate AI into their own biology."("Artificial Intelligence Theory"). Neurochips implanted into the human mind, can increase intelligence far surpass any human on earth. With this intelligence, humans can create smarter than human intelligent supercomputers, and robots. In return these supercomputers, and robots can create smarter supercomputers and robots, and so on, and so forth, until humans become totally obsolete. This would steepen the have from the have nots. The upper class elite could increase their intelligence, and life years by artificial means, while the lower and middle class go without, which means they would become obsolete themselves causing societal problems. Genetically engineered posthumans or greater than humans would outclass, out smart, and out preform "normal" human intellect, and human ability. Another possibility in this singularity future is mind downloading, and uploading onto a supercomputer. Basically this allows a user to download their mind, and reconstruct it down to the single neuron onto an artificial hardware for a cloned brained of that user. Essentially creating many conscious minds, and possibly souls of the person.("Bostrom, Nick"). Doing so creates many bioethical, and societal problems. For example, Ray in the year 2055 downloads his mind onto a supercomputer creating an exact copy of his mind. Doing so creates two of the same Rays, both of them swearing they are the original Ray. Who would be the real Ray? What ethical laws does this create? Does this make the second Ray a real person, and a law abiding person, or entity? Should the second Ray [downloaded version] be treated the same as a human, is this Ray human? How will this effect the original Ray? Does the second Ray have a soul? What happens if someone else uploads this Ray into their body? Do they become the same Ray? Do they think the same way? Do they now have the same souls? ("Kadmon, Adam"). The questions that are brought up with Neurochips are its insidious usages. If a person with Alzheimer's disease is implanted with a chip that mimics the hippocampus then how will that person know that the memory they have is of their own? With the implanted Neurochip, could come implantation of false memories. Memories the person never had. This could be used for massive brain washing, political propaganda, assassinations, and cover ups. The person with this implanted chip, may not even own their own mind. These chips can alter emotions, and actions of the user against their own will for desired effects of an euphoric feeling. In a future scenario an unknown homeless person could be beaten up, have his memory erased, implanted with a neurochip, having fond memories of a family he never had. While in reality this person assassinated a prominent political leader with skill and knowledge that allowed him to do so inserted into his neurons; doing so he thought he was in a skiing trip in CO. with his unknown family, swearing he killed no one [a possibility].

Another possibility is that humans can be implanted with chips that has the internet, making our brains online. Allowing us to surf the web mentally, and commutate with other uses telepathically. Dangers of this would include the question would we even own our own brain at this time? Would we have to pay for our minds? What if our minds get a virus? Could someone hack into our brain, and steal our memories, knowledge, experience and IQ? What security measures would we have to pay the Federal Government to have firewalls, and anti-virus programs installed into our minds [technology joke]? If one chooses not to have this technological progression incorporated into their body would they be left behind? What kind of world would it be like if humans were genetically engineered into the very best posthumans society could produce? It would leave everyone else without these golden genetics behind. Foreign and domestic governments could use this technology to create a dystopian government system [humans are destructive remember]? A world government system that has eliminated war, crime, poverty, and depression by creating a homogenous high-tech society across the entire world and social system , based on the principles of a technological utopia that creates a society free of care.

The irony of this is, in order to achieve this utopia, many things will possibly be eliminated including "family, cultural diversity, art, literature, religion and philosophy." ("Brave New World"). This singularity and dystopian future could also put the inferior and elite in different caste systems. Creating inequality in our society, but achieving certain societal "goals". ("Brave New World"). The monster we create could be the monster that destroys us. "Humans are constrained to only a few types of change acceptable, although the rational parts of our mind often remind us that change can be good." ("Kadmon, Adam"). Even though this technology is a double edge sword, we have the choice to choose where it will lead our society, we can bring our society into singularity break down, or singularity posterity. The choice is ours.

"Ex machina Libertas" means technology will set you free. This means that rationally applied technology will improve human conditions. ("Slogans"). But on the other hand "Eritis sicut dii", means that you shall be as gods. Which is similar to Genesis 3:5 comparing the relationship between the snake, and Eve, with technology representing the neo-fruit of knowledge opening our eyes to both good and evil knowledge.("Slogans ..2"). Which makes it up to humans to decide if Transhumanist movements in Neurotechnology , and technology will lead our society into a horrific melt-down into a singularity.

Who are we? What do we want? What defines us? What is it that defines you? Besides the biological aspect, that makes us humans? Why is our species so special? What makes us special? Why do humans want to recreate themselves? What is so special about our culture, social aspect, and lives? Why do we want to create something better than ourselves? Why do we want to create something that would make our lives so easy that we would no longer have to do manual labor, and make all human ability obsolete? One must ask themselves would they like to live in a world that would be ruled by machines, and technology? If we are lucky nature will forgive us, and our higher species will put us into cages, and make us do tricks for treats.

Quantum Computing Gets Boost From 'Entanglement' Of Atom Pairs

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:55:00 +0000

Physicists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken a significant step toward transforming entanglement--an atomic-scale phenomenon described by Albert Einstein as "spooky action at a distance"--into a practical tool. They demonstrated a method for refining entangled atom pairs (a process called purification) so they can be more useful in quantum computers and communications systems, emerging technologies that exploit the unusual rules of quantum physics for pioneering applications such as "unbreakable" data encryption.

The NIST work, reported in the Oct. 19, 2006, issue of Nature,* marks the first time atoms have been both entangled and subsequently purified; previously, this process had been carried out only with entangled photons (particles of light). The NIST demonstration also is the first time that scientists have been able to purify particles nondestructively. Direct measurement would destroy the delicate entangled state of atom pairs; the new experiment gets around this problem by entangling two pairs of atoms and measuring only one pair.

Entanglement is a curious property of quantum physics that links the condition and behavior of two or more particles, such as atoms or photons. Entanglement can occur spontaneously when two atoms interact. For the initial interaction, the atoms have to be in close proximity, but the entanglement may persist even if they are physically moved apart. The quality of the entanglement can be degraded by many environmental factors, such as fluctuating magnetic fields, so the process and the transport of entangled particles need to be tightly controlled in technological applications. The purification process implemented at NIST can clean up or remove any distortions or "noise" regardless of the source by processing two or more noisy entangled pairs to obtain one entangled pair of higher purity.

"We demonstrated entanglement purification with relatively high success rates in an ion trap system that could be scaled up to build quantum computers of a practical size," says Dietrich Leibfried, an author of the paper and designer of the experiment. "It's a more complicated procedure than anything we've demonstrated before, and it will be useful in many contexts once we improve our purification procedures."

The NIST team used ultraviolet lasers to entangle two pairs of beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms) in an electromagnetic trap. A similar process was used to cross-entangle the entangled pairs--that is, to entangle each member of the first pair with its counterpart in the second pair. Then the first pair of ions was measured, and the results were used as an indication of whether the second pair (unmeasured, and thus with its quantum state intact) was entangled with higher purity. Additional tests were performed to verify that the quality of the entanglement had indeed improved.

The reported purification rate is a record (although the entangled state is not yet pure enough for use in a working computer or other device) with more than one success for every three attempts, compared to one in a million in the photon experiments. Theoretically, the NIST process could be enhanced and then repeated as many times as necessary to create a stream of near-perfectly entangled pairs in a computer or network. The NIST team's continuing research aims to substantially improve the purification operations through, for example, improved control of magnetic fields and laser intensity.

The same NIST group previously has demonstrated at a rudimentary level all the basic building blocks for a quantum computer, including key processes such as error correction and, most recently, a mass-producible ion trap. Ions are among the most promising of a dozen or so candidates for quantum bits (qubits) to store, manipulate, and transport quantum information.

Quantum computers, if they can be built, could break today's best public-key encryption systems, used to protect commercial communications. Quantum communications systems, if well designed, provide a new approach to "unbreakable" encryption to keep messages secret. Quantum computers also potentially could be used to optimize complex systems such as airline schedules, accelerate database searching, and develop novel products such as fraud-proof digital signatures.

Entanglement could have many uses in large quantum computers and networks. For example, it is required for "teleportation" of information (http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/teleportation.htm), a process that could be used to rapidly transfer data between separate locations in quantum computer, or to detect and correct minor operational errors (http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/quantum_computers.htm). Entangled photons are used in various forms of quantum cryptography, and are the clear choice for long-distance communication.

Purification is crucial because particles can be entangled initially only when they are close together, and the link degrades as the particles are moved apart. The NIST process could be used, for example, to purify entangled ions before transfer of information to photons in large networks. Most long-distance quantum communication schemes require data transfer from storage qubits to transport qubits. "If someone comes up with an interface for efficiently transferring information from ions to photons, then ions could be used for purification and photons for transport," Leibfried says.

Funding for the research was provided in part by the Disruptive Technology Office, an agency of the U.S. intelligence community that funds unclassified research on information systems.

More information about NIST research on quantum computers and communications is available at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/quantum/quantum_info_index.html.

As a non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration, NIST promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

New Computer Program Prevents Crashes And Hacker Attacks

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:54:00 +0000

Today's computers have more than 2,000 times as much memory as the machines of yesteryear, yet programmers are still writing code as if memory is in short supply. Not only does this make programs crash annoyingly, but it also can make users vulnerable to hacker attacks, says computer scientist Emery Berger from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

With such problems in mind, Berger created a new program that prevents crashing and makes users safer, he says. Dubbed DieHard, there are versions for programs that run in Windows or Linux. DieHard is available free for non-commercial users at www.diehard-software.org.

Berger developed DieHard together with Microsoft researcher Ben Zorn. Berger has received a $30,000 grant from Microsoft, a $30,000 grant from Intel, and a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his work on DieHard.

Almost everything done on a computer uses some amount of memory--each graphic on an open Web page, for example--and when a program is running, it is constantly requesting small or medium chunks of memory space to hold each item, explains Berger. He likens the memory landscape to a row of houses, each with only enough square footage for a certain number of bytes. The problem, says Berger, is that sometimes when memory real estate is requested, programs can unwittingly rent out houses that are already occupied. They also might request a certain amount of square footage when they actually need more, so an item can spill over into another "house." These mistakes can make programs suddenly crash, or worse.

"Ironically, crashing is the best thing that can happen," says Berger. "An overflow also can make your computer exploitable by hackers."

One way that the computer becomes more vulnerable results from the fact that "addresses" that are designated for a password, for example, will be on the same lot on the same street in every version of the program. So if a hacker overwrites a password, he or she can easily locate the password address on any of the umpteen versions of the program that are out there.

DieHard presents several remedies to such problems. First, it takes a compact row of memory buildings and spreads them around in the landscape. It also randomly assigns addresses--a password that has a downtown address in one session may be in the suburbs next time around. And in some versions of the program, DieHard will secretly launch two additional versions of the program the user is running--if a program starts to crash, that buggy version gets shut down and one of the other two is selected to remain open. DieHard can also tell a user the likelihood that they'll have been affected by a particular bug.

These problems wouldn't arise if programmers were a little less focused on speed and efficiency, which is rarely a problem these days, and more attentive to security issues, says Berger.

"Today we have way more memory and more computer power than we need," he says. "We want to use that to make systems more reliable and safer, without compromising speed."

The First Molecular Keypad Lock

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:53:00 +0000

How can defense or intelligence agencies safeguard the security of top-secret data protected by a computation device the size of a single molecule?

With cryptography approaching that sobering new era, scientists in Israel are reporting development of what they term the first molecular system capable of processing password entries. Abraham Shanzer and colleagues describe their "molecular keypad lock" in the Jan. 17 issue of the weekly Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Electronic keypad locks long have been fixtures on home security systems and other devices that require a password. The new study, however, describes a keypad lock based on molecules that fluoresce only in response to the correct sequences of three input signals.

"By harnessing the principles of molecular Boolean logic, we have designed a molecular device that mimics the operation of an electronic keypad, a common security circuit used for numerous applications in which access to an object or data is to be restricted to a limited number of persons," the researchers state. "The development of a molecular-scale keypad lock is a particularly attractive goal as it represents a new approach to protecting information at the molecular scale."

The researchers cite DNA-microdot encryption as a complementary approach, which in combination with their molecular lock might provide an unbreakable protection against forgery.

The First Molecular Keypad Lock

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:53:00 +0000

How can defense or intelligence agencies safeguard the security of top-secret data protected by a computation device the size of a single molecule?

The researchers cite DNA-microdot encryption as a complementary approach, which in combination with their molecular lock might provide an unbreakable protection against forgery.

Security That Nets Malicious Web Sites

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 11:51:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered how fraudulent or malicious websites can rank highly on search engines like Google or Yahoo?

Queensland University of Technology IT researcher Professor Audun Josang said a website's ranking was determined by the number of people who visited the site - the more hits the higher the ranking.

But this system is fraught with danger and can be easily manipulated directing people to unreliable, low quality and fraudulent sites, according to Professor Josang.

"Just because a website ranks highly on a search engine doesn't mean it's a good website, in fact highly ranked websites can be malicious websites," he said.

To safeguard against this type of threat, Professor Josang believes the answer is to develop a new type of internet security system based on "reputation" where a community of users can rank the quality of a website.

He said this could then be used to warn others from visiting that site.

"For example most people are able to recognise a website that tries to trick them into giving confidential information (a phishing attack) when they see it," he said.

"With this system, aware users can rate such websites as malicious and as a result a phishing site will be quickly and universally recognised as dangerous, warning unsuspecting users against visiting that site."

Professor Josang said using this "social control" approach could provide protection against this type of online threat, by preventing attacks before they occurred.

"Social control methods, also known as soft security, adhere to common ethical norms by parties in a community.

"They make it possible to identify and sanction those participants who breach the norms and to recognise and reward members who adhere to them."

Professor Josang said in today's technologically advanced world of business, high ranking of a company's web page was a crucial factor for its success.

"This is why the control of search engines is so important and why it can be financially worthwhile for businesses to manipulate the system."

The central idea of Professor Josang's research is to take search engines one step further and by using them to make the internet a safe place to interact and transact.

"This project is about a new type of internet security that can be supported by search engines. There is a deception waiting for you around every corner on the internet and the technology we develop will protect people from that.

"I think in the future reputation systems, integrated into search engines, can be used to weed out such websites by giving them a low ranking and thereby making them invisible to unsuspecting users."

XP Hack: Hacking Precautions

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:11:00 +0000

Although all of the hacks and tips mentioned here have been tested, if a step is accidentally
missed or a typo made, your computer could experience severe problems.To make sure
that your computer is protected, I highly recommend that you use the Windows XP system
restore feature.

SYSTEM RESTORE
Windows XP system restore is a great program that monitors all of the changes to your
computer. If you make a change to the system registry as one of the hacks in this book
requires you to do, you can always undo the change by reverting to an earlier system
restore point.

By default,Windows XP creates a restore point once per day. But if you are
making a lot of changes to your computer, it is a good idea to create a restore point before
every computer modification. The following two sections will show you how to use system
restore to create a restore point, and how to restore your computer to an earlier
checkpoint.

CREATING A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT

1. Click the Start button, expand All Programs, Accessories, and System Tools, and select
System Restore.
2. When System Restore loads, select Create a Restore Point and click Next.
3. Type in a short description for the checkpoint in the box and click Create.
4. Once the restore point is created, just hit Close.

RESTORING YOUR COMPUTER TO AN EARLIER RESTORE POINT

1. Click the Start button, expand All Programs, Accessories, and System Tools, and select
System Restore.
2. When System Restore loads, select Restore My Computer To An Earlier Time and click
Next.
3. Browse through the calendar and select the restore point that you want your computer to
revert to and click Next.
4. The Confirm Restore Point Selection screen will be displayed. Click Next to proceed.

Keep in mind that you may lose any files that were created when you revert to an earlier
restore point. Make backup copies of important documents and files on a floppy or network
drive of important documents just in case.
Once you click Next, your computer will reboot and revert to the earlier restore point.

Hacking XP- A Vivid Collection of About 200 Hacks

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:05:00 +0000

EVER THOUGHT THAT YOU COULD HACK YOUR OWN SYSTEM

No! Then your journey starts here...
This section will contain all the hacks for XP, so keep checking!

See Yaa
Amateur Hackers

*Perform all the hacks at your own risk.

Create Computer Games - Get Started on Creating Your Own Virtual Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:04:00 +0000

I’ve always loved video games, ever since I first played them on a friend’s computer in the afternoon after elementary school. There’s something almost magical about the fact that we can move images around and interact with virtual worlds, a living fantasy presented for us to interact with however we please.

I’ve also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn’t have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I’m a second year software engineering student, so if I weren’t able to code a game without too many dramas there’d be something drastically wrong.

But what about the common person: the person for whom the term ‘memory leak’ conjures up images of their grandfather, ‘pipeline’ is where the water flows, and ‘blitting’ is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don’t even need to learn ‘real’ programming to do so.

So where do games start? With an idea. Games, like all fiction, require an idea to be successful. Sure, in the same way you can just sit down and write a story without foresight, you can jump on in and slap a game together. However, unless you get ridiculously lucky, the best works are usually the ones that have been well thought out beforehand.

There are two methods of planning a project. You can start from a known technological standpoint and build your project on top of that or you can just go for the design, add as many features and ideas as you like, and then remove the ones that you can’t use when you’ve decided on the technology you’re going to implement the game with. In general, the second type is probably the best one to go with when designing games. When you’re first starting out however, the first option will save you many headaches.

So, for a first game you’re going to want a pretty simple idea. Don’t get me wrong, crazy-go-nuts game ideas are fantastic, and there should be more of them out there, but you’re not going to be able to create a real world simulator with fifty billion virtual people all interacting real time with your actions having a butterfly effect on the future of the virtual universe when it’s just your first game. Really. Many people try it; none that I know of have succeeded.

Imitation is the best way to start out. Simple games such as ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Pacman’ or even ‘Pong’ are great places to start. All are largely simple to create but have some inherent challenges. ‘Pacman’ for example, requires path finding for the ghosts. I recommend that you start even simpler than that for your very first attempt. ‘Space Invaders’ is a nice point to jump in. You can make a simple, complete game without much effort and it’s almost infinitely extensible.

If you’re stuck for an idea, pick a genre that you enjoy. Do you love adventure games such as ‘Monkey Island’, ‘Grim Fandango’, ‘Space Quest’, ‘King’s Quest’ etc.? Design one of those. Are you into fighting games like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Tekken’, ‘Soul Calibur’, ‘Mortal Kombat’ and so on?

Come up with an idea for that. Do you like first person shooters such as ‘Quake’, ‘Half Life’ or ‘Doom’? I don’t recommend it as a first project, but you can always give it a go. Feel free to be as generic as you like, this is a learning experience after all.

Now that you have your idea it’s time to flesh it out. Don’t worry about the technology or the fact that you may not know how to actually implement a game just yet, just grab yourself some paper and a pencil and go crazy with ideas. Describe the main characters, game play, goals, interactions, story, and key mappings, anything you can think of.

Make sure you have enough detail so that someone can read through the notes and play through the game in their head with relative accuracy. Changing game design during the coding process is almost always a bad idea. Once it’s set, it should remain set until the tweaking phase (I’ll go into this more later) or you’re likely to enter ‘development hell’, where the project goes on and on; more and more work is done with less and less outcome.

At the end of this period of your game creation, you should have the following:

· A written outline of the game’s characters and possibly a sketch or two (be they space ships, yellow circles, cars or the prince of the dark kingdom of Falgour, you need to know who or what the player will be and who they will compete against)

· A written outline of the story (if there is one, this isn’t too vital for ‘Space Invaders’ or ‘Tetris’, but for ‘Uber Quest: An Adventure of Awesomeness’ it’s a really good idea)

· A description of game play, written or storyboarded. Storyboards are visual representations of ideas. Draw your characters in actions, with arrows showing the flow of action and short written descriptions detailing the events occurring in your image (because some of us aren’t fantastic artists and our images can be a little… open to interpretation…)

Now that you have a fleshed out idea, it’s time to work out how this will all get put together. If you’ve gotten to this point and are worried that you’re going to have to spend years learning complex programming languages in order to implement your idea, fear not! Others have already done the hard yards for you.

There are many RAD (Rapid Application Development) Tools available for game creation, a number of which are available for free online. Some of them still require you to learn a ‘scripting language’ (a simplified programming language made for a specific task) but in general this isn’t too complicated or involved. I’ve compiled a brief list of some of these I have found at the end of the article. The free ones are listed first, organized by game genre.

Well, that should be enough to get you started in the creation of your game. The most important thing to remember once you’ve gotten this far is that you need to complete your game. Many people start a project and then lose interest and it fails, or they keep moving on to one new project after another without finishing anything. Start small, build a working (if simple) game that is, above all else, complete. When you get to this stage you will always have a huge number of things that you wish to change, fix etc. but you’ll get a great feeling from knowing that it is, in its way, finished.

From this point, you can start the tweaking phase. Play your game a few times and ask others to do the same. Take note of what isn’t fun or could be better and change things here. At this stage, it is more important than ever to keep backups of previous versions so that if a change doesn’t work you can go back and try something different without losing any of your work.

It is at this point that you can add all new features, improve graphics and sounds, whatever you please, safe in the knowledge that you’re working on a solid foundation.

When you’re happy with your game, why not share it with the world? There are many cheap or free places out there for you to host your files on and then you can jump on link lists and forums and let everyone know about your creation.

Well, I hope that this has been a helpful introduction into the art of creating games. It’s a great deal of fun, and can open whole new avenues of creative expression for you to explore. Jump in and have fun!

LINKS

General Game Creation: (Tools that allow easy creation of many different game types) Game Maker: http://www.gamemaker.nl MegaZeux: http://megazeux.sourceforge.net/

Adventure Games: (Games such as Monkey Island, King’s Quest, Space Quest etc.) Adventure Game Studio: http://www.bigbluecup.com AGAST: http://www.allitis.com/agast/ 3D Adventure Studio: http://3das.noeska.com/ ADRIFT (for text adventures): http://www.adrift.org.uk/

Role Playing Games (RPGs): (Games such as Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Diablo) OHRPG: http://www.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/ RPG Toolit: http://www.toolkitzone.com/

Fighting Games: (Games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc.) KOF91: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kof91/ MUGEN (unfortunately the site is largely in French): http://www.streetmugen.com/mugen-us.html

Side-Scrolling Games: (Games such as the 2D Mario Games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Double Dragon etc.) The Scrolling Game Development Kit: http://gamedev.sourceforge.net/

There are many others available as well. One particularly useful site for finding game creation tools is: http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html

Also of note, although not freeware, are the excellent game creation tools available by Clickteam at: http://www.clickteam.com/English/ Klik and Play and The Games Factory in particular are the programs to have a look at and download the free demos of.

If you really want to do things right and program the game yourself, there are some excellent programming resources available at the following locations:

Java Game Programming: http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/ http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1262.asp http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Java_Game_Programming/

Visual Basic Game Programming: http://markbutler.8m.com/vb-tutorial.htm

C++ Game Programming: http://www3.telus.net/alexander_russell/course_dx/introduction_dx.htm http://www.rit.edu/~jpw9607/tutorial.htm

General Information: http://www.gamedev.net/ http://www.gamasutra.com/

How To Be A Success At Whatever You Do In Life - An Absolute Must Know For You!

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 12:00:00 +0000

Have you ever seen people who never fail? Yes all of us do fail at some parts of our life but I am referring to people who are almost masters at everything in life. Whatever they do they always succeed.

May it be in any field or stream they always manage to rise to the top. What is it that some people keep trying without any results and the other manage to get whatever they want with ease? Now what do you think do those successful people know what you do not?

There's a great secret which can give you almost anything and everything. It's an absolute must know you. Read on to find out what the great secret of the successful people is and how you can make it work for you.

Time and time again we have seen some of the most influential and powerful people on this planet. They all have one thing is common. They all know the secret. Think of it this way why is it that only 1% of the total population is earning 99% of the total money that is being earned
around the world?

You think it's just there luck? Well let me tell you something luck does not exist it's just a word of excuse for those who do not have any control over their life. This secret is so powerful that once you know it you can flip the world upside down.

Now it's time to reveal the greatest secret. This is the grand daddy of all. This is what has been hidden from mankind since ages. This secret would give you almost anything and everything you've ever desired. This has been used by some of the greatest thinkers and achievers since
ages. These secrets are so powerful that they can get you almost anything you desire, wherever you desire, whenever you desire them.

Think of it this way it's like your own personal grand genie but this time you do not have 3 but unlimited number of wishes. It can change your life overnight and after you discover this it will be an absolute life transforming event.

Wireless Access Point 20 Second Hack

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:07:00 +0000

Placement of your wireless access points is the first layer of security for your wireless network. If your wireless access points can be physically touched by a passerby you have major problems.

The easiest way to hack a wireless access point is walk up to it and press the reset button. This will make it default back to an open network and poof you have keys to the kingdom

When placing your wireless access point the only thing you should be able to see is maybe the antenna. You can purchase access point antennas that look like ceiling panels or fire alarms.

If a hacker is in your building probing your wireless network he is going to look for access points. If he can determine the make and model of your access point he can search the Internet for default passwords and vulnerabilities for that access point.

Finally when placing your wireless antennas outdoors try and make them blend into the building as much as possible. You should use a wireless directional antenna that is flat against a wall rather than a Yagi antenna which screams look at me.

Wireless access points can be hacked in 20 seconds or less if they are mounted in the wrong place. The most secure wireless network is the one nobody knows about.

RESOURCES

http://www.wirelessninja.com is the only website on the internet dedicated to simple and secure wireless networking. Learn the real secrets to securing your wireless network. http://www.wirelessninja.com has wirleess security tips that you won't find in any book or class. Is your wireless network simple and secure?

Playing Fun Games Online

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:06:00 +0000

If you are looking for an alternative to the classic games, the online games that you can find today everywhere on the Internet might be just what you are looking for. You can search the worldwide Internet for games of all sorts and find out exactly what games are more popular with players today.

You will find that the offer games is very diverse: there are car games, racing games, action games, strategy games, games that feature popular cartoon characters, Lord of the Ring games, Star War Games, mystery games, paintball games and the list could go on endlessly.

There are also games that you can download and play on your personal computer, games that you can play online against other players and even games where you can apply certain strategies, build an empire, a castle, buy credits online and so on. There are a few advantages of playing games online are that you can play them at any time of the day or night because the game never stops.

You will also be able to create a new world and have lots of fun. Some of these games that you find online are even for free, or they offer you a free trial, and if you like the game, you can purchase it, download it, and play it anytime. The online games are played by hundreds of people at a time, so you can face some virtual players while engaging in different tasks.

These online games are also accessible for everyone. The rules are thoroughly explained, so that anyone can try the game. There is even a demo of the game where one can figure out some tricks that may come in handy during the game.

And remember, if you want to become good at a game and go to the nest level, you have to train and play a lot. As a rule, these online games are designed in different levels, and the aim of the game is to get to the highest level possible.

In case you have never played an online game before give it a try! It’s sure to end up on your list of favorite things to do. You can find a complete list of fun games on the Internet if you search for games com. Be prepared to have lots of fun and develop new playing skills in a virtual new world.

How To Be A Success At Whatever You Do In Life !

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:04:00 +0000

May it be in any field or stream they always manage to rise to the top. What is it that some people keep trying without any results and the other manage to get whatever they want with ease? Now what do you think do those successful people know what you do not?

There's a great secret which can give you almost anything and everything. It's an absolute must know you. Read on to find out what the great secret of the successful people is and how you can make it work for you.

Time and time again we have seen some of the most influential and powerful people on this planet. They all have one thing is common. They all know the secret. Think of it this way why is it that only 1% of the total population is earning 99% of the total money that is being earned

around the world?

You think it's just there luck? Well let me tell you something luck does not exist it's just a word of excuse for those who do not have any control over their life. This secret is so powerful that once you know it you can flip the world upside down.

Now it's time to reveal the greatest secret. This is the grand daddy of all. This is what has been hidden from mankind since ages. This secret would give you almost anything and everything you've ever desired. This has been used by some of the greatest thinkers and achievers since

ages. These secrets are so powerful that they can get you almost anything you desire, wherever you desire, whenever you desire them.

Think of it this way it's like your own personal grand genie but this time you do not have 3 but unlimited number of wishes. It can change your life overnight and after you discover this it will be an absolute life transforming event.

Develop Computer Games - Create Your Own Virtual Worlds

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 13:00:00 +0000

I’ve also always wanted to make games myself but, until recently, didn’t have the technical knowledge to do so. Now, I’m a second year software engineering student, so if I weren’t able to code a game without too many dramas there’d be something drastically wrong.

But what about the common person: the person for whom the term ‘memory leak’ conjures up images of their grandfather, ‘pipeline’ is where the water flows, and ‘blitting’ is unheard of? Well, everyone can get in on the game creation process, and you don’t even need to learn ‘real’ programming to do so.

So where do games start? With an idea. Games, like all fiction, require an idea to be successful. Sure, in the same way you can just sit down and write a story without foresight, you can jump on in and slap a game together. However, unless you get ridiculously lucky, the best works are usually the ones that have been well thought out beforehand.

There are two methods of planning a project. You can start from a known technological standpoint and build your project on top of that or you can just go for the design, add as many features and ideas as you like, and then remove the ones that you can’t use when you’ve decided on the technology you’re going to implement the game with. In general, the second type is probably the best one to go with when designing games. When you’re first starting out however, the first option will save you many headaches.

So, for a first game you’re going to want a pretty simple idea. Don’t get me wrong, crazy-go-nuts game ideas are fantastic, and there should be more of them out there, but you’re not going to be able to create a real world simulator with fifty billion virtual people all interacting real time with your actions having a butterfly effect on the future of the virtual universe when it’s just your first game. Really. Many people try it; none that I know of have succeeded.

Imitation is the best way to start out. Simple games such as ‘Space Invaders’, ‘Tetris’, ‘Pacman’ or even ‘Pong’ are great places to start. All are largely simple to create but have some inherent challenges. ‘Pacman’ for example, requires path finding for the ghosts. I recommend that you start even simpler than that for your very first attempt. ‘Space Invaders’ is a nice point to jump in. You can make a simple, complete game without much effort and it’s almost infinitely extensible.

If you’re stuck for an idea, pick a genre that you enjoy. Do you love adventure games such as ‘Monkey Island’, ‘Grim Fandango’, ‘Space Quest’, ‘King’s Quest’ etc.? Design one of those. Are you into fighting games like ‘Street Fighter’, ‘Tekken’, ‘Soul Calibur’, ‘Mortal Kombat’ and so on?

Come up with an idea for that. Do you like first person shooters such as ‘Quake’, ‘Half Life’ or ‘Doom’? I don’t recommend it as a first project, but you can always give it a go. Feel free to be as generic as you like, this is a learning experience after all.

Now that you have your idea it’s time to flesh it out. Don’t worry about the technology or the fact that you may not know how to actually implement a game just yet, just grab yourself some paper and a pencil and go crazy with ideas. Describe the main characters, game play, goals, interactions, story, and key mappings, anything you can think of.

Make sure you have enough detail so that someone can read through the notes and play through the game in their head with relative accuracy. Changing game design during the coding process is almost always a bad idea. Once it’s set, it should remain set until the tweaking phase (I’ll go into this more later) or you’re likely to enter ‘development hell’, where the project goes on and on; more and more work is done with less and less outcome.

At the end of this period of your game creation, you should have the following:

A written outline of the game’s characters and possibly a sketch or two (be they space ships, yellow circles, cars or the prince of the dark kingdom of Falgour, you need to know who or what the player will be and who they will compete against)

A written outline of the story (if there is one, this isn’t too vital for ‘Space Invaders’ or ‘Tetris’, but for ‘Uber Quest: An Adventure of Awesomeness’ it’s a really good idea)

A description of game play, written or storyboarded. Storyboards are visual representations of ideas. Draw your characters in actions, with arrows showing the flow of action and short written descriptions detailing the events occurring in your image (because some of us aren’t fantastic artists and our images can be a little… open to interpretation…)

Now that you have a fleshed out idea, it’s time to work out how this will all get put together. If you’ve gotten to this point and are worried that you’re going to have to spend years learning complex programming languages in order to implement your idea, fear not! Others have already done the hard yards for you.

There are many RAD (Rapid Application Development) Tools available for game creation, a number of which are available for free online. Some of them still require you to learn a ‘scripting language’ (a simplified programming language made for a specific task) but in general this isn’t too complicated or involved. I’ve compiled a brief list of some of these I have found at the end of the article. The free ones are listed first, organized by game genre.

Well, that should be enough to get you started in the creation of your game. The most important thing to remember once you’ve gotten this far is that you need to complete your game. Many people start a project and then lose interest and it fails, or they keep moving on to one new project after another without finishing anything. Start small, build a working (if simple) game that is, above all else, complete. When you get to this stage you will always have a huge number of things that you wish to change, fix etc. but you’ll get a great feeling from knowing that it is, in its way, finished.

From this point, you can start the tweaking phase. Play your game a few times and ask others to do the same. Take note of what isn’t fun or could be better and change things here. At this stage, it is more important than ever to keep backups of previous versions so that if a change doesn’t work you can go back and try something different without losing any of your work.

It is at this point that you can add all new features, improve graphics and sounds, whatever you please, safe in the knowledge that you’re working on a solid foundation.

When you’re happy with your game, why not share it with the world? There are many cheap or free places out there for you to host your files on and then you can jump on link lists and forums and let everyone know about your creation.

Well, I hope that this has been a helpful introduction into the art of creating games. It’s a great deal of fun, and can open whole new avenues of creative expression for you to explore. Jump in and have fun!

LINKS

General Game Creation: (Tools that allow easy creation of many different game types) Game Maker: http://www.gamemaker.nl MegaZeux: http://megazeux.sourceforge.net/

Adventure Games: (Games such as Monkey Island, King’s Quest, Space Quest etc.) Adventure Game Studio: http://www.bigbluecup.com AGAST: http://www.allitis.com/agast/ 3D Adventure Studio: http://3das.noeska.com/ ADRIFT (for text adventures): http://www.adrift.org.uk/

Role Playing Games (RPGs): (Games such as Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Diablo) OHRPG: http://www.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce/ RPG Toolit: http://www.toolkitzone.com/

Fighting Games: (Games such as Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Soul Calibur etc.) KOF91: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kof91/ MUGEN (unfortunately the site is largely in French): http://www.streetmugen.com/mugen-us.html

Side-Scrolling Games: (Games such as the 2D Mario Games, Sonic the Hedgehog, Double Dragon etc.) The Scrolling Game Development Kit: http://gamedev.sourceforge.net/

There are many others available as well. One particularly useful site for finding game creation tools is: http://www.ambrosine.com/resource.html

Also of note, although not freeware, are the excellent game creation tools available by Clickteam at: http://www.clickteam.com/English/ Klik and Play and The Games Factory in particular are the programs to have a look at and download the free demos of.

If you really want to do things right and program the game yourself, there are some excellent programming resources available at the following locations:

Java Game Programming: http://fivedots.coe.psu.ac.th/~ad/jg/ http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article1262.asp http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Java_Game_Programming/

Visual Basic Game Programming: http://markbutler.8m.com/vb-tutorial.htm

C++ Game Programming: http://www3.telus.net/alexander_russell/course_dx/introduction_dx.htm http://www.rit.edu/~jpw9607/tutorial.htm

General Information: http://www.gamedev.net/ http://www.gamasutra.com/

Closing Open Holes

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:14:00 +0000

With the spread of Hackers and Hacking incidents, the time has come, when not only system administrators of servers of big companies, but also people who connect to the Internet by dialing up into their ISP, have to worry about securing their system. It really does not make much difference whether you have a static IP or a dynamic one, if your system is connected to the Internet, then there is every chance of it being attacked.

This manual is aimed at discussing methods of system security analysis and will shed light on as to how to secure your standalone (also a system connected to a LAN) system.

Open Ports: A Threat to Security?

In the Netstat Tutorial we had discussed how the netstat -a command showed the list of open ports on your system. Well, anyhow, before I move on, I would like to quickly recap the important part. So here goes, straight from the netstat tutorial:

Now, the ??a? option is used to display all open connections on the local machine. It also returns the remote system to which we are connected to, the port numbers of the remote system we are connected to (and the local machine) and also the type and state of connection we have with the remote system.

For Example,

C:\windows>netstat -a

Active Connections

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP aditya:1031 dwarf.box.sk:ftp ESTABLISHED

TCP aditya:1036 dwarf.box.sk:ftp-data TIME_WAIT

TCP aditya:1043 banners.egroups.com:80 FIN_WAIT_2

TCP aditya:1045 mail2.mtnl.net.in:pop3 TIME_WAIT

TCP aditya:1052 zztop.boxnetwork.net:80 ESTABLISHED

TCP aditya:1053 mail2.mtnl.net.in:pop3 TIME_WAIT

UDP aditya:1025 *:*

UDP aditya:nbdatagram *:*

Now, let us take a single line from the above output and see what it stands for:

Proto Local Address Foreign Address State

TCP aditya:1031 dwarf.box.sk:ftp ESTABLISHED

Now, the above can be arranged as below:

Protocol: TCP (This can be Transmission Control Protocol or TCP, User Datagram Protocol or UDP or sometimes even, IP or Internet Protocol.)

Local System Name: aditya (This is the name of the local system that you set during the Windows setup.)

Local Port opened and being used by this connection: 1031

Remote System: dwarf.box.sk (This is the non-numerical form of the system to which we are connected.)

Remote Port: ftp (This is the port number of the remote system dwarf.box.sk to which we are connected.)

State of Connection: ESTABLISHED

?Netstat? with the ??a? argument is normally used, to get a list of open ports on your own system i.e. on the local system. This can be particularly useful to check and see whether your system has a Trojan installed or not. Yes, most good Antiviral software are able to detect the presence of Trojans, but, we are hackers, and need to software to tell us, whether we are infected or not. Besides, it is more fun to do something manually than to simply click on the ?Scan? button and let some software do it.

The following is a list of Trojans and the port numbers which they use, if you Netstat yourself and find any of the following open, then you can be pretty sure, that you are infected.

Port 12345(TCP) Netbus

Port 31337(UDP) Back Orifice

For complete list, refer to the Tutorial on Trojans at: hackingtruths.box.sk/trojans.txt

AND WHAT?

Now, the above tutorial resulted in a number of people raising questions like: If the 'netstat -a' command shows open ports on my system, does this mean that anyone can connect to them? Or, How can I close these open ports? How do I know if an open port is a threat to my system's security of not? Well, the answer to all these question would be clear, once you read the below paragraph:

Now, the thing to understand here is that, Port numbers are divided into three ranges:

The Well Known Ports are those from 0 through 1023. This range or ports is bound to the services running on them. By this what I mean is that each port usually has a specific service running on it. You see there is an internationally accepted Port Numbers to Services rule, (refer RFC 1700 Here) which specifies as to on what port number a particular service runs.

For Example,

By Default or normally FTP runs on Port 21. So if you find that Port 21 is open on a particular system, then it usually means that that particular system uses the FTP Protocol to transfer files. However, please note that some smart system administrators delibrately i.e. to fool lamers run fake services on popular ports. For Example, a system might be running a fake FTP daemon on Port 21. Although you get the same interface like the FTP daemon banner, response numbers etc, however, it actually might be a software logging your prescence and sometimes even tracing you!!!

The Registered Ports are those from 1024 through 49151. This range of port numbers is not bound to any specific service. Actually, Networking utlites like your Browser, Email Client, FTP software opens a random port within this range and starts a communication with the remote server. A port number within this range is the reason why you are able to surf the net or check your email etc.

If you find that when you give the netstat -a command, then a number of ports within this range are open, then you should probably not worry. These ports are simply opened so that you can get your software applications to do what you want them to do.

These ports are opened temporarily by various applications to perform tasks. They act as a buffer transfering packets (data) received to the application and vis-a-versa. Once you close the application, then you find that these ports are closed automatically.

For Example,

when you type www.hotmail.com in your browser, then your browser randomly chooses a Registered Port and uses it as a buffer to communicate with the various remote servers involved.

The Dynamic and/or Private Ports are those from 49152 through 65535. This range is rarely used, and is mostly used by trojans, however some application do tend to use such high range port numbers. For Example,Sun starts their RPC ports at 32768.

So this basically brings us to what to do if you find that Netstat gives you a couple of open ports on your system:

1. Check the Trojan Port List and check if the open port matches with any of the popular ones. If it does then get a trojan Removal and remove the trojan.

2. If it doesn't or if the Trojan Remover says: No trojan found, then see if the open port lies in the registered Ports range. If yes, then you have nothing to worry, so forget about it.

HACKING TRUTH:

A common technique employed by a number of system administrators, is remapping ports. For example, normally the default port for HTTP is 80. However, the system administrator could also remap it to Port 8080. Now, if that is the case, then the homepage hosted at that server would be at:

http://domain.com:8080 instead of

http://domain.com:80

The idea behind Port Remapping is that instead of running a service on a well known port, where it can easily be exploited, it would be better to run it on a not so well known port, as the hacker, would find it more difficult to find that service. He would have to port scan high range of numbers to discover port remapping.

The ports used for remapping are usually pretty easy to remember. They are choosen keeping in mind the default port number at which the service being remapped should be running. For Example, POP by default runs on Port 110. However, if you were to remap it, you would choose any of the following: 1010, 11000, 1111 etc etc

Some sysadmins also like to choose Port numbers in the following manner: 1234,2345,3456,4567 and so on... Yet another reason as to why Port Remapping is done, is that on a Unix System to be able to listen to a port under 1024, you must have root previledges.

Firewalls

Use of Firewalls is no longer confined to servers or websites or commerical companies. Even if you simply dial up into your ISP or use PPP (Point to Point Protocol) to surf the net, you simply cannot do without a firewall. So what exactly is a firewall?

Well, in non-geek language, a firewall is basically a shield which protects your system from the untrusted non-reliable systems connected to the Internet. It is a software which listens to all ports on your system for any attempts to open a connection and when it detects such an attempt, then it reacts according to the predefined set of rules.

So basically, a firewall is something that protects the network(or systen) from the Internet. It is derived from the concept of firewalls used in vehicles which is a barrier made of fire resistant material protecting the vehicle in case of fire.

Now, for a better 'according to the bible' defination of a firewall: A firewall is best described as a software or hardware or both Hardware and Software packet filter that allows only selected packets to pass through from the Internet to your private internal network. A firewall is a system or a group of systems which guard a trusted network( The Internal Private Network from the untrusted network (The Internet.)

NOTE: This was a very brief desciption of what a firewall is, I would not be going into the details of their working in this manual.

Anyway,the term 'Firewalls', (which were generally used by companies for commerical purposes) has evolved into a new term called 'Personal Firewalls'. Now this term is basically used to refer to firewalls installed on a standalone system which may or may not be networked i.e. It usually connects to an ISP. Or in other words a personal firewall is a firewall used for personal use.

Now that you have a basic desciption as to what a firewall is, let us move on to why exactly you need to install a Firewall? Or, how can not installing a firewall pose a threat to the security of your system?

You see, when you are connected to the Internet, then you have millions of other untrusted systems connected to it as well. If somehow someone found out your IP address, then they could do probably anything to your system. They could exploit any vulnerability existing in your system, damage your data, and even use your system to hack into other computers.

Finding out someone'e IP Address is not very difficult. Anybody can find out your IP, through various Chat Services, Instant Messengers (ICQ, MSN, AOL etc), through a common ISP and numerous other ways. Infact finding out the IP Address of a specific person is not always the priority of some hackers.

What I mean to say by that is that there are a number of Scripts and utilities available which scan all IP addresses between a certain range for predefined common vulnerabilities. For Example, Systems with File Sharing Enabled or a system running an OS which is vulnerable to the Ping of Death attack etc etc As soon as a vulnerable system is found, then they use the IP to carry out the attacks.

The most common scanners look for systems with RAT's or Remote Administration Tools installed. They send a packet to common Trojan ports and display whether the victim's system has that Trojan installed or not. The 'Scan Range of IP Addresses' that these programs accept are quite wide and one can easily find a vulnerable system in the matter of minutes or even seconds.

Trojan Horses like Back Orifice provide remote access to your system and can set up a password sniffer. The combination of a back door and a sniffer is a dangerous one: The back door provides future remote access, while the sniffer may reveal important information about you like your other Passwords, Bank Details, Credit Card Numbers, Social Security Number etc.

If your home system is connected to a local LAN and the attacker manages to install a backdoor on it, then you probably have given the attacker the same access level to your internal network, as you have. This wouls also mean that you will have created a back door into your network that bypasses any firewall that may be guarding the front door.

You may argue with me that as you are using a dial up link to your ISP via PPP, the attacker would be able to access your machine only when you are online. Well, yes that is true, however, not completely true. Yes, it does make access to your system when you reconnect, difficult, as you have a dynamic Internet Protocol Address. But, although this provides a faint hope of protection, routine scanning of the range of IP's in which your IP lies, will more often than not reveal your current Dynamic IP and the back door will provide access to your system.

HACKING TRUTH:

Microsoft Says: War Dialer programs automatically scan for modems by trying every phone number within an exchange. If the modem can only be used for dial-out connections, a War Dialer won't discover it. However, PPP changes the equation, as it provides bidirectional transportmaking any connected system visible to scanners?and attackers.

PROTECTING YOURSELF

So how do I protect myself from such Scans and unsolicitated attacks? Well, this is where Personal Firewalls come in. They just like their name suggests, protect you from unsolicitated connection probes, scans, attacks.

They listen to all ports for any connection requests received (from both legitimate and fake hosts) and sent (by applications like Browser, Email Client etc.) As soon as such an instance is recorded, it pops up a warning asking you what to do or whether to allow the connection to initiate or not. This warning message also contains the IP which is trying to initiate the connection and also the Port Number to which it is trying to connect i.e. the Port to which the packet was sent. It also protects your system from Port Scans, DOS Attacks, Vulnerability attacks etc. So basically it acts as a shield or a buffer which does not allow your system to communicate with the untrusted systems directly.

Most Personal Firewalls have extensive logging facilities which allows you to track down the attackers. Some popular firewalls are:

BlackICE Defender : An IDS for PC's. It's available at http://www.networkice.com.
ZoneAlarm: The easiest to setup and manage firewall. Get it for free at: www.zonelabs.com

Once you have installed a firewall on your system, you will often get a number of Warnings which might seem to be as if someone is trying to break into your system, however, they are actually bogus messages, which are caused by either your OS itself or due to the process called Allocation of Dynamic IP's. For a details description of these two, read on.

Many people complain that as soon as they dial into their ISP, their firewall says that such and such IP is probing Port X. What causes them?

Well, this is quite common. The cause is that somebody hung up just before you dialed in and your ISP assigned you the same IP address. You are now seeing the remains of communication with the previous person. This is most common when the person to which the IP was assigned earlier was using ICQ or chat programs, was connected to a Game Server or simply turned off his modem before his communication with remote servers was complete.

You might even get a message like:

Such and Such IP is trying to initaite a Netbios Session on Port X. This again is extrememly common. The following is an explanation as to why it happens, which I picked up a couple of days ago: NetBIOS requests to UDP port 137 are the most common item you will see in your firewall reject logs.

This comes about from a feature in Microsoft's Windows: when a program resolves an IP address into a name, it may send a NetBIOS query to IP address. This is part of the background radiation of the Internet, and is nothing to be concerned about.

What Causes them?

On virtually all systems (UNIX, Macintosh, Windows), programs call the function 'gethostbyaddr()' with the desired address. This function will then do the appropriate lookup, and return the name.

This function is part of the sockets API. The key thing to remember about gethostbyaddr() is that it is virtual. It doesn't specify how it resolves an address into a name. In practice, it will use all available mechanisms. If we look at UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh systems, we see the following techniques:

DNS in-addr.arpa PTR queries sent to the DNS server

NetBIOS NodeStatus queries sent to the IP address lookups in the /etc/hosts file

AppleTalk over IP name query sent to the IP address

RPC query sent to the UNIX NIS server

NetBIOS lookup sent to the WINS server

Windows systems do the /etc/hosts, DNS, WINS, and NodeStatus techniques. In more excruciating detail, Microsoft has a generic system component called a naming service.

All the protocol stacks in the system (NetBIOS, TCP/IP, Novel IPX, AppleTalk, Banyan, etc.) register the kinds of name resolutions they can perform. Some RPC products will likewise register an NIS naming service. When a program requests to resolve an address, this address gets passed onto the generic naming service. Windows will try each registered name resolution subsystem sequentially until it gets an answer.

(Side note: User's sometimes complained that accessing Windows servers is slow. This is caused by installing unneeded protocol stacks that must timeout first before the real protocol stack is queried for the server name.).

The order in which it performs these resolution steps for IP addresses can be configured under the Windows registry key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\ServiceProvider.

Breaking Through Firewalls

Although Firewalls are meant to provide your complete protection from Port Scan probes etc there are several holes existing in popular firewalls, waiting to be exploited. In this issue, I will discuss a hole in ZoneAlarm Version 2.1.10 to 2.0.26, which allows the attacker to port scan the target system (Although normally it should stop such scans.)

If one uses port 67 as the source port of a TCP or UDP scan, ZoneAlarm will let the packet through and will not notify the user. This means, that one can TCP or UDP port scan a ZoneAlarm protected computer as if there were no firewall there IF one uses port 67 as the source port on the packets.

Exploit:

UDP Scan:

You can use NMap to port scan the host with the following command line:

nmap -g67 -P0 -p130-140 -sU 192.168.128.88

(Notice the -g67 which specifies source port).

TCP Scan:

You can use NMap to port scan the host with the following command line:

nmap -g67 -P0 -p130-140 -sS 192.168.128.88

(Notice the -g67 which specifies source port).

WHO ARE HACKERS ?

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 11:28:00 +0000

I feel it is necessary to clarify the term hacker. Perhaps your definition of a hacker has been influenced and tainted over the years. There have been various computer related activities attributed to the term “hacker”, but were greatly misunderstood. Unfortunately for the people who are truly defined within the underground tech world as a “hacker” this is an insult to them.

There are various types of “hackers”, each with their own agenda. My goal is to help protect you from the worst of them.

Anarchist Hackers

These are the individuals who you should be weary of. Their sole intent on system infiltration is to cause damage or use information to create havoc. They are primarily the individuals who are responsible for the majority of system attacks against home users. They are more likely to be interested in what lies on another person’s machine for example yours.

Mostly you’ll find that these individuals have slightly above computer skill level and consider themselves hackers. They glorify themselves on the accomplishments of others. Their idea of classing themselves as a hacker is that of acquire programs and utilities readily available on the net, use these programs with no real knowledge of how these applications work and if they manage to “break” into someone’s system class themselves as a hacker. These individuals are called “Kiddie Hackers.”

They use these programs given to them in a malicious fashion on anyone they can infect. They have no real purpose to what they are doing except the fact of saying “Yeah! I broke into name here> computer!” It gives them bragging rights to their friends.

If there is any damage to occur in a system being broken into these individuals will accomplish it.

These individuals are usually high school students. They brag about their accomplishments to their friends and try to build an image of being hackers.

Hackers

A hacker by definition believes in access to free information.They are usually very intelligent people who could care very little about what you have on your system. Their thrill comes from system infiltration for information reasons. Hackers unlike“crackers and anarchist” know being able to break system security doesn’t make you a hacker any more than adding 2+2 makes you a mathematician. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word ‘hacker.” They have attributed any computer related illegal activities to the term “hacker.”

Real hackers target mainly government institution. They believe important information can be found within government institutions. To them the risk is worth it. The higher the security the better the challenge. The better the challenge the better they need to be. Who’s the best keyboard cowboy? So to speak!

These individuals come in a variety of age classes. They range from High School students to University Grads. They are quite adept at programming and are smart enough to stay out of the
spotlight.

They don’t particularly care about bragging about their accomplishments as it exposes them to suspicion. They prefer to work from behind the scenes and preserve their anonymity.

Not all hackers are loners, often you’ll find they have a very tight circle of associates, but still there is a level of anonymity between them. An associate of mine once said to me “if they say they are a hacker, then they’re not!”

Crackers

For definition purposes I have included this term. This is primarily the term given to individuals who are skilled at the art of bypassing software copyright protection. They are usually highly skilled in programming languages.

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always be victorious...”

They are often confused with Hackers. As you can see they are similar in their agenda. They both fight security of some kind, but they are completely different “animals.”

And What

Being able to attribute your attacks to the right type of attacker is very important. By identifying your attacker to be either an Anarchist Hacker or a Hacker you get a better idea of what you’re up against.

Space Shuttle Preps for Station Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:55:00 +0000

With just 16 missions on the books until the shuttle program ends, NASA is prepared to resume construction of the International Space Station after a six-month hiatus in shuttle flights. The launch of space shuttle Atlantis, originally planned for March, is now targeted for liftoff at 7:38 p.m. EDT on Friday. Forecasters were predicting an 80 percent chance that the weather would allow the shuttle to launch on time.

The mission was delayed to allow time to repair the shuttle's fuel tank, which was blasted by hail during a freak storm in late February.

"After many months of hard work, Atlantis is finally ready to fly," said Stephen Payne, a shuttle launch manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The hailstorm left Atlantis' tank with more than 4,200 dings, dents, gouges and pits in its foam insulation, which is needed to prevent ice formation after the tank is filled with cryogenic propellants for launch. Ice could break off and damage the shuttle's heat shield during launch.

As NASA learned after the fatal 2003 Columbia accident, the foam itself presents a potentially deadly hazard as well. The shuttle was destroyed when superheated gases blasted inside the structure as the ship flew through the atmosphere for landing.

The heat shield had been broken during launch by a piece of foam insulation that fell off and hit the ship's wing. The accident claimed the lives of all seven crewmembers aboard.

Lessons Learned

Mindful of Columbia's demise, NASA set about repairing Atlantis' damaged tank, which ultimately entailed flying workers from the tank manufacturing complex outside New Orleans to Florida, to hand-spray a section of foam near the top of the tank. That area, which is exposed to the elements as the shuttle sits on the launch pad, was most heavily damaged by the hail.

Engineers took extra precautions to test repair techniques before fixing the tank, which managers say has only a slightly higher risk of foam loss during launch than an unblemished tank.
"All our testing today indicates that will not happen," said shuttle program manager Wayne Hale.
NASA can't afford too many more lengthy delays. The shuttle fleet was returned to flight after the Columbia accident for the sole purpose of finishing construction of the space station, which is about half-built.

At least 13 missions are needed to haul the rest of the major components to the outpost, and managers would also like to fly two missions with spare parts and supplies before the fleet is retired in 2010.

A final servicing call to the Hubble Space Telescope completes the shuttle program's flight schedule.
All Eyes on Atlantis
Despite the three-month postponement in Atlantis' flight, managers say there is ample time to complete the station before the shuttles stop flying.

"We're flying these flights as rapidly as it's reasonably possible to do it, but we fully intend to keep all of our safety practices in place," Hale said. "We cannot let schedule drive us to do something dumb."
Atlantis' mission is key to preparing the orbital complex for the arrival of partner laboratories built by Europe and Japan that have been awaiting rides to orbit for years. The shuttle will deliver a new set of power-producing solar wings and a rotary joint so they can track the sun.

The crew also needs to retract an older solar panel that will be moved to another part of the station next year.

The last shuttle crew in December faced similar tasks and encountered major problems folding up the array. Two astronauts made an unplanned spacewalk to painstakingly shake the panel, which repeatedly jammed on guide wires. Ultimately, they were able fold it, accordian-style, into its storage box.

Atlantis' flight is planned for 11 days, but NASA is allowing two contingency days in space to handle unexpected difficulties.

Readying the Crew

The crew is light on previous spaceflight experience, with four of the seven astronauts flying for the first time, but heavy on preparations.

"We've spent a long time training for this mission," said Atlantis commander Frederick Sturckow. "The crew is very excited to be in Florida."

The astronauts arrived on Monday to begin preparations for Friday's liftoff. Meteorologists are predicting an 80 percent chance weather will be suitable for launch.

Joining Sturckow on the flight deck will be pilot Lee Archambault, flight engineer Steven Swanson and astronaut Patrick Forrester. Lead spacewalker James Reilly and astronauts John "Danny" Olivas and Clayton Anderson, who will be seated on the mid-deck for launch, complete the crew.
Sturckow and Reilly have flown twice before and Forrester once.

Anderson will stay aboard the station to replace NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who has been in orbit since December. She originally was to come home with the next shuttle crew, but with Atlantis' delay, NASA decided to switch ferry flights.

Despite the late start in the shuttle program's 2007 launch calendar, managers hope to complete four flights this year, including a December delivery of Europe's Columbus module.

Virtual Man Helps Guide Doctors

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:55:00 +0000

Scientists have created a computer program that's able to turn medical images into a full dimensional view of a patient's body — inside and out. The CAVEman (it's rendered in a virtual reality room known as a CAVE) will provide not only a three-dimensional view of a body and its organs but also show systems in motion, such as the beating of a heart.

The technology could give doctors or medical students the opportunity to investigate disease or try new treatments on a living system, without opening up an actual person.

"We can render a whole new scenario that would look like what you would experience if you had a patient," said Christoph Sensen, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and director of the Sun Center of Excellence for Visual Genomics at the University of Calgary, Alberta.
The system has two main components: the computer model that renders the full-dimensional body and the virtual reality environment.

The model is based on images from basic anatomy textbooks. Graphic artists used those images to create animations of various body systems, including the organs, the blood vessel network and the nervous system. The model serves as a kind of generic template of the human body.
This model can be customized to a particular person when merged with medical images. For example, a doctor can combine CT scans or MRI's of a patient's heart or kidney with the model and see the person's organs within the virtual body.

Viewing takes place in the CAVE, a room about 33 feet by 33 feet square. Animated images are projected onto three of the four walls, plus the floor. The viewer wears special glasses equipped with shutters that flicker on and off, allowing each eye to see only one image at a time. This creates the optical illusion of dimension.

A sensor in the eyeglasses works with a tracking device on the computer to locate the viewer, should he walk around the virtual body. A joystick allows the viewer to do things like rotate the body or make menu selections.
Because the system requires the expensive, virtual reality room, Sensen and his team also developed a program that works on a laptop. The dimensionality remains, but immersion is lost. "I think it's a tremendous effort to build such a model. Before this, there were some simple models of the human body available for animation purposes in the movie industry, for example," said Anton Koning, research scientist in the department of bioinformatics at the Erasmus Medical Center, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

But this is only a start, he said, pointing out, "The real challenge comes when mapping data on that body."

For example, if a researcher wanted to show all of the tissue in which a certain gene or protein is expressed, showing one may be fairly straightforward. But revealing multiple genes becomes complicated. The information overlaps and may not be visually intuitive to the viewer, said Koning.
Sensen and his team have finished the adult male model and are currently working on finishing the female version. After that, they will complete a model of a child as well as other organisms, including mice and rats.

They are also spinning off a company based on the technology and plan to announce its existence sometime this summer.

Reliance Smart launches lifetime validity at Rs 222 !

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:55:00 +0000

Reliance Communications on Wednesday launched lifetime validity on its GSM service at Rs 222 with a start-up talktime of Rs 10.

Launching the product here today, Reliance Communications President (Personal Business) S P Shukla said the Rs 222-lifetime validity would be available in eight circles where its smart service was available.

Hidden Charges
Shukla said subscribers recharging with Rs 222 lifetime validity would have to use a talktime of Rs 75 every 60 days in order to stay active.The company also introduced classic range of GSM handsets prices at Rs 1234

Top sites don't work in multiple browsers

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:15:00 +0000

ONE of the basic rules of good web design is that websites should work for people using different browsers. However, many companies — including some with award-winning sites — are ignoring this accepted practice.

According to our reviews, there are widespread browser compatibility problems on IR websites today. They range in severity, but most are due to sites favoring proprietary technologies and not being designed to recognized international web standards.

Making matters worse, at least one website awards program has recently given top honors to sites that are defective. This calls into question the validity of the awards since they recognize companies that are snubbing up to a third of their online audience.

Companies whose websites do not work in multiple browsers risk alienating users and damaging their credibility. Investors who experience sites that don't work properly in their preferred browser are likely to perceive that the company uses unreliable technology and that it lacks expertise.

The negative impression is aggravated if the problems are not fixed for extended periods, or when users are technologically sophisticated and know that the company is not following standards and managing its website properly. Informed users may even conclude that a company is mismanaging its money if it unveils a new site that isn't compatible with multiple browsers.

Firefox, I.E. 7.0 put compatibility back on agenda
Cross-browser compatibility has always been a standard part of good web design and development. However, due to the almost complete domination of the browser market by Microsoft's Internet Explorer many web managers and developers have neglected cross browser testing.

However, with the introduction in 2004 of the new Firefox browser, many companies will find that their sites don't look or function the same way in the new browser as they do in Internet Explorer. This is because Firefox adheres to the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standard-setting body for the Internet. As such, it does not support Microsoft and other proprietary coding that web developers may use on their sites.

Since its release in November 2004, Firefox has rapidly grabbed market share, with global share in January 2006 estimated at about 11%, according to Onestat. In the U.S., the share is 12.55% while in Canada it is 18.43%. Other surveys put Firefox's share as high as 30% in Finland and 25% in Germany.

Even mighty Microsoft has taken notice. It is working on an unscheduled upgrade of its Internet Explorer browser to compete with the superior functionality of Firefox. Furthermore, in its upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0 browser, Microsoft plans to support W3C standards more completely than in the past. The result is that sites designed for the vagaries of Internet Explorer 6.0 may not work properly in the new browser, as described in this checklist put out by the company's browser team.

It's important to take note that even though it's overall share is low, Firefox users make up a highly influential segment of the Internet population. Part of Firefox's demographic dovetails with that of online investors and opinion leaders. These users are well educated, earn high incomes, are early adopters of new technologies, and typically have the capability to influence others through blogs and other media.

However, one should not make the mistake in thinking browser compatibility is all about Firefox and Internet Explorer. There are other browsers that may have problems viewing your website. They include Apple's Safari browser, Nestcape Navigator and the less well-known Opera. Also increasingly important is software for mobile devices and for disabled users.

Award-winning IR sites fall short of best practice
Our reviews in recent months confirm that problems are widespread. Among the sites experiencing severe problems are some that have recently been honored in awards programs. This raises serious questions about the validity of the awards and the expertise of the evaluators.

Take Edison International as an example. In February 2006, the company was recognized for having the "Most Innovative & Trendsetter IR Website" by the IR Global Rankings, a program run by a Brazilian outfit called MZ-Consult that is backed by the local Sao Paulo offices of ADR sponsor J.P. Morgan, audit firm KPMG and law firm Linklaters.

Edison International has a Flash-heavy investor relations website that is slow and cumbersome in Internet Explorer. In Firefox, however, the site is utterly unusable.

Another example is British American Tobacco, which has won many awards for its IR website. In 2005, it was ranked #1 in the United Kingdom by MZ-Consult in its IR Global Rankings & Awards.

But there's one rather significant detail the evaluators seem to have missed about BAT. Its site did not work in Firefox the same way it did in Internet Explorer. The screenshots below show how pages on the site are jumbled and the left navigation does not work in non-Microsoft browsers.

The result is that BAT's site is unusable for a significant segment of the online population because it is not standards compliant. More importantly, the company does not seem to be reviewing its site regularly in multiple browsers, because this problem persisted for several months — not what you would expect of a best practice IR website.

Another of MZ's award-winning sites, that of Brazilian bank Unibanco, has similar problems. The site's navigation scheme is corrupted in Firefox, which effectively renders the site unusable.

The Unibanco situation has an added twist because the site is only three months old. To the astute user, this suggests that despite widespread publicity of the need to design websites to international standards, the bank and/or its vendors are either ignorant or negligent.

More broadly, many IR websites that use Thomson Financial's products are not properly supporting Firefox users. Three common issues are:

Firefox does not support Windows Media Player's proprietary technology so users may prefer RealPlayer. Yet Thomson Financial does not support both players equally.
In some Thomson webcasts, an automatic compatibility test incorrectly identifies Firefox as an old version of Netscape and issues a false warning that the webcast cannot be played properly.
Many Thomson sites use improper coding that results in within-page links that do not work properly.

Even when sites are properly designed and coded, users of other browsers may have problems viewing content that requires a plug-in. Firefox users may have to reinstall Flash and Java before the browser will render content formatted in these technologies.

Web managers should anticipate potential problems when providing Flash and Java content by providing HTML versions of the same content by default, and by using detection code and help features when plug-ins are required.

More attention to IR websites needed

Browser compatibility problems are symptomatic of a wider neglect of web-based communications by IR and other communications professionals. Managing an IR website effectively is a difficult and complex task. It requires skill, attention to detail and a keen understanding of the audience. Most of all, it takes a commitment to building effective relationships with investors and shareholders.

The Web is growing more complex and sophisticated at a very rapid pace. Investors are able to access the Internet through a growing number of devices, from handhelds to super large screen monitors. New technologies are changing the way in which information is published and distributed, including RSS for news and XBRL for financial data.

The Web is also being increasingly recognized and relied upon by regulators to ensure equal and more effective access to information for all market participants.

All of this means IR departments need access to competent consultants, web developers and service providers. They need to make someone in the department responsible for managing and coordinating all aspects of the IR website. At large companies with many shareholders, this is a full-time position, even when parts of the site are outsourced to vendors.

Yes, it costs money and it's difficult to measure the value. But the reality today is that most investors spend more time interacting with a company's IR website than any other type of contact with the company. A site that doesn't work in all browser software, or which fails to meet the needs of investors in other respects, is an indication that the company doesn't value its shareholders.

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Does your website have a bad attitude ?

noreply@blogger.com (Aditya Vikram Kejriwal (Avk)) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:15:00 +0000

Although you might not think so, investors can tell a lot about your company's attitude towards them simply by visiting your website.

In most cases, companies come across either as service-oriented and welcoming, or they givthe impression of being aloof and disinterested. In some cases companies look incompetent, in which case pity or disdain may be the common response from users.

Since a website visit is an interaction between the user and your company on the user's terms, it is near impossible for you to hide the truth about your true attitude towards investors. Either you are focused on their needs or you are not. There's no middle ground.

Some companies think they are doing a good job pretending to be service oriented. Their sites are set up with the sole purpose of putting a barrier between them and their shareholders and investors. The objective is to rebuff people, not to engage them. They are soon found out.

IR and the Internet both involve relationships
The practice of investor relations by its very definition involves building and reinforcing relationships. The Internet, meanwhile, is very much a relationship medium.

The experience people have on your website has the same impact as if they were interacting with your company in person or on the phone. Being rude, offhanded or simply uninterested is a recipe for trouble.

In face-to-face meetings between people, communication is about more than the substance of what is said. Much of the communication is unspoken, embedded in things like context, tone and body language.

The same applies online. In fact, Web users are much less tolerant in their online interactions because the experience is impersonal. They are interacting with a website, not a human being with whom they can reason or feel empathy. When things go wrong their reactions are stronger, more hostile and less constrained by the usual social restraints of interpersonal communication.

Think like your user
Investors can interpret your attitude towards them from a large number of individual experiences during their visits to your site. They notice things in the site's design, structure, navigation, usability and content that they interpret as evidence of your attitude towards them and other stakeholders.

In many cases, companies and investor relations departments don't realize what messages they are giving investors on their websites. This is because their websites are not a priority. They are not managed proactively or strategically. Sites often are outsourced and forgotten about.

The best way to avoid making a bad impression on investors and shareholders is to think like them. Put yourself in the shoes of your website's users and ask what is it that they want.

Only by putting your audience's needs ahead of all others — including your own — can you achieve a reasonable level of certainty that you are portraying your company and department positively to investors.

Measuring your site's attitude
There are hundreds of ways that a website can signal your company's attitude toward investors. Some of the more obvious ones are:

Incomplete contact information;

Ignoring inquiries or being unhelpful in email correspondence;

Offering inadequate shareholder services information and resources;

Not designing web sites around the needs of users;

Failing to recognize international users;

Making investors work to find information that should be easily available;

Failing to properly identify downloads;

And probably the worst offense of all, treating people differently based on their profession or perceived importance to the company.

You can measure your website's online attitude as we do as part of our IR website evaluations. We also show our clients how their sites' service attitude compares to that of more than 500 other companies and the average of their sector.

If other companies in your industry or peer group have a bad online attitude towards investors, then it might be a good investment to improve your site's attitude to attract investors and reinforce relations with current ones.

Of course, there is no point in trying to look as though you are interested in attracting and retaining shareholders if you actually are not. If management at your company doesn't have much regard for investor relations, then it will show in one way or another.

However, if your department is interested in building strong long-term relationships with investors, then it is time to test your IR website's attitude. Right now your website might well be giving someone the wrong impression.

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