Coming from an iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, it was hard to get used to drawing on a tablet and watching your motions appear on the screen above it. For creatives used to a Wacom tablet, however, it will be second nature. The iPad approach seems much more natural to us though.Short Bytes: A security researcher has found a simple and unique way to hack login credentials from a Windows and OS X device. The attack is carried out using a USB Ethernet adapter that carries a software named Responder. When the device is plugged into a computer, it reads the login credentials and saves them into an SQLite database.Rob Fuller, a security researcher and blogger, has demonstrated how to exploit a USB SoC-based device to crack the password of a locked laptop. Once the device is plugged into a modified Ethernet adapter, it works like a network gateway, a WPAD server, and a DNS server for the target machine.
Fuller has described the hack in his blog post where he tells how he was able to capture credentials from a system (logged in, just locked).
Disclaimer: This article is just for educational purposes. Please test the attack on the systems you own and avoid indulging in any unethical practice.This hack is possible because most computers install plug-and-play USB devices even if the system is locked. Fuller tested the hack with two USB Ethernet dongles¨C the USB Armory and the Hak5 Turtle.¡°Now, I believe there are restrictions on what types of devices are allowed to install at a locked out state on newer operating systems (Win10/El Capitan), but Ethernet/LAN is definitely on the white list,¡± he writes.While installing a new (and malicious) USB plug-and-play Ethernet adapter, the computer lends the credentials needed to install the device. Fuller¡¯s modified hacking device contains code (a software named Responder) that reads these login credentials and saves them in a database.
These are used to read optical media like DVDs and Blu-Ray discs. To read the data written on a DVD or a Blu-ray disc, a pickup head is present inside. It comprises of a lens which a helps a laser beam to throw light on the written data in a current sequence. The reflected light is captured by photodiodes. Thus, the data is analyzed and processed to make it understandable to humans.Desktops generally feature a tray-load type optical disk drives while the laptops feature a slot-load type optical disk drives. These optical disk drives are capable of reading and writing data to a supported media. External optical disk drives are also available which can connect to the USB port present on the computer.
As the name indicates, a graphics card, or a GPU, or a visual processing unit (VPU) takes care of the graphics department of the computer. It processes the relevant data which is to be displayed on the monitor. GPUs can be integrated directly into the motherboard. They also come with separate graphics processors which can be connected to a computer using the PCI slot present on its motherboard.The integrated graphics processors use the RAM installed on the computer while the discrete graphics cards come with their own RAM (known GDDR or video memory), a separate power supply, and cooling system. This makes them faster and more reliable than the integrated graphics processor. Modern graphics cards like the Nvidia Titan X come with 12 GB of video memory and some mighty ones like AMD Radeon Pro SSD include solid state drives to have a video memory up to 1000 GB.
The coordination between the operations of these different components makes a computer perform tasks for us. All these components have shrunk in size over the years and will continue to shrink further in the coming future. The world¡¯s first general-purpose computer was a US army pet project developed under the name ¡°Project PX¡± at the University of Pennsylvania. Released on February 15, 1946, it later became famous as the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer). The 30 metric ton computer consumed 150 kW electricity. ENIAC went out of service in 1955.Modern day computers are more powerful, energy efficient, and compact than their ancestors. But the computers like ENIAC have been the inspiration for these machines. We¡¯ll continue to see more advancement the computer world.
In such situations, you might find this article helpful as I¡¯m going to list a variety of ways to get free internet. These are some free ways to stay in touch with friends and keep watching the latest cat videos.Not everyone is savvy about saving their Wi-Fi. In such situations, your Android smartphone will help you out by telling if a Wi-Fi connection is open. Simply open the Wi-Fi settings on your phone and look for connections that are labeled ¡®unsecured¡¯ or ¡®open¡¯.Sometimes your phone¡¯s Wi-Fi scanner fails to give you all the information about your area¡¯s Wi-Fi connections. In that case, you need to employ some Wi-Fi scanner apps or tools:Windows PC: If your Windows laptop¡¯s Wi-Fi detector isn¡¯t helping you, you can download free apps like WeFi and NetStumbler. WeFi lets you uses a community-generated list of free hotspots. NetStumbler provides you a detailed list of available networks with their channel, strength, and security.
Mac: Similarly, for Mac you can use iStumbler application to generate a list of the nearby hotspots. There¡¯s a paid option name AirRadar that works like a charm.
Smartphones: While your phone¡¯s Wi-Fi scanner lets you scan your surroundings, there are scanning apps that allow you to search around your and other locations too. You can use JiWire¡¯s Free Wi-Fi Finder on iPhone or paid alternatives like WifiTrack and WiFiFoFum (also available for Windows Mobile).
ne tools: If you wish to skip the app installation process for free Wi-Fi, you can take help from various online tools Hotspot Haven, and Wi-Fi FreeSpot Directory.
Visit the places that are likely to have free Wi-Fi:At places like McDonald¡¯s, airport, public libraries, Starbucks, you get free Wi-Fi. So, if you love free Wi-Fi hunting, learn about the places that provide free Wi-Fi and visit them. Just search the internet for hotels, businesses, restaurants, and cafes offering free Wi-Fi and you¡¯ll be surprised to see how many places are ready to offer their data for free.If you¡¯ve spotted a free Wi-Fi connection at some mall or restaurant, there are chances that it¡¯ll be a timed connection. To beat it, you need to spoof your MAC address. All you need is an app like MAC Makeup to spoof a new MAC address. This, of course, isn¡¯t recommended by us but could be used if there¡¯s some urgency.
If you are having an active data connection, you can easily tether your 3G or LTE connection to your personal computer. Using your phone¡¯s built-in features, you can turn your Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot and use the internet on your computer.You might not know but in the US, many cable internet companies provide free Wi-Fi via their Wi-Fi hotspots around the town. Just visit your cable company¡¯s website, give then a call, or download their app to locate the free Wi-Fi hotspots.Do you know some more methods to spot free Wi-Fi hotspots around you? Do share them with other readers in the comments below.At this year¡¯s conference, more than 15,000 hackers and security professional gathered in Las Vegas. The Mandalay Bay hotel witnessed some scary and impressive sights. So, here are some of the best hacks that stood out from the rest:
Do you remember the hacker duo of Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek who hacked into a Jeep Cherokee by exploiting a zero-day in the system?This year, they were back at Black Hat with scarier hacking tricks, showing their ability to affect the safety of critical systems. They controlled a vehicle remotely, slamming the brakes suddenly and speeding ahead without any warning.FLYING-DANGER-DRONE-BLACK-HAT-2016At Black Hat 2016, we saw Danger Drone, a new laptop that¡¯s designed to fly and launch cyberattacks. This lets a security expert to remain far from the target and bypass the challenging aspects to test the defenses of a system.Just when you thought that your innocent light bulbs would be the last thing a hacker will target, Black Hat 2016 witnessed the details on Internet of Things security risks.CTO of NewAE Technology, Colin O¡¯Flynn, and Eyal Ronen, an Israeli student, shared a presentation and a video of hacking office building lights. Later, they even hacked the light at the conference.
Very often what you see on social media might not be what it seems. Using deceptive phishing links, hackers easily target social media users to steal their personal information and money.The same concept was demonstrated by ZeroFOX data scientists Philip Tully and John Seymour. They build a bot that targetted social media users, collected information regarding their interests and penetrated the feed with a catered message. This Twitter bot was a success with a click rate as high as 60%.Fake airport boarding pass making app!What happens when an automated boarding pass reader rejects your gold status? Well, if you are Przemek Jaroszewski, you¡¯ll develop an app to hack your way into airport lounges.Jaroszewski, Poland¡¯s computer emergency response team head, says that it just takes 10 seconds to create a boarding pass that could be used to access the airport lounges. For the security purposes, he has no plans to make this app public.
These batteries, mostly lithium-ion type, decrease in capacity over time. It is quite possible that a new laptop that can run for 6 hours on the battery may reach only 2 hours after a couple of years of usage. Now, you can¡¯t stop the battery decay process because it¡¯s a natural phenomenon but you can keep an eye on the battery capacity from time to time. This would help you know when it is the right time to purchase a new one.
Windows keeps an account of battery related data like its original specifications, capacity, current capacity, etc. It also maintains updated information about battery usage sessions. A command line utility known as powercfg allows you to access this data in a well-presented manner.So, here is a method which involves the use of Windows CMD to check Energy Report and also the Battery Health Report which shows the charging cycles and performance of your battery over a course of time.