Most of us want to extract the still images from our wedding video and later want them to get it developed from studio or wish to make a photo collage, desktop wallpaper or a screensaver after extracting still images from our favorite movie. But how? Do not search internet for costly softwares. The solution lies on your desktop itself

Follow simple steps below to take the screenshots from any movie file or video file-

• Open Windows Media Player (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment)
• Select and open the video file from which you wish to extract the images.
• Go to Tools -> Options and then click on the performance tab as shown in the screenshot below

• You will notice a slider labeled “Video acceleration”. Reduce the acceleration to none, click ok and then close down media player. The performance of video may suffer because it then uses basic video acceleration settings that work with most video hardware.
• Now open the video file you want to take a still image from, press ALT and PrintScrn key to copy an image of media player to the clipboard or you can use any screenshot capture utility to grab the image.
• Use Paint or any another image editing program to edit the picture you want.Below is the still image I have extracted.

Note- After you have finished taking still images make sure that you go back to the performance tab in Media Player options and press the restore defaults button to put your computer back to the previous position.

Most of us work on more than one program and the Quick Launch bar makes it easy to access frequently used programs like Windows Media Player and your e-mail, and to open an Internet Explorer window. Windows XP and Vista loads many programs in the Quick Launch, including Show Desktop. One click on Show Desktop minimizes all the programs on your desktop. Another click restores them.

How to show Quick Launch on the taskbar

1.       If the Quick Launch bar is not visible, right-click an empty area on the taskbar and click Properties.

2.       On the Taskbar tab, under Taskbar appearance, select the Show Quick Launch check box and click OK.

3.       After Quick Launch is displayed, click Show Desktop to minimize all open programs. Another click will restore you back.

How to restore Quick Launch shortcuts

If the task bar is not locked then it may land you in trouble. Sometimes while moving the Quick launch icons the quick Launch shortcuts gets displaced .Follow simple steps below to restore them back.

1.       Navigate to Start -> Run-> enter command -> click OK. This will invoke command prompt of your PC.

2.       Write below command and hit enter -
regsvr32 /n /i:U shell32.dll

How to recreate and restore “Show Desktop” icon in Quick Launch Toolbar

Sometimes while moving the Quick launch icons the “Show Desktop” gets displaced or deleted. Alternatively, you can press Windows Key + D to show and hide the desktop. It works similar to the Show Desktop icon. But still the icon can be created again and you can easily add it in Quick Launch Bar. Follow the simple steps below to do so-

1.     Open Notepad and Type or copy following text:

        [Shell]
        Command=2
        IconFile=explorer.exe,3
        [Taskbar]
        Command=ToggleDesktop

 

2.       Now go to File –> Save As… and select Save as Type “All files”

3.       Browse to C:\WINDOWS\system32 (for Windows XP)

4.       Name the file “Show Desktop.scf” (Make sure that the file is not saved as “Show Desktop.scf.txt”)

5.       Create a shortcut of this file. To do so right click the file at the location you just saved it to, and select create shortcut)

6.       Move this new shortcut to your Quick Launch bar by drag and drop.

7.       If the drag and drop does not suits to you follow the method listed below-

Navigate to following path

For Windows 95/98-> Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

For Windows NT/ 2000/ XP -> C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Note- Username refers to the account name where you want to put the icon. If Login account is admin then the path would be-

C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Copy the Show Desktop.scf file to the Quick Launch folder.

Note By default, the Application Data folder for Windows NT/2000/XP is a hidden folder. You may have to unhide this folder by using the Advanced Settings in Internet Explorer. Click the Show hidden files and folders option.

How to Re-create the View Channels Icon on Quick Launch Toolbar

If you accidentally delete the View Channels icon from the Quick Launch toolbar follow the steps below to recreate it.

1.       Open Notepad and Type or copy following text:

[Shell]
Command=3
IconFile=shdocvw.dll,-118
[IE]
Command=Channels

2.       Save the new file as a file named View Channels.scf in the following folder, and then quit the text editor.

Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

The View Channels icon automatically appears on the Quick Launch toolbar.

 

Troubleshooting Tips-

# You try to add the desktop icon to the quick launch bar and you are prompted with an error message ‘This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on the computer. Please contact system administrator.’

Solution- If the user account has been locked before, Quick Launch icons are stored in the following folder. Please check if the icons you required can be copied to this folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\<user name>.orig\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

 By default the Application Data folder is hidden. Follow the steps below to show the hidden files:

·         Click Start -> Control Panel -> Folder Options.

·         Click the View tab. Under Hidden files and folders, click “Show hidden files and folders.”

·         Click the “Hide extensions for known file type”.

·         Click OK.

If you refer to the Show Desktop icon, you can copy it from another user account’s Quick Launch folder. You can also refer to the above method to create a new one.

 

# When you attempt to add the Quick Launch Bar to the Task Bar, you may receive the following error message- Cannot create toolbar for “

Solution- This behavior generally occurs if the Quick Launch folder has been deleted. You are required to recreate the Quick Launch folder to resolve the issue. Follow one of the simple step below-

Create a folder named “Quick Launch” (without the quotes) at the following location:

C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\

Or,

If you are currently using Windows Profiles, then create the Quick Launch folder at the following location:

C:\Windows\Profiles\profile name\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\

Where “profile name” is the name of the currently logged on user name. 

 

Method# 1 - Change User Account Settings.

1. Click Start, click Run, and type control userpasswords2.
2. Clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer check box as shown in screenshot below and then click Apply.

1. Enter the user name and password you wish to automatically log on with, and then click OK.
2. Click OK again and you’re all done.

The above method will help you in restoring your automatic logon if you lost it during the installation of the .Net Framework on your computer. If you want a password back on your system, follow the same steps and check the box.

Note- Do not try to auto-login as the built-in Administrator for Windows XP Home edition, as this procedure will throw up an error message.

Method# 2 - Using Microsoft’s TweakUI Powertoy

1. Download TweakUI powertoy from microsoft
2. To open it navigate to  Start -> Programs -> Powertoys for Windows XP -> TweakUI.
3. Navigate to Logon branch, and then click Autologon.
4. Turn on the “Log on automatically at system startup” option by checking the box.
5. Finally, type your username and password, and then click Ok.

Method# 3 - Modifying Registry Values

Use this method if above methods fails to auto-logon to Windows XP. You can also configure Microsoft Windows XP to automate the logon process by storing your password and other pertinent information in the registry database. It permits other users to start your computer and to use the account that you establish to automatically log on.

Note- You may land-up in problem if you modify the registry incorrectly. Make sure to take the back up of the registry before you modify it. Read the article on How to back up and restore the registry in Windows published in Microsoft knowledgebase.

If you turn on automatic logon, the password is stored in the registry in plain text. The specific registry key that stores this value is remotely readable by the Authenticated Users group. Make sure that you use this setting if the computer is physically secured and users who you do not trust cannot remotely see the registry.

Follow the steps below :

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Using your account name and password, double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password under the value data box, and then click OK.

If there is no DefaultPassword value, create the value. To do this, follow these steps:

·   In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.

·   Type DefaultPassword as the value name, and then press ENTER.

·   Double-click the newly created key, and then type your password in the Value Data box.

If no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows XP automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon registry key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to turn off the AutoAdminLogon feature.

 5. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.

     If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create the entry. To do this, follow these steps:

·   In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.

·   Type AutoAdminLogon as the value name, and then press ENTER.

·   Double-click the newly created key, and then type 1 in the Value Data box.

 6. Close the Registry Editor and restart your machine. After your computer restarts you can log on automatically.

Note-To bypass the automatic logon to log on as a different user, just hold down the SHIFT key after you log off or after Windows XP restarts. This method applies only to the first logon. To enforce this setting for future logoffs set the following registry key with values mentioned below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Value:ForceAutoLogon

Type : REG_SZ

Data  : 1

If you are having a valid RSS feed then you can easily convert your website or blog into iPhone friendly format using Intersquash. No programming skills are required to make your blog or website iPhone compatible. The application only asks for the URL of your RSS feed, a name for the site, and an optional iPhone icon. Once submitted it offers a URL and a snippet of HTML. You can put the HTML in your website’s code as directed (Just insert this between the <head> tags of your website.) to redirect iPhones automatically.


Intersquash indeed provide you with a clean, readable, functioning iPhone website. I have tested the apps on my iPhone and the results were amazing. You can view the screenshot of my iPhone as shown.View my iphone enabled blog.


Intersquash is providing two amazing features in their premium version which comes at $2.99 only. Using premium version-

1. You can completely customize the look and feel of your converted website,
2. You can add your own logo to the header.
Check out Intersquash’s video demonstration -

intersquash demo from jon on Vimeo.


Via[Downloadsquad]

Intrusion Prevention is the act of dropping detected bad traffic in real-time by not allowing the traffic to continue to its destination, and is useful against denial of services floods, brute force attacks, vulnerability detection, protocols anomaly detection and prevention against unknown exploits.

How Intrusion Prevention System Works?

Currently network security components like Firewalls, Anti-Virus programs and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) cannot cope with the wide range of malicious attacks and zero day exploits on computer networks and systems.

Traditionally, firewalls and anti-virus programs try to block attacks and IDS tries to identify attacks as it occurs. Such techniques are critical to a defense in depth approach to security, but have limitations. A firewall can stop services by blocking certain port numbers but it does little to evaluate traffic that uses allowed port numbers. IDS can evaluate traffic that passes through these open ports but cannot stop it. IPS can proactively block attacks.

A basic distinction is that the IDS is an out of band technology whereas the IPS sits in-line on the network. The IPS monitors the network much like the IDS but when an event occurs, it takes action based on prescribed rules. Security administrator can define such rules so the systems respond in the way they would.

Intrusion prevention system can be achieved through three main approaches:

1.       Building systems with no vulnerability,

2.       Taking perfect remediation steps to uncover vulnerabilities and patch them.

3.       Detecting the exploit attempts and blocking them before serious damage is done.

IPS operates on the In-line mode i.e. the sensor is placed directly in the network traffic path, inspecting all traffic at wire speed as it passes through the assigned port pair. In-line mode enables the sensor to run in a protection/prevention mode, where packet inspection is performed in real time, and intrusive packets are dealt with immediately, the sensor can drop malicious packets.  This enables it to actually prevent an attack reaching its target.

IPS technologies are differentiated from IDS technologies by one characteristic. IPS technologies can respond to a detected threat by attempting to prevent it from succeeding. They use several response techniques, which can be divided into the following groups.

·   The IPS stops the attack itself

·   The IPS changes the security environment

·   The IPS changes the attack’s content

The IPS stops the attack itself: Terminate the network connection or user session that is being used for the attack

Block access to the target from the offending user account, IP address, or other attacker attribute. Block all access to the targeted host, service, application, or other resource.

The IPS changes the security environment: The IPS could change the configuration of other security controls to disrupt an attack. Common examples are reconfiguring a network device such as firewall, router, and switch to block access from the attacker.

The IPS changes the attack’s content: IPS technologies can remove or replace malicious portions of an attack to make it benign. An example is an IPS that acts as a proxy and normalizes incoming requests, which means that the proxy repackages the payloads of the requests, discarding header information or removing an infected file attachment from an e-mail and then permitting the cleaned email to reach its recipient.

Approaches to Intrusion Prevention System

There are different types of approaches is used in the IPS to secure the network.

1. Signature-Based

2. Anomaly-Based

3. Policy-Based

4. Protoco-Analysis-Based

Signature-Based

Signature-based IPS is the commonly used by many IPS solutions. Signatures are added to the devices that identify a pattern that the most common attacks present. That’s why it is also known as pattern matching. These signatures can be added, tuned, and updated to deal with the new attacks.

Anomaly-Based

Anomaly-Based approach IPS is also called as profile-based. It attempts to discover activity that deviates from what an engineer defines as normal activity. Anomaly-based approach can be statistical anomaly detection and non-statistical anomaly detection. The statistical approach is about the traffic patterns on the network itself, and the non-statistical method is about information coded by the solution vendor.

Policy-Based

Policy-based is more concerned with enforcing the security policy of the organization. Alarms are triggered if activities are detected that violate the security policy coded by the organization. With this type approaches security policy is written into the IPS device.

Protoco-Analysis-Based

Protoco-analysis-based is similar to signature based approach. Most signatures examines common settings, but the protocol-analysis-based approach can do much deeper packet inspection and is more flexible in finding some types of attacks.

Host-Based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS)

Host-based IPS is a software program that resides on individual systems such as servers, workstations or notebooks. Traffic flowing into or out of that particular system is inspected and the behavior of the applications and operating system may be examined for indications of an attack.

These host system-specific programs or agents may protect just the operating system, or applications running on the host as well as web servers. When an attack is detected, the Host IPS software either blocks the attack at the network Interface level, or issues commands to the application or operating system to stop the behavior initiated by the attack.

It binds closely with the operating system kernel and services, monitoring and intercepting system calls to the kernel or APIs in order to prevent attacks as well as log them.

One potential disadvantage with this approach is that, given the necessarily tight integration with the host operating system, future operating system upgrades could cause problems.

Benefits of Host IPS

·         Protects mobile systems from attack when attached outside the protected network. Roaming laptop computers are a primary vector for introducing worms into a protected network.

·         Prevents internal attack or misuse on devices located on the same network segment, Network IPS only provides protection for data moving between different segments. Attacks launched between systems located on the same segment can only be countered with Host IPS.

·         Protects against encrypted attacks where the encrypted data stream terminates at the system being protected. Host IPS examines data and/ or behavior after encrypted data has been decrypted on the host system.  

Network-Based Intrusion Prevention System (NIPS)

Network-Based Intrusion Prevention System (NIPS) is software or dedicated hardware system that connects directly to a network segment and protects all of the systems attached to the same or downstream network segments.

Network IPS devices are deployed in-line with the network segment being protected. All data that flows between the protected segment and the rest of the network must pass through the Network IPS device. As the traffic passes through the device, it is inspected for the presence of an attack. When an attack is identified, the Network IPS discards or blocks the offending data from passing through the system to the intended victim thus blocking the attack.

The Network IPS combines features of standard IDS, an IPS and a firewall, and is sometimes known as an In-line IDS or Gateway IDS. As with a typical firewall, the NIPS has at least two network interfaces, one designated as internal and one as external. As packets appear at the either interface they are passed to the detection engine, at which point the IPS device functions much as any IDS would in determining whether or not the packet being examined poses a threat.

If NIPS detects a malicious packet, it will raise an alert and discard the packet and mark that flow as bad. As the remaining packets that make up that particular TCP session arrive at the IPS device, they are discarded immediately. Legitimate packets are passed through to the second interface and on to their intended destination.

Benefits of Network IPS

·         Easy deployment as a single sensor can protect hundreds on systems.

·         A single control point for traffic can protect thousands of systems located down stream of the device.

·         Network IPS provides a measure of protection for all devices, no matter what the operating system or application.

·         Protects non-computer based network devices. Not all attacks are directed against systems that run operating systems supported by Host based IPS examples routers, firewalls, VPN and print servers etc.

·         Protects against network DoS, DDos attacks and SYN flood etc.

Both HIPS & NIPS approaches have their strengths and their weaknesses and are better at protecting against some types of threats than others. Due to the dynamic nature of network intrusion threats, deploying a mixture of both technologies will provide the greatest level of protection for critical assets.

The Matroska Multimedia Container is an open standard free Container format developed by matroska that can hold an unlimited number of video, audio, picture or subtitle tracks inside a single file. It is one of the contending formats to the popular AVI and MP4 formats. It aims to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows. MKV files are based on EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language), a binary class of XML.

Matroska file types -

-          .mkv : Generally video files, as well those containing audio ( movies ) or video only

-          .mka : audio only files, can contain any supported audio compression format, such as MP2,  MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AC3, DTS, PCM and soon MPC ( musepack )

-          .mks : a so called ‘elementary’ matroska stream containing any subtitles stream

What is Container format?

Whenever you play a movie on your computer, one video stream and one audio stream is handled at the same time. In layman terms, lets say you pack an MP3 audio file and a video file, into a single file by using a so-called container format file, comparable to a ZIP file.

This container and the software coming with it take care of the correct timing of the audio and video playback when the file is played (opened). ZIP or RAR could be a perfect container to pack one or more audio/video streams together into one single file for distribution purpose, but WinZip does not care about the correct timing of video and audio files on playback.

Example of good containers - AVI ( most DivX movies you will get will have an .avi extension ), or the MPEG container ( .mpg , .mpeg ), Quicktime ( .mov ), Realmedia ( .rm ), MP4 ( .mp4 ), etc. .

How to play matroska files on Computer?

1)       Using VideoLAN VLC media player

VLC player supports all the video and audio streams you will find in an MKV file. You need not to install any codecs or filters to play mkv files.

2)       Using Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic has a built in DVD player with real-time zoom, support for AVI subtitles, QuickTime and RealVideo support (requires QuickTime and/or Real Player); built-in MPEG2/SVCD/DVD codec. To play mkv file you need to install updated Matroska Pack. To do so follow simple steps below -

Open Media Player Classic and navigate to View –> Options then Select Internal Filters situated on the left and then uncheck to disable Matroska. Now Install the Matroska Pack. You should now be able to play the mkv files.

3)       Convert mkv file format to avi,wmv,mov,mp4 or other media format.

  You can convert the file format from mkv to other video formats supported to your player. The file can be converted online using media convert.

 Programs that can open mkv files 

 Mac OS 

 MPlayer

 VideoLAN VLC media player

 Apple QuickTime Player with the Perian component installed

 Windows 

 Windows Media Player with Matroska DirectShow playback pack

 Media Player Classic

 Core Media Player with CDL plugin

 VideoLAN VLC media player

 Matroska Splitter

 NERO Show Time with K-Lite Codec Pack

 Linux 

 VideoLAN VLC media player

Important download information for other media players to play .mkv files-

To download the updated codecs or plugins and video players for windows, Mac OS or Linix as mentioned above visit the download link of matroska.

On the download page you will find the link to the very latest DirectShow parser filter, to play your .mkv files on Microsoft Windows with every DirectShow based player such as Windows Media player (6.4/7/8/9), Zoomplayer and BSplayer. The best playback support from Windows is currently achieved with The Core Media Player, if the matroska CDL plugin was used.

For Linux PCs, as well as for MacOSX and the X-Box emulation you need to get the latest version of mplayer. RPMs are available from Mosu’s mkvtoolnix site.

UIF (Universal Image Format) is a compression image file format for CD/DVD backup. It is fast, password-protected and data encrypted file format.  UIF can not only contain the complete data  of CD/DVD just like ISO image,  But UIF  also supports backup for multi-session CD/DVD, Audio-CD, VCD, SVCD and DVD-Video.

What is the advantage to use UIF instead of ISO Image, zip, rar and other CD/DVD image to backup CD/DVD? 

1. UIF reduces the size of image file with high quality compression-method.
2. One can easily backup secret and private CD/DVD using UIF and have the advantage to transfer CD/DVD through the Internet. 
3. UIF files are password-protected and deny the access to any unauthorized user, sniffer or hacker.
4. Unlike ZIP, RAR and other compression archive, you don’t have to extract files and folders from UIF before you need to use this files or folders. Just use virtual CD/VD software like MagicDisc to mount UIF image as virtual CD so that you can access all files and folders in UIF image through this virtual CD just like accessing your the original CD/DVD.

How to Open UIF File?

Method#1- Using MagicISO

1. Download MagicISO trial edition. After installing MagicISO, Open it,
2. Navigate to File –> Open and select the UIF file.
3. Select ‘Extract’ option by right clicking the UIF file and enter the preferred location and then click OK.

Method#2- Convert UIF to ISO and then Mount it using MagicDisc.

1. First you need to decompress UIF files using MagicISO trial edition. Download the software and open it up. Click on Tools and Decompress UIF Image.
2. Choose the source file and the destination location for the ISO file and hit the ‘Decompress’ button.
3. MagicISO will convert the UIF file to ISO format, so you can then mount it using any virtual disk manager software.

 Now download MagicDisc and follow the steps below to mount the ISO file.

Using MagicDisc to mount CD/DVD image -

1. After Installing MagicDisc, Right click MagicDisc Tray icon
2. Select “Virtual CD/DVD-ROM”
3. Select one of virtual CD/DVD drivers. (for examples: K: No Media)
4. Click “Mount”
5. Browse and select the CD/DVD image you wish to mount and Click “Ok”

You can now easily open the decompressed ISO file on your computer like a normal movie CD. 

MagicDisc can open UIF files on Windows computers. For the Mac, you have to convert the file to ISO format and the tool UIF2ISO promises to do that by simply dropping the UIF file onto the tool. Once converted, the file can be opened or burned. You can also convert UIF file to ISO using UIF2ISO GUI tool.

Connecting to internet via fee based open network while at Wi-Fi hotspots, airports,

To combat such attacks you should create a shield between your computer and network. AnchorFree provides Hotspot Shield application that keeps your Internet connection secure and anonymous on public networks.

How does Hotspot Shield Works?

Hotspot Shield employed with the latest VPN technology creates a virtual private network (VPN) between your laptop or iPhone and our Internet gateway. This impenetrable tunnel prevents snoopers and hackers from viewing your email, instant messages, credit card information or anything else you send over the network. It actually hides your IP address while you are online

Hotspot Shield runs on:

• Windows Vista
• Windows XP
• Windows 2000
• Mac OS X (10.5 Leopard)
• Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger)

Botnet is a term derived from the idea of bot networks. In its most basic form, a bot is simply an automated computer program, or robot. In the context of botnets, bots refer to computers that are able to be controlled by one, or many, outside sources. An attacker usually gains control by infecting the computers with a virus or other malicious code that gives the attacker access. Computer may be part of a botnet even though it appears to be operating normally.

Zombie Network

A zombie is a computer that has been infected by a piece of malicious software such as a Trojan horse or another type of malware. Once infected, the zombie’s sole purpose is to perform a malicious task on behalf of the attacker. Zombies can be used to bring down corporate networks, websites, and send mass amounts of spam to individual users.

Simply Zombie is a computer containing a hidden software program that enables the machine to be controlled remotely, usually to perform an attack on another computer.

A ‘bot’ is a type of malware which allows an attacker to gain complete control over the affected computer. There are literally tens of thousands of computers on the Internet which are infected with some type of ‘bot’ and don’t even realize it.

Attackers are able to access lists of ‘zombie’ PC’s and activate them to help execute DoS (denial-of-service) attacks against Web sites, host phishing attack Web sites or send out thousands of spam email messages. Should anyone trace the attack back to its source, they will find an unwitting victim rather than the true attacker.

Crackers transform computers into zombies by using small­ programs that exploit weaknesses in a computer’s operating system.

In order to infect a computer, the cracker must first get the installation program to the victim. Crackers can do this through e-mail, peer-to-peer networks or even on a regular Web site.                   Once the victim receives the program, he has to activate it. Meanwhile, the activated program attaches itself to an element of the user’s operating system so that every time the user turns on his computer, the program becomes active. The program either contains specific instructions to carry out a task at a particular time, or it allows the cracker to directly control the user’s Internet activity. Many of these programs work over an Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Mobile phones the next target for BotNet hackers

Recently mobile botnets was brought in notice as viruses, worms, trojans and spyware targeting the mobile platform. Mobiles seem overtake desktop and laptop computers as the preferred way of connecting to the internet.

If no-one has found any vulnerability on a particular mobile OS or application, it doesn’t mean that it is fully secure and doesn’t need to be updated.

At this point in time, most information stored on mobile devices is still synchronized with desktop PCs. This means that an attacker can still gain access to most confidential information such as e-mail by compromising a desktop machine. However, should this prediction come to fruition, it would be likely that some information is exclusively stored on the mobile devices themselves. As the device is always available, it would make sense to store potentially sensitive calendar or password information purely on this device.

Vulnerability of mobile technology against mobile botnet

The vulnerability of mobile technologies and protocols against this new threat needs to be understood. Are they more or less protected than wired machines against the different components of these types of botnet-based attacks? In order to assess vulnerability, one would first need to consider a complete botnet implementation as an end-to-end system.

The use of botnets consists of four major components:

I.  Infection of a machine with malicious botnet code.

II. Connection to the command and control channel set up by the attacker.

III. Downloading of secondary payload on command of the attacker.

IV. Performing an attack or additional scanning, gathering information.

These events usually happen sequentially, with a loop between the attack execution and the command and control channel.

That’s why it is important all mobile operating systems and applications is the ability to push security updates to the mobile phones with ease, and automatically. Mobile operators need to be proactive in filtering possible threats or scams at the gateway level. Mobile users should exercise caution when installing applications on their phones and opening links.

What Does a Botnet Do?

A botnet is nothing more then a tool, there are as many different motives for using them as there are people. The most common uses were criminally motivated (i.e. monetary) or for destructive purposes. Botnet can do anything you can imagine doing with a collection of networked computers. The possible uses for compromised hosts depend only on the imagination and skills of an attacker. Based on the data captured, the possibilities to use botnets can be categorized as listed below.

·         Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks (DDoS)

·         Spamming