Sometimes we have sensitive data that we want to get rid of. Since deleting a file doesn’t actually prevent it from being recovered we need to do some extra steps to ensure that it can’t be recovered. In this post we will use DD to complete this task. DD is often the tool digital forensics use to duplicate hard drives we will use it for a more destructive use so that our data can’t be recovered. Read more »

Sometimes we need to know the MAC address of a specific computer for multiple reasons. For example, I needed to know the MAC address of one of my computers so I could tell the router to assign a specific IP address via DHCP. Another reason you need to know the MAC address is so you can block a specific computer from talking to you. Maybe you need to know the MAC address so you can allow only that computer to communicate with you. There are many reasons for knowing a MAC address of a computer. Some reasons good other times it is used with bad intentions. Like port sniffing packets with a specific MAC address. Read more »

Computer viruses hit one million - Apparently Symantec just published a report that says their are now over a million known computer viruses. This is funny since I can’t really even remember that last time I have seen/had one.

So neighbors steal your wi-fi, kill the link or… have fun! - This is a great article that shows how you can exploit people that connect/hack your wireless network. Instead of disconnecting them they turn all their web pages blurry and upside down.

25 Games for Linux - As many know Linux is not really know for gaming since the game developers like to ignore us Linux users. Fortunately here is a good list of fun games that work natively in Linux. Read more »

Back in the day there used to be a program called lophcrack that was fairly good at cracking Windows passwords. Fortunately it wasn’t very effective for cracking strong passwords. Today I ran a newer cracking program on my computer called, ophcrack. As some of you know I tend to have extremely secure passwords contain numbers, letters, and other special characters. Not only did ophcrack find my password it found all but one character in my password in less than 20 seconds. That leads me to believe that it can crack pretty much any length of password in minutes. Read more »

Today, we will be using rsync to make daily, weekly, incremental backups and then a full compressed/archived backup once a month. We will then use cron to automate the process. Lets face it us humans get lazy sometimes and most backup systems loose complete effectiveness if they are not completely automated. Read more »

Want to make an exact copy of a CD without installing k3b or some other burning software? You can do it in Linux/Freebsd with one line of code using dd. The nice thing about dd is that it will make a disk level duplicate of the CD. It should be a 100% exact copy. Read more »

A common assumption is that deleting or formatting a hard drive will be enough but in fact the data is still recoverable. In fact is fairly trivial and the process is quite easy to restore them. For this reason security is a great concern, especially for those who are selling or donating their old computers. I am going to show you a simple technique for erasing the entire drive. This is the same procedure that the US Government DoD uses to secure their own drives. Read more »

Linux-Unix cheat sheets - The ultimate collection - Largest collection of linux commands and cheat sheets that I have come across.

FreeBSD Information and Tips - This is a few nuggets of gold. Worth checking out.

Open Flash Chart - If you are making a website that needs some charts. Open flash chart makes them like the charts found at finance.google.com and google analytics. These charts look awesome. Read more »