BITCOIN

 BITCOIN

In the no so distant past, there was this craze called Bitcoin. Bitcoin, the worlds leading cryptocurrency. It's like digital money that's spread out all over the world and nobody really owns it. It's kind of like the money of the Internet. Way back in 2009, you could buy one Bitcoin for less than a dollar! Can you believe that? But then, by February 2017, the price went up to around $4,000 for each Bitcoin. And by the end of 2017, it was crazy expensive, like $17,000 for just one!

But then, in January 2018, the price started going down a bit. Now it's around $11,000 for a single Bitcoin. Some people think it might go up to $40,000 by the end of 2018, and others even say it could reach $200,000 someday! Surprise surprise at the turn of 2024 one bitcoin is worth $43,175.70

You see, all these other digital coins, like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, are kind of like branches of the Bitcoin tree. They all come from the same place, the Bitcoin "blockchain." It's like the main trunk of the cryptocurrency tree, and the other coins are like the branches or leaves. But unlike a tree that grows its own branches and leaves Bitcoin doesn't. In order for a Bitcoin investor's value to increase, somebody else have to loose theirs.

But there are also some other digital coins out there that aren't related to Bitcoin at all. They're like their own separate trees in the cryptocurrency forest. So yeah, Bitcoin is a big deal, and it's changing the way we think about money and the Internet. But who knows what the future holds? It's all just a big guessing game for now.

 Dance of Shadows

In the ethereal realm where bits and bytes pirouette, hackers, — those modern-day sorcerers — weave spells that transcend the ordinary. Armed with languages like Python, Perl, PHP and arcane JavaScript, they navigate the digital cosmos, probing, and unlocking the secrets that lie veiled in the tapestry of networks. Behold the tools they wield, are instruments of both creation and destruction, from the sacred to the profane.

In the sacred arsenal of ethical hacking tools, the dance begins with Invicti and Fortify Web Inspect, guardians of web sanctums. They scrutinize the labyrinthine codes, seeking vulnerabilities with an ethical gaze. Cain & Abel, an enigma in its own right, whispers into the ears of cryptographic secrets, unraveling the knots of security protocols.

The Network Mapper, Nmap, dons the cloak of a phantom, mapping the unseen terrain of networks, while Nessus, the vigilant sentinel, scans for the faintest echoes of weakness. Nikto, a poetic vigilante, surveys web servers with a discerning eye, unraveling the threads that may lead to digital Pandora's boxes. Kismet and NetStumbler, the ethereal wanderers, roam the airwaves, unraveling the secrets that linger in the currents.

Acunetix and Netsparker, architects of digital fortresses, wield their prowess to shield the sacred domains from malevolent gazes. Intruder, a mischievous sprite, dances on the edges, seeking chinks in armor, while Metasploit, the shape-shifter, crafts exploits that transcend the ordinary.

And in the midnight symphony, Aircrack-Ng emerges, a spectral conductor orchestrating the dissonance of wireless networks, revealing the vulnerabilities that flutter in the unseen air.

In this dance of shadows, we encounter two archetypes - the White Hat and the Black Hat. The White Hat, the virtuous guardian, dons the mantle of ethical hacking, defending the digital realms against nefarious forces. The Black Hat, the elusive trickster, navigates the shadows with malicious intent, seeking to exploit weaknesses for personal gain.

But why, in this dance between light and shadow, do we need these hackers? For in the ever-expanding digital tapestry, vulnerabilities lurk like phantoms in the night. The network, a delicate ecosystem, demands guardians to ensure its integrity. The hacker, a dual-faced Janus, plays the role of both villain and hero, revealing the chasms that may lead to calamity or guiding the way toward fortified horizons.

So, let us not cast judgment upon the hackers, but rather, seek to understand their dance. In their whispers of code and shadowy exploits, lies the echo of our collective vulnerabilities. In the labyrinth of networks, the need for the hacker emerges as an intrinsic melody, urging us to fortify our digital bastions and navigate the cosmic dance between chaos and order.

Crypterium

Crypterium

The Bitcoin and Ethereum wave continued its record-breaking surge for the better part of 2017, creating huge euphoria in financial markets. But as the year approached its end, the size of the wave diminished substantially and now it looks like a runaway market as Bitcoin is under pressure and struggles to climb. Meanwhile Ethereum, (not Etherium) the second biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation has benefitted by this Bitcoin price drop, and consequently climbed to a new record-high of around $880 on Tuesday 2nd January. However that record may now be under threat because there is currently a fierce battle playing out in the crypto arena between Ethereum and Ripple. Ripple's capitalisation is now standing at $91 billion, whereas Ethereum's is still around $85 billion. Having said that, predicticions and expectations for Bitcoin, is that it will surpass the $40 000 mark by the end of 2018. 

Ethereum at it new record high.

Bitcoin was the first decentralized digital currency, initially established as a worldwide payment system / cryptocurrency peer-to-peer network running on open-source software, without any need of an intermediary or central bank. This is because all bitcoin transactions are directly completed between parties, verified and validated by network nodes then recorded in a publicly distributed ledger known as a blockchain. Crytocurrencies in general follow this model, though each may have unique differences, like algorithms, hard forks, cross forks, authentication, protocols, security and new additional features.

By default subsequent cryptocurrencies shares a transaction history with Bitcoin up to a certain time and date. For example Bitcoin Cash is a hard fork of Bitcoin which occurred on August 1st 2017 in block 478558. Ethereum on the other hand is a cross fork of Bitcoin which occurred on the same date in block 478558 but uses the scrypt algorithm. Likewise Bitcoin classic, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Lite, etc are all forks of Bitcoin with Peercoin (PPC), Unobtanium (UNO), Bytecoin (BTE), etc, using SHA-256 algorithm native to Bitcoin.

Be that as it may, the next Cryptocurrency wave is about to start and Crypterium is destined to sit at its crest. Crypterium is being flaunted as "the-next-big-thing". Currently the Crypterium ICO (Initial Coin Offering) have amassed in excess of $36 million and climbing, and due to close within the next 10 days. Crypterium is flaunted as the most capable and convenient payment processing solution useing the most efficient technology developed to date. It focuses on future technologies and network infrastructure, using contactless payment technologies guaranteeing the lowest exchange rate and immediate exchanges, using CrypteriumSX technology. Crypterium is also the only cryptocurrencies that will generate standard interest profit much like a banking system in the blockchain based world.

Crypterium seems to be a revolutionary, newer, better and an easier cryptocurrency to use than both Bitcoin and Ethereum. It currently costs a little less than Ripple and a viable currency to buy into, but read the Crypterium  whitepaper before you do so.

DISCLAIMER:
NB!  The author holds and invests in crypto assets. However, the contents of this post should not be misconstrued as investment advice;  it's merely shedding much needed light on some lesser known cryptocurrencies that have the potential to grow far beyond that of Bitcoin.

The 10 Best Cryptocurrencies

CRYPTOCURRENCIES

Crytocurrencies (CC)  / aka kriptocurrencies (kc)

Bitcoin (BTC)!  Etherium (ETH)! Litecoin (LTC)! Unless you've been living your life wearing  blinkers, or you've been hiding under a rock for the past year, I'm almost certain you've heard about them or perhaps any of the 1324 other Cryptocurrencies. So what's Crtyptocurrencies and what's all the hype about, you my ask. Well in a nutshell ..., Cryptocurrencies are the new money, and the hype is all about making money and lots of it. Many, many people have made small fortunes virtually overnight by investing in Bitcoin.

MAKING MONEY WITH BITCOIN

Let me give you an example. Bitcoin sold for less than half a $1.00 in 2010 and today a single Bitcoin is worth $14290.00 and fluctuating. By implication if you bought just $10 worth of Bitcoin in 2010 it would have metamorphosed into a six figure sum by 2017.  Impressive? Having said that, I need to add that there is no better time to invest in Bitcoin than right now, even though some billionaires are avoiding it, calling it a "bubble".  In my humble opinion they're avoiding cryto cash purely because they don't understand blockchain technology and the host of advantages it holds for future technologies.  

Bitcoin as a virtual currency, and is probably the only Crypto coin referred to most of the time by everyone when speaking about it, however, there are numerous other Cryptocurrencies available. Among them are, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), Veritaseum (VERI), Decred (DCR), Dash (DASH), Zcash (ZEC), etc, to name just a few. But remember, not all cryptocurrencies are born equal. Some are more popular than others, some will create more interest than others. Some will increase in value faster than others.

The reality of the matter is that a quarter of a million retailers globally will be accepting this new type of money shortly because it's doubling  its value virtually every week. Bitcoin has captivated the money markets and the demand for other digital coins are currently surging as financial institutions are raising millions of dollars in minutes. This is a rare opportunity to amass a small fortune from these emerging cryptocurrencies by investing sooner rather than later.

Blockchain Technology

Cryptocurrencies are based on Blockchain Technology and again in my humble opinion will become the  core of many future technologies. Governments will benefit from Blockchain Technology when it ties GIS systems to their land ownership and titling system. When I worked in Madagascar on a Geospacial project for land identification, I witnessed that their records / paper trail for land ownership was antiquated and inadequate.  We found at least two cases where title deeds were forged, in order to steal land from their rightful owners. A blockchain-based solution would easily have solved this problem by allowing the land chain to be traced from owner to owner upto and including its genesis. A heathcare blockchain-based solution would solve  numerous patient health record problems, if  all doctors contribute to the blockchain. A patient's entire medical records from birth to current date would be on-hand and in a single volume, accessible from anywhere in the world.

There are so many other uses for Blockchain Technology and should never be considered a bubble. Cryptocurrencies are potential replacement currencies and the popularity behind them, is the fact that they are completely decentralized, and cannot be manipulated by government and other authorities like Federal Reserve bank. Crytocurrencies are safe and allows you to buy commodities on the international markets without paying forex and other expensive banking fees in the process. Cryptocurrency payments, permits  private transactions with total anonymity, is completely irreversible  and nearly impossible to forge or counterfeit. Hence Cryptocurrencies have been growing in popularity at a blistering speed so much so that it is starting to "challenge gold" as the investment of choice.

Bitcoin Mining

There are two ways of getting onto Cryptocurrency band wagon, the first is to open an account at a brokerage that invests in Bitcoin, Etherium, Litecoin or other Crytocurrencies. This entails parting with a sizable amount of cash and trusting them to make your investment grow. The  second is to mine one or more Crytocurrencies  yourself, using a computer capable of a high hash rate , alternatively using an ASIC miner for mining Bitcoin or an ASIC miner manufactured for a specific Cryptocurrency. This entails investing your cash into some pretty expensive hardware, that's going to consume and enormous amount of electricity. ASICs are coin specific and are difficult to resell  whereas as a GPU based miner is essentially a regular gaming computer with plural graphics cards capable of mining different coin subject to the software installed.

ASIC Miner for mining Bitcoin.

CPU's have a low hash rate whereas GPU's have extremely high hash rates, so the more GPU's you install and the faster they process capability, the higher your hash rate and the faster they mine. Both ASICs and GPU's are power hungry and the trick is to balance out your initial hardware investment and your continuous electricity and internet connectivity bills against your Cryptocurrency mining earnings. The successive blog installment will cast some light on how to setup a mining rig for Bitcoin, Etherium and Litecoin, etc.

GPU Miner for mining Etherium, Litecoin Dash, Zcash etc.

CC is an abbreviation for Crytocurrencies and sometimes  KC is used for  Kriptocurrencies. Most cryptocurrencies have a three character abbreviation much like AUD - for Australian Dollar, GBP - for the Great Britain Pound, EUR - for Euro, JPY - for Japanese Yen, etc have. Like I mentioned above, there are in excess of 1324 crytocurrencies and other crytocurrencies are constantly emerging with just a few of them listed below.

BTC - Bitcoin 
LTC - Litecoin
ETN - Electroneum
XRP  - Ripple 
ETH  - Ethereum  
BCH - Bitcoin Cash
ADA - Cardano  
ZEC  - Zcash  
XMR - Monero  
EOS  - EOS 
NEO - NEO 
BTG - Bitcoin Gold
ETC  - Ethereum Classic
TRX  - TRON
XVG - Verge
IOTA - MIOTA

However the 10 crtypocurrencies to look out for during 2018 are:- 
LTC - Litecoin
XRP  - Ripple 
XMR - Monero
ETH  - Ethereum
ADA - Cardano
Iota  MIOTA 
BCH  - Bitcoin Cash
NEO - NEO
ADA - Cardano
TRON - TRX

DISCLAIMER:
NB!  The author holds and invests in crypto assets. However, the contents of this post should not be misconstrued as investment advice;  it's merely shedding much needed light on some lesser known cryptocurrencies that have the potential to grow between 10 and 100 times it's ICO.

Quark Xpress Hack

Quark Xpress Hack

Computers are marvelous contraptions, they just make life so much simpler, especially in the business sphere. However using a computer doesn't come without risks. As you may all know by now, any form of electronically stored data can become corrupt or damaged at some time or the other. Hence the first rule of computing is "back-up". The second rule  of computing is "back-up" and the third rule of computing is "back-up". But how many of us got caught with our pants down in the data realm, having the intention to make a "back-up", only to experience file corruption  and loss of data moments before we actually do so.

Murphy's law dictates that the spreadsheet you spent weeks developing in readiness for a presentation is very likely to get corrupted the very day before the deadline, leaving you absolutely no time to redo it, but also leaving you with egg on your face. Sounds familiar? Sure it does! During my computing career I've experienced hard drive corruption, file corruption, disk corruption, flash drive corruption, compact flash corruption, SD card corruption, micro SD card corruption and even cell phone corruption.  

One morning catastrophe struck when a vital document (96 page full colour magazine) failed to save that needed to go to the printers the following day. Ardent Quark Xpress users can vouch for that or similar incidents. Many of them familiar are with "I/O error trying to read or write to disk [-36]".  Lucky for me, I've hacked a few files in my time and it's not to big a deal for me to fix it.

I've used Quark Xpress for many years on both Mac and PC. I started out with DTP in the days of Pagestream on the Amiga, Print Shop on DOS and PagePlus  and Microsoft Publisher on Windows. Ever since Quark Xpress Version 2,  I've encountered "ioErr"  and "I/O error" countless times. Sometimes this error disguises itself as "File is locked. Changes cannot be saved [-315]. This Project is locked".  Or Quark Xpress reports that the "file is locked with error code -54". Or "This Project is locked. Changes cannot be saved. [-314] "

These errors often occur when the file is transported on portable media from one designer to another, though it's not the actual cause of the errors. Most times it's caused by lack of permission, so its feasable to access the file's properties, select "Remove Properties and Personal Information" then click on the radio button that says "Create copy with all possible properties removed". Also remember that file size is always constant but the size on disk often varies. So when transporting files, try not to open them on the transporting media but rather copy it to hard drive then, open it. 
Files more often than not get damaged if you save a document to damaged media and Windows will normally ask to scan the media.

Just a few days ago, I defragmented my Windows laptop and thereafter I couldn't open a a very important Quark document that I've worked on for 5 months. There was absolutely no way in hell that I was going to redo this document let alone find the time to do so. Fortunately for me, I had a 50% complete, though non-current back-up file of said Quark document. I just had to hack it. 

So, I opened up my corrupt document and my 50% back-up document with a hex editor, because it was going to be a lot easier to stitch the document that to redo it.  I used HxD, it's a Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor with a very small footprint. As can be seen in the image above, the first two bits of the first byte of the corrupt file (CCTV-Project Documentation 2.qxp / underlined in green) contains FF FF at offset 00000000 and in it's ASCII column it contains ÿÿ as its first two characters. 

This is the instruction that Quark could not read or interpreted it as "I/O error trying to read or write to disk [-36]". I then copied the contents of offset 00000000 to 00000020 from the back-up document (CCTV Project Documentation.qxp  / underlined in green) and pasted it in the corrupt file and saved it with the write function and named it Salvaged CCTV-Project Documentation 2.qxp  (underlined in green). I then launched Quark Xress slected Salvaged CCTV-Project Documentation 2.qxp and presto the stitched file open revealing its valuable contents, saving me some 600 hours of time.

How To Fix QuarkXPress Error -36, I/O Errors - Quark: QuarkXPress,   QuarkXPress runtime errors,  QXPS Error code lists, File is locked. Changes cannot be saved (315), Learn how to fix Quark XPress documents, How To Fix Quark Xpress Bad File Format [-70]error, How To Fix Quark Xpress Unexpected end of file encountered [-39]error, How To Fix Quark Xpress Out of Memory [-108] error,

BROWSER HACKING

BROWSER HACKING

Hacking is an age old art of getting things without paying for it, or gaining access to places you are specifically denied entry. If you ever picked-up a round metal electrical box knockout plate that resembles a coin and deposited into a public telephone coin hopper or a toy / bubble-gum machine's coin hopper with the intention of making a free phone call or getting a few bubblegum balls or a toy for free, then you're guilty of hacking. If you've ever jumped over the fence at a soccer or rugby match or sneaked-in at a music festival undetected, to avoid paying the gate fee, then you are guilty of hacking. If you ever boarded a train without buying a ticket knowing full well that the station at which you intend to disembark doesn't have any ticket collectors, then you hacked the system. 

Hacking takes various forms and is not purely associated with computers. People hack their electricity boxes, in order to pay less for electricity. People hack their DSTV decoders to gain channels they are not paying for. People hack their public telephone cards to increase the available credit so that they can make more calls than the card initially allowed. People hack the MVG Casino cards to increase  the number of tier credits on the card, then simply redeem the card and collect the cash from the casino tellers.  In a nutshell you're a thief.  However, some consider getting away with such behavior as clever or mentally superior, by  outdoing/surpass/ outshine, others at their own game.  

With the following information you can easily gain access to other peoples computer data, not intended for publicly consumption. Skillful use of a few commands, could get root access to other peoples computers, access to their passwords, credit card data and other personal information. If it's your thing, you could steal the identities of careless or ignorant computer users. However, computers that are properly configured will deny you access.

WARNING & DISCLAIMER:-

This blog installment is published purely as an educational aid; and as a tool for those who wish to broaden their computer skills. I do not in anyway encourage hacking other peoples computers. I therefore cannot and will not be held  responsible for whatever  you do with this information.  Use it at your own risk. Its main objective is to point out security flaws and software vulnerabilities, so that you can properly secure your own websites on your  computer network. 

The tool we are going to use is the Google Chrome browser, though any browser would do. However these advanced commands may not work on other browsers. With it, Google makes it possible to find sources of personal information, confidential data, and info about web services as well as system vulnerabilities. The following is a list of alphabetical web browser commands that most people are totally unaware of.

GOOGLE COMMANDS

allintext:
allintitle:
allinurl: 
cache:

daterange:
inanchor:
intext:
intitle:
info:
inurl:
link: 
numrange: 
phonebook:
related:
site:

These commands have a special syntax including some Boolean operands (AND, OR, wildcards and quoted strings) like those listed below to hone your search results. Internet search engines can be divided into two groups,  those that perform  "subject index searches" and those that do, full-text searches.  For example Yahoo! is a searchable subject index engine whereas Google is a full-text search engine that employs "spiders" to index billions of web pages which can be search by  title or content.

+   (logical AND)
-  (logical NOT)
|  (logical OR)
* (wildcard for a single word)
.  (wildcard for a single character)
" " (text delimiters)

intext: - searches only body text of webpages and explicitly ignores link text, URLs, and titles. Eg. intext:food

allintext: - presents  documents containing the specified phrase in the text, but excludes the title, the link descriptions and the URL. Eg. allintext:money

allinurl:  - presents the search phrase only in the url and excludes body text and title. Eg. allinurl:peace

Caption of a root directory

This gives you an idea of how to the these search commands. So try any of the following by copying  and pasting in url bar, then search:-

phonebook:Audi Centre JHB
site:apple.com/robots.txt
info:donald trump
numrange: 115-135
microsoft cache:IIS 5
money | love
Hitler -Hess 
Index of +password.txt  
Index of /admin  
Index of /credit-card  
"Index of /root"  

inurl:server-info "Apache Server Information" 
intitle:"active webcam page"
intitle:phpMyAdmin "Welcome to phpMyAdmin"

intitle:index.of finances.xls

"three * pigs" - the asterisk will insert a missing word - (little)
"three * mice" - the asterisk will insert a missing word - (bind)
"donald * trump" - the asterisk will insert a missing word - (John)

Using a combination of the above commands, gives search results you never imagined possible.  Any web server with Index browsing enabled would allow anyone to  browse the web server parent directory like a local directory and have access to all its sub directories. Be Warned that deleting or changing files on other peoples computers constitutes a felony and is punishable by law.

CYBER ATTACKS

CYBER ATTACKS

Did you know that Cyber attacks for today exceed 1,523,196 and is about half a million less than yesterday's 2,043,871 cyber attacks. If you don't believe me, you can verify it for yourself here. The malware families that account for about 40 percent of all recorded attacks are from the Worm32.Conflicker, the Virus.Win32.Sality, the Cutwail botnet and the Neutrino Exploit kit. These treats have been  religiously turning MS Windows computers into DDoS and spam-spewing botnet drones for at least the  past five years. But now, that Cryptowall ransomware version 4 was released, corporate cyber security companies are on a back foot. This is exactly what is portrayed in the Series Mr. Robot when Evil Corp's entire data centre got hacked and  encrypted with 256-bit AES encryption.

Hacks taking place every the day

The trick to doing this, is to open a backdoor through some unauthorized remote administration software. Once this is done, you essentially own the target computer system. Trojans like Cryptowall, Netbus, Back Orifice and SubSeven have several customizable options to get the job done.

Looking at the daily cyber war far between attacking countries like USA, China,  Portugal,  Germany,  Russia,  Sweden,  United Arab Emirates,  United Kingdom,  Netherlands,  and Turkey, etc, and target countries like USA  India,  Chile, Sweden,  United Kingdom, Taiwan,  Poland,  Brazil,  Norway,  Russia, flinging virus and Trojans at one another is bound to strain relations.

Hackers are attacking targets across all borders

Some of the malware threats are:- 

Worm32 Conflicker
Banker.Win32.Bancos.K
Trojan.Win32.ZeroAccess.A
Worm.Win32.Brontok.B
Trojan.Win32.Virtu.A
Trojan.Win32.Mwzlesson.A
Virus.Win32.Sality.
Operator.Andromeda.gx
Operator.Cryptowall3.bbe
Operator.Trojan.Win32.Grafter.e.a
Trojan.Win32.Smokeloadr.C