Always be prepared.
Although it was not entirely security-related, this week I found myself to be prepared. Having some video file in a specific format (MKV) and needing another to upload to my locals page (MP4 works) made me stop for two seconds.
I had spend considerable resources recording and I did not feel like redoing it in another format. But luckily I was prepared, and already had FFMPEG handy.
So this Security Saturday I will simply show off some of the programs I keep around and up to date just in case:
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FFMPEG
Command line app. A handy swiss knife for audio and video codecs and streams. Shorthand command line parameters can be found all over the internet. -
Audacity
Audio toolkit, does what it needs to do, and does it well. -
OpenVPN
I run a VPN mostly to not have to port-forward when playing with friends on a Minecraft or Terraria instance, but I can use it to connect for serious connections as well. -
Wireshark
Because you never know when your network stops working. When it does, you do not have the network to download tools. -
PowerShell
I do not have to keep this up to date, but I keep my skills sharp. Many new management things can no longer be done from the windows command prompt. It has the power of automation. -
NMAP and NCAT
This is a fun port scanning tool, the accompanying NCAT is a networking Swiss knife. I use NMAP often to check if a ceratin service is up in some way, or to find devices on the network when they do not want to tell me their own IP.
Of course, NMAP could be used for more offensive purposes, but I'm blue team, so not in this household it's not. -
A secure connection to my own server (somewhere in a server rack in the Netherlands)
When I travel, I bring my phone, where I use Termux to connect to this box if I need more than a phone to solve what ever is going on. In case of emergency I can use the earlier mentioned OpenVPN to communicate with yet other devices in other locations, using this server. -
Signal for Desktop
If you're in trouble you need to tell people. This connection to other people needs to be present before you are hounded by those who would seek to harm you. Once people decide to harm you, they usually try to stop you from communicating effectively... -
Visual Studio Code
Because I like text editors, and Atom kept crashing on me.
As you will notice if you are a Linux guy, or a programmer, or some other type of digital person... There is no interpreters for Python, Perl, or Ruby or somesuch.
Your toolkit needs to fit you. If you do not like or understand a tool... Skip it. I know what the above tools do. I also know what Python does. Python touches everywhere with it's dirty fingers. It pretends to be lean and mean, as well as type safe.
Python is horrible.
So is Java.
I do not understand Perl.
And only annoying frameworks come from Ruby.
The one thing I might allow sometimes is NodeJS. At least JS is self-aware in that it knows it is everybody's quick-and-dirty.
Anyways, stay safe out there, and keep a small list of tools that would help you when you need them to that end!
There is so much more to this one chapter, but it is so good already!
I had to cut it short because guests arrived, but this should get you started on your own study :)
@calvinrempel Thank you once again for the Theology Tuesday you did, I refer back to it in this one :)
@JamesDerian Congratulations with your Marriage :)
Next time there might (almost certainly) not be a Theology Tuesday, so the official next one will be February 22nd! I have a marriage to attend. As the groom. Our home is still half a project.
Fun times!
Alc and I talk about my book that is now officially finished. This is part 1 of 2. Parts have not been neatly cut. Part two will air 5 minutes after part 1 for coninuity!
Hope you enjoy :)
This is the third corner to have persistent discussions and talks in. I love tech, but especially once it transcends hardware a little. I have two degrees; a bachelor's in Software Engineering and a master's in Information Security Technology. My graduation thesis focused on assembly-level optimizations (that is, one level above the hardware level) and my free subjects were in formal verification. This is why I love programming in the security corner, or maybe it is the other way around.
I started going down the Security path because I early on saw that the world around us would become a dangerous cesspool of badly-implemented and hostile tech. Now I am one of the people that understands the field around that mess :)
So in here you can discuss secure phones, weird programming languages, sad truths about internet-connected fridges. Also about malware, adblockers, and so on and so fort!
A lot of tech talk I do over at the @Lunduke community, where a lot of nerds hang out and it is ...
Much like the reading corner, let's have a music corner! A few rules for this one, since some music can be provocative. I don't mind much but let's keep youtube links with risque thumbnails out of here.
Other music I might also mind. "Do you find that offensive?" might someone ask. Yes, there is some music I choose not to listen on principle, and I walk a thin line there sometimes. But do not worry, I have a wide taste otherwise so feel free to share almost anything :)
Either way, here is the music corner!
Many times when we talk about security, we mean to say "Digital security". In essence we mean to say that our hardware and software that we use stays safe no matter what we do. And even though the ISO27001 standard (and by extension, for example, the NEN7510 standard) make it abundantly clear that security is a people-domain problem, we usually take that as a process-like truth. Meaning, we think that being secure is a matter of regulating people.
The truth is very different. For example, while writing this I am pretty shot. I slept five hours and I an under influence of a bunch of painkillers and some alcohol. Before you ask what I was thinking, let me mention that I have a genetic defect in my spine that I am dealing with right now by taking measured doses of all three (and yes, to get the Bible into this conversation, there is even a biblical ground for the inebriation with alcohol - see proverbs and the letters to Timothy - , although I did not use red wine. But hey, I am still on top of ...
