In this week's OpenSourceSec blog, I wanted to introduce our readers to a deeper look at ransomware. With the emergence of “Ransomware As A Service” popping up on the Dark Web, it's a good idea to get an in-depth look at how ransomware works and what we can do in...

The way I like to look at security is by imagining how a castle is protected. Castle security operates on multiple layers. However cliché this analogy may be, it is pretty effective. From the moat to the innermost towers, the kings and queens of old never trusted just one line...

Symmetric key encryption

Contrary to popular belief, even now there are communication methods we can be reasonably assured are safe and private. To understand what we’re up against and how to understand cryptography in general, it helps to look back at Julius Caesar.

The ‘Caesar’ cipher, or ‘Caesar’ shift,...

This week I’d like to look at information security through the lens of a hypothetical situation: Let’s assume we are the unfortunate target of an attacker. If we’ve been following our best practices as defined thus far, we know our attack surface is becoming more specific and difficult for the...

Social Engineering

As I prepared to write this week’s article, I realized that this section is really an introduction to a very powerful yet often unknown art known as social engineering. Social engineering is the science and practice of exploiting human psychology for a purpose unknown to the target....

Over the past two weeks, we have focused on the fundamental basics of information security such as the importance of having a strong password protocol, understanding what malware is, and what steps we can take to make ourselves harder targets. In this weeks post we will be starting a two...

In this weeks post I will go over the basics of malware: what they are, how they are detected and what we can do in response. This information will be important in understanding next weeks post which will be on phishing and the other most common ways attackers compromise our...

One of the first things most people think about when it comes to online safety is their password. We all know that passwords are to our online accounts what keys are for our locks. Would you use the same key for your house, your car, your office and your safety...

Ever wonder what information security, data protection and online safety has to do with you?

If so, you’re not alone. These days terms like ‘breach’, ‘hacker’ and ‘online privacy’ are becoming ubiquitous. The general public usually assumes they personally don’t have anything to worry about. This may or may not...