Book Review: by Jim Scheef Normally, the books I review have been out of print for years. This is one of those rare exceptions. In fact I was surprised to learn that even though my copy has a 2010 copyright, a revised version has just been released. I'm still trying to figure out what changed. Look for the revised edition when you buy the book. Dissecting the Hack has two parts, the first is a fictional story of how a government defense contractor gets hacked by Eastern European hackers working for a government and/or as industrial spies. We never learn who they work for in the story, but how they are stopped is as gripping a story as any computer-inspired Hollywood movie - and much more realistic. The second part of the book takes each of the "hacks" used in the story and explains how it was done. This includes what tools were used, where to get them and how to use them. So when you finish the book you are better able to understand network security and to explore your own network the same way a security professional, or a black hat hacker, would. Here's an example of something from the book adapted so your can do it right now. The first step in hacking a site is recon, gathering intelligence so you know what you are up against. Generally this starts with Google or some other, sometimes deeper, search engine. But for an example of how easy it is to learn about a website's infrastructure, go to netcraft.com. Netcraft, based in Bath, England, provides some interesting tools. On their site, scroll down a little and under "Internet Exploration" click on "What’s that site running?" At the top of the page enter dacs.org in the box and click Search. The search results will show the operating system and other details going back to 2007. Now change the search to www.dacs.org. The new list is shorter but goes back to 2001 when the DACS website was on the server at the Danbury Public Library. Now click the link on the right for the "Site Report" and we start to see more detail. None of this revealed anything about your computer to the target site as it was done thru a third party. Knowing what operating system and web server the site uses helps determine what exploits might work to gain access, if that is your aim. The next step would be to scan the site to see what ports are open and what protocols are running on the web server using a tool like Kismet, SuperScan or nMap. Scanning borders on intrusive in that scans may show in the site's logs, so caution is warranted. All this is given context in the story and more detail in the analysis. Read the book, it is highly recommended! |
 Click Here |
 |
 |
DacsGear!
|