Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Python – Getting Started
In this first lesson, we’re going to choose a version, install Python, and then create the obligatory “Hello world” script. If you’re already familiar with Python, feel free to skip ahead to a later lesson in the series.
Choosing a Version
“It’s important to choose the right version.”
There are two versions of Python that are currently being developed:
2.x
and 3.x
. It’s important to make the right choice ,because there are several differences between the two. Once you’ve learned one, it can be a bit annoying to have to transition to the other. In this series, we’ll be working through version 2.7.1. You may want to go this route in order to follow along with the videos and articles in this series. That said, most things should work with either version. Version two has much more support from third party libraries, whereas version three has more features, and plenty of bug fixes and refinements.
To make things easier, a lot of features that are being added to version three have also being added to version two, so there’s less need to worry about the differences.
Installing the Interpreter
Once you’ve chosen a version, it’s time to install. Download the version of Python for your OS, and run the installer which will get it set up on your machine. There are three ways you can now use Python:
- Python Shell- lets you run commands line by line.
- IDLE GUI – lets you write more complex scripts, and run them in one go.
- Text Editor – any text editor that runs on you system. You can then save it with a .pyextension, and run it from the shell.
For now, launch the shell to test if it works correctly. On Windows, navigate to the directory you installed Python. By default, it should be
C:\Python27
Once there, launch python.exe
. If you’re on Mac or Linux, launch the Terminal, then type python
.
I personally find IDLE to be unpleasant to use; so for most of this series, we’re going to be using a standard code editor. If you would rather use an IDE, there are plenty of good ones:
- PyScripter (Windows)
- Eclipse with the PyDev plugin (Windows)
- Netbeans for Python (Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris)
- Visual Studio with
Python Tools (Windows) - Eric IDE, best on Linux, available in Ubuntu Software center
Hello World!
No we’re all set up; let’s write your first bit of Python! Go to the shell, type
print "Hello World!"
, and hit enter
. The phrase Hello World! should appear.
And that’s it: it really is as simple as that. You’ve written your first Python program! Now is a good opportunity to highlight one of the differences beween version two and three: they changed
print
from a statement
to a function
. Don’t worry too much about what those words mean for now. All you need to know is that, if you chose to use version three, you need to write print("Hello World!")
— the only difference is that you don’t use brackets. We’ll learn about the technical reasons behind this in a future lesson.Conclusion
So in this lesson, we set ourselves up with a fresh Python installation, discussed the best tools to write code, and wrote our first program. If you have any questions, I’m happy to answer them in the comments, and I hope you’ll join me for the rest of this series.
Ethical Hacking - Getting Started
Do viruses, DDoS attacks, or buffer overflows tickle your fancy? If so, you might consider becoming a legal hacker, aka an ethical hacker, ''white hat'' hackers or penetration tester.
Businesses and government-related organizations that are serious about their network security hire ethical hackers and penetration testers to help probe and improve their networks, applications, and other computer systems with the ultimate goal of preventing data theft and fraud. You may not get the same adrenaline rush that you might with underground hacking, but you can earn a good and honest living--and not end up facing prison time, as some illegal "black hat" hackers do.
How does the job market look like for ethical hackers? Extremely good! The IT market overall continues to grow despite the current economic turmoil. Research firm Gartner estimates that worldwide enterprise IT spending grew by 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010, to a total of $2.7 trillion. At the same time, security is becoming a more pressing concern. Gartner expects to see an increase of nearly 40 percent in spending on worldwide security services during the five-year period from 2011 to 2015, eventually surpassing $49.1 billion.
In your first years as an ethical hacker, you'll be in a position to earn anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 per year, depending on the company that hires you, and on your IT experience and education. With several years of professional experience, you could command $120,000 or more per year, especially if you do your own independent consulting.
You can't just dive into an ethical hacker position, however. Without IT security experience, you won't get very far, even with degrees and certifications. As is true for other IT jobs, employers typically want candidates who have college degrees, but related experience is king. And experience with certifications can typically take the place of some degree requirements.
Getting Started
What you need to do to get started on the road to becoming an ethical hacker depends on where you are in the IT field. If you haven't started your IT career yet, you might even consider military service. The military offers many IT opportunities, and you get paid to go to school, even if you enlist in a part-time branch such as the National Guard or Reserves. Military service also looks good to employers that require security clearances.
Start with the basics: Earn your A+ Certification and get a tech support position. After some experience and additional certification (Network+ or CCNA), move up to a network support or admin role, and then to network engineer after a few years. Next, put some time into earning security certifications (Security+, CISSP, or TICSA) and find an information security position. While you're there, try to concentrate on penetration testing--and get some experience with the tools of the trade. Then work toward the Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification offered by the International Council of Electronic Commerce Consultants (EC-Council for short). At that point, you can start marketing yourself as an ethical hacker.
For a hacker, networking know-how is vital; but make sure that you gain experience in related areas as well. Discover and play with Unix/Linux commands and distributions. Make sure you also learn some programming--maybe C, LISP, Perl, or Java. And spend some time with databases such as SQL.
Soft Skills
Hacking isn't all technical. It also requires so-called soft skills, just as any other IT job does. You'll need a strong work ethic, very good problem-solving and communications skills, and the ability to say motivated and dedicated.
Ethical hackers also need street smarts, people skills, and even some talent for manipulation, since at times they need to be able to persuade others to disclose credentials, restart or shut down systems, execute files, or otherwise knowingly or unknowingly help them achieve their ultimate goal. You'll need to master this aspect of the job, which people in the business sometimes call "social engineering," to become a well-rounded ethical hacker.
Stay Legal!
It's important never to engage in "black hat" hacking--that is, intruding or attacking anyone's network without their full permission. Engaging in illegal activities, even if it doesn't lead to a conviction, will likely kill your ethical hacking career. Many of the available jobs are with government-related organizations and require security clearances and polygraph testing. Even regular companies will perform at least a basic background check.
Becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH)
As noted earlier, becoming a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) involves earning the appropriate credential from the EC-Council after a few years of security-related IT experience. The certification will help you understand security from the mindset of a hacker. You'll learn the common types of exploits, vulnerabilities, and countermeasures.
Qualification for a CEH (a vendor-neutral certification) involves mastering penetration testing, footprinting and reconnaissance, and social engineering. The course of study covers creating Trojan horses, backdoors, viruses, and worms. It also covers denial of service (DoS) attacks, SQL injection, buffer overflow, session hijacking, and system hacking. You'll discover how to hijack Web servers and Web applications. You'll also find out how to scan and sniff networks, crack wireless encryption, and evade IDSs, firewalls, and honeypots.
Through approved EC-Council training partners, you can take a live, five-day onsite or online training course to prepare for the CEH cert. You can generally take live online classes over five consecutive days; onsite courses typically offer the content spread over a couple weeks for locals. In addition, you can take self-paced courses and work with self-study materials (including the CEH Certified Ethical Hacker Study Guide book) with or without the training courses. The EC-Council also offers iLabs, a subscription based-service that allows you to log on to virtualized remote machines to perform exercises.
The EC-Council usually requires that you have at least two years of information-security-related work experience (endorsed by your employer) in addition to passing the exam before it will award you the official CEH certification.
Ethical Hacking - Goals of Security
Goals of Security
Understand the security triangle, also known as CIA (confidentiality, integrity, and availability).
There are many ways in which security can be achieved, but it’s universally agreed that the security triad of confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA) form the basic building blocks of any good security initiative.
Confidentiality addresses the secrecy and privacy of information. Physical examples of confidentiality include locked doors, armed guards, and fences. Logical examples of confidentiality can be seen in passwords, encryption, and firewalls. In the logical world, confidentiality must protect data in storage and in transit. For a real-life example of the failure of confidentiality, look no further than the recent news reports that have exposed how several large-scale breaches in confidentiality were the result of corporations, such as Time Warner and City National Bank, misplacing or losing backup tapes with customer accounts, names, and credit information. The simple act of encrypting thebackup tapes could have prevented or mitigated the damage.
Integrity is the second piece of the CIA security triad. Integrity provides for the correctness of information. It allows users of information to have confidence in its correctness. Correctness doesn’t mean that the data is accurate, just that it hasn’t been modified in storage or transit. Integrity can apply to paper or electronic documents. It is much easier to verify the integrity of a paper document than an electronic one. Integrity in electronic documents and data is much more difficult to protect than in paper ones. Integrity must be protected in two modes: storage and transit.
Information in storage can be protected if you use access and audit controls. Cryptography can also protect information in storage through the use of hashing algorithms. Real-life examples of this technology can be seen in programs such as Tripwire, MD5Sum, and Windows File Protection (WFP). Integrity in transit can be ensured primarily by the protocols used to transport the data. These security controls include hashing and cryptography.
Availability is the third leg of the CIA triad. Availability simply means that when a legitimate user needs the information, it should be available. As an example, access to a backup facility 24×7 does not help if there are no updated backups from which to restore. Backups are one of the ways that availability is ensured. Backups provide a copy of critical information should files and data be destroyed or equipment fail. Failover equipment is another way to ensure availability. Systems such as redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) and subscription services such as redundant sites (hot, cold, and warm) are two other examples. Disaster recovery is tied closely to availability, as it’s all about getting critical systems up and running quickly. Denial of service (DoS) is an attack against availability. Although these attacks might not give access to the attacker, they dodeny legitimate users the access they require.
Ethical Hacking – Introduction
Introduction
This lesson introduces you to the world of ethical hacking. Ethical hacking is a form of legal hacking that is done with the permission of an organization to help increase its security. This lesson discusses many of the business aspects of penetration (pen) testing. Information about how to perform a pen test, what types can be performed, what are the legal requirements, and what type of report should be delivered are all basic items that you will need to know before you perform any type of security testing. However, first, you need to review some security basics. This lesson starts with a discussion of confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Finally, the lesson finishes up with the history of hacking and a discussion of some of the pertinent laws.
Nothing learned in this class is intended to teach or encourage the use of security tools or methodologies for illegal or unethical purposes. Always act in a responsible manner. Make sure that you have written permission from the proper individuals before you use any of the tools or techniques described within. Always obtain permission before installing any of these tools on a network.
Security Fundamentals
Security is about finding a balance, as all systems have limits. No one person or company has unlimited funds to secure everything, and we cannot always take the most secure approach. One way to secure a system from network attack is to unplug it and make it a standalone system. Although this system would be relatively secure from Internet-based attackers, its usability would be substantially reduced. The opposite approach of plugging it in directly to the Internet without any firewall, antivirus, or security patches would make it extremely vulnerable, yet highly accessible. So, here again, you see that the job of security professionals is to find a balance somewhere between security and usability.
To find this balance, you need to know what the goals of the organization are, what security is, and how to measure the threats to security. The next section discusses the goals of security.
5 Fundamental SERP Ranking Factors
The Internet technology is always evolving. Everyday, there are subtle and major changes that proliferate, either changing the way we use it or forever changing the definition of the word “Web”.
And with these changes come modifications or improvements in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). The most noticeable is the increasing number of factors that affect your ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs). However, despite additions to the family, the most fundamental are still intact. Learn what these are and find out what they can do for you.
1. Content
This should be the highlight of your website. It does not only refer to your articles but it also encompasses the photos, videos, and audio files you post on your website.
However, what search bots are usually after are the texts, because those are the codes that they can crawl and interpret. Currently, lengthier articles look better than shorter ones, because they theoretically have more substance and information.
Now when producing posts, remember to take note of these three:
Originality It should be unique. You must give your own approach to the topic, no matter how exhausted the topic is. For example, even if you are writing about blogs, talk about it in a new light to give something substantial to your readers.
Timeliness It should be updated. It will not make sense if you write about the advantages of horse-driven chariots when our society is running on big fuel-powered vehicles, right? Your posts should be about current topics and issues that are dominating your niche.
Creativity Given that you are rehashing old topics, you should focus on giving a new approach to the subject. Insert your writer’s talent into your output to give your readers something worthy of their time.
2. Links
Let us start with internal links. These are hyperlinks that lead to other pages on your site, hence the name. They help search engines index other pages of your site. Make sure you use niche-based words, at least two-three terms per link. Most of all, limit the number of internal links per page to two, otherwise you will risk being suspected of spamming.
Second on our list are outgoing links. These are links you create on your pages, either embedded in your content or featured as footer links, that lead to other websites. They could be your affiliates or just authority sites for your particular niche. It is important that you choose only those that are relevant to your topic. You can also use PageRank as basis for linking to that site.
And last are inbound links. Famously coined as backlinks, these are links that you receive from other websites. Now instead of buying them like in the olden days, you have to earn them by producing great content that other domains would want to be part of. In addition, you can also do guest posting to earn high-quality links from sites that have an extensive blog fan base.
3. Keywords
These play a vital role in your SERP ranking. After all, these are what search engines use to match your site to a query. The more targeted your keywords are, the higher your site will end up on the results pages.
But do not overdo this. Stuffing your content with search terms is considered spamming, and you do not want Google to think that of you. At best, you should have a maximum of 2.5% to 3% keyword density in your articles.
Now to find the ideal search terms for your niche, you should use various online tools that feature the use of particular keywords. Such freebies include Google AdSense, Google AdWords, and Google Insights for Search. All of these will help you come up with relevant keywords that are varied in usage and have less competition over the Web.
4. Design
Optimisation is not just about focus on what the search engines want, but also what the Internet surfers like. With regards to your navigation system, it should be easy, simple, and straightforward. Glitz and glamour are not a good idea here.
The main priority is to create a site that is visually appealing, creative, and easy to navigate or browse.
5. Social Media
The last factor that affects your ranking in SERPs is your promotions. How visible or reputable is your website? Are you embracing all platforms to market your domain?
A very important highlight of SEO is social media marketing. Using channels that belong in this category will not only get your site quality links, but will also promote it to social networking members.
Naturally, Facebook and Twitter are the main contenders in this game. But do not neglect other sites as well like StumbleUpon, Foursqaure, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. The more channels you use, the more you have audiences for your marketing campaigns.
To Sum It Up
SEO does not have to be a mind-boggling concept that you should cower from. If you are new to the business, take it as a challenge and learn from the experts. You will soon find your efforts rewarded with increased traffic, high ranking, and loyal readers.
Origin Of Internet
History?
In 1950’s, with the development of the Electronic Computers, the history of Internet begins. Early, there was point-to-point communication between mainframe computers and terminals that was later expanded in point-to-point connections between computers only and then in packet Switching. With a variety of protocols a packet switching network called ARAPNET was developed.
Then in late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the internet took its orign from a defence project called ARAPnet by United States Defence Department. ARAPnet called as Advanced Research Projects Agency network. The agency wants to create a network of computers that can communicate with one another, even when some of the computers were disabled in the network.
In the midlle of 1980s, where a desktop computer workstations plays a great role of interest, at the same moment organizations wanted to connect their LANs (local area networks) to ARPAnet. This linking and sharing of computer resources would benefit all in every aspect.
Role Of NSF?
With the demanding need to speed up the connections ,NSF ( the National Science Foundation) in 1986 established five super computing centers and made the NSFnet as the supporting backbone. In 1987, the NSF signed a cooperative agreement to manage the NSFnet backbone with Merit Network, Inc., and , ARPAnet had been phased out by next three years in 1990. NSFnet continued to grow across the world and as a result more and more countries across the globe connected to this Internet backbone.
1991 — BIG YEAR
Tim Berners Lee known as TimBL is a british computer scientist and inventor of WWW (World Wide Web). In march 1989, a proposal was made by him for IMS (Information Management System), then on December 25,1990 with support of a young student at CERN , Robert Cailliau , he in joint venture and contribution implemented the first successful communication between a HTTP(Hypertext Transfer Protocol) client and server via INTERNET.
Finally , the 1991 was made a big year of Internet as The National Research and Education Network (NREN) was founded and the World Wide Web was released. Still dominated by scientist and other academics , the Internet begins to attract public interest. In 1993, the release of the Mosaic Web browser and in 1994, the Netscape results the World Wide Web exploded. The number of communities that become wired and enables the direct connections to the Internet were increased to greater extend.
In 1995, the U.S. federal government abdicate its management role in the Internet. Interconnected network providers are strong enough now to support U.S. backbone traffic on the Internet. However, the continues development of the U.S. backbone of the Internet encouraged by the presidential administration that also knows as the National Information Infrastructure (NII) . Most commonly it is known as the “Information Superhighway”.
So, in 1995 the internet is being used at its peak. As a result of this we see how much we are benefited , as we all are commercially and socially connected to each other is nothing but because of this so called Internet. Today scenario says that we can live without food but cant without internet at one time.
Even we see that we are reading this article is all internet..
Top 5 Ways To Increase Website Traffic
If you are trying to succeed in the online promotion field you will need to outpace your competitors and discover every source of visitors that is out there. When you can get more site visitors and improve the traffic to your website with a variety of techniques you can come out on top. One of the best strategies is to use techniques that will enhance your Google search for results positioning positions with SEO as well as bring customers directly to your site. Article promotion is an example where you can not only submit your articles for syndication but you’ll also gain valuable back links that can enhance your google search for results rankings for your keywords.
1. Article Marketing For Traffic
Using Article Marketing to improve web site visitors is one of the best methods to begin out. Developing unique material and then posting to top 10 writing and article marketing sites will get improve web site visitors with content marketing immediate visitors from the content and will help your long lasting way to obtain better positions in the Google. Make sure to publish to the top writing and article marketing sites that have a high page rank domain as these will get the most visitors, they get indexed faster, and this content will give you a more powerful back link. By using content promotion to improve web site visitors there is definitely strength in numbers, so use writing and article marketing software to send out to hundreds of internet directories.
2. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking to improve web visitors is an overall must these days. The only problem is most online promoters do not know how to implement it properly. One of the best uses of social bookmarking is not investing all your time public bookmarking your main website, but bookmarking your content and inbound hyperlinks. Use social bookmarking to make strong hyperlinks which will improve the web page ranking of your content and inbound hyperlinks including more overall SEO power to improve website visitors.
3. RSS
RSS is the most highly effective and most under used method to improve web site visitors. When most people think of RSS they think of a listing full of syndication that can be Publish RSS For to Increase Web page Traffic. The advantages of RSS are much more complicated if you use it properly. RSS can be used to make a large number of inbound links, can be used to make clean material on your sites, and can be used to make online network nourishes blended with material.
4. Backlinks
A really fast way to get excellent inbound links is by getting them from weblogs. If you do not know anyone that is going to let you be a visitor writer you can use some of the no cost web visitors’ solutions out there like Free Traffic Program. Basically publish your content to Free Traffic Program and they will deliver it out to 30 weblogs providing you 2 inbound links per content. Submit an content a day and observe your positions fly up.
5. Blog Comment
The ability to keep feedback on weblogs has made it simpler for the normal affiliate professional to get some quick inbound links. The only problem is that most people fall into the snare of investing way too much time looking for weblogs and doing Search engines queries looking for weblogs that allow do follow feedback.
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