HackingTheUniverse

You are browsing the archives of 2008 December.

Scalability Perspectives
- is a series of posts that highlights the ideas that will shape the next decade of IT architecture. Each post is dedicated to a thought leader of the information age and his vision of the future. Be warned though – the journey into the minds and perspectives of these people requires an [...]

Metasploit is an exploitation framework. That means it offers a framework from which to launch exploit code that can be used for the penetration of computer systems. It has a large list of exploits and a variety of payloads to be delivered by the exploit.
The Metasploit Project
The Metasploit Framework
What is it?
The [...]

Nessus is a security and vulnerability scanner created by Renaud Deraison in 1998. It was free and open source for several years, but in 2005 was changed to closed source and now charges fees for some levels of commercial use. It is available from Tenable.
Nessus network security scanner
The Nessus® vulnerability scanner, is the [...]

First released by Fyodor in a 1997 issue of Phrack magazine, nmap has become the de-facto standard for network scanning and port scanning tools. Nmap is free and open-source and is now available in versions for most major OS platforms and includes features for OS identification, service version detection, a scripting engine, multi-probe scanning, [...]

This Scientific American article discusses the idea of creating artificial self replicating genetic material that could be better than DNA.
Triple Helix: Designing a New Molecule of Life
Peptide nucleic acid, a synthetic hybrid of protein and DNA, could form the basis of a new class of drugs—and of artificial life unlike anything found in nature
Key Concepts

A [...]

In 1269, Pierre or Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt wrote a letter to a friend discussing magnetism called “Epistola de Magnete” that explained how magnets attract and repel each other and how to identify the poles of a compass.
Peregrinus was a tutor of Roger Bacon.
PREREQUISITE:
magnets of Carthage
compass
SUBSEQUENT:
de Magnete (Gilbert)
Roger Bacon

Each of the seventeen families of security controls found in 800-53 contain a first control that requires the development of policy and procedures for that specific family of controls. Here is an example from the PL family:
800-53 security control PL-1 SECURITY PLANNING POLICY AND PROCEDURES
Control:
The organization develops, disseminates, and periodically reviews/updates: (i) a formal, documented, [...]

Any information security policy and Site Security Plan (SSP) should contain a section known as “Rules of Behavior” that establishes appropriate use and behavior of system users and the consequences of non-compliance.
From 800-100, Appendix B, FAQs:
Q - What are “Rules of Behavior”?
A - The rules should state the consequences of inconsistent behavior or noncompliance and [...]

Discovery - G9a Gene Triggers Differentiation Of Embryonic Cells
At a very early stage of human development, all cells of the embryo are identical, but unlike adult cells are very flexible and carry within them the potential to become any tissue type, whether it be muscle, skin, liver or brain.
This cell differentiation process begins at [...]

In 2005, Jeff Hawkins (founder of Palm Computing and Handspring) published a book titled, “On Intelligence” that described a model of the brain and human intelligence based on the neocortex. The neocortex is the most recently evolved part of the brain and the core of human conscious perception. Hawkins suggests that a key [...]