Ask LH: Can I Get Penetration Tested?
Dear Lifehacker, I consider myself fairly good with online security. I have strong passwords, use a password manager, have difficult secret questions and enable two-factor authentication wherever I can. However I feel that there could be some small chink in my armour somewhere that could leave me vulnerable to being hacked. I know that there are companies out there that do penetration testing for businesses but are there any similar (reputable and affordable) services for individuals? Thanks, Paranoid Android
Kali Linux Is A Security-Testing Suite
Popular Wi-Fi password cracking tool Backtrack — used for security testing purposes only, of course — gets a special release today in the form of Kali Linux. This new distribution targets enterprise security, offering a suite of helpful tools for rigorous testing.
What Really Happened With The RBA Hack
You’ll have seen the fallout this week regarding a so-called “spearphishing” attack on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in 2011. As with most media reports on cyber-attacks, this one appears to have been overhyped. So what really happened?
Will Certification Drive Mobile Collaboration?
Good For Enterprise from Good Technologies has just become the first non-BlackBerry mobile collaboration and device management software to be certified by the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) for use in Australian government environments that require high levels of data security. Will that development also prompt more companies to consider these kinds of solutions?
Ask LH: Is A Non-English Password Safer?
Dear Lifehacker, I know it has been repeatedly recommended that one should never use common words as passwords — but is it OK to use foreign words? Perhaps not commonly spoken languages such as French or German, but not from languages such as perhaps Finnish or anglicised Chinese or Japanese? Thanks, Multilinguist
Ransomware Written In PowerShell (And How To Disable It)
We’re huge fans of the flexibility of Windows’ PowerShell scripting language, but we’ve never contemplated using it to write malware. That hasn’t stopped one group of enterprising criminals building PowerShell-based ransomware aimed at Russian computer users, but fortunately it turns out PowerShell can also be used to remedy the issue.
