Hack Back: The first ever real time hacking competition in Nepal!!!

This is a promotional content for IT MEET 2017 being held at Kathmandu University.

If you weren’t psyched already about IT MEET, here is something that will absolutely fry your brains off.

IT MEET 2017 presents you with the opportunity to test your hacking skills against systems built by us. Come join us at Kathmandu University, Dhulikhel on 21st January and prove yourself a worthy hacker that can disarm and penetrate through any system in front of you.

The event will consist of several missions of variable difficulties with the participants given points for succeeding in each level according to the difficulty level.

You may register yourself as a team or an individual participant here: https://bit.ly/2j1a7nr

The event, Hack Back which is the first of its kind to be ever held in Nepal, is supported by Rigo Technology. An IT Security Company which pride itself in being the leaders for expertise in Financial Services, Audit, Taxation, Management, Software Development and System Security.

You can know more about Rigo Technology here: https://rigotechnology.com/

SOURCE: IT MEET 2017

We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

My understanding about Anonymous was a term quoted for group of  dirty hackers punks who do Black Hat Hacking, steal digital property of an individual, group and organizations and using it for vulnerable causes and make people suffer
. I thought it was always nasty job that they doing and the people. 

Then I watched this video "Anonymous Message to Donald Trupm" and found the message very bold, truthful, supportive on behalf of citizens. It was A  direct message to the President Elect of The United States. The message was like this in their description:

So what are you going to really do for the American people DONALD TRUMP? Because right now, you should see yourself as the apprentice and learn from the mistakes of those before you. Will you protect the American people, protect their food, protect their security, their health, education, their human rights, their privacy, or are you just going to be like many others who could have made a great name for themselves. Remember, your actions will show the people who you truly are deep down, and Anonymous will be only to eager to keep on the watch and expose anything we feel the people should be aware of.

But after watching this video, somehow I thought " Oh no! I was wrong, this group is warning the POTUS to take responsibility of citizen and help them with food, shelter and job". 

Then I started checking all the videos uploaded by Anonymous Official.There were many videos which strictly warned the politicians, businessmen and hypocrites not to seize our freedom of speaking, freedom of press and all human rights. Anonymous not only have supported or say have spoken on behalf of some internet anonymous cyber monks but for the whole world.

Wow this was fascinating. They called Anonymous was not a organized group but Anonymous is a culture. And their tagline is so bold that anybody on a first glimpse will support, like an dare also afraid of: 

We are Anonymous,

We are Legion,

We do not forgive,

We do not forget,

Expect us.

Definitely now I already like this Culture of Speakers of Freedom. I spent a very long time reading internet articles on who they are, how they are Anonymous etc on Wikipedia,  Reddit, answers on Quora etc and find out that Anonymous is a very very interesting path, culture, voice or an attitude (whatever you wanna use) that every citizens should adapt. So wanted to know what it was and if I also could be a part of it. This is what I find out:

Anonymous [1]

It's is a loosely associated international network of activist and hacktivist entities with a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on the ideas rather than the directives.Anonymous are everywhere over the world. They are students, clerks, business man or unemployed, neighbors, your hair dressers, and your network administrators. Anonymous are smart people with smart clothes. Anons have no gender, no religion, nth to discriminate, or anything to preach. Anonymous like to wear  Guy Fawkes mask [2] during demonstrations. This saves their true identity and are safe for being tracked by  the government. With a smart suit and a mask when hundreds of activists and hacktivists join the protests this looks awesome.  Anonymous was originates(not established) in 2003 on a text and image sharing board 4chan. They act anonymously in a coordinated manner with small self-agreed goal mostly focusing on entertainment.

Joining Anonymous ^[3]

It is not an organization or a committee you can be a member of, but a culture which you can follow or adapt being openhearted. This is what the Official video of  Anonymous  tells us about. Check the footnotes to know about being Anonymous.

The achievement and hurdles faced by Anonymous are many and the works done by these groups are way beyond a common man's understanding. But they have always been speaking for the cause of Freedom, on which every global citizen should support. Being a hacktivist is very tough move to make. We may not have enough knowledge about hacking but we can atleast follow ways to be secure so that nobody can steal our rights, data and privacy from us.

We are Anonymous, We are Legion, We do not forgive, We do not forget,

Expect us!

References:

[1] Anonymous Group

[2] Guy Fawkes Mask
[3] How To Join Anonymous

Linux Mint Website Hacked. ISO Compromised

LINUX MINT WAS HACKED

Well you can trust no one, as everything is vulnerable although it seems safe from the outside. One of the best Linux Based Distribution Linux Mint was hacked, as mentioned by the Linux Mint Blog.

How was it hacked?

Blog mentions that hackers built a customized ISO of Linux Mint which had a bug within it and managed to hack Linux Mint Official Website through the backdoor they prepared.

What was affected?

The Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon was affected so far. Server of Linux Mint is recently down, for monitoring. SO all other ISO are still safe.

Does that harm you?

If you have downloaded any ISO except Cinnamon version, then you are not affected. You are not affected even you have downloaded them from torrents or from HTTP link.

Who did the atack ?

Those ISOs which got hacked were hosted on  5.104.175.212 and the hosted ISO leads to this website absentvodka,com through the backdoor. This connectd from country Bulgaria.Name of three people were available in the webiste. The motivation behind the hack is still unknown.

How to be safe?

To check if you are harmed check the valid MD5 signatures  of unaffected Cinnamon version below:

6e7f7e03500747c6c3bfece2c9c8394f linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-32bit.iso
e71a2aad8b58605e906dbea444dc4983 linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-64bit.iso
30fef1aa1134c5f3778c77c4417f7238 linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-nocodecs-32bit.iso
3406350a87c201cdca0927b1bc7c2ccd linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-nocodecs-64bit.iso
df38af96e99726bb0a1ef3e5cd47563d linuxmint-17.3-cinnamon-oem-64bit.iso

If your signature is different, Delete the ISO and use another one. This makes you safe.

The information of this attack was received from Official Blog Linux Mint. For further information and inquiry follow the RSS link available in the Linux Mint Blog