Friday 13 Jan 2023

Darknet Diaries

One of my current favourite YouTube channels I like to listen to when working around the house or travelling around is the Darknet series from the YouTube channel Jack Rhysider. It's a computer security channel with interviews from hackers (red team and blue team) and secruity experts on topics such as breaking into buildings (with permission) and testing security practices at businesses. The presentation, graphics and content is exceptional. I enjoy listening the the stories and picking up security tips as I listen. For example, keep passwords above 12 characters to help prevent brute-force attacks.

Last few episodes I've enjoyed listening to:

• The New Guy at the Office Is a Secret Super Hacker

This is a great job. Paid to back into computer systems from an employee point-of-view. This is an interview from a hacker (penetration tester) who is paid to pretend to be an employee and in the background hack into the IT systems. It's exciting and thrilling. One of my favourite episodes so far.

• The Dangerous Flaw in Windows XP's 45 Million Lines of Code

This episode interviews a Microsoft employee working on Windows bug reports. This episode gives you an insight into how Microsoft deals with bug reports and how they managed patching the worm.

• This Vigilante Exposes Sloppy Security, One App at a Time

A sole hacker tests the security of andorid applications, and reports the flaws. It was interesting for me to hear how simple these hacks were, such as unsecured databases or developers using default passwords on my front end.

• What to Do When the Hacker Is Already Inside

This episode tells the story of an employee who was promoted to head of security and bugged the employees, read their emails, had all telephone calls recorded and regular screenshots saved! I learned how no spyware was required for Windows to be configured to spy on users.

• The Most Epic Xbox Hacker Story You'll Ever Hear

OKAY, this episode was the first one I listened to and it's amazing. Interesting, tense, exciting and you are engaged to find out what happens. It seems uninteresting - kids hacking xbox to play games - but goes off in an interesting way. This is an interview from one of the hackers.

• Sometimes the Best Hacking Tool Is Confidence

This episode showed me how important social engineering is to gain information, passwords or access to security systems. I reminded me to check emails carefully, not act quickly and think. This episode is an interview from a team who are paid to break into buildings to test security.