Build a Data

Today's tutorial will teach you how to erase data permanently so that it cannot be recovered. Many believe that having a file shredder on the computer means you are up to no good. So when might you want to use a secure eraser? Lets say you scanned your drivers licence because ...more

Everything lives online these days, so it's not uncommon to have hundreds of credentials for different accounts on apps and websites. That's why a password manager is a must, and your iPhone has one built right into iOS that you can start using today. In iOS 14, it's gotten ev ...more

Flash memory can be a tad unpredictable at times. I have had 4 flash drives die out on me over the last few years, and they usually die without warning. When a flash memory based device dies, the data is likely impossible to recover. Adversely on an HDD, or Hard Drive Disk, ev ...more

When downloading any application on an Android device, you will always be prompted by the following... Whether it's Angry Birds, Shazaam, or Chrome, every application will ask for permissions. If you try and deny these permissions, it won't install, leaving you with no other o ...more

With the mass arrests of 25 anons in Europe and South America, and the rumors of an FBI sweep on the east coast of America floating around, times look dicey for hackers. Over the past few days, a lot of questions have been posed to me about removing sensitive data from hard dr ...more

Facebook's shadiness when it comes to user privacy has never been much of a secret. The Cambridge Analytica scandal, however, has thrown the company and its practices into the limelight, with users taking their data more seriously than ever. If you're one of those users, you m ...more

Before you head to class, work, or sleep, you're probably doing the same thing over and over again—toggling off system settings like Wi-Fi, sound, data, or brightness, depending on the circumstances. Schedules and routines can help increase efficiency, so while you abide to a ...more

When you're on a limited data plan, bumping up against your monthly cap is a major concern. Overage fees are incredibly high these days, and being throttled down to 2G coverage almost renders a smartphone completely useless. Rather than let your data cap sneak up on you, woul ...more

Welcome back, my newbie hackers! Recently, I "upgraded" to Kali as my hacking platform, despite my preference for BackTrack. I did this reluctantly, primarily because new readers here could no longer download BackTrack from their site. I want to point out here that we all mus ...more

Net neutrality is dead and your internet service providers can collect all the data they want. While VPNs are a great way to protect some of that privacy, they're not perfect. There is another option, though, called Noisy, which was created by Itay Hury. It floods your ISP wit ...more

If you're using a mobile device, it's a pretty safe bet that your apps are sending lots of information back and forth from their servers. To make sure there is no inappropriate data collection going on, it's worth setting up a web proxy to spy on this traffic, so you know exac ...more

Gathering information on an online target can be a time-consuming activity, especially if you only need specific pieces of information about a target with a lot of subdomains. We can use a web crawler designed for OSINT called Photon to do the heavy lifting, sifting through UR ...more

Robert Templeman from the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Crane, Indiana and several of his friends from Indiana University recently developed an Android application that is capable of gathering pictures and videos from mobile devices in order to reconstruct a user's environme ...more

If you exceed your monthly mobile data limit, your cell phone bill can skyrocket pretty quickly. This is why a lot of people vigilantly monitor internet usage and even uninstall apps that use too much background data. Don't Miss: 10 Tricks for Conserving Data on Android Up u ...more

As smartphone users, we live in dangerous times. The value of phones continues to rise, making them prime targets for thieves. In 2015, the FCC estimated that one million phones are stolen each year, and with several devices starting to hit the $1,000 mark now, these numbers a ...more

This is an intermediate guide on how to easily fix or retrieve data from a bad hard drive. What we're trying to do: 1. Fix a hard drive with a corruption problem (i.e., blue screen) or that is full of viruses to the point of being inoperable. 2. Retrieve data from a hard dr ...more

If you're an Android user, Google probably has almost your entire digital life stored on its servers. Family pictures are backed up on Google Photos, your e-book library resides with Google Play Books, videos are on YouTube, chat logs in Gmail and Hangouts, starred places and ...more

So much information exists online that it's easy to get lost in data while researching. Understanding the bigger picture can take a lot of time and energy, but narrowing the question to one that's easy to answer is the first step of any investigation. That's why analysts use o ...more

The photos and videos you take with your iPhone contain bits of information, known as metadata, including the location where they were taken. This metadata makes it easier for Photos to organize your media, but put these photos and videos in the wrong hands and anyone can find ...more

Since iOS 6 has been released, it's had its fair share of problems. From battery drainage, to photo uploading errors, to the Maps debacle, lots of users have been less than pleased. So much so that some are even downgrading. Another issue that's been a frequent complaint is i ...more

It seems almost every carrier now has an unlimited data plan, and free Wi-Fi is now available in more places than ever before. If you want to be connected, it has never been easier — but that still doesn't mean that everyone can stream as much as they please. Many of us don't ...more

Every model iPhone since the 6s has boasted a 12-megapixel rear camera. You can take some pretty spectacular, professional-looking photos with it, especially on devices that have more than one rear lens. But the file size of each photo can become a problem when sending as an i ...more

This may not matter to you if you only FaceTime from your iPhone occasionally, but if you're FaceTiming every day on a limited data plan from your cellular provider, you're going to want to conserve as much data as possible by making sure that you're connected to Wi-Fi only — ...more

Technology: The Less You Know the Better? I'm sure everyone is now aware of GPS technologies and tracking techniques these days, with the release of numerous documents (even lawsuits) on big name companies like Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Yes, 2011 was a good year for eye-o ...more

As smartphones become increasingly integral parts of our lives, so does data throttling. Personally, I try to save data any way that I can, so to stave off unnecessary usage, I use the GoogleOfflineVoice to limit the amount of data consumed by voice typing. With this Xposed m ...more

When there's a new game you want to play or app you need to use, but a Wi-Fi network isn't available, you can always download it over cellular data. If the size of the app is too large, however, you may not be able to on your iPhone. But that changes in iOS 13, which finally g ...more

No doubt you've seen some of the hack logs being released. One part that stands out over and over again is the heavy database usage. It used to be early on that virus and hackers would destroy data, usually just for lulz. However, with the explosive commercial growth of the In ...more

With the news that Cambridge Analytica obtained over 50 million Facebook users' information without their consent, there are no doubt many of us considering that terrifying yet alluring endgame — deleting Facebook. While difficult to figure out, deleting your Facebook account ...more

While I love Spotify, I don't like it devouring my data plan when streaming music away from a Wi-Fi network. If you have the foresight or time to download Spotify tracks for offline playback later, great. For those of you who like to listen to your music more randomly like I d ...more

I'm lucky enough to have internet access on my laptop practically everywhere I go because of my mobile hotspot plan. All I have to do is enable the personal hotspot feature from my iPhone and I can surf the web on any Wi-Fi enabled device. But of course, there's a catch. I on ...more

Creating a digital spreadsheet by hand can certainly be tedious, especially if you're copying a printed paper table word for word, number for number. Instead of typing information that's already there, however, use Microsoft Excel on Android or iOS to snap a photo of that prin ...more

Welcome back, my fledgling hackers! As nearly everyone has heard, Target Corporation, one of the largest retailers in the U.S. and Canada, was hacked late last year and potentially 100 million credit cards have been compromised. Happening just before Christmas, it severely da ...more

While we're usually responsible for leaking our own private information through mediums like Facebook, there are other times when we mistakenly and unwillingly allow certain applications to scour through our personal data. Some apps may have enabled permissions for internet ac ...more

In places like underground bars or national parks, your phone's Internet service is sure to slow down to a very sluggish pace, making it difficult to surf the web. Or worst case, data will be non-existent, leaving you with only low-level network support for calls and SMS text ...more

There is no such thing as too much space when it comes to our smartphones. Space is the great equalizer of all things. No matter how many awesome features a device has, the amount of storage space available will always be a determining factor. Be it music, apps or photos, it's ...more

If you don't have any home Wi-Fi, like to watch videos on public transportation, or just always find yourself streaming Netflix when there are no hotspots available, your cellular data is probably gobbled up fairly fast. For limited data plans, watching the next episode of you ...more

Though you can use the Social Engineering Toolkit to clone websites, this way is much more customisable. For example, you could send the credentials your victim enters to a script that mails you notifying you of new data someone's just entered, or automatically store them in ...more

With root access, you're granted greater control over your device, allowing you to do things that your Android system wouldn't allow otherwise. Things like installing Xposed mods are made possible with root, but other advantages address performance and security, like stopping ...more

Almost 20% of the US population (about 60 million Americans) live in rural areas where mobile reception is weak or nonexistent. In times of crisis, these Americans can't rely on the internet to communicate with loved ones or receive new information. This is why being able to i ...more

The options for customization are virtually endless when you're rooted and have an unlocked bootloader and custom recovery. However, there is always risk involved when flashing new mods or installing new ROMs. I always make backups in case something happens, but when I'm testi ...more

One of the biggest causes of smartphone battery drain is the mobile data connection—particularly if you live in an area with poor reception. But, chances are, you don't actually need this connection most of the time, because you're probably connected to Wi-Fi for a good chunk ...more

Welcome to Part 3 in my series on protecting your computer from prying eyes (Part 1, Part 2). In today's segment, we will be going over drive encryption using the TrueCrypt program on Windows OS. Drive encryption is a technique that masks your data with a cryptographic functio ...more

I was looking around on this site and this article caught my eye. It was about hiding text in ADS or Alternate Data Streams. While this is nothing new in the tech world, it seems that more and more people are looking at ADS for one reason or another. Years ago, I created a si ...more

I was one of the first to install the iOS 10 developer beta, and I remember thinking that everything was working insanely well compared to the first iOS 9 developer beta—but then I got a warning that I used 90% of my data 11 days into my following cycle—one day before I update ...more

When you're actively using your phone, a certain amount of battery drain is to be expected. But, if your device is just sitting in your pocket draining its battery, that's when you need to take action. Among the biggest screen-off battery draws are the various connections tha ...more

As the protectors of all things good, the Federal Communications Commission is usually busy behind the scenes pissing off Slim Shady, giving out fines for indecent nipple exposure at certain halftime events, and warning the NSA about losing any "confidential" phone information ...more

Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! In many cases when a computer, phone, or mobile device is seized for evidence, the system will have graphic images that might be used as evidence. Obviously, in some cases these graphic images may be the evidence such as in child pornograph ...more

Before you sell your old iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch to a buddy or a company like Gazelle, it's vital that you wipe the entire device of all its content; including sensitive material like contacts, messages, pictures, and videos. There are two easy ways to wipe your iOS device ...more

We've talked before about EXIF data—or metadata—attached to photos and how it can expose information about your location, what type of device you're using, and even the device or camera's unique identification number. If you think it's not that big a deal, just ask John McAfe ...more

Imagine for a moment that a VPN is like putting on a disguise for your computer. This disguise works to change your IP address, secure your traffic with encryption, and mask your location to bypass regional restrictions. This makes it a helpful tool for both whistleblowers and ...more

Amazingly enough, some of us still have to worry about exceeding our monthly mobile data limits. You'd figure carriers would have given the customers what they want by now by offering truly unlimited plans, but with two conglomerates sitting atop the U.S. cellular market with ...more

How do spammers get your email? You give it to them. Not directly, no — you sign up for an app or service and happily hand over your email to verify your new account, then that app or service sells your email address to marketers who now know what kinds of apps and services yo ...more