Joe McKenna died when he was 30 years old. A young married man with his future ahead of him, he was cleaning up the station where he worked as a fireman. Struck by a piece of equipment fallen from a shelf, Joe complained of a sore shoulder. Over the next week, Joe worsened and ...more
There's an adage that says "Every plan, no matter how great, goes out the window as soon as you're punched in the face." While our lives are (hopefully) not violent, that saying can easily translate to our daily living. That punch in the face can come in various forms, mainly ...more
Months before London-based Jonathan Moon would turn 30, he started musing over how to celebrate. While he had rung in past birthdays at home, he wanted to do something out of the ordinary as a farewell kiss to his twenties. A short ski vacation with friends felt like the perfe ...more
In the first part of my containers series, we learned how to install Docker on our local machine, pull down "hello-world" and Ubuntu containers, SSH into containers, and install software when in a container. Now, we're going to work on building, customizing, and storing our re ...more
Yes, I know it's autumn and the trees are losing their leaves, but the seasons do not decide when I can or cannot enjoy ice cream. No matter how warm or cold is is outside right now, I will remain completely fascinated by rolled ice cream. Yes, rolled. Video: . Don't Miss: Cre ...more
The big night is less than a week away, so how do you not have a costume yet?! In my world, Halloween is the night of all nights. It's the only day of the year when it's socially acceptable to dress and walk around like an insane person, eat too much sugar, and scare the hell ...more
Google's new Pixel and Pixel XL flagships are some very powerful smartphones, but as with any high-tech gadget, they're only as capable as the user allows them to be. So if you're a proud new Pixel owner, it's time to bone up on a few new features to help get the most out of y ...more
Before we dive any further into getting your Mac ready for hacking, I wanted to continue on with the concept of encryption. In the last part, we talked about full disk encryption on your Mac, but now I want to quickly cover the encryption of disk images before we dive into man ...more
I truly don't understand why anyone would pay $10.99 for a case of carbonated water just to feel like a Midwest mom on a diet. Every time I talk about LaCroix, pronounced La-CROY (rhymes with enjoy), it's like I take all the money I spent on my French major and light it on fir ...more
This is the very first article in my series on setting up a Mac for hacking. In this series, I will be operating under the assumption that you have a clean install of macOS (previously OS X). If you aren't starting with a clean installation, there may be a few differences, but ...more
If your iPhone has a Home button, such as either iPhone SE model, old or new, then it has a secret triple-click gesture to activate a suite of shortcuts. These options, dubbed accessibility shortcuts, can work wonders for folks that are hearing impaired, have limited use of th ...more
As exciting as it can be to crack open a beer, there's nothing fun about wandering around a party and asking other partygoers for a bottle opener. Don't worry, we've got you covered: here are 10 crazy ways to get to drinking while impressing your friends with your ingenuity. ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! If you have been following this new Snort series, you know that Snort is the world's most widely used intrusion detection/protection system. Now a part of the world's largest network equipment company, Cisco, it is likely to be found everyw ...more
The headline above may have some spice addicts shaking their heads, but, believe it or not, there are people out there who either don't like or can't handle a ton of spice. And even heat lovers sometimes add more spice to a recipe than intended—so check out these handy method ...more
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! In the world of information security, the most common intrusion detection system (IDS) you will ever encounter is Snort. As you probably already know, an IDS works similarly to antivirus (AV) software on your desktop; It attempts to identify ...more
The Android Nougat preview build for Nexus devices comes packed to the brim with new functionality: multi-window mode, a dark theme, and a data-saver toggle, just to name a few. However, unless you have a Nexus device, it will be a while before you get these exciting new featu ...more
While attempting to hack a web app, there may come a point where the attacker may have to escape the default directory in order to access unauthorized files. This is known as a directory traversal attack. Much as the name implies, this attack involved traversing the servers di ...more
There was lots of new tech to check out at CES 2016, but you could argue that the majority of the big-ticket items weren't the most unique things in the world. Thankfully, there were a few innovative, unconventional ideas on display, and here are some of our favorites. We Get ...more
Of course, if it were a perfect form of currency, it would have become the standard by now. But it hasn't. Wanna know why? The story begins with the advent of agriculture, when humans had settled down under groups as units called villages, over 10,000 years ago. That's when t ...more
Your brain holds a lot of precious information and is capable of great feats. However, there's one quality that doesn't lie among its strengths—memory security. Yes, that's right, your brain can be hacked, and it doesn't take a psychologist to do it. Anyone with the right know ...more
Microsoft's new voice-enabled virtual assistant, Cortana, is a lot like a blend of Siri's personality and Google Now's predictive capabilities—but the best part is it's baked right into the taskbar in Windows 10. Cortana requires a bit of initial setup, which I'll go over in ...more
Hi, everyone! Recently, I've been working on a pretty interesting and foolish project I had in mind, and here I'm bringing to all of you my findings. This guide's main aim is to document the process of building an Android kernel, specifically a CyanogenMod kernel and ROM, and ...more
Spotlight, Apple's selection-based search system, received a major facelift on Mac OS X Yosemite. Packed with dozens of new features, such as a central search window and increased app suggestions, the reworked Spotlight was a breath of fresh air. While the Spotlight Search to ...more
Throwing a party means making sure everyone has fun, but that pursuit can quickly get out-of-hand. Before you know it, you're once laid back get-together has received so many RSVPs that it becomes obvious you're throwing the party of the century. With an over-abundance of beer ...more
Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! In an earlier tutorial, I had introduced you to two essential tools for cracking online passwords—Tamper Data and THC-Hydra. In that guide, I promised to follow up with another tutorial on how to use THC-Hydra against web forms, so here we ...more
Whenever you buy a newer iPhone model, you get a set of Apple EarPods with remote and microphone built-in. Aside from their comfortable design and high-quality sound they provide, these headphones offer additional functionality beyond just pausing and playing music. Below is ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! I began this series on scripting awhile back to teach all aspiring hackers how to write some basic scripts for hacking and reconnaissance. Without developing some basic scripting skills, the aspiring hacker will be condemned to the realm of ...more
Holidays are a time for good food and good drink, but more often than not, we substitute good drink for, well, cheap drink. However, cheap wine doesn't have to be bad. As the international wine industry grows, it's becoming more common to find decent bottles on the cheap, and ...more
Coffee mugs: nothing proliferates more quickly in my kitchen cabinets. People are always handing them out as gifts or as swag, plus I always seem to find a vintage model or two at a garage sale that I'm compelled to buy. I used to do a yearly purge of my excess muggage, but it ...more
Welcome back, my budding hackers! People often ask me, "Why are you training hackers? Isn't that illegal?" Although I usually give them a short version of this post, there are MANY reasons why YOU should be studying hacking. Before I begin, I want to re-emphasize to all of y ...more
It's that time of year when high school students say goodbye the their past four years of coddling, ready to enter the "real world" and the next chapter of their lives—college. It's a time of growth, change, and new friends, along with all the timeless memories that go with t ...more
Welcome back, my rookie hackers! Most often, the professional hacker is seeking protected information from the target system or network. This might be credit card numbers, personally identifiable information, or intellectual property (formulas, plans, blueprints, designs, etc ...more
What is gluten, why do some people think it is pure culinary evil, and why are there more and more products devoted to being free of this mysterious substance? Here's what one person thinks: What Is Gluten Really? Gluten is a protein found in wheat (including lesser-known spe ...more
Welcome back, my hacker apprentices! To enter the upper echelons of hackerdom, you MUST develop scripting skills. It's all great and well to use other hacker's tools, but to get and maintain the upper hand, you must develop your own unique tools, and you can only do that by d ...more
Welcome back, my novice hackers! There are SOOOO many ways to hack a system or network, which means you need to think creatively in order to be successful. Many novice hackers focus way too much energy on cracking passwords (which should be a last resort unless you have spec ...more
Welcome back, my hackers novitiates! As you read my various hacking tutorials, you're probably asking yourself, "What are the chances that this hack will be detected and that I'll land behind bars, disappointing my dear mother who already thinks I'm a loser?" In this tutoria ...more
The holiday season is almost over, bringing the year to an end, and what better way to end it than with some tonsil hockey from the dime across the room on New Year's Eve? If you missed the opportunity to snag a kiss using the awesome mistletoe trick, then this is your last c ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers! I recently began a series on scripting and have received such positive feedback that I'm going to keep this series going. As I've said before, to graduate from the script kiddie to the pro hacker, you'll need to have some scripting skills. ...more
It's rare that a developer listens to the wishes of the masses, but that's exactly what CyanogenMod has done with their new CyanogenMod Installer, which automates the entire ROM installation process on your HTC One or other Android device. Previously, upgrading from the stock ...more
Welcome back, my neophyte hackers! There are innumerable ways to hack a system. We must not overlook any of the possibilities if we want to "own" the system. As systems become more and more secure, we need to be vigilant in our search for weaknesses. In this hack, we'll look ...more
For over 20 years, a tiny but mighty tool has been used by hackers for a wide range of activities. Although well known in hacking circles, Netcat is virtually unknown outside. It's so simple, powerful, and useful that many people within the IT community refer to it as the "Swi ...more
Now that iOS 7 is out, what can you do that you couldn't do before? In this softModder guide, I'm going to cover all that's new and noteworthy about iOS 7. I've been playing around with it on my iPhone 5 since the first beta came out, so I'm excited to show you some of the se ...more
Welcome back, my greenhorn hackers. When Wi-Fi was first developed in the late 1990s, Wired Equivalent Privacy was created to give wireless communications confidentiality. WEP, as it became known, proved terribly flawed and easily cracked. You can read more about that in my b ...more
Welcome back, my tenderfoot hackers! This is the third installment of my series on basic Linux skills that every hacker should know. Although some hacking tools are available for Windows and Mac, every real hacker uses Linux—for good reason. Make sure to check out Part 1 and ...more
In Minecraft, a large aspect of the game is PVP (Player vs. Player Combat). A hardcore Minecraft fan will remember that back in Beta 1.8, combat was switched up, and it really changed the game around. Here are some tips on what a two-year Minecraft player has to say. Step 1: ...more
I've tried my hand in the past at defining Steampunk, but as anyone else who has made a similar attempt will tell you, there's a significant backlash from the community against working to create a real definition of what Steampunk is. That may sound ridiculous to some, but it' ...more
There was recently a case that came to national attention where a gentleman was arrested at an airport for having a watch that looked like a bomb, among other things. As it came out, the watch was, in fact, not a bomb, and the man was just an artist who was probably trying to ...more
An internet connection has become a basic necessity in our modern lives. Wireless hotspots (commonly known as Wi-Fi) can be found everywhere! If you have a PC with a wireless network card, then you must have seen many networks around you. Sadly, most of these networks are sec ...more
You may or may not have heard of alt-rock band Panic! at the Disco, but a year and a half ago they released a single called "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", which had an accompanying music video that was Steampunk-themed. In fact, here's the video: Video: . Well, I'm going to give y ...more
Apple is notoriously cryptic when it comes to the reveals of its new products, and as usual, they've kept us guessing about the release of the iPhone 5 (or "New iPhone?"). It's expected to be officially revealed on September 12, and rumor has it that sales will begin on the 21 ...more
If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max, your Action button has even more actions it can perform thanks to the iOS 18 software update. These actions are also available on the iPhone 16 series lineup — the iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, and 16 Pro Max — all of which have the Ac ...more
There are a few significant improvements for your iPhone with the iOS 17.5 software update, released May 13, but my favorite is Apple's enhancements to the Apple News app, which is making its Puzzles section even more fun with Game Center integration and even a new type of wor ...more
If you bought an iPhone or iPad equipped with USB-C but didn't max out the local storage, there are some great external storage solutions beyond iCloud and other cloud storage services. And now that the iPhone lineup comes with USB-C ports, you have better-performing external ...more
There are some important new features in the Photos app on iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 that will streamline editing, give your pets more recognition, help you learn about the world you've captured, and even add a bit of fun to your day. There are even a few hidden tricks that may sur ...more
Your iPhone has a safety feature that makes it easier to call 911 in the U.S. and other emergency services abroad. Instead of fumbling with your iPhone's dialer, you can call someone for help in various ways — with or without your hands. Emergency SOS has been around since iO ...more
On the latest iOS software, your iPhone comes with significant privacy and security enhancements to protect your data even more than Apple did before. From safeguarding your iPhone to passcode-protecting files to making it easier to browse the web safely, there's a lot you nee ...more
Siri can perform many actions for you on your iPhone, such as sending messages, providing information, getting directions, looking up a contact, and playing music. Still, there are even more important Siri voice commands that every iPhone owner should know — even the ones who ...more
If you use the Notes app on your iPhone and haven't updated to the newest software yet, you're missing out on some pretty valuable upgrades that improve smart folders, note security, collaboration, and more. So what are you waiting for? The new tools in Apple's Notes update m ...more
If your current cellular provider costs too much, has poor reception in your area, or doesn't support features you'd like to use, switching to another carrier is the obvious move. But can you bring your current iPhone or Android phone? In most cases, your current smartphone w ...more
Your days as an ordinary Muggle are over — as long as you have an iPhone. With just a word or two, you can use your iPhone and newfound Muggle-born powers to cast spells or utilize charms just like Harry Potter and team. Only your "wand" is from Apple, not Ollivanders in Diago ...more