Analysis of Kali Linux Penetration Testing Tools: A Survey of Hacking Tools

Computing technology is becoming more prolific in of user adoption and advancement of technology. We are finding new ways of automation and capturing information. Information as they say is power and power is money. Hence, powerful rich targets are bound to be attractive to many hackers. The rise in cybercrime and the ransom attack of the Southern US gas pipeline highlight the need for securing our computer and network systems. One security method employed by Information Systems Security professionals is hacking networks with penetration testing tools. This paper reviews and analyzes 18 different tools covering 6 different areas. The analysis ends with a discussion of how businesses and security professionals can use these tools to help prevent attacks, maintain the integrity of the organization’s cyber space, and keep costs down

Windows Reverse TCP Attack: The Threat of Out-of-Date Machinery

— As computers continue to play a more critical role in everyday life, it becomes ever more important to secure the devices to which we entrust our personal and private data. This paper serves to detail the security issues present in out-of-date machinery in both the organizational and personal settings. This paper tests a Windows 10 machine running version 1511, and its ability to withstand a targeted virus attack. First, we examine the tools used to create a Reverse TCP virus. Second, we discuss how to generate the virus using those tools and deliver the payload to our Windows machine. Finally, we showcase what can be done to the targeted machine by creating our own user in the database and accessing the Windows machine remotely from our Kali Linux machine. This study has implications for researchers and practitioners by illustrating the destructive capabilities of a simple virus and what can be done to secure a network against such threats

Accelerated seed dispersal along linear disturbances in the Canadian oil sands region

Abstract Habitat fragmentation is typically seen as inhibiting movement via erosion in connectivity, although some patterns of early-phase disturbance, such as narrow linear disturbances in otherwise undisturbed forests, may actually facilitate the dispersal of certain species. Such features are common in Alberta’s oil sands region as legacies from seismic hydrocarbon exploration used to map oil reserves. Many of the ecological implications of these disturbances are unknown. Here, we investigate the effect of these forest dissections by experimentally testing dispersal patterns along seismic lines compared with adjacent forests using two proxy materials for wind-dispersed seeds, Typha latifolia seed and goose down feathers. We found that wind speeds were up to seven times higher and 95th percentile seed dispersal distances nearly four times farther on seismic lines compared with undisturbed forests and the corresponding effect of these features on seed dispersal distances can be substantial, potentially facilitating future changes in composition and ecological processes in boreal forests. This raises important considerations for native and invasive species, particularly in the context of climate change and the associated importance of seed movement and migration