The truth about CyberSecurity

Many articles have been written about CyberSecurity. Most have focused on the broad meaning of the term and in some cases have treated CyberSecurity as an "off-the-shelf" product. The truth is that CyberSecurity is more complicated than that. In this article, we will discuss some of the reasons why Cyber Security is not only difficult to define, but just how complex it really is.

How to force downloading/upgrading to Windows 10 on a VM for testing

I really wanted to test Windows 10 migration before I updated my Windows laptop. I decided to install a copy of Windows in a VM and upgrade that copy to Windows 10. Once I had Windows installed, I run Windows Update and got all the latest updates for my installation. But, the Windows 10 logo on my taskbar (Get Windows 10) did not appear. I restarted a couple of times just in case and run Windows Update again, but still nothing. 

Even though I could download an ISO image of Windows 10 or force the update through wuauclt.exe /updatenow, I discovered that the best way to do this is through the task scheduler which initiates the upgrade process as intended. Before you begin, you should navigate to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download and delete all the files in that folder. 

Was I just overcharged for a free copy of Windows 10 ???

Everyone is talking about Windows 10, and articles pop out left and right informing people about the new and technically the "last version of" Windows you will ever need! Well, to rephrase that, Microsoft is presenting Windows 10 as "the last version of Windows" you’ll ever need to get. After that, you will receive regular feature updates and product improvements.

shell: command in Windows - Did you know?

I recently discovered that not many people are aware of the shell: command in Windows. Windows Explorer (not the Internet Explorer) recognises the command shell: allowing you to open specific system folders. (you can also use: shellnew: instead of shell:)

For example, type the command shell:startup in the address bar and hit Enter.

This action will open the StartUp folder which under Windows 8.1, it is located here:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Burp Suite - Error handshake alert: unrecognized_name

This is the first time I had to deal with this error in Burp and I was trying to figure out what was the problem. It seems there is a problem with Java which causes Burp to fail when accessing some specific websites. This is the screen you get when this particular error occurs. 

Figure 1 - Burp Error handshake alert: unrecognized_name

If you ever stumble upon this problem the solution is easy once you know what to do. As a start, make sure you have the latest version of Java installed.