How to jailbreak your iOS device on 5.1.1

Absinthe 2.0 has been released, bringing with it an untethered jailbreak for iOS devices running iOS 5.1.1. The jailbreak is compatible with almost every iOS device, with the lone exception being the revised $399 iPad 2 with 32nm A5 chip. A solution for the "new" iPad 2 will be released at a later date.

The jailbreak process using Absinthe 2.0 couldn't be easier. In fact, the developers of the jailbreak claim "it's so easy, your grandma could do it." If your device isn't currently jailbroken, then follow the instructions below:

1. To start, you'll need to head on over to the Greenpois0n Web site to download Absinthe 2.0 for your respective operating system.

2. With your device connected to your PC, open iTunes and right-click on the device you want to jailbreak. Select Back Up from the menu. Wait for the backup to finish and then close iTunes.

3. On your iOS device, go into Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

4. Open Absinthe 2.0 on your PC, verify that the correct iOS device has been detected, and then click Jailbreak. The jailbreak process will only take a few minutes.

5. Once the jailbreak is complete, close Absinthe 2.0 and launch iTunes again. Right-click on your device name, but this time select "Restore from Backup." Select the backup you just made. Let your device restore and finish syncing before disconnecting.

Once the restore is complete, you'll have a jailbroken device, complete with all of your apps and information as it was before you began.

If you're having issues with the instructions above, give this Reddit link a try. It worked for me.

If you were using a tethered iOS 5.1.1 jailbreak, open Cydia and search for "Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether" and install it.

Best Websites to Get University Level Education For Free

Not headed back to school this fall? You could be, minus the exorbitant tuition and without even leaving your chair. The web has made it easier than ever before to get a free education, and you'd join the ranks of great thinkers in history who were also self-taught, like Joseph Conrad, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Paul Allen, Agatha Christie and Ernest Hemingway. You, too, can be an autodidact; the breadth of free educational materials available online is absolutely astonishing.

This article introduces you to the three best websites to get started.

Khan Academy



The Khan Academy is a non-profit educational organization, created in 2006 by Bangladeshi American educator Salman Khan, a graduate of MIT and Harvard Business School. With the stated mission of "providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere", the website supplies a free online collection of more than 3,200 micro lectures via video tutorials stored on YouTube teaching mathematics, history, healthcare and medicine, finance, physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, economics, cosmology, organic chemistry, American civics, art history, microeconomics and computer science.

Coursera

Coursera is an educational for-profit company founded by professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California. Coursera was launched shortly after Udacity -- a similar venture by former Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun, and shortly before edX, a similar not-for-profit initiative by MIT and Harvard.



Coursera has created partnerships with reputed Universities including University of Stanford; Michigan; Princeton; and Pennsylvania, and provides free online courses in the fields of Computer Science; Healthcare, Medicine and Biology; Society, Networks and Information; Humanities and Social Science; Mathematics and Statistics; and Economic, Finance and Business. Each course includes short video lectures on different topics and assignments to be submitted, usually on a weekly basis. In most humanities and social science courses, and other assignments where an objective standard may not be possible, a peer review system is used.


Academic Earth

Academic Earth is a website launched March 24, 2009, by Richard Ludlow and co-founders Chris Bruner and Liam Pisano, which offers free online video lectures from universities such as UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Michigan, Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, and Yale in the subjects of Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, English, Entrepreneurship, History, Law, Mathematics, Medicine, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion.

How to fix battery issues after upgrading to iOS 5.1.1

After Apple's iOS 5.1.1 update was released last two week, several users began reporting that their iOS devices had taken a significant battery life hit.

While the issues are not common to most users, it appears as though some iPhone and iPad owners found that the battery life they had come to expect was not apparent after updating to iOS 5.1.1 using Apple's over-the-air updating.

If you find your device is not getting the battery life it once was, a few troubleshooting tips provided by Apple Support Communities user sbaily4 could be of help.

First, be sure you have a good backup of your iPhone or iPad. Plug your device into your Mac or PC, open iTunes, and sync it.

Open Settings and tap to navigate to General > Reset. Tap "Reset All Settings" at the top of the screen. This option does not delete your content (music, videos, photos, or apps) so you won't lose anything important.

Your iPhone or iPad will then prompt you for basic setup information including reconnecting to your Wi-Fi network, as if you had just purchased the device. Now, use your device so that the battery drains completely to zero percent.

Now, plug your device into a power source (preferably a wall outlet) and let it charge, undisturbed, to a full 100 percent. If your battery percentage is not showing up, open Settings and navigate to General >Usage. Under battery usage, flip the switch to On.

This process should resolve any battery issues resulting from the iOS 5.1.1 update, especially if it was performed over the air. If you find that your battery life is still not up to par, plug your device into your Mac or PC, open iTunes, and perform a restore -- first from a backup and then, if that does not resolve the issue, as a new device.

Have you experienced any issues, battery life or otherwise, after upgrading to iOS 5.1.1? Let me know in the comments!

Linux Kernel 3.4 released

Version 3.4 of the Linux kernel was officially rolled out Sunday, in what maintainer Linus Torvalds called a "calm" release cycle.

"Sure, I always wish for the -rc's to calm down more quickly than they ever seem to do, but I think on the whole we didn't have any big disruptive events, which is just how I like it. Let's hope the 3.5 merge window is a calm one too," he wrote in his announcement.

Such peace has not always been the norm. As recently as last year, controversies over hypervisor support roiled the Linux community, which is known for the full-throated tenor of its debates.

Some of the most important new features in Linux 3.4, according to Kernel Newbies, include substantial updates to the BTRFS file system and new support for graphics hardware from Nvidia, Intel and AMD.

New repair and data recovery tools, error handling improvements and larger metadata blocks were all added to BTRFS in Version 3.4, and support for Intel's Medfield smartphone graphics architecture, Nvidia GeForce 600 "Kepler" devices, and AMD's 7000-series Radeon cards were all included as well.

Along with those additions, a host of other features found their way into Linux 3.4, including a new application binary interface aimed at melding some of the advantages of both 32-bit and 64-bit system architectures. The Yama security module has also been added.

According to a report from Phoronix, Version 3.5 will see additional graphical support improvements. What's more, the publication noted that the process of building Linux support for Intel's forthcoming Haswell processor architecture -- due out in early 2013 -- has begun in earnest.

Nmap 6 Released For Download - Network Discovery & Security Auditing Tool

It’s been a while since the last major release of Nmap. The latest major version has just been released, version 6 – and is now available for download!

Nmap (Network Mapper) is a security scanner originally written by Gordon Lyon used to discover hosts and services on a computer network, thus creating a "map" of the network. To accomplish its goal, Nmap sends specially crafted packets to the target host and then analyzes the responses. Unlike many simple port scanners that just send packets at some predefined constant rate, Nmap accounts for the network conditions (latency fluctuations, network congestion, the target interference with the scan) during the run. Also, owing to the large and active user community providing feedback and contributing to its features, Nmap has been able to extend its discovery capabilities beyond simply figuring out whether a host is up or down and which ports are open and closed; it can determine the operating system of the target, names and versions of the listening services, estimated uptime, type of device, and presence of a firewall.

Nmap runs on GNU/Linux, Microsoft Windows, Solaris, HP-UX and BSD variants (including Mac OS X), and also on AmigaOS and SGI IRIX. GNU/Linux is the most popular Nmap platform with Windows following it closely.

Major Improvements in v6.00

NSE Enhanced – The Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) has exploded in popularity and capabilities. This modular system allows users to automate a wide variety of networking tasks, from querying network applications for configuration information to vulnerability detection and advanced host discovery. The script count has grown from 59 in Nmap 5 to 348 in Nmap 6, and all of them are documented and categorized in our NSE Documentation Portal. The underlying NSE infrastructure has improved dramatically as well.

Better Web Scanning – As the Internet has grown more web-centric, Nmap has developed web scanning capabilities to keep pace. When Nmap was first released in 1997, most of the network services offered by a server listened on individual TCP or UDP ports and could be found with a simple port scan. Now, applications are just as commonly accessed via URL path instead, all sharing a web server listening on a single port. Nmap now includes many techniques for enumerating those applications, as well as performing a wide variety of other HTTP tasks, from web site spidering to brute force authentication cracking. Technologies such as SSL encryption, HTTP pipelining, and caching mechanisms are well supported.

Full IPv6 Support – Given the exhaustion of available IPv4 addresses, the Internet community is trying to move to IPv6. Nmap has been a leader in the transition, offering basic IPv6 support since 2002. But basic support isn’t enough, so we spent many months ensuring that Nmap version 6 contains full support for IP version 6. And we released it just in time for the World IPv6 Launch. We’ve created a new IPv6 OS detection system, advanced host discovery, raw-packet IPv6 port scanning, and many NSE scripts for IPv6-related protocols. It’s easy to use too—just specify the -6 argument along with IPv6 target IP addresses or DNS records. In addition, all of our web sites are now accessible via IPv6. For example, Nmap.org can be found at 2600:3c01::f03c:91ff:fe96:967c.

New Nping Tool – The newest member of the Nmap suite of networking and security tools is Nping, an open source tool for network packet generation, response analysis and response time measurement. Nping can generate network packets for a wide range of protocols, allowing full control over protocol headers. While Nping can be used as a simple ping utility to detect active hosts, it can also be used as a raw packet generator for network stack stress testing, ARP poisoning, Denial of Service attacks, route tracing, etc. Nping’s novel echo mode lets users see how packets change in transit between the source and destination hosts. That’s a great way to understand firewall rules, detect packet corruption, and more.

Better Zenmap GUI results viewer – While Nmap started out as a command-line tool and many (possibly most) users still use it that way, we’ve also developed an enhanced GUI and results viewer named Zenmap. One addition since Nmap 5 is a “filter hosts” feature which allows you to see only the hosts which match your criteria (e.g. Linux boxes, hosts running Apache, etc.) We’ve also localized the GUI to support five languages besides English. A new script selection interface helps you find and execute Nmap NSE scripts. It even tells you what arguments each script supports.

Faster scans – In Nmap’s 15-year history, performance has always been a top priority. Whether scanning one target or a million, users want scans to run as fast as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Since Nmap 5 we’ve rewritten the traceroute system for higher performance and increased the allowed parallelism of the Nmap Scripting Engine and version detection subsystems. We also performed an intense memory audit which reduced peak consumption during our benchmark scan by 90%. We made many improvements to Zenmap data structures and algorithms as well so that it can now handle large enterprise scans with ease.

You can download Nmap v6.00 here:

Linux: nmap-6.00.tar.bz2
Windows: nmap-6.00-win32.zip

Or read more here.

How To Protect Yourself From DNSChanger

In July the Internet Systems Consortium will permanently shut down DNS servers deployed to serve as temporary surrogates for rogue DNS servers shut down as part of Operation Ghost Click, an FBI operation that brought down an Estonian hacker ring last year. If your PC is one of the more than 1 million computers infected that carry DNSChanger you might unknowingly be relying on one of the FBI's temporary servers to access the Internet, and if you don't eliminate DNSChanger from your PC before the FBI pulls the plug on its servers, you'll be left without Internet access. Read on to learn how to discover whether you're infected with DNSChanger, and what you can do to eliminate it from your system.

How to Tell Whether DNSChanger Has Infected Your PC

To figure out whether you've been infected with DNSChanger, just point your Web browser to one of the (admittedly amateur-looking) DNSChanger Check-Up websites that Internet security organizations maintain across the globe. The link above will take you to a DNS Changer Check-Up page in the United States that the DNS Changer Working Group maintains; if you live outside the United States, you can consult the FBI's list of DNSChanger Check-Up websites to find an appropriate service for your region.

Unfortunately, if your router is infected, those websites will think that your PC is infected, even though it may be clean; worse, if your ISP redirects DNS traffic, your PC may appear to be clean even though your DNS settings may have been maliciously altered. If you want to be certain that your PC is free of DNSChanger malware, you need to manually look up the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC contacts to resolve domain names when browsing the Web.

To look up which DNS servers your Windows 7 PC is using, open your Start menu and either run the Command Prompt application or type cmd in the Search field. Once you have a command prompt open, type ipconfig /allcompartments /all at the command line and press Enter. A big block of text should appear; scroll through it until you see a line that says 'DNS Servers', and copy down the string(s) of numbers that follow (there may be more than one string here, meaning that your PC accesses more than one DNS server).

It's even easier for Mac OS X users to determine the IP addresses of the DNS servers that their PC uses. Open the Apple menu (usually located in the upper-left corner of the screen) and select System Preferences. Next, click the Network icon to open your Network Settings menu; navigate to Advanced Settings, and copy down the string(s) of numbers listed in the DNS Server box.

Once you know the IP addresses of the DNS servers that your PC is using, head over to the FBI DNSChanger website and enter those addresses into the search box. Press the big blue Check Your DNS button, and the FBI's software will tell you whether your PC is using rogue DNS servers to access the Internet.
What to Do If Your PC Is Infected by DNSChanger

If your PC is infected with DNSChanger, you'll have to do some intensive work to get rid of it. DNSChanger is a powerful rootkit that does more than just alter DNS settings; if you've been infected with DNSChanger, your safest course is to back up your important data, reformat your hard drive(s), and reinstall your operating system.

If you're leery of reformatting your entire PC, you can try rooting out the DNSChanger rootkit with a free rootkit removal utility such as Kaspersky Labs' TDSSKiller. As the name implies, Kaspersky released the program to help PC owners seek and destroy the TDSS rootkit malware, but it also detects and attempts to eliminate DNSChanger and many other forms of rootkits.

If the infected PC is on a network, you'll have to check every other PC on the network for signs of infection, and then check your router's settings to ensure that it isn't affected (DNSChanger is programmed to change router DNS settings automatically, using the default usernames and passwords of most modern routers). To do this, copy down your router's DNS server IP addresses (located in your router's settings menu) and check them against the FBI's IP address database mentioned above. If your router is infected, reset the router and confirm that all network settings are restored to the manufacturer's defaults.

When you're done, repeat the steps outlined above to verify that your PC is no longer infected with DNSChanger. With all traces of this vicious malware eliminated, you should have nothing to fear when the FBI shuts down the ISC's temporary DNS servers in July.

Kaspersky: Apple security is like Microsoft's in 2002

Apple customers are more at risk from malware now because of their misconception that their iDevices and Macs are secure and because of Apple's poor attitude to security, according to experts.

David Emm, senior security researcher at Kaspersky Lab confirmed that Apple had cultivated the image of the Mac as intrinsically safer than PCs and now that Macs were under attack from bot armies like the Flashback Trojan, the fruity firm would have to change its attitude.

"I think it will take some time before we see a significant change in attitude from Apple," he said. "It's not simply about code, but about adopting a different security posture and updating and reviewing processes that reflect this."

Because Mac users have long believed that their computers are safe from malware - and Apple fostered this belief in ads like the 2006 one that compared the healthy Mac to the sick PC - they are intrinsically more at risk compared to wary Microsoft users.

"Even when Apple added signature detection to Mac OS, in the form of it's 'XProtect' module, it was done quietly, without any sort of fanfare," says Emm.

"I think Mac customers are more at risk because of the historical mis-perception about Mac security. But I would hope that Flashfake will be a wake-up to anyone using a Mac, that they need to secure themselves from online threats."

Eugene Kaspersky, founder and CEO at the Lab, told Computer Business Review last week and confirmed to Pro Hacking Tricks that Apple was about ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security.

Kaspersky Lab thinks that this is just the start of the attacks that the fruity firm can expect now that Macs have become so much more popular.

"For many years I've been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference between Mac and Windows," he said.

"Cyber criminals have now recognised that Mac is an interesting area. Now we have more, it's not just Flashback or Flashfake. Welcome to Microsoft's world, Mac. It's full of malware."