Radical Development

October 15, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Basic Linux Commands

Since I am on a mission to learn Linux and I am clearly a late comer to this operating system I wanted to document commands that I have begun to learn or in the process of learning. This post really is self serving and if you find value in it then I am clad to have helped. I also intend to update this post over time with the hopes of gathering a fairly comprehensive list of commands. This may seem basic to some, but again the intent is to start with basics and build up, therefore if you have any …

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October 14, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Useful Yum Commands

The Yellowdog Updater, Modified (YUM) is an open-source command-line package-management utility for RPM-compatible Linux operating systems and has been released under the GNU General Public License. It was developed by Seth Vidal and a group of volunteer programmers. Though yum has a command-line interface, several other tools provide graphical user interfaces to yum functionality. As a full rewrite of its predecessor tool, Yellowdog Updater (YUP), yum evolved primarily in order to update and manage Red Hat Linux systems used at the Duke University department of Physics. Since then, it has been adopted by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, CentOS, and …

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October 10, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Data Recovery The Easy Way With TestDisk

There are many solutions on the market that are free, open source, and commercial. While many may argue that commericial solutions provide both ease of use and work well, I present to you that open source solutions are often a better solution. This being said, I wanted to share my experiences with TestDisk from CGSecurity, which is primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy …

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Free Word Art Gallery

May 6, 2012 by Steven Swafford

If you’re looking for a way to convey a message with words by simply using a graphic then you may find this gallery exactly what you are seeking. All of these images are free for use in any way that you see fit with no strings attached.

[mudslide:picasa,0,steven.swafford,5739292733973468865]

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May 5, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Ensure Deleted Files Are Not Recoverable With SDelete

Have you ever stopped and considered for a just how easily it is to recover deleted files from a hard disk? Disk recovery is not diffucult and there are many commercial products available which make the task quick and painless. If you have heard the name Mark Russinovich then you’re aware of the tools that he has created over the years. In this case SDelete implements the Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DOD 5220.22-M, to give you confidence that once deleted with SDelete, your file data is gone forever. Note that SDelete securely deletes file data, but not …

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February 11, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Secure Development Series: Peer Reviews

Stop and consider for a moment what exactly the best way to address web application security is? If you place yourself into the mindset of a hacker you just may find that you find vulnerabilities that you may have otherwise not noticed. In this article, which is a follow-up to Secure Development Series: Input Validation, I will put forth the topic of peer reviews in hopes that you pause and consider what you can do to harden your applications? Just where do the largest number of vulnerabilities reside? While you may think the network poses the greatest risk and at …

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January 22, 2012
by Steven Swafford
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Secure Web Browsing Using Lightweight Portable Security

Stop for a moment and ask yourself just how safe to do feel when logging into your favorite social network site and at some point in time logging into online banking for example. I am not advocating that social networks fall short in the area of security but the reality is the internet is a dangerous place. Today’s threats are increasing with each passing day and I would go so far to say that many individuals do not understand nor take the time to properly address security. In fact the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon states: Many users have …

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