What is Bitcoin and Bitcoin Mining? EXPLAIN

Bitcoin has been in news for past few days. One of the reasons is that, a few days ago, the WannaCry ransomware struck the world and made headlines. One aspect of this attack, however, was the demand by the attackers to be paid in Bitcoin rather than traditional currencies of Dollar, Pound or Euros.

What is bitcoin or Cryptocurrency?

 Bitcoin is a virtual currency of the Internet also called “cryptocurrency”. A person known only by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto introduced the world to Bitcoin back in 2009. His true identity still remains hidden though many websites have claimed to have identified him or rather found him, over past 8 years.

Bitcoins in simple terms are virtual coins that are transferred over the internet. A bitcoin like mentioned earlier, is a currency, meaning it has a foreign exchange value just as the Euro does against the US Dollar. However, the only difference is that dollars, pounds, and euros can be stored in your pant wallet while Bitcoin can only be saved online. The reason such cryptocurrencies are in demand is because of their ability to be transferred directly between individuals bypassing the banking system and thus making the sender and receiver of every bitcoin transaction nominally anonymous though he/she can be tracked through blockchain exchange.
Bitcoin is a digital currency that isn’t regulated by anybody leave alone any central bank. Therefore it has no interest rate, repo rate or any other rate that central bankers decide to levy on their respective currencies. It is a currency that is generated by painstaking mathematical computations and policed by millions of computer users called ‘miners’. Bitcoins are basically electricity, converted into a long string of code that has monetary value. The value of a single bitcoin also varies just as any other currency with it hitting a high of $1000 USD in 2015 – the same time when its popularity spread into mainstream conscience and it has dipped significantly since before rebounding again in 2016 and now touching lifetime highs of $2500 per bitcoin

 Bitcoin Mining

 Now that we understand what a bitcoin is, the next thing is to understand how is it generated. One way to get bitcoins is to buy one through many of the online Bitcoin exchanges. You will need to have a bitcoin wallet installed on one your devices or use an online wallet by one of many service providers and then one can send and receive bitcoins just as one would emails. Bitcoin is underpinned by a peer-to-peer computer network made up of its users’ machines, similar to the networks that underpin BitTorrent, a file-sharing system. Bitcoins are mathematically generated as computers in this network carry out complex number-crunching tasks – a procedure termed bitcoin mining.

 Bitcoin mining is a serious business with many tech companies manufacturing special computers called ASIC computers. These ASIC computers cost lots of moolah and are capable of doing the painstaking calculations for bitcoin mining. bitcoin mining.

Once you have installed a Bitcoin wallet, you will receive an encrypted address with the ability to generate more whenever needed. This address can then be shared with anyone from whom you wish to receive payment in the form of bitcoins. This system is secured by a concept called blockchain. Workers or miners are paid freshly created bitcoins for verifying Bitcoin transactions.
The mathematics of the bitcoin system was created in such a way that there is an upper limit to the number of bitcoins that can be mined. The ceiling is said to be around 21 million. The mining of bitcoins gets tougher and tougher the closer we get to the ceiling. Being unable to be regulated by any agency, Bitcoin also has the added advantage of not having it value diluted because a government somewhere decided to jump onto the bandwagon and release bitcoins of its own.

 If you did not buy bitcoins when they were available for $7-25 a piece, you probably missed the bus but you can always buy them now with a hope of a single bitcoin touching $10000 as predicted by many bitcoin aficionados.

WannaCry Ransomware: Are Smartphones Safe? Is the Danger Still Looming?

Last week, one of the largest cyber security attacks of recent times affected over 300,000 Windows systems worldwide with WannaCry or WannaCrypt ransomware — a malware which exploits a Windows bug and gains access to the system, locking the crucial files.

WannaCry is Unlikely to Affect Updated Smartphones

There has been increasing fear that Android devices might also be affected by the WannaCry ransomware which is spreading like wildfire but luckily, for now, the malware is only hitting systems on a server and are targeted towards organisations which are more likely to pay than individuals. But nothing can be said for sure regarding the attacker’s intentions, they can choose to target smartphones at any time too. The good news is Google releases security updates for Android devices almost every month — although in certain countries the carriers are responsible for rolling these over to their customers. Even devices running on older Android OS like Kitkat or Marshmallow receive security updates, even if they’re unable to use new features like Google Assistant. Google fixes any new found security vulnerability via these updates and if your device has the latest security update from Google, there is nothing to worry about. Even though Google tries to send updates for most of the Android-powered devices, reportedly , over 100 million devices are still running on outdated security software and can be vulnerable to ransomware attacks.

Precautions to Prevent Ransomware Attack

 For the most part of it, Google’s security updates keep your Android devices safe from ransomware and many other kinds of threats but being a bit extra vigilant to keep your device and the data that it holds safe doesn’t really harm.

* Download apps only from trustworthy sources like Google Play store. Many websites which let you download paid apps for free usually supply you with apps containing some kind of adware or malware.
*Ensure that Google’s security system — Verify Apps — which analyses an app before it’s installed onto your device for potential threats is activated. Go to your device settings, find ‘Google’ under Personal or Accounts, tap on ‘Security’ and then ‘Verify Apps’. Activate ‘Scan device for security threats’.
*Check your Android Security updates . Make sure that you’ve the latest security update in order to ensure optimum protection.
*Back up your device either on your computer, a cloud-based service or a portable USB disk. This will ensure that even if you have to reset your device to get rid of the ransomware, you don’t lose any data. This is also useful in case the attacker threatens to delete your data if ransom demands aren’t met.
*Always take some time out to check out the app’s rating and read few reviews before you download and install any app on your device — this also helps in establishing the legitimacy of the app and protect you against dummy apps which try to impersonate the original ones

There are a healthy number of websites and security firms that are trying to inform people regarding the threats of malware and also supplying them with tools to prevent it as well as decrypt the information that has been locked by an attacker

What is KALI LINUX {introduction}

Kali linux is an operating system such as windows & mac. Kali Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution aimed at advanced Penetration Testing and Security Auditing. Kali contains several hundred tools which are geared towards various information security tasks, such as Penetration Testing, Security research, Computer Forensics and Reverse Engineering. Kali Linux is developed, funded and maintained by Offensive Security, a leading information security training company. Kali Linux was released on the 13th March,

WHAT IS ROOT

             

Rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as root access) over various Android subsystems. As Android uses the Linux kernel, rooting an Android device gives similar access to administrative (superuser) permissions as on Linux or any other Unix-like operating system such as FreeBSD or OS X.                                                                                                                  ADVANTAGE:-                                    Advantages of rooting include