16 weeks of SPEAIT

What started out as a hobby pproject in 1991 grew into a family of professional systems with thousands of different flavours. This is Week 13 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to give a brief overview of two Linux distros of my choice. 1. Kali Linux Since I'm an Cyber Security Engineering student, it is obvious that my first choice will be Kali Linux, although Backbox and Parrot Security would also be a viable option. When installing Kali Linux, user is prompted to read the history of Kali Linux. Most people skip it and dive head first into exploring the OS, but not me (at least not me on boring day). As I've read it quite a while ago and could not find the text anywhere on the Internet, I will give just a brief overview of the Kali Linux history. Funny thing is, Kali did not start as an OS at all - at first, it was just a collection of hacking tools, different utilities and exploits. There was a team of young enthusiastic hackers, who wrote their own exploits and stole ot

This week's blogpost is going to be the analyzis of Dr. Pekka Himanen's seven hacker values from Hacker Ethics . This is Week 12 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to become a hacker.  1. Passion This is described by Dr. Pekka Himanen as an "intrinsic creative push that motivates them [hackers] to explore, create and adapt"  and in my opinion that is the most important value out of all seven. Regardless of whether you're a hacker or not, you need to be passionate about what you do, you need to find joy in doing it. "If you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life". 2. Freedom Although it makes sense and is applicable in some cases, complete freedom cannot and should not be guaranteed in all aspects of life. In my opinion it is okay to have freedom in your actions as long as it doesn't interfere with other people's freedom and well-being. 3. Work Ethic While it is acceptabale and even necessary to debate rules in some context

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself – anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example) was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called." - George Orwell, "1984" This is Week 11 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to write about online censorship and privacy invasion cases. I will start with the first one, case of online censorship. On 1st July 2017, the Yarovaya Law went into effect, which which required telecom operators to store all voice and messaging traffic of their customers for half a year, and their internet traffic for 30 days, and to store c

In such digitally developed country as Estonia, many important services can be accessed online. In order to prevent misuse of these services, systems providing them should be secure. This is Week 10 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to take a look at the security of digital systems in Estonia. I will be using a formula proposed by Kevin Mitnick, which consists of three parts: technology, training and policy. Diving a little deeper, technology aspect includes use of all kinds of applications, ranging from antiviruses to VPNs and Proxys, firewalls and means for ensuring network security. Training means raising awareness of different kinds of possible attacks and teaching employees the best practices of cyber hygiene and security. And last, but not least, policy stands for all the paperwork, such as company security policy, set of rules, etc. 1. Technology As for the technological level, Estonia is on a very high level. The majority of day-to-day operations can be done never leaving

"During the recent centuries, technology has developed in a frantic pace" - that is, in fact, very much true. Technology is developing now with the speed not seen ever before. New products are invented and produced every day, some of which have a good design and some of which do not. This is Week 9 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to bring up few examples of good and bad product designs. 1. The Centennial Light This is the famous centennial light, a 120 years old lightbulb that has not been turned off. The story goes that in the late 19th century inventors were presented with a task to make an everlasting light bulb. Fast forward a couple of years and Adolphe Chaillet presented a beautiful lightbulb. It was an improvement on a design by Thomas Edisson and was mass-produced by Shelby Electric Company. This particular lightbulb was purchased in 1901 and was working ever since, resting for only 7 days over the course of more than a 100 years. However, the company did not g

As there is no strict definition, it may be quite difficult to discuss and describe professionals in any field including IT. Still, today I will try to come up with my own answer to this question and share it with you. This is Week 8 of SPEAIT2021K course and I would like to would like to become IT professional. For me, one defining aspect of being a professional is knowledge. Even though we live in time when the Internet is present, which can be the source of unlimited knowledge, and everyone can learn programming and related things from home on their own, I think that companies still generally prefer people with university degree. That is understandable, since in order to get your university dergee, you have to prove that you possess required knowledge. That being said, I don't imply that the piece of paper from university defines whether you are a profeesional or not - you can be a professional without it, you can be not a professional with it. Secondly, I think that your attitu