Author: HackWatchit

At the beginning of the year, the Associated Press described artificial intelligence (AI) as “easily the biggest buzzword for world leaders and corporate bosses.” You’ve likely heard talk about AI everywhere from the news to social media to around the dinner table. Amid this chatter, it’s easy to wonder: what exactly is AI, and why is it of such importance? Artificial intelligence is defined as “a machine’s ability to perform the cognitive functions we associate with human minds, such as perceiving, reasoning, learning, interacting with the environment, problem-solving, and even exercising creativity.” AI is a branch of computer science with…

Intro AI Agents are autonomous programs that perform tasks, make decisions, and communicate with others. Normally, they use a set of tools to help complete tasks. In GenAI applications, these Agents process sequential reasoning and can use external tools (like web searches or database queries) when the LLM knowledge isn’t enough. Unlike a basic chatbot, which generates random text when uncertain, an AI Agent activates tools to provide more accurate, specific responses. We are moving closer and closer to the concept of Agentic Ai: systems that exhibit a higher level of autonomy and decision-making ability, without direct human intervention. While…

What is Hydra? Hydra is a tool that can be used for password spraying. Let’s begin by defining the term “password spray.” A password spray is where an attacker defines one password, such as “Winter2024” and tries it against a list of obtained usernames. If one of these accounts uses “Winter2024” as a password, then the attacker may be able to access that resource. Password spraying and brute force attacks are commonly used by attackers who wish to access resources that are exposed on the internet or on internal networks. A good password spray will use passwords that are commonly…

It’s easy to lose track of everything you’ve signed up for. From old social profiles to forgotten shopping logins, more companies have your data than you realize. Learning how to find all accounts linked to your email is the first step to removing unnecessary access to your info. Leaving inactive accounts open isn’t just a clutter issue but a huge security risk. For one, data breaches seem to happen every second (and quite literally do in Australia). Unauthorized access and spam are also more likely when your info is scattered across unused platforms. This guide will show you how to…

If you’re an Anaconda user, you know that conda environments help you manage package dependencies, avoid compatibility conflicts, and share your projects with others. Unfortunately, they can also take over your computer’s hard drive. I write lots of computer tutorials and to keep them organized, each has a dedicated folder structure complete with a Conda Environment. This worked great at first, but soon my computer’s performance degraded, and I noticed that my SSD was filling up. At one point I had only 13 GB free. Conda helps manage this problem by storing downloaded package files in a single “cache” (pkgs_dirs). When you…

From impersonating police officers in Pennsylvania to employees of the City of San Antonio, scammers have been impersonating officials nationwide in order to scam people. A nurse in New York even lost her life savings to a spoofing scam.  Phone spoofing is a technique used by callers to disguise their true identity and phone number when making calls. By altering the caller ID information displayed on the recipient’s phone, spoofers can make it appear as though the call is coming from a different number, often one that looks more trustworthy or familiar to the recipient. This deceptive practice is commonly…

Exposure management company Tenable announced the launch of Identity 360 and Exposure Center, two new Tenable Identity Exposure capabilities designed to help organizations pinpoint identity risks and take swift, targeted action to prevent identity-based attacks.  Identity management has become fragmented, leading to identity sprawl – a tangled web of accounts, permissions and misconfigurations across disparate platforms. This fragmentation severely limits visibility and risk detection, weakens access controls, and increases the threat of privilege escalation and lateral movement. The combined power of Identity 360 and Exposure Center simplifies this complexity, delivering unified visibility across identity providers to serve as a single…

Citrix addressed NetScaler console privilege escalation flaw Pierluigi Paganini February 20, 2025 Citrix addressed a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability impacting NetScaler Console and NetScaler Agent under certain conditions. Citrix released security updates to address a high-severity security vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-12284 (CVSS score of 8.8) impacting NetScaler Console (formerly NetScaler ADM) and NetScaler Agent. The vulnerability is an improper privilege management that could allow attackers to escalate privileges under certain conditions. “A vulnerability has been discovered in NetScaler Console (formerly NetScaler ADM) and NetScaler Agent.” reads the advisory. The vulnerability impacts the following supported versions: NetScaler Agent 13.1 BEFORE 13.1-56.18 NetScaler…

As part of a broader shift in acquisition philosophy, the Pentagon may combine parts of several innovation-fostering offices into a new one focused on buying cutting-edge products from companies, a senior defense official tells Defense One. “We are going to create an organization that is the commercial-engineering version of DARPA,” using portions of the Strategic Capabilities Office, the Defense Innovation Unit, and the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, the official said on condition of anonymity. In another change, the official said, the Pentagon aims to spend less on research, and what the official described as “abstractions” and more on usable arms and gear.…