Security isn’t a flashy topic that many like to discuss. For the average new software engineer it is a requirement to increase the stability of the application and is thought about when fixing bugs and putting on the finishing touches. However, this is not the case in the modern production…

Reverse engineering has a lot of benefits to the software security space. One sector specifically is internet-of-things (IoT) devices. Many IoT devices are hardware whose primary function is not web based but has had internet capabilities added on. These products often are manufactured to be as cheap as possible. What…

Attack vectors can come from all angles and is a constant struggle for security experts to predict. Cyber attacks are increasingly prevalent and require a large investment of resources to circumvent. According to the website swcomms.co.uk, in 2016 cyber attacks resulted in an estimated loss of £5.2 billion. Phishing emails…

Reverse engineering as a concept has many benefits to society that range from interoperability to security. While the benefits are apparent, many use the practice illegally which can bring economic harm. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 was created to help ensure that DRM software is protected from…

Over the course of this past term in school, I have learned how to reverse engineer binary into C++ files. I did this by converting the binary into assembly and identifying how the program operates and recreating the functionality in C++. This allows me to take legacy code that may…

Over the course of my time training to be a software engineer, I have focused on the functionality of an application. Security and testing were separate entities that I learned could enhance reliability. As I am nearing the end of my program my thoughts have changed significantly. Security isn’t something…

The security breach case that I am going to discuss in todays post is the DDOS attack on PlayStation and Xbox servers that occurred on December 24th, 2014 by the hacker group known as the Lizard Squad (https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/playstation-restored-after-lizard-squad-hack-attack-sony-n275446). This attack was made famous because the group brought down the servers…

Starting a new project can be pretty daunting, especially if it deals with new concepts or frameworks. When in uncharted territory I like to take the advice an old English teacher gave me in high school, “just start writing”. Trying to create perfection in the first draft is just going…

In this post I will reflect on software requirements engineering and how the approaches differ but can be integrated cohesively into the software development life cycle (SDLC). Software requirements engineering is the process of defining the capabilities needed of the application being designed. It is the first phase of development…