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9 Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing for Business

Deciding to move on to a cloud means moving your data into somebody’s computers. To develop your computing facilities without investing in hardware and infrastructure is what cloud computing all about. In an organization, you may be the decision maker thanking about whether to put your data in a third party cloud or in your own cloud. You can have a look at the following advantages and disadvantages of cloud so that you can make an informed decision on whether you should switch over to third party cloud infrastructures. [Read more…] about 9 Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Computing for Business

Tips for Network Security Breach Investigation

Investigating  network security breach may seem to be a daunting task to someone who has no prior experience of security breach investigation. Like any other IT disciplines, you can handle and investigate network security breach better if you have are well-equipped with the necessary tools and techniques used by the professionals. No matter if you are a network engineer or a system administrator or even an auditor, you may confront situation in the future when you may have to investigate security related breaches in your organization. [Read more…] about Tips for Network Security Breach Investigation

How to Extend Linux LVM by Adding a New Hard Disk

You may need to add new disk to your Linux LVM for various reasons such as for adding capacity for your existing applications or new applications. This post aims to show you how you can add a new disk to your existing LVM as well as to a new LVM. The difference between adding a new disk to a new LVM and to an existing LVM is that in the latter case you do not have to create a new volume group using vgcreate command. [Read more…] about How to Extend Linux LVM by Adding a New Hard Disk

How to Renew Self-Signed SSL Certificate with OpenSSL Tool in Linux

OpenSSL is a free and open-source SSL solution that anyone can use for personal and commercial purposes. Although it is free, certificates created with it can expire, and you may need to renew them. This post will show you how to renew a self-signed certificate using the OpenSSL tool on a Linux server. If you are looking into creating a new self-signed certificate instead of renewing an existing one, please take a look at Six Easy Steps to Create a Self-Signed Certificate on Ubuntu Server

What do I need to know to renew my OpenSSL cert?                              

You must know the location of your current certificate that has expired and the private key. The majority  of the Linux server administrator like to put the certificate files in the /etc/apache2/ssl directory. You can take a look at the /etc/apache2/ssl directory or for your existing cert file and the private key.

If you do not know where you kept your private key, do not worry; you can generate a new one using the following command. However, note that this new key will not restore access to anything associated with the lost key.

openssl genrsa -out /etc/apache2/ssl/mynew.key 2048

 

To renew the secure socket layer (SSL) cert, you need to follow two steps:

  1. create a CSR (certificate signing request)
  2. and generate the certificate with your private key.

Remember that you must need a private key before creating your CSR.

Scenario: for example, you have a certificate called apache.crt which has been expired and you want to renew it for the next 365 days.

The complete procedures you need to follow:

  1. Create a certificate signing request with the following command:

openssl req -new -key /etc/apache2/ssl/mykey.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/new.csr

  1. Check your certificate signing request information using the following command:

openssl req -in /etc/apache2/ssl/new.csr -noout –text

 

Before creating the new certification, please rename the apache.crt file located in /etc/apache2/ssl so that you do not have to change anything  in the  apache configuration file.

openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in /etc/apache2/ssl/new.csr -signkey /etc/apache2/ssl/mykey.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

Note: in the above command 365 is the number of days after which your new certificate will expire. The name of key file is mykey.key and the name of the certificate file is apache.crt. You need to change the name of the key and the CRT file name to match your existing certificate and the key file.

Next, restart apache2 server with the following command:

service apache2 restart

Finally, test the new expiry date of your certificate by running the following openssl command.

openssl x509 -in /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt -noout -enddate

20 Ways to Secure Home Network

Almost every Internet user has their home network that every family member use to Internet access.For your home network security you can follow a few simple steps to eliminate the chances of your network being compromised. Before diving deep into the home network security issues, you may have a look at the vulnerability points in your network,  including your client machine. [Read more…] about 20 Ways to Secure Home Network

Effective Ways to Prevent Cross Site Scripting(XSS) Attacks

Not every developers pay equal importance to web security and vulnerabilities, especially about cross site scripting when they start coding. Their primary goal is to get the project finished Websites developed with unsecure coding can be easily exploited by the attackers. There is no way your browser will prevent XSS automatically unless you disable your browser’s ability to run scripting languages such as JAVA script. Or only visit the sites that you trust. [Read more…] about Effective Ways to Prevent Cross Site Scripting(XSS) Attacks

Top 15 Network Security Vulnerabilities that System Administrators Must Know

This post aims to help you familiarize with the top 15 commonly known network and system security vulnerablitis. If you are a new administrator, you can have a look at the following list.

ACLs on the border router

The ACLs you place in your router, especially in the border router, should not allow inadequate access to your other devices connected to your router. A few misconfigured router ACLs can potentially allow information leakage through ICMP, IP, NetBIOS, and lead to unauthorized access to services on your DMZ server. So, make sure your border router has appropriate ACL in place in the right interface. [Read more…] about Top 15 Network Security Vulnerabilities that System Administrators Must Know

How to install a new Godaddy SSL Wildcard Certificate

This post has been intended for the first time users who want to install GoDaddy SSL certificate in their website. The procedures described here should work well with Apache server and with Nginx.

Steps to take before installing GoDaddy SSL

To install a digital certificate, you must first generate and submit a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) to the Certification Authority (CA). The CSR contains your certificate-application information, including your public key. Use your Web server software to generate the CSR, which will also create your public/private key pair used for encrypting and decrypting secure transactions. [Read more…] about How to install a new Godaddy SSL Wildcard Certificate