Security Simplified

Building off the past few episodes, covering network basics, Evan and Ryan give a simple explanation of what an IP address is, what it's used for, and why it's important to know these things.

Next week (Episode #6), the guys will explain what a packet capture is, how to capture packets, and take a look inside.

In this episode, Ryan and Evan discuss networking basics and why understanding them is important to effective information security. Ryan gives a quick breakdown of the OSI model and what happens at each layer.

Understanding how things work, in this case how two computers speak to each other on a network, makes you safer. You can't protect the things you don't understand, at least not as well as you can when you DO understand.

In the previous episode (Episode #3 - Quick nmap Introduction), Ryan and Evan demonstrated why we use nmap, where to get nmap, and how to perform a basic nmap scan. In this episode, they do a quick explanation of the results.

NSE - Network Scan Engine
DNS - Domain Name System
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
IP - Internet Protocol

Don't be intimidated by all the new words and numbers. This is a different language, a language that computers speak on a TCP/IP network. In time, you can (and should) learn the language too!

NOTE: Evan made an error in this episode, see if you can find it!

A quick introduction to nmap. Topics covered in this episode include:
- Why would we use nmap?
- How to get nmap.
- Installation
- nmap and Zenmap
- Basic scans

Intense Scan
nmap -T4 -A -v scanme.nmap.org (or 192.168.0.0/24, etc.)

Intense Scan, all TCP Ports
nmap -p 1-65535 -T -A -v scan.nmap.org (or 192.168.0.0/24, etc.)

Stealth SYN Scan
nmap -sS -O scanme.nmap.org (or 192.168.0.0/24, etc.)

Enumeration on specific ports (only)
nmap -sV -p 22,53,110,143,4564 scanme.nmap.org (or 192.168.0.0/24, etc.)

Try these scans at home!

This is the first episode of the Security Simplified Podcast!

Ryan and Evan kick things off by discussing the importance of effective communication. Information security professionals must learn and apply good communication skills in order to effect real change in their organization and with those they interact with. Some good tips in this first episode, and we're looking forward to next week!