Hacking Online Banking and Credit Card Transactions – And How to Prevent It

The Scenario

You go to a coffee shop for a cup of coffee and to utilize the shop’s Wi-Fi HotSpot to surf the web. You connect to the hotspot network and decide to perform some online banking or to purchase something online. By the way, this could happen to you at home, as well. As an end-user, you feel quite secure, as you see the lock in the bottom corner of your Internet browser, symbolizing that the online banking or online credit card transaction is safe from prying eyes. Your data, including username, password, credit card info, etc. will be encrypted with 128-bit encryption. So it's secure, right?
  It is not uncommon to perform banking and to purchase products online with your credit card. It is also a common thought that doing so is secure, as this is done via SSL. For the most part, this is true and the sessions are secure. Discover Card, for example, posts the following statement on their website:

Figure 1

The problem is that it is not “virtually impossible” for someone else to see your data, such as login information or credit card numbers. It can actually be relatively easy, as you’ll see, if you as an end-user are not knowledgeable about how you can be exploited and know the signs that this is occurring.

Figure 2 (Indicates a Secure SSL Session)

Continuing with the scenario, what you didn’t realize is that a hacker has intercepted your Online Banking login credentials and credit card information and can now log into your Online Banking Website or purchase items with your credit card. How is this possible, since SSL was used and is hard to break? The answer is that you made a fatal mistake that subjected you to an SSL Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attack.

The Attack

The fatal flaw that enabled the sensitive information to be stolen is possible when an end-user is not properly educated on an easy to do and well-known SSL exploit – SSL MITM.
Here’s how it’s done:
The hacker goes to coffee shop and connects to the same Wi-Fi network you are connected to. He runs a series of utilities to redirect other user’s data through his machine. He runs a number of other utilities to sniff the data, act as an SSL Certificate Server and to be the Man-the-Middle. The following diagram shows a very simplified graphic of how your SSL Banking session should work under normal conditions, then how it would work during an attack:

Figure 3

Figure 4

An important concept to grasp here is that a certificate is used to establish the secure SSL connection. This is a good thing, if you have a good certificate and are connecting directly to the website to which you intended to use. Then all your data is encrypted from your browser to the SSL website where the bank’s website will use the information from the certificate it gave you to decrypt your data/credentials. If that is truly the case, then it is pretty darn hard for a hacker to decrypt the data/credentials being transmitted, even if he is able to sniff your data.
This is a bad thing if you have a “Fake” certificate being sent from the hacker, and you are actually connecting to his machine, not directly to the bank’s website. In this case, your credentials are being transmitted between your browser and the hacker’s machine. The hacker is able to grab that traffic, and, because he gave you the certificate to encrypt the data/credentials, he can use that same certificate to decrypt your data/credentials.
Here are the exact steps a hacker could use to perform this attack:
The first thing he would do is turn on Fragrouter, so that his machine can perform IP forwarding

Figure 5

After that, he’ll want to direct your Wi-Fi network traffic to his machine instead of your data traffic going directly to the Internet. This enables him to be the “Man-in-the-Middle” between your machine and the Internet. Using Arpspoof, a real easy way to do this, he determines your IP address is 192.168.1.15 and the Default Gateway of the Wi-Fi network is 192.168.1.1:

Figure 6

The next step is to enable DNS Spoofing via DNSSpoof:

Figure 7

Since he will be replacing the Bank's or Online Store’s valid certificate with his own fake one, he will need to turn on the utility to enable his system to be the Man-in-the-Middle for web sessions and to handle certificates. This is done via webmitm:

Figure 8

At this point, he is setup and ready to go, he now needs to begin actively sniffing your data passing through his machine including your login information and credit card info. He opts to do this with Ethereal, then saves his capture:

Figure 9

He now has the data, but it is still encrypted with 128-bit SSL. No problem, since he has the key. What he simply needs to do now is decrypt the data using the certificate that he gave you. He does this with SSL Dump:

Figure 10

The data is now decrypted and he runs a Cat command to view the now decrypted SSL information. Note that the username is “Bankusername” and the password is “BankPassword”. Conveniently, this dump also shows that the Banking site as National City. FYI, the better, more secure banking and online store websites will have you first connect to another, preceeding page via SSL, prior to connecting to the page where you enter the sensitive information such as bank login credentials or credit card numbers. The reason for this is to stop the MITM-type attack. How this helps is that if you were to access this preceeding page first with a "fake" certificate and then proceeded to the next page where you were to enter the sensitve information, that page where you would enter the sensitive information would not display. That is because the page gathering the sensitive information would be expecting a valid certificate, which it would not receive because of the Man-in-the-Middle. While some online banks and stores do implement this extra step/page for security reasons, the real flaw in this attack is the uneducated end-user, as you'll soon see:

Figure 11
With this information, he can now log into your Online Banking Account with the same access and privileges as you. He could transfer money, view account data, etc.
Below is an example of a sniffed SSL credit card purchase/transaction. You can see that Elvis Presley was attempting to make a purchase with his credit card 5440123412341234 with an expiration date of 5/06 and the billing address of Graceland in Memphis, TN (He is alive!). If this was your information, the hacker could easily make online purchases with your card.

Figure 12

Also Real Bad News for SSL VPN Admins

This type of attack could be particularly bad for corporations. The reason for this is that Corporate SSL VPN solutions are also vulnerable to this type of attack. Corporate SSL VPN solutions will often authenticate against Active Directory, the NT Domain, LDAP or some other centralized credentials data store. Sniffing the SSL VPN login then gives an attacker valid credentials to the corporate network and other systems.

What an End-User Needs To Know

There’s a big step and end-user can take to prevent this from taking place. When the MITM Hacker uses the “bad” certificate instead of the “good”, valid certificate, the end-user is actually alerted to this. The problem is that most end-users don’t understand what this means and will unknowingly agree to use the fake certificate. Below is an example of the Security Alert an end-user would receive. Most uneducated end-users would simply click “Yes”… and this is the fatal flaw:

Figure 13

By clicking “Yes”, they have set themselves up to be hacked. By clicking the “View Certificate” button, the end-user would easily see that there is a problem. Below are examples of the various certificate views/tabs that show a good certificate compared to the bad certificate:

Figure 14
(Good Certificate)                                                (Bad Certificate)

Figure 15
(Good Certificate)                                                (Bad Certificate)

Figure 16
(Good Certificate)                                                (Bad Certificate)

How an End-User Can Prevent This

• Again, the simple act of viewing the certificate and clicking “No” would have prevented this from happening.
  
• Education is the key for an end-user. If you see this message, take the time to view the certificate. As you can see from the examples above, you can tell when something doesn’t look right. If you can’t tell, err on the side of caution and call your Online Bank or the Online store.
  
• Take the time to read and understand all security messages you receive. Don’t just randomly click yes out of convenience.
  

How a Corporation Can Prevent This

• Educate the end-user on the Security Alert and how to react to it.
  
• Utilize One Time Passwords, such as RSA Tokens, to prevent the reuse of sniffed credentials.
  
• When using SSL VPN, utilize mature products with advanced features, such as Juniper’s Secure Application Manager or Network Connect functionality.

Read More

New And Working Credit Card Strip Hacking Trick

*DISCLAIMER*

Use this info to EXPLORE, not to EXPLOIT.  This text is presented for
informational purposes only, and I cannot be held responsible for anything you
do or any consequences thereof.  I do not condone fraud, larceny, or any other
criminal activities. 

                                  *A WARNING*

Lately, I've noticed a few "books" and "magazines" for sale that were FILLED
with FILES on a variety of computer topics.  These file were originally
released into the Net with the intention of distributing them for FREE.
HOWEVER, these files are now being PACKAGED and sold FOR PROFIT.  This really
pisses me off.  I am writing this to be SHARED for FREE, and I ask no payment.
Feel free to reprint this in hardcopy format and sell it if you must, but NO
PROFITS must be made.  Not a fucking DIME!  If ANYONE reprints this file and
tries to sell it FOR A PROFIT, I will hunt you down and make your life
miserable.  How?  Use your imagination.  The reality will be worse.

**  MAGSTRIPE FIELDS, HEADS, ENCODING/READING **

Now, I'll get down to business!

First, I am going to explain the basics behind fields, heads, encoding and
reading.  Try and absorb the THEORY behind encoding/reading.  This will help
you greatly if you ever decide to build your own encoder/reader from scratch
(more on that later).  FERROMAGNETIC materials are substances that retain
magnetism after an external magnetizing field is removed.  This principle is
the basis of ALL magnetic recording and playback.  Magnetic POLES always occur
in pairs within magnetized material, and MAGNETIC FLUX lines emerge from the
NORTH pole and terminate at the SOUTH.  The elemental parts of MAGSTRIPES are
ferromagnetic particles about 20 millionths of an inch long, each of which acts
like a tiny bar magnet.  These particles are rigidly held together by a resin
binder.  The magnetic particles are made by companies which make coloring
pigments for the paint industry, and are usually called pigments.  When making
the magstripe media, the elemental magnetic particles are aligned with their
North-South axes parallel to the magnetic stripe by means of an external
magnetic fields while the binder hardens.

These particles are actually permanent bar magnets with TWO STABLE POLARITIES.
If a magnetic particle is placed in a strong external magnetic field of the
opposite polarity, it will FLIP its own polarity (North becomes South, South
becomes North).  The external magnetic field strength required to produce this
flip is called the COERCIVE FORCE, or COERCIVITY of the particle.  Magnetic
pigments are available in a variety of coercivities (more on that later on).

An unencoded magstripe is actually a series of North-South magnetic domains
(see Figure 1).  The adjacent N-S fluxes merge, and the entire stripe acts as a
single bar magnet with North and South poles at its ends.

Figure 1:               N-S.N-S.N-S.N-S.N-S.N-S.N-S.N-S <-particles in stripe
---------
       represented as-> N-----------------------------S


However, if a S-S interface is created somewhere on the stripe, the fluxes will
REPEL, and we get a concentration of flux lines around the S-S interface (same
with N-N interface).  ENCODING consists of creating S-S and N-N interfaces, and
READING consists of (you guessed it) detecting 'em.  The S-S and N-N interfaces
are called FLUX REVERSALS.

                            ||| ||| <-flux lines
Figure 2:      N------------N-N-S-S-----------------S
---------     flux lines -> ||| |||


The external magnetic field used to flip the polarities is produced by a
SOLENOID, which can REVERSE its polarity by reversing the direction of CURRENT.
An ENCODING head solenoid looks like a bar magnet bent into the shape of a ring
so that the North/South poles are very close and face each other across a tiny
gap.  The field of the solenoid is concentrated across this gap, and when
elemental magnetic particles of the magstripe are exposed to this field, they
polarize to the OPPOSITE (unlike poles attract).  Movement of the stripe past
the solenoid gap during which the polarity of the solenoid is REVERSED will
produce a SINGLE flux reversal (see Figure 3).  To erase a magstripe, the
encoding head is held at a CONSTANT polarity and the ENTIRE stripe is moved
past it.  No flux reversals, no data. 

                              | |  <----wires leading to solenoid      
                              | |       (wrapped around ring)
                            /-|-|-\
                           /       \
Figure 3:                  |       | <----solenoid (has JUST changed polarity)                           
---------                  \       /
                            \ N S / <---gap in ring.. NS polarity across gap
      N----------------------SS-N-------------------------S
                             ^^  
                   <<<<<-direction of stripe movement

          S-S flux reversal created at trailing edge of solenoid!


So, we now know that flux reversals are only created the INSTANT the solenoid
CHANGES its POLARITY.  If the solenoid in Figure 3 were to remain at its
current polarity, no further flux reversals would be created as the magstripe
moves from right to left.  But, if we were to change the solenoid gap polarity
>from NS to *SN*, then (you guessed it) a *N-N* flux reversal would instantly be
created.  Just remember, for each and every reversal in solenoid polarity, a
single flux reversal is created (commit it to memory).  An encoded magstripe is
therefore just a series of flux reversals (NN followed by SS followed by NN).

DATA! DATA! DATA!  That's what you want!  How the hell are flux reversals read
and interpreted as data?  Another solenoid called a READ HEAD is used to detect
these flux reversals.  The read head operates on the principle of
ELECTROMAGNETIC RECIPROCITY: current passing thru a solenoid produces a
magnetic field at the gap, therefore, the presence of a magnetic field at the
gap of a solenoid coil will *produce a current in the coil*!  The strongest
magnetic fields on a magstripe are at the points of flux reversals.  These are
detected as voltage peaks by the reader, with +/- voltages corresponding to
NN/SS flux reversals (remember, flux reversals come in 2 flavors).

See Figure 4.

              magstripe---> -------NN--------SS--------NN---------SS------
           
Figure 4:     voltage-----> .......+.........-.........+...........-.....
---------
                                   ----------          -------------
            peak readout-->        |        |          |           |
                           --------|        |----------|           |----


The "peak readout" square waveform is critical.  Notice that the voltage peak
remains the same until a new flux reversal is encountered.

Now, how can we encode DATA?  The most common technique used is known as
Aiken Biphase, or "two-frequency coherent-phase encoding" (sounds impressive,
eh?).  First, digest the diagrams in Figure 5.

Figure 5:       ----------        ----------        ----------
---------       |        |        |        |        |        |  <- peak
         a)     |        |--------|        |--------|        |     readouts
                *   0    *   0    *   0    *   0    *   0    *


                -----    -----    -----    -----    -----    -
                |   |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |   |    |
        b)      |   |----|   |----|   |----|   |----|   |----|

                *   1    *   1    *   1    *   1    *   1    *

                -----    ----------        -----    -----    -
                |   |    |        |        |   |    |   |    |
        c)      |   |----|        |--------|   |----|   |----|

                *   1    *   0    *   0    *   1    *   1    *


There you have it.  Data is encoded in "bit cells," the frequency of which is
the frequency of '0' signals.  '1' signals are exactly TWICE the frequency of
'0' signals.  Therefore, while the actual frequency of the data passing the
read head will vary due to swipe speed, data density, etc, the '1' frequency
will ALWAYS be TWICE the '0' frequency.  Figure 5C shows exactly how '1' and
'0' data exists side by side.

We're getting closer to read DATA!  Now, we're all familiar with binary and how
numbers and letters can be represented in binary fashion very easily.  There
are obviously an *infinite* number of possible standards, but thankfully the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the International Standards
Organization (ISO) have chosen 2 standards.  The first is


                         ** ANSI/ISO BCD Data format **

This is a 5-bit Binary Coded Decimal format.  It uses a 16-character set, which
uses 4 of the 5 available bits.  The 5th bit is an ODD parity bit, which means
there must be an odd number of 1's in the 5-bit character..the parity bit will
"force" the total to be odd.  Also, the Least Significant Bits are read FIRST
on the strip.  See Figure 6.

The sum of the 1's in each case is odd, thanks to the parity bit.  If the read
system adds up the 5 bits and gets an EVEN number, it flags the read as ERROR,
and you got to scan the card again (I *know* a lot of you out there *already*
understand parity, but I got to cover all the bases...not everyone sleeps with
their modem and can recite the entire AT command set at will, you know).  See
Figure 6 for details of ANSI/ISO BCD.

Figure 6:        ANSI/ISO BCD Data Format
---------

 * Remember that b1 (bit #1) is the LSB (least significant bit)!
  * The LSB is read FIRST!
  * Hexadecimal conversions of the Data Bits are given in parenthesis (xH).

        --Data Bits--   Parity
        b1  b2  b3  b4   b5    Character  Function

        0   0   0   0    1        0 (0H)    Data
        1   0   0   0    0        1 (1H)      "
        0   1   0   0    0        2 (2H)      "
        1   1   0   0    1        3 (3H)      "
        0   0   1   0    0        4 (4H)      "
        1   0   1   0    1        5 (5H)      "
        0   1   1   0    1        6 (6H)      "
        1   1   1   0    0        7 (7H)      "
        0   0   0   1    0        8 (8H)      "
        1   0   0   1    1        9 (9H)      "
        0   1   0   1    1        : (AH)    Control
        1   1   0   1    0        ; (BH)    Start Sentinel
        0   0   1   1    1        < (CH)    Control
        1   0   1   1    0        = (DH)    Field Separator
        0   1   1   1    0        > (EH)    Control
        1   1   1   1    1        ? (FH)    End Sentinel


           ***** 16 Character 5-bit Set *****
                10 Numeric Data Characters
                3 Framing/Field Characters
                3 Control Characters


The magstripe begins with a string of Zero bit-cells to permit the self-
clocking feature of biphase to "sync" and begin decoding.  A "Start Sentinel"
character then tells the reformatting process where to start grouping the
decoded bitstream into groups of 5 bits each.  At the end of the data, an "End
Sentinel" is encountered, which is followed by an "Longitudinal Redundancy
Check (LRC) character.  The LRC is a parity check for the sums of all b1, b2,
b3, and b4 data bits of all preceding characters.  The LRC character will catch
the remote error that could occur if an individual character had two
compensating errors in its bit pattern (which would fool the 5th-bit parity
check).

The START SENTINEL, END SENTINEL, and LRC are collectively called "Framing
Characters", and are discarded at the end of the reformatting process.


                        ** ANSI/ISO ALPHA Data Format **

Alphanumeric data can also be encoded on magstripes.  The second ANSI/ISO data
format is ALPHA (alphanumeric) and involves a 7-bit character set with 64
characters.  As before, an odd parity bit is added to the required 6 data bits
for each of the 64 characters.  See Figure 7.

Figure 7:
---------             ANSI/ISO ALPHA Data Format

   * Remember that b1 (bit #1) is the LSB (least significant bit)!  
   * The LSB is read FIRST!
   * Hexadecimal conversions of the Data Bits are given in parenthesis (xH).


         ------Data Bits-------   Parity
         b1  b2  b3  b4  b5  b6     b7    Character   Function

          0   0   0   0   0   0     1      space (0H) Special
          1   0   0   0   0   0     0        ! (1H)      "
          0   1   0   0   0   0     0        " (2H)      "
          1   1   0   0   0   0     1        # (3H)      "
          0   0   1   0   0   0     0        $ (4H)      "
          1   0   1   0   0   0     1        % (5H)   Start Sentinel
          0   1   1   0   0   0     1        & (6H)   Special
          1   1   1   0   0   0     0        ' (7H)      "
          0   0   0   1   0   0     0        ( (8H)      "
          1   0   0   1   0   0     1        ) (9H)      "
          0   1   0   1   0   0     1        * (AH)      "
          1   1   0   1   0   0     0        + (BH)      "
          0   0   1   1   0   0     1        , (CH)      "
          1   0   1   1   0   0     0        - (DH)      "
          0   1   1   1   0   0     0        . (EH)      "
          1   1   1   1   0   0     1        / (FH)      "

          0   0   0   0   1   0     0        0 (10H)    Data (numeric)
          1   0   0   0   1   0     1        1 (11H)     "
          0   1   0   0   1   0     1        2 (12H)     "
          1   1   0   0   1   0     0        3 (13H)     "
          0   0   1   0   1   0     1        4 (14H)     "
          1   0   1   0   1   0     0        5 (15H)     "
          0   1   1   0   1   0     0        6 (16H)     "
          1   1   1   0   1   0     1        7 (17H)     "
          0   0   0   1   1   0     1        8 (18H)     "
          1   0   0   1   1   0     0        9 (19H)     "

          0   1   0   1   1   0     0        : (1AH)   Special
          1   1   0   1   1   0     1        ; (1BH)      "
          0   0   1   1   1   0     0        < (1CH)      "
          1   0   1   1   1   0     1        = (1DH)      "
          0   1   1   1   1   0     1        > (1EH)      "
          1   1   1   1   1   0     0        ? (1FH)   End Sentinel
          0   0   0   0   0   1     0        @ (20H)   Special

          1   0   0   0   0   1     1        A (21H)   Data (alpha) 
          0   1   0   0   0   1     1        B (22H)     "
          1   1   0   0   0   1     0        C (23H)     "
          0   0   1   0   0   1     1        D (24H)     "
          1   0   1   0   0   1     0        E (25H)     "
          0   1   1   0   0   1     0        F (26H)     "
          1   1   1   0   0   1     1        G (27H)     "
          0   0   0   1   0   1     1        H (28H)     "
          1   0   0   1   0   1     0        I (29H)     "
          0   1   0   1   0   1     0        J (2AH)     "
          1   1   0   1   0   1     1        K (2BH)     "
          0   0   1   1   0   1     0        L (2CH)     "
          1   0   1   1   0   1     1        M (2DH)     "
          0   1   1   1   0   1     1        N (2EH)     "
          1   1   1   1   0   1     0        O (2FH)     "
          0   0   0   0   1   1     1        P (30H)     "
          1   0   0   0   1   1     0        Q (31H)     "
          0   1   0   0   1   1     0        R (32H)     "
          1   1   0   0   1   1     1        S (33H)     "
          0   0   1   0   1   1     0        T (34H)     "
          1   0   1   0   1   1     1        U (35H)     "
          0   1   1   0   1   1     1        V (36H)     "
          1   1   1   0   1   1     0        W (37H)     "
          0   0   0   1   1   1     0        X (38H)     "
          1   0   0   1   1   1     1        Y (39H)     "
          0   1   0   1   1   1     1        Z (3AH)     "

          1   1   0   1   1   1     0        [ (3BH)    Special
          0   0   1   1   1   1     1        \ (3DH)    Special
          1   0   1   1   1   1     0        ] (3EH)    Special
          0   1   1   1   1   1     0        ^ (3FH)    Field Separator
          1   1   1   1   1   1     1        _ (40H)    Special

              ***** 64 Character 7-bit Set *****
                  * 43 Alphanumeric Data Characters
                  * 3 Framing/Field Characters
                  * 18 Control/Special Characters


The two ANSI/ISO formats, ALPHA and BCD, allow a great variety of data to be
stored on magstripes.  Most cards with magstripes use these formats, but
occasionally some do not.  More about those later on.


                      ** Tracks and Encoding Protocols **

Now we know how the data is stored.  But WHERE is the data stored on the
magstripe?  ANSI/ISO standards define *3* Tracks, each of which is used for
different purposes.  These Tracks are defined only by their location on the
magstripe, since the magstripe as a whole is magnetically homogeneous.  See
Figure 8.

Figure 8:
---------          
         _________________________________________________________________
         |                  ^         ^         ^
         |------------------| 0.223"--|---------|-------------------------
         |                  |         | 0.353"  |            ^
         |..................|.........|.........| 0.493"     |
         | Track #1  0.110"           |         |            |
         |............................|.........|...     
         |                            |         |            |
         |............................|.........|...         |
         | Track #2  0.110"                     |            |
         |......................................|...         |
         |                                      |            |
         |......................................|...         |
         | Track #3  0.110"                                  |
         |..........................................         |
         |                                                   |
         |------------------------------------------------------------------
         |
         |                   
         |


You can see the exact distances of each track from the edge of the card, as
well as the uniform width and spacing.  Place a magstripe card in front of you
with the magstripe visible at the bottom of the card.  Data is encoded from
left to right (just like reading a book).  See Figure 9.


Figure 9:
---------          ANSI/ISO Track 1,2,3 Standards

     Track     Name     Density     Format    Characters     Function
   --------------------------------------------------------------------
       1       IATA     210 bpi     ALPHA        79        Read Name & Account
       2       ABA       75 bpi      BCD         40        Read Account
       3       THRIFT   210 bpi      BCD        107        Read Account &
                                                           *Encode* Transaction


   *** Track 1 Layout: ***     

             | SS | FC |  PAN  |   Name   | FS |  Additional Data | ES | LRC |

 SS=Start Sentinel "%"
 FC=Format Code
 PAN=Primary Acct. # (19 digits max)
 FS=Field Separator "^"
 Name=26 alphanumeric characters max.
 Additional Data=Expiration Date, offset, encrypted PIN, etc.
 ES=End Sentinel "?"
 LRC=Longitudinal Redundancy Check


   *** Track 2 Layout: ***

           | SS |  PAN  | FS |  Additional Data  | ES | LRC |

 SS=Start Sentinel ";"
 PAN=Primary Acct. # (19 digits max)
 FS=Field Separator "="
 Additional Data=Expiration Date, offset, encrypted PIN, etc.
 ES=End Sentinel "?"
 LRC=Longitudinal Redundancy Check 


   *** Track 3 Layout: **  Similar to tracks 1 and 2.  Almost never used.
                           Many different data standards used.


   Track 2, "American Banking Association," (ABA) is most commonly used.  This
is the track that is read by ATMs and credit card checkers.  The ABA designed
the specifications of this track and all world banks must abide by it.  It
contains the cardholder's account, encrypted PIN, plus other discretionary
data.

Track 1, named after the "International Air Transport Association," contains
the cardholder's name as well as account and other discretionary data.  This
track is sometimes used by the airlines when securing reservations with a
credit card; your name just "pops up" on their machine when they swipe your
card!

Since Track 1 can store MUCH more information, credit card companies are trying
to urge retailers to buy card readers that read Track 1.  The *problem* is that
most card readers read either Track 1 or Track 2, but NOT BOTH!  And the
installed base of readers currently is biased towards Track 2.  VISA USA is at
the front of this 'exodus' to Track 1, to the point where they are offering
Track 1 readers at reduced prices thru participating banks.  A spokesperson for
VISA commented:

     "We think that Track 1 represents more flexibility and the potential
     to deliver more information, and we intend to build new services
     around the increased information."

What new services?  We can only wait and see.

Track 3 is unique.  It was intended to have data read and WRITTEN on it.
Cardholders would have account information UPDATED right on the magstripe.
Unfortunately, Track 3 is pretty much an orphaned standard.  Its *original*
design was to control off-line ATM transactions, but since ATMs are now on-line
ALL THE TIME, it's pretty much useless.  Plus the fact that retailers and banks
would have to install NEW card readers to read that track, and that costs $$.

Encoding protocol specifies that each track must begin and end with a length
of all Zero bits, called CLOCKING BITS.  These are used to synch the self-
clocking feature of biphase decoding.  See Figure 10.

Figure 10:                              end sentinel
                     start sentinel      |  longitudinal redundancy check
                      |                  |  |
      000000000000000 SS.................ES LRC 0000000000000000
       leading           data, data, data           trailing
       clocking bits                                clocking bits
       (length varies)                             (length varies)

THAT'S IT!!!  There you have the ANSI/ISO STANDARDS!  Completely explained.
Now, the bad news.  NOT EVERY CARD USES IT!  Credit cards and ATM cards will
follow these standards.  BUT, there are many other types of cards out there.
Security passes, copy machine cards, ID badges, and EACH of them may use a
PROPRIETARY density/format/track-location system.  ANSI/ISO is REQUIRED for
financial transaction cards used in the international interbank network.  All
other cards can play their own game.

The good news.  MOST other cards follow the standards, because it's EASY to
follow a standard instead of WORKING to make your OWN!  Most magstripe cards
other than credit cards and ATM cards will use the same Track specifications,
and use either BCD or ALPHA formats. 


                     ** A Bit About Magstripe Equipment **

"Wow, now I know how to interpret all that data on magstripes!  But.waitasec,
what kind of equipment do I need to read the stripes?  Where can I buy a
reader?  I don't see any in Radio Shack!!"

Sorry, but magstripe equipment is hard to come by.  For obvious reasons, card
readers are not made commonly available to consumers.  How to build one is the
topic for another file (this file is already too long).

Your best bets are to try and scope out Electronics Surplus Stores and flea
markets.  Do not even bother trying to buy one directly from a manufacturer,
since they will immediately assume you have "criminal motives."  And as for
getting your hands on a magstripe ENCODER...well, good luck!  Those rare
beauties are worth their weight in gold.  Keep your eyes open and look around,
and MAYBE you'll get lucky!  A bit of social engineering can go a LONG way.

There are different kinds of magstripe readers/encoders.  The most common ones
are "swipe" machines: the type you have to physically slide the card thru.
Others are "insertion" machines: like ATM machines they 'eat' your card, then
regurgitate it after the transaction.  Costs are in the thousands of dollars,
but like I said, flea markets and surplus stores will often have GREAT deals
on these things.  Another problem is documentation for these machines.  If you
call the manufacturer and simply ask for 'em, they will probably deny you the
literature.  "Hey son, what are you doing with our model XYZ swipe reader?
That belongs in the hands of a "qualified" merchant or retailer, not some punk
kid trying to "find out how things work!"  Again, some social engineering may
be required.  Tell 'em you're setting up a new business.  Tell 'em you're
working on a science project.  Tell 'em anything that works!

2600 Magazine recently had a good article on how to build a machine that copies
magstripe cards.  Not much info on the actual data formats and encoding
schemes, but the device described is a start.  With some modifications, I bet
you could route the output to a dumb terminal (or thru a null modem cable) in
order to READ the data.  Worth checking out the schematics.

As for making your own cards, just paste a length of VCR, reel-to-reel, or
audio cassette tape to a cut-out posterboard or plastic card.  Works just as
good as the real thing, and useful to experiment with if you have no expired or
'dead' ATM or calling cards lying around (SAVE them, don't TOSS them!).


                      ** Examples of Data on Magstripes **

The real fun in experimenting with magstripe technology is READING cards to
find out WHAT THE HELL is ON them!  Haven't you wondered?  The following cards
are the result of my own 'research'.  Data such as specific account numbers and
names has been changed to protect the innocent.  None the cards used to make
this list were stolen or acquired illegally.

Notice that I make careful note of "common data." This is data that I noticed
was the same for all cards of a particular type.  This is highlighted below the
data with asterisks (*).  Where I found varying data, I indicate it with "x"'s.
In those cases, NUMBER of CHARACTERS was consistent (the number of "x"'s equals
the number of characters...one to one relationship).

I still don't know what some of the data fields are for, but hopefully I will
be following this file with a sequel after I collect more data.  It ISN'T easy
to find lots of cards to examine. Ask your friends, family, and co-workers to
help!  "Hey, can I, ahh, like BORROW your MCI calling card tonight?  I'm
working on an, ahh, EXPERIMENT.  Please?"  Just...be honest!  Also, do some
trashing.  People will often BEND expired cards in half, then throw them out.
Simply bend them back into their normal shape, and they'll usually work (I've
done it!).  They may be expired, but they're not ERASED!  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=Mastercard=-  Number on front of card -> 1111 2222 3333 4444
                Expiration date -> 12/99 

Track 2 (BCD,75 bpi)-> ;1111222233334444=99121010000000000000?
                                             ***
          
Track 1 (ALPHA,210 bpi)-> %B1111222233334444^PUBLIC/JOHN?
                           *
Note that the "101" was common to all MC cards checked, as well as the "B".
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=VISA=-  Number on front of card -> 1111 2222 3333 4444
          Expiration date -> 12/99

Track 2 (BCD,75 bpi)-> ;1111222233334444=9912101xxxxxxxxxxxxx?
                                             ***
Track 1 (ALPHA,210 bpi)-> %B1111222233334444^PUBLIC/JOHN^9912101xxxxxxxxxxxxx?
                           *

Note that the "101" was common to all VISA cards checked, as well as the "B".
Also, the "xxx" indicates numeric data that varied from card to card, with no
apparent pattern.  I believe this is the encrypted pin for use when cardholders
get 'cash advances' from ATMs.  In every case, tho, I found *13* digits of the
stuff.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=Discover=-  Number on front of card -> 1111 2222 3333 4444
              Expiration date -> 12/99

Track 2 (BCD,75 bpi)-> ;1111222233334444=991210100000?
                                             ********

Track 1 (ALPHA,210 bpi)-> %B1111222233334444^PUBLIC/JOHN___^991210100000?
                                                                ******** 
Note, the "10100000" and "B" were common to most DISCOVER cards checked.  I
found a few that had "10110000" instead.  Don't know the significance.  Note
the underscores after the name JOHN.  I found consistently that the name data
field had *26* characters.  Whatever was left of the field after the name was
"padded" with SPACES.  So...for all of you with names longer than 25 (exclude
the "/") characters, PREPARE to be TRUNCATED! ;)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=US Sprint FON=-  Number on front of card -> 111 222 3333 4444

Track 2 (BCD,75 bpi)-> ;xxxxxx11122233339==xxx4444xxxxxxxxxx=?
                                        *

Track 1 (ALPHA,210 bpi)-> %B^ /^^xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?
                           *

Strange.  None of the cards I check had names in the Track 1 fields.  Track 1
looks unused, yet it was always formatted with field separators.  The "xxx"
stuff varied from card to card, and I didn't see a pattern.  I know it isn't
a PIN, so it must be account data.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-=Fleet Bank=-  Number on front of card -> 111111 222 3333333
                Expiration date -> 12/99

Track 2 (BCD,75 bpi)-> ;1111112223333333=9912120100000000xxxx?
                                             ****        

Track 1 (ALPHA,210 bpi) ->
         %B1111112223333333^PUBLIC/JOHN___^9912120100000000000000xxxx000000?
          *                                    ****

Note that the "xxx" data varied.  This is the encrypted PIN offset.  Always 4
digits (hmmm...).  The "1201" was always the same.  In fact, I tried many ATM
cards from DIFFERENT BANKS...and they all had "1201".  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Can't leave *this* one out ;)
-=Radio Shack=-  Number on front of card -> 1111 222 333333
                 NO EXPIRATION data on card

Track 2 (BCD,75 dpi)-> ;1111222333333=9912101?
                                      *******

Note that the "9912101" was the SAME for EVERY Radio Shack card I saw.  Looks
like when they don't have 'real' data to put in the expiration date field, they
have to stick SOMETHING in there.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that's all I'm going to put out right now.  As you can see, the major
types of cards (ATMs, CC) all follow the same rules more or less.  I checked
out a number of security passcards and timeclock entry cards..and they ALL had
random stuff written to Track 2.  Track 2 is by FAR the MOST utilized track on
the card.  And the format is pretty much always ANSI/ISO BCD.  I *did* run into
some hotel room access cards that, when scanned, were GARBLED.  They most
likely used a character set other than ASCII (if they were audio tones, my
reader would have put out NOTHING...as opposed to GARBLED data).  As you can
see, one could write a BOOK listing different types of card data.  I intended
only to give you some examples.  My research has been limited, but I tried to
make logical conclusions based on the data I received. 


                           ** Cards of All Flavors **

People wanted to store A LOT of data on plastic cards.  And they wanted that
data to be 'invisible' to cardholders.  Here are the different card
technologies that were invented and are available today.

HOLLERITH - With this system, holes are punched in a plastic or paper card and
            read optically.  One of the earliest technologies, it is now seen
            as an encoded room key in hotels.  The technology is not secure,
            but cards are cheap to make.

BAR CODE -  The use of bar codes is limited.  They are cheap, but there is 
            virtually no security and the bar code strip can be easily damaged.
            
INFRARED -  Not in widespread use, cards are factory encoded by creating a
            "shadow pattern" within the card.  The card is passed thru a swipe
            or insertion reader that uses an infrared scanner.  Infrared card
            pricing is moderate to expensive, and encoding is pretty secure.
            Infrared scanners are optical and therefore vulnerable to 
            contamination.

PROXIMITY - Hands-free operation is the primary selling point of this card.
            Although several different circuit designs are used, all proximity
            cards permit the transmission of a code simply by bringing the card
            near the reader (6-12").  These cards are quite thick, up to 
            0.15" (the ABA standard is 0.030"!).  

WIEGAND -   Named after its inventor, this technology uses a series of small
            diameter wires that, when subjected to a changing magnetic field,
            induce a discrete voltage output in a sensing coil.  Two rows of
            wires are embedded in a coded strip.  When the wires move past
            the read head, a series of pulses is read and interpreted as binary
            code.  This technology produces cards that are VERY hard to copy
            or alter, and cards are moderately expensive to make.  Readers
            based on this tech are epoxy filled, making them immune to weather
            conditions, and neither card nor readers are affected by external
            magnetic fields (don't worry about leaving these cards on top of
            the television set...you can't hurt them!).  Here's an example of
            the layout of the wires in a Wiegand strip:

               ||| || ||   | ||| | || ||    |  ||  ||    |   |  ||  
                  |  |    | |   | |     ||||     ||  ||||     ||

            The wires are NOT visible from the outside of the card, but if
            your card is white, place it in front of a VERY bright light source
            and peer inside.  Notice that the spacings between the wires is
            uniform.

BARIUM FERRITE - The oldest magnetic encoding technology (been around for 40
                 yrs!) it uses small bits of magnetized barium ferrite that are
                 placed inside a plastic card.  The polarity and location of
                 the "spots" determines the coding.  These cards have a short
                 life cycle, and are used EXTENSIVELY in parking lots (high
                 turnover rate, minimal security).  Barium Ferrite cards are
                 ONLY used with INSERTION readers.

There you have the most commonly used cards.  Magstripes are common because
they are CHEAP and relatively secure.  


                           ** Magstripe Coercivity **

Magstripes themselves come in different flavors.  The COERCIVITY of the
magnetic media must be specified.  The coercivity is the magnetic field
strength required to demagnetize an encoded stripe, and therefore determines 
the encode head field strength required to encode the stripe.  A range of media
coercivities are available ranging from 300 Oersteds to 4,000 Oe.  That boils
down to HIGH-ENERGY magstripes (4,000 Oe) and LOW-ENERGY magstripes (300 Oe).

REMEMBER: since all magstripes have the same magnetic remanence regardless of
their coercivity, readers CANNOT tell the difference between HIGH and LOW
energy stripes.  Both are read the same by the same machines.

LOW-ENERGY media is most common.  It is used on all financial cards, but its
disadvantage is that it is subject to accidental demagnetization from contact
with common magnets (refrigerator, TV magnetic fields, etc.).  But these cards
are kept safe in wallets and purses most of the time.

HIGH-ENERGY media is used for ID Badges and access control cards, which are
commonly used in 'hostile' environments (worn on uniform, used in stockrooms).
Normal magnets will not affect these cards, and low-energy encoders cannot
write to them.


                      ** Not All that Fluxes is Digital **

Not all magstripe cards operate on a digital encoding method.  SOME cards
encode AUDIO TONES, as opposed to digital data.  These cards are usually
used with old, outdated, industrial-strength equipment where security is not an
issue and not a great deal of data need be encoded on the card.  Some subway
passes are like this.  They require only expiration data on the magstripe, and
a short series of varying frequencies and durations are enough.  Frequencies
will vary with the speed of swiping, but RELATIVE frequencies will remain the
same (for instance, tone 1 is twice the freq. of tone 2, and .5 the freq of
tone 3, regardless of the original frequencies!).  Grab an oscilloscope to
visualize the tones, and listen to them on your stereo.  I haven't experimented
with these types of cards at all.


                         ** Security and Smartcards **

Many security systems utilize magstripe cards, in the form of passcards and ID
cards.  It's interesting, but I found in a NUMBER of cases that there was a
serious FLAW in the security of the system.  In these cases, there was a code
number PRINTED on the card.  When scanned, I found this number encoded on the
magstripe.  Problem was, the CODE NUMBER was ALL I found on the magstripe!
Meaning, by just looking at the face of the card, I immediately knew exactly
what was encoded on it.  Ooops!  Makes it pretty damn easy to just glance at
Joe's card during lunch, then go home and pop out my OWN copy of Joe's access
card!  Fortunately, I found this flaw only in 'smaller' companies (sometimes
even universities).  Bigger companies seem to know better, and DON'T print 
ALL of the magstripe data right on card in big, easily legible numbers.  At
least the big companies *I* checked. ;)

Other security blunders include passcard magstripes encoded ONLY with the
owner's social security number (yeah, real difficult to find out a person's
SS#...GREAT idea), and having passcards with only 3 or 4 digit codes.

Smartcard technology involves the use of chips embedded in plastic cards, with
pinouts that temporarily contact the card reader equipment.  Obviously, a GREAT
deal of data could be stored in this way, and unauthorized duplication would be
very difficulty.  Interestingly enough, not much effort is being put into
smartcards by the major credit card companies.  They feel that the tech is too
expensive, and that still more data can be squeezed onto magstripe cards in the
future (especially Track 1).  I find this somewhat analogous to the use of
metallic oxide disk media.  Sure, it's not the greatest (compared to erasable-
writable optical disks), but it's CHEAP..and we just keep improving it.
Magstripes will be around for a long time to come.  The media will be refined,
and data density increased.  But for conventional applications, the vast
storage capabilities of smartcards are just not needed.


                    ** Biometrics: Throw yer cards away! **

I'd like to end with a mention of biometrics: the technology based on reading
the physical attributes of an individual thru retina scanning, signature
verification, voice verification, and other means.  This was once limited to
government use and to supersensitive installations.  However, biometrics will
soon acquire a larger market share in access control sales because much of its
development stage has passed and costs will be within reach of more buyers.
Eventually, we can expect biometrics to replace pretty much ALL cards..because
all those plastic cards in your wallet are there JUST to help COMPANIES
*identify* YOU.  And with biometrics, they'll know you without having to read
cards.

I'm not paranoid, nor do I subscribe to any grand "corporate conspiracy," but I
find it a bit unsettling that our physical attributes will most likely someday
be sitting in the cool, vast electronic databases of the CORPORATE world.
Accessible by anyone willing to pay.  Imagine CBI and TRW databases with your
retina image, fingerprint, and voice pattern online for instant, convenient
retrieval.  Today, a person can CHOOSE NOT to own a credit card or a bank
card...we can cut up our plastic ID cards!  Without a card, a card reader is
useless and cannot identify you.

Paying in cash makes you invisible!  However, with biometrics, all a machine
has to do is watch... listen...and record.  With government/corporate America
pushing all the buttons.  "Are you paying in cash?..Thank you...Please look
into the camera.  Oh, I see your name is Mr. Smith...uh, oh...my computer tells
me you haven't paid your gas bill...afraid I'm going to have to keep this money
and credit your gas account with it....do you have any more cash?...or would
you rather I garnish your paycheck?"  heh heh


                       ** Closing Notes (FINALLY!!!!) **

Whew...this was one MOTHER of a file.  I hope it was interesting, and I hope
you distribute it to all you friends.  This file was a production of
"Restricted Data Transmissions"...a group of techies based in the Boston area
that feel that "Information is Power"...and we intend to release a number of
highly technical yet entertaining files in the coming year....LOOK FOR THEM!!
Tomorrow I'm on my way to Xmascon '91... we made some slick buttons
commemorating the event...if you ever see one of them (green wreath.XMASCON
1991 printed on it).hang on to it!... it's a collector's item.. (hahahah)
Boy, I'm sleepy...

Remember....    "Truth is cheap, but information costs!"

But -=RDT is gonna change all that... ;)  set the info FREE!

Read More

Top 10 Free CD/DVD burning Softwares

Download free CD and DVD burner software to create and burn audio or data CDs. Burn DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

I've been using Nero all the time and in my opinion it's the best software to write CD and DVD. But there are so many free softwares which help you to do the same. Here is my list of top 10 free burning softwares that you can use in place of Nero.

1. ImgBurn - ImgBurn is probably the best free CD/DVD burning tool available. ImgBurn can write most types of CD / DVD images including BIN, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI. ImgBurn supports all the Windows OS’s – Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista (including all the 64-bit versions). If you use Wine, it should also run on Linux and other x86-based Unixes.

2. CDBurnerXP - CD Burner XP is a great software. Apart from CDs and DVDs, you can also burn Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs with it. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a Multilanguage interface.
Operating Systems supported- Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista.

3. InfraRecorder - Infra Recorder can burn CD, DVD, Dual Layer DVDs and also supports various audio formats. The audio and data tracks includes .wav, .wma, .ogg, .mp3 and .iso formats. It can erase rewritable discs. Infra Recorder can also burn images in ISO and BIN/CUE formats.It supports multisession writing of discs.

4. Express Burn - Express Burn is a free CD burning program that lets you create and record audio and data CDs under Windows and Mac OS X. This software has a great user friendly interface. To use it all you need to do is drag and drop files. One thing surprises me; well I don’t know how far it’s true; the makers of this software claim that Express Burn is the fastest CD/DVD writing program in the world using proprietary optimizing systems.

5. FinalBurner Free Edition - FinalBurner is one more top free burning software. It can create data, audio and video discs. It can burn CD R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, and DVD DL. It can also rip Audio CD in .wav, .mp3, .ogg, .mid, .wma, .aac, .mp4, .m4a, .xm, .mod, .s3m, .it, .mtm, .mo3 audio files. FinalBuner can burn Video DVD with formats AVI, DIVX, XVID, MP4, MPG, WMV, ASF, MOV, FLV, etc. FinalBurner can also create an ISO image of a disc.

6. Ultimate CD/DVD Burner - Ultimate CD/DVD Burner is a simple and easy to use CD and DVD burning software package. It supports a very wide range of internal and external (USB 2.0 and FireWire) CD and DVD writers. Burn any data, copy any disc, make backups, create astonishing photo CD albums, make ISO CDs with this very easy to handle software!

7. StarBurn - StarBurn is a CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD disc burning software. It's been a long time since I've seen such a good free software. The number of features is quite impressive. You can burn data, audio, video, image discs. You can also grab or compress audio files.

8. Your Free DVD Burner - Your Free DVD Burner is a good one which isn’t much popular. It has some powerful features which is the reason it makes into this list. It can create data DVDs and CDs. It also supports DVD Video. YourFree DVD Burner allows you to create multisession CDs. You can create Bootable CD/DVD discs. It can burn ISO images onto disc. It supports CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R disc formats. Rewritable CDs and DVDs can be erased.

9. BurnAware - BurnAware allows you to easily perform the most common disc burning operations: write to all CD/DVD media types, including Blu-Ray (BD-R/BD-RE); create and burn disc images; write multi-session discs; verify the integrity of files; burn your compilations directly on optical media, without having to wait for hard drive staging first and much more.
Operating systems supported- NT, 2000, XP and Vista.

10. Create-Burn ISO Image - Free Create-Burn ISO a good free CD/DVD burner. It can burn CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R/RW, and DVD-R/RW discs. It can also create ISO image for burning CD/DVD. Burn ISO image can also create bootableCDs and DVDs. After burning the disc, Burn ISO Image can verify written data for finding any writing errors. It can erase re-writable CDs and DVDs. It supports Joiet File System, ISO, UDF& ISO/UDF project.


If you know some other good CD/DVD burning software, i would like to hear your suggestions.

Read More

Moneymaking E-Books

did a search on "make money online" and "making money online", and much of the information out there is just promoting various info-products, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, "Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?"
Here you can download 2 great ebooks that will teach you how to make money online. By my opinion, these two books are the best that I ever read in this niche.


1. Black Hat Method to Make Money Online

This is a very unique e-book where you can learn the dirtiest black hat method ever to make lot of money online. This method is black hat… VERY black hat. So black hat in fact that I felt bad about doing it - however, you definitely can make money with it, as I’m proof that it works. I made $647/three days with this, before I stopped - twenty minutes of work to set this up, and I’m not joking. After the setup, it took five seconds daily… to check how much I had earned.

What it Requires:

Domain name and roughly around 1 Hour for set up and Rest is auto pilot. You will just login to check your earnings and nothing more than that.

I would be giving Out 12 Copies out of which 2 copies are for reviews. So, 10 copies for sale. This is because it will saturate the method. lesser the people know about it, more profitable it is for you.

The only reason you would stop using this method would be purely because of your cosines and that's the reason why i have stopped using it since today and hence sharing the method with you.

It might happen that Some of the Internet marketing veterans would be using it but i m sure that 90% of the people would never have used this.

For more information on this book and download details visit the following link

Black Hat Method to Make Money Online

2. Monetizing Techniques

Giving Away Information and Getting Paid For It!

Have you ever noticed how hard it’s getting to sell information products on the Internet? E-Books, Videos, Special Reports, Digital Guides. Everywhere you look, they just aren’t selling. It’s because there’s too much free information around. People just aren’t used to paying for anything any more.

Reading this book you will find many "Black-Hat" methods to make money online using a service called CPALead, which in my opinion will be an excellent moneymaker for your website.

Personally, I have no worries about sharing this information. This technique leaves room for everybody. The scope is never ending. This is the method that all of the savvy Super Affiliates use. You can’t afford NOT to know it. Nothing else ever worked for me.

If you never did anything else with CPA marketing, the technique contained in this report is enough to make you hundreds of dollars every month.

For more information on this book and download details visit the following link

Read More

Black Hat Method to Make Money Online

This method is black hat… VERY black hat. So black hat in fact that I felt bad about doing it - however, you definitely can make money with it, as I’m proof that it works. I made $647/three days with this, before I stopped - twenty minutes of work to set this up, and I’m not joking. After the setup, it took five seconds daily… to check how much I had earned.

This book costs $10. By buying this book you are also making a donation to this blog.

Bonus Files:

• Greatest Money Making Ebook EVER!
• CPA Monopoly

Download Black Hat Method to Make Money Online (+ CPA Monopoly, and Greatest Money Making Ebook EVER!)

Read More

Top 10 Linux Media Players - Play Any Audio or Video Format in Linux OS

To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, i have compiled a list of 10 high quality Linux video applications, covering a broad spectrum of uses.

One of the many perks of being a Linux user is that you have plenty of excellent software to choose from. This is especially true if you are in search for an essential application like a media player because there are definitely loads of options. However, this could sometimes be a disadvantage particularly to new-to-Linux users for the reason that they could get overwhelmed with the many choices they have.

Here i have compiled some of the best free media players for Linux OS to play almost any video, audio formats you will ever need as a Linux user.

Here is the list of my Top 10 Linux Media Players:

1. MPlayer

MPlayer is a movie player which runs on many systems. It plays most MPEG/VOB, AVI, Ogg/OGM, VIVO, ASF/WMA/WMV, QT/MOV/MP4, RealMedia, Matroska, NUT, NuppelVideo, FLI, YUV4MPEG, FILM, RoQ, PVA files, supported by many native, XAnim, and Win32 DLL codecs. You can watch VideoCD, SVCD, DVD, 3ivx, DivX 3/4/5, WMV and even H.264 movies. Another great feature of MPlayer is the wide range of supported output drivers. It works with X11, Xv, DGA, OpenGL, SVGAlib, fbdev, AAlib, DirectFB, but you can use GGI, SDL (and this way all their drivers), VESA (on every VESA compatible card, even without X11!) and some low level card-specific drivers (for Matrox, 3Dfx and ATI), too! Most of them support software or hardware scaling, so you can enjoy movies in fullscreen. MPlayer supports displaying through some hardware MPEG decoder boards, such as the Siemens DVB, DXR2 and DXR3/Hollywood+. MPlayer has an onscreen display (OSD) for status information, nice big antialiased shaded subtitles and visual feedback for keyboard controls. European/ISO 8859-1,2 (Hungarian, English, Czech, etc), Cyrillic and Korean fonts are supported along with 12 subtitle formats (MicroDVD, SubRip, OGM, SubViewer, Sami, VPlayer, RT, SSA, AQTitle, JACOsub, PJS and our own: MPsub). DVD subtitles (SPU streams, VOBsub and Closed Captions) are supported as well.

Read More | Download MPlayer


2. VLC Player

VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols without external codec or program.

It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

VLC can play:

* MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 / DivX files from a hard disk, a CD-ROM drive, and so on
* DVDs, VCDs, and Audio CDs
* From satellite cards (DVB-S)
* Several types of network streams: UDP/RTP Unicast, UDP/RTP Multicast, HTTP, RTSP, MMS, etc.
* From acquisition or encoding cards (on GNU/Linux and Windows only)

Read More | Download VLC media player


3. Xine

Xine is a free multimedia player. It plays back CDs, DVDs, and VCDs. It also decodes multimedia files like AVI, MOV, WMV, and MP3 from local disk drives, and displays multimedia streamed over the Internet. It interprets many of the most common multimedia formats available – and some of the most uncommon formats, too.

Read More | Download Xine


4. Totem

Totem is the official movie player of the GNOME desktop environment based on GStreamer. It features a playlist, a full-screen mode, seek and volume controls, as well as keyboard navigation. It comes with added functionality such as: Video thumbnailer for the file manager, Nautilus properties tab, Mozilla (Firefox) plugin to view movies inside your browser (in development), Webcam utility (in development) and more.

Read More | Download Totem


5. Ogle DVD Player

Ogle is the first opensource DVD player to support DVD menus! A DVD player for the Solaris, Linux and BSD environments released under the GNU Public License (GPL). Ogle, bringing you what you've always wanted e.g. Bookmarks, time skipping, multichannel audio, SPDIF output, crop & zoom video and more.

Read More | Download Ogle DVD Player


6. Helix Player

The Helix Player is an open source media player for Linux, Solaris, and Symbian based on the Helix DNA Client media engine. More operating system versions are currently in development.

Read More | Download Helix Player


7. Real Player

RealPlayer for Linux allows you to play more video, including popular Windows Media files, RealMedia files and more. Get instant access to your favorite songs or video. Easily create, save, edit and manage different playlists for any event or mood. Updated multi-channel stereo sound allows you to enjoy 5-channel audio plus a dedicated sub-woofer channel for streaming or playback through either your ALSA or OSS sound system. Need to take a break from a live stream? Just click pause. Perfect Play automatically buffers streaming content. So you can pause, rewind and fast-forward through live broadcasts without missing a thing.

Read More | Download Real Player for Linux

8. Kaffeine

Kaffeine is a full featured Multimedia-Player for KDE. By default it uses xine as backend.
Kaffeine is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public Licence.

Here are some key features of "Kaffeine":

* Timeshifting
* Instant record
* Electronic Program Guide
* On screen display

Read More | Download Kaffeine Media Player


9. KMPlayer

The KMPlayer is a versatile media player which can cover various types of container format such as VCD, DVD, AVI, MKV, Ogg Theora, OGM, 3GP, MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, RealMedia, and QuickTime among others. It handles a wide range of subtitles and allows you to capture audio, video, and screenshots in many ways.

The player provides both internal and external filters with a fully controlled environment in terms of connections to other splitters, decoders, audio/video transform filters and renderers without grappling with the DirectShow merit system. Internal filters are not registered to user's system to keep it from being messed up with system filters.

In December 2008 KMPlayer was bought by Pandora.tv, and continues to be made available as freeware.

Read More | Download KMPlayer


10. Codeine

Codeine project is a very simple xine-based media player.

Here are some key features of "Codeine":

* Plays DVDs, VCDs, all video formats *
* Bundled with a simple web-page KPart () Starts very quickly
* Simple, uncluttered interface
* "Session based"
* Intelligent behaviour
* You can record http streams with the hidden record action
* You can use drag and drop to play files. Try dragging shoutcast stream playlists, they will play too.

Read More | Download Codeine

Read More

What is RSS?

What is RSS?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.


Why RSS? Benefits and Reasons for using RSS

RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by retrieving the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like Yahoo News.


What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed? RSS Feed Readers and News Aggregators

Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and display them for you to read and use.

A variety of RSS Readers are available for different platforms. Some popular feed readers include Amphetadesk (Windows, Linux, Mac), FeedReader (Windows), and NewsGator (Windows - integrates with Outlook). There are also a number of web-based feed readers available. My Yahoo, Bloglines, and Google Reader are popular web-based feed readers.

Once you have your Feed Reader, it is a matter of finding sites that syndicate content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.


RSS Links: More information on RSS

RSS Info Comprehensive Overview and Links
Syndic8 - Directory of RSS Feeds
What is RSS, and Why Should You Care?
XML.com: What is RSS?
Introduction to RSS - WebReference.com

Read More

Top 20 Facebook Tips, Tricks and Hacks

If you are on Facebook, these tricks may be useful.

Right now almost half of the world is on Facebook, no wonder it is the #2 ranked website in the world. I sometimes start my day off by doing a bunch of stuff on Facebook that I realize if I don’t share with my readers, how selfish of me! So today I decided to share some of the wonderful tricks and some tips of Facebook that I have discovered. If you have interesting tips/tricks related to Facebook, please feel free to share in the comment box below.

1. See all your friend’s pictures in a tiles format
Login into Facebook and in your facebook sidebar click on the my friends link you will see a drop down box next to show, now hover or rollover your mouse and then click on one of the dashed lines (–). You will see a page full of al the profile pictures of all your facebook friends. The profile photos will be shown in a tiled format. It really looks cool try it.


2. Appear Offline To Selected Friends

Appear Offline to those who are pestering you. Simply, open FB Chat and click Friend’s list, then Create a new list with whatever name you want and include all those people you don’t want to chat with in that list. Now you can appear offline to them by moving the green slider to offline whenever you come online.


3. Facebook Pirate Language

This is my favorite Facebook tip and if you are a fan of “Pirate Movies” it will become yours too. Instead of seeing “Share with friends” you can see “Blabber t’ yer mates” and other pirate words/phrases. Basically, to make Facebook communicate with you in old Pirate Language, Simple go to your Current Language Settings (located at the bottom of the page) and click the language as English (Pirate).


4. See creator’s profile

Creator in a facebook community is the first profile created in your community. Generally you can’t search for his profile. But by using this cool facebook trick you can do it, just follow some simple steps. Goto your profile page and look at your id in the url in the address bar of your web browser. The first few numbers represent your school ID, so if you change the rest of the numbers to zero and the last number to one. It will show you the first person or the first profile created from your school, college or work place. This profile is known as “Creator’s” profile. This trick is not much of use, but just in case.


5. Hide Your Online Status From Selected Friends:

So you want to use Facebook chat but don’t want some people to see your online status? Simply open up the Facebook Chat and click on Friends List. Start creating a new list called BlockList.

Once the list is created, add those friends to the list that you want to appear offline to. When the list is complete, hover your mouse to the little green icon adjacent to the list and click Go Offline. Bingo! You will now appear offline to everybody in the BlockList.


6. View a Friend’s Profile Without Messy Applications:

If you are like me, you often get annoyed by the dozens of silly applications that people have added to their profile. Here’s a Grease Monkey script that allows you to view any profile without all those applications. Remember: the Mozilla Firefox web browser is a prerequisite for running Greasemonkey.


7. Display Your Facebook Status On Your Wordpress Blog:

Want to display your Facebook status updates on your Wordpress blog? There is a plugin that does exactly that. StatusPress lets you display your status updates to a widget on your Wordpress blog.


8. Give wooden look to facebook

This greasemonkey javascript will give your facebook pages an antiquated and wooden look. So, don’t just get stick to old boring design, keep trying out new ones. Facebook wooden look


9. Automatic Facebook login

Aren’t you fed up of keep on logging into facebook everytime you want to check new messages. This cool greasemonkey javascript will keep you logged into facebook as long as the password is stored in your firefox web browser. Automatic facebook login


10. Remove annoying Facebook applications

Clean out all those annoying applications people add. This javascript will remove all those crappy applications from any facebook profile you are viewing. The profile were never so cleaner before ;) Facebook applications cleaner
So, that’s all with facebook tips and tricks for today, just stay tuned, you will see many more tricks and hacks shortly.


11. Download Videos From Facebook

There are so many times that you see these awesome videos on Facebook and just wish you could download them to your computer. Well to do this first you must copy the video’s link and then go to.


12. Tweet on your Facebook Status

Most members of Facebook will tell you that they have a Twitter account. So if you are a Facebook Freak and a Twitter addict then you can update both at once using the . Stay on your Twitter page and whenever you want to send the tweet simultaneously to Facebook, just add #fb to your tweet and it will get posted on Facebook.


13. How To Download Facebook Photo Albums:

Ever felt the need to download complete photo albums from Facebook. You can easily do it with either a Windows desktop application named FotoBounce or a great Firefox add-on FacePad.


14. Automatically Poke Friends That Poke You:

Don’t have enough time to poke back friends who poke you on Facebook? Automate it with a Grease Monkey script called Facebook Autopoke.


15. Search Facebook Like A Pro:

Not everybody knows how powerful Facebook search is. Similar to any large search engine, Facebook search has a lot of advanced options to help you search like a pro. For example if you are looking for a person named John Marsh and filter your results down to only people who are married, you can try name: John Marsh status:married. A complete list of search tips for Facebook can be found here.



16. Import Facebook Friends To Twitter:

FB140 is a simple tool that lets you find all your Facebook friends that are using Twitter so you can easily follow them.


17. Display Your Facebook Status Upside Down:

This is a cool and fun trick. To display upside down status updates, simply head over to FlipText and type in your status. Then simply click on Flip Text and copy-paste the upside down text into your Facebook status box.



18. Update Facebook Status Using Twitter:

Wouldn’t you love to update your status on both Facebook and Twitter at the same time. Just install the Twitter application for Facebook. Once synced, your tweets including the #fb tag would automatically be posted as status updates on your Facebook.


19. How To Insert Cool Symbols In Your Status Updates:

Make your status updates interesting by inserting cool symbols. Simply copying them from this list and pasting in your status updates.


20. Magic Circles On Facebook:

You might have heard about the Konami code that makes red blurry circles on your Facebook page. This might be one of the most popular Facebook hidden tricks. Here’s how to do it:

Press Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Enter key then press up & down & Magic circles will appear!

To stop them simply reload your page.


If you know any others interesting tips/tricks related to Facebook, please feel free to share in the comment box below.

Read More