Blackhole Exploit Kit Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Blackhole Exploit Kit - Research Paper Example It can deliver various malware depending on the operating system and geographical location of the victim or depend on the time of day or other criteria that the attacker has identified (Howard, 2012). Often, a user would visit a compromised though legitimate website that had been outfitted with an external or iframe reference that point to the Blackhole exploit site. Because of this invisible call, malware and exploits would be delivered silently while the user is browsing on a legitimate but compromised website. The victim would not be redirected forcibly as there would be no external sign and the user is likely to remain on the legitimate website and it is likely that he or she would be unaware that malware is loading in the background (International Business, 2012). In order to have a better understanding of this topic, this paper will discuss in more details what Blackhole exploit kits are and how they work. In recent times, the Blackhole exploit kit has gained wide adoption and it is one of the most common exploit frameworks that are used for delivery of web-based malware (Ouchn, 2012). This type of crimeware Web application was developed by a Russian hacker known as HodLum to take advantage of exploits that are unpatched to hack computers through malicious scripts that are planted on legitimate but compromised websites. The first Blackhole exploit kit appeared in the market in August 2010 (Howard, 2012). Since then, there have been newer releases, as well as a free version of the kit. The Blackhole exploit kits are based on a MySQL and PHP backend and incorporate support for exploiting the most vulnerable and widely used security flaws with the purpose of providing hackers with the highest successful exploitation probability (Rajaraman, 2011). Typically, these kits target the Windows operating system version, as well as applications that have been installed on Windows platform. The most famous Blackhole exploit kit attack was in April 2011 that targeted t he website of the United States Postal service’s Rapid Information Bulletin Board System (RIBBS) (Wisniewski, 2012). There are various versions of the Blackhole exploit kit including v1.2.2, which was released in February of the year 2012, and it is the most recent version and v1.0.0 version, which was released in late 2010 and was the first version (Ouchn, 2012). The Blackhole exploit kit is made up of various PHP scripts series that are designed to run on a website or a web server. These scripts are protected using the commercial ionCube encoder presumably to prevent other miscreants against stealing their code and therefore hindering analysis (International Business, 2012). The Blackhole exploit kit has general characteristics that enable them to deliver exploits through compromised websites. These characteristics include configuration options for the usual parameters such as redirect URLs, file paths, query string parameters, passwords, and usernames.

Inflation in the US after the Second World War Term Paper

Inflation in the US after the Second World War - Term Paper Example A low rate of inflation is particularly significant because the economy of the US was at least fully employed as per the estimates for the last three years of the last economic expansion period. However, little tendency of acceleration has been noticed in the inflation rate. It is difficult to have such a policy task that keeps the economy moving along the full path of employment with no burst of inflation happening as a result. Since the costs of labor are almost two-thirds of the total costs of production, the rate of rise is considered to be an indication of inflation in future at the retail level. The rates rose in the latter stage of the last economic expansion while they were moderate in the contraction, recovery, and expansion subsequently. The profile of inflation in the US While Europe experienced catastrophic inflation before the Second World War, the US has mainly seen three periods of inflation that generated huge economic concern since 1913; the first of these periods wa s from 1915 to1920 when prices almost doubled, the second period ranged from 1945 to 1947 during which, 34 per cent increase was noticed, and the third period ranged from 1972 to 1982 during which, a total of 131 per cent increase was noticed (Economy In Perspective, 2010). ... Although there has been no significant inflation in the US for the past few years, yet it does not imply that inflation cannot increase in the future. Eventual increase in the demand for loans by businesses and households is addressed by the commercial banks. While the consequential increased spending growth by businesses and households is first welcomed, it might lead to unwanted inflation in the long run (Feldstein, 2013). Causes of inflation Practically, the US has never experienced a period in its entire history when a change in the level of price was not accompanied with a simultaneous change in the money supply. This forms the basis of the view widely held according to which, inflation is a monetary phenomenon everywhere and always that happens as a result of rise in the monetary quantity relative to the output. In spite of the general consensus held by economists over this view, it is consistent with two very different views over the cause of inflation. According to the first view, rapid growth of money causes inflation and is itself caused from Federal Reserve’s mistaken policies. Inflation is controlled by the Federal Reserve and the control is determined by the willingness of the Federal Reserve to constrain the money supply growth. The alternative view is based on the belief that prices experience a major upward pressure because of the activities that cause a decline in the real output. Organized labor’s attempt to acquire increase in the real wages is a favorite candidate. Other activities include the OPEC’s monopolistic pricing behavior, changes in the international trade terms because of decline in dollar’s foreign exchange rate, and major crop failures. Decline in output caused by such activities generally