Tag Archive for: Drury

Drury University student hacks Springfield for cyber security test

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Neenah schools continue to cope with the aftermath of a Jan. 10 ransomware attack.

Testing the city’s protections against malicious hackers, a Drury cybersecurity student attempted last week to break down the city of Springfield’s cyber defenses.

Called a network penetration test, an organization often hires white hat hackers to break into their systems. 

During the test, the student attacked the network in the way a malicious hacker would, looking for vulnerabilities allowing a hacker to compromise assets. The student then wrote a report on the findings the city uses to improve its security.

Conducted by a senior as part of their capstone project, this is the second year for the partnership between Drury and the city.

“Drury’s Cyber Risk Management courses prepare students to work in the field protecting networks and we cover both offensive and defensive cyber security techniques,” said Shannon McMurtrey, assistant professor in cyber risk management.

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What is the dark web? Drury cybersecurity expert explains

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — It’s sometimes called the underbelly of the internet. The dark web.
It is made up of a series of websites hidden from the general public, yet accessible to anyone across the world.

For those who’ve studied its secrets, the dark web can be a place where criminal activity can go on without the eyes of the law watching.

Dr. Shannon McMurtrey, a professor of cyber security at Drury University, says the dark web serves different purposes depending on where you live.

“In a lot of countries where free speech is limited and the censorship is heavy, the dark web is a way for people to get access to information without the worry of censorship,” says McMurtrey. “However, If you live in a country that has an open, free internet and you can just get online and search for whatever you want, there tends to be more criminal activity that takes place on the dark web.”

The dark web was originally created by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to ensure operatives could communicate with each other without being tracked.

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory open-sourced the software for what’s now the dark web in 2004. It’s been managed by a non-profit called the Tor Project in Massachusetts. McMurtrey says it gained popularity in the U.S. due to the dark web allowing criminals to buy, sell and trade without law enforcement watching.

“Passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, it’s all available online. Certainly, the drug trade is what made it famous, when the Silk Road was taken down that was probably when it came on the radar for most people.”

The dark web can be accessed through a specific browser called “Onion browser” or “Tor Browser.” McMurtrey says it’s similar to the Google Chrome and Firefox browsers we use every day, only this one is able to access sites you wouldn’t find on the surface of the internet.

McMurtrey says a majority of the dark web is innocent citizens from other countries looking for ways to access an everyday website that are blocked by their government’s…

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