Why 2026 Is the Perfect Time to Pivot into Cybersecurity (Even If You Don’t Have an IT Background)
Why 2026 Is the Perfect Time to Pivot into Cybersecurity (Even If You Don’t Have an IT Background)
Publish Date: 2026-03-03 07:03:00
Source Domain: www.eccouncil.org
Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
Data exfiltration, also known as data extrusion, data exportation, or data theft, could be defined as the unauthorized transfer of often sensitive data from a computer or other device. It can also happen through an attacker gaining authorized access to the target device and then starting a remote shell. This allows an incoming client to connect to Netcat for direct shell access. There is no user identification or authentication process associated with this access.An example of sensitive data that could be exfiltrated is information in password folders or log files. In Linux, the log files are located in /var/log, a special directory for storing logs. This directory contains logs from the operating system, services, and various apps running on the operating system.In Microsoft Windows, those log files are present at C:WINDOWSsystem32config. In Linux, the password files are present in a composition of two files: password and shadow, in the /etc folder. The password file contains the user’s public information (UID, full name, home directory), whereas the shadow file contains the hashed password and the password expiry data.A good and efficient way to copy a collection of files is to use the tar command, which is a tape archive that can be used to easily archive a large collection of files into a single file. Below are some common command options:-c – create new file-v – verbose mode-z – compact file-x – extract file-p – preserve permissionsFigure 5 shows an exchange of data through a point-to-point connection using Netcat. On the left, we have a Netcat command listening on port 4444, followed by a port 4444 is established. After the connection, 73802 bytes were sent, and an MD5 hash was sent to the server to compare the file’s integrity. If even a single bit of the file is changed, the hash will be modified. On the right of Figure 5, we have a connection on port 4444, followed by the > symbol and a file named dump.hex. This means the output of the connection will be sent to dump.hex. It is possible to verify that the same 73802 bytes were transferred, and the MD5 hash of the file transmitted matches. This shows that the file’s integrity was preserved.
