Dominik Kovacs SPEAIT

Hello everyone! In my weekly blog, I would like to compare two Ubuntu-based distributions with its parent itself. So this week I will write about Xubuntu and Linux Mint. A small history and why they can be better than Ubuntu itself. Xubuntu Xubuntu was released on 2006 June 1 st by Jani Monoss as part of the Ubuntu 6.06 “Dapper Drake” line, which also included Kubuntu and Edubuntu. “The target audience for Xubuntu is users who are interested in having a modestly lightweight, slim, fast desktop experience while retaining the usability and functionality that is required to provide an easy to use desktop environment”. Xubuntu’s desktop environment, called Xfce was intended to use fewer system resources than the widely spread Ubuntu Gnome Desktop. Xubuntu developers claimed that the minimum RAM for Xubuntu could be run on was 128MB and 256 MB of RAM was strongly recommended at that time. Martyn Honeyford at IBM said that “It uses approximately 25MB less application memory and also...

This week’s blog topic is going to be a reflection and a description of the applicability of the modern hacking ideals. It was really interesting to read, that there was hacking even before computers even existed. There was a part about the birth of hacking/linux culture, that described the important inventions until today. However, I would like to talk about ethics their applicability. Let’s see the hacker ethics of the early days and the ones in the new world. Early days of hacking; 1. Access to computers I agree it must be unlimited until it teaches you something. Breaching things can be extremely useful, both for the intruder and the victim. It is how security develops. Of course, accessing and notifying the victim is one thing and breaching and stealing data is another thing. The last should be always illegal, but how should we know what is happening in the background? 2. All information should be free. Information should be free. IT information especially, products, ever...

  This week’s exercise was to choose two interesting cases related to privacy and then censorship. I immediately thought of one example, which was FaceApp. I understand sharing photos are fun, even in a way necessary. Some of my friends are addicted to post pictures and get likes on social media and then there is me, who is putting out 1 picture every 2 nd month to show that I am still alive. I think the perfect line is between these two. I can not explain why, but I think none of the edges is healthy. Back to the story, it was 2019 when everyone started to post pictures about making themselves old and the pictures were incredibly precise. It became a huge trend on the internet. Then, it became public what are the terms that the users are accepting when using this app. Unfortunately, I can not find the link with the exact sentence, but the user is giving unlimited, permanent access to use and manipulate their pictures and be stored on a server. After all, the CIA stated, “FaceA...

 Mitnick formula in Hungary   This week I have read an interesting writing about the Mitnick formula, [1] probably named after the “scam master” Kevin Mitnick. It describes the technology, training and policy with examples and it is what I would like to compare with my home country’s security situation. First of all, Art of Deception by Kevin Mitnick is an awesome book. I read it last semester and it is really a fun reading that I can recommend for everyone, that loves to hear about people getting information that should not be public. On the other hand, for me, it was quite interesting, that Kevin was the first person in the world, that was diagnosed with “hacker addiction”.   As far as I know, my county puts more money into security than the average. Our nation has its own National Cybersecurity Institution (NBSZ). I also know, there are regular checks about GDPR and another country/EU specific policies with the companies and huge fees if there are any omission...