Jun 5
How-To Guides David
encryption, passwords, privacy, security
[Security Tips]
If you were using one of the passwords from the website yesterday, you have a better memory than mine if you can memorize them! This probably means that you’re going to need to store those passwords in a file.
The people who make Truecrypt are aware of this, and when you are setting up an encrypted volume (see last Thursday’s tip), you can choose to use a keyfile if you wish.
So here’s an idea, go back a few tips about encrypting your documents folder. You could keep all your keyfiles on a USB flash drive, such that your documents folder would only be “unlocked” when you had that flash drive plugged in. Such that you kind of have a security key to unlock your flies.
Just make sure you take very good care of your key drive!
May 29
How-To Guides David
encryption, passwords, privacy, security
[Security Tip]
If you need to generate very strong random passwords for your security passwords, I’d like to recommend the GRC password generator:
https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm
This page will also explain how the passwords are generated and what makes them strong.
May 22
How-To Guides David
encryption, privacy, security, truecrypt
[Security Tip]
Today, I am going to recommend an open source application, which is available for Linux, Mac and Windows.
Truecrypt.
With Truecrypt you can either encrypt an entire drive (and now with version 5, even system drives can be encrypted) or you can create an encrypted “File Container”. A File Container is an encrypted file which Truecrypt mounts as a virtual drive on your computer.
If you recall yesterday’s tip of redirecting where “My Documents” in Windows is located, you could point it at a Truecrypt drive (either a real partition or a mounted file). So that when you’re not using your computer, everything you keep in “My Documents” is safely encrypted in case your computer falls into the wrong hands.
(Of course, you could encrypt your entire computer for even more security, but if you forget your password, you’re really hosed. The choice is yours.)
Feb 16
Editorial David
encryption, internet, leo laporte, podcast, privacy, security, spinrite, steve gibson, twit
Time for my next favourite audio podcast; “Security Now”, from Leo Laporte’s TWiT network.
Security Now
As the name implies, this show is all about security, of the computer and internet variety. Again, this is one of the few podcasts I’ve come which really demands you to think and understand. Although, even if you can’t follow the most technical content, there is a constant stream of practical advice given to help you protect yourself from the shadier elements of the tech world.
The show is hosted by podcasting machine Leo Laporte (Wikipedia), and by software engineer and security researcher, Steve Gibson (Wikipedia). Leo is a well known tech presenter, and currently runs the “TWiT” network, where he produces around 14 podcast series, as well as producing a live stream of video from his studio, running at least full office hours. Steve Gibson is known for coining the term “Spyware”, and creating the hard drive repair program, “SpinRite“, among many other achievements.
The show comes out weekly and is about an hour long. They work on a system of having listener feedback every even numbered episode and every odd numbered episode we have Steve telling us about some aspect of security, privacy, or encryption.
Over on Steve’s GRC.com website, you can also obtain low-bandwidth 16kbps MP3 versions of each episodes, along with full text transcripts of every episode. Transcripts are a fantastic addition that I haven’t seen in any other podcast, and with a series as technical as this, you surely need a transcript, at least sometimes!
Well, if that has interested you, here are the links you’ll need.
At the time of writing, this was the latest episode of Security Now.
[audio: http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/sn/SN-182.mp3|titles=Security Now 182 Your Questions Steve's Answers 59|artists=Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson]
Dec 1
How-To Guides David
back up, decryption, encryption, freedos, hard drive, maintenance, password, repair, rsync, spinrite, syncback, synchronise, Tech, thumb drive, truecrypt, usb
Part 2
Last time we ended with showing you how to encrypt your thumb drive. Now we’ll resume and show you how to make using encryption a little less inconvenient.
We can minimise the inconvenience of using TrueCrypt by going back to the “autorun.inf” file we created before. I didn’t write the autorun script that I use for TrueCrypt, I copied it from a post on “EricsProjects” blog (follow the link for the script). With that script, I get this window when I plug in and autoplay my USB drive:
Note: Follow his instructions about copying TrueCrypt to your drive or this won’t work. You need TrueCrypt installed on the thumb drive if you’re going to be able to decrypt it somewhere other than your home computer.
All you have to do is select the TrueCrypt option, then you are given a prompt for the password to decipher the encrypted volume. Once this is done, you can just run your normal back up routine. This is of course a subjective thing to say, but I think an extra double click and password entry per-plug-in is a small price to pay for knowing that if you loose your drive, nobody will be able to read your files.
Finally, I said in part 1 that my thumb drive could repair my hard drive didn’t I? Well yes, but there’s one catch though. Up until now, the software I have recommended has been free of cost. The hard drive repair program I am using is Steve Gibson’s “SpinRite” [Wikipedia] which costs $89 US. I’d heard so many testimonials on the “Secuirty Now” podcast, that I finally decided I must get it. Many of the testimonials were about people who didn’t want to buy SpinRite, but had finally bought it out of desperation when their hard drives seemed inoperable, making strange noises, etc. Those people then reported that their drives were brought back to life by using SpinRite (running it for days on end in extreme cases). If used routinely before problems occur, it can help the hard drive’s own systems help detect and avoid problem areas on the disk platters.
The way SpinRite works means it needs exclusive access to your drive, so you must install SpinRite to some removable media, then boot your computer from that media. This has the advantage that it is truly platform independent (it utilises the “FreeDOS” operating system). Here is a picture of it in action:
So, there we have it. A USB stick that keeps a back up of all your irreplaceable data. You have the assurance of knowing if a bad guy finds it, your privacy is safe and if a good guy finds it ,they can get in touch with you to arrange its return. Finally, if your hard drive seems to have died on you, not only do you have a safe copy of your files, but you can probably return the drive to service by booting from this same little USB stick and running SpinRite.
Please let me know if you have any improvements on what I’ve posted.
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