Random Ramblings About This or That
An article in The Economist explains:
“[Email disclaimers] are assumed to be a wise precaution. But they are mostly, legally speaking, pointless. Lawyers and experts on internet policy say no court case has ever turned on the presence or absence of such an automatic e-mail footer in America, the most litigious of rich countries.
(more…)
Zeroing or “wiping” the data on a disk is a practice that makes data on a disk less recoverable. This does not ensure that the data can not be recovered but it certainly makes data recovery more complicated. It is always a good idea to wipe a disk prior to donating or retiring a computer to help protect confidential information.
This procedure will erase all data on the disk and make it difficult to recover – needless to say, you should backup any important data prior to using this procedure. Also note that this only applies to standard hard drives. Solid state drives require special handling as noted in this post. (more…)
Steganography is the process of hiding an encrypted message in some otherwise innocent looking format. The Internet is loaded with examples of doing this with image files but now you can take it to a whole new level by hiding an entire TrueCrypt volume inside a playable MP4 QuickTime video file. (more…)
In January Facebook announced that it would support encrypted connections via HTTPS. You should definitely enable this option if you use Facebook from public Internet access points (think Starbucks).
To enable this feature, log into your Facebook account, select “Account Settings” from the “Account” menu on the top right. Under “Account Security“, click the change button and check the box that says “Browse Facebook on a secure connection (https) whenever possible” – then click “Save.”
TechWorld recently reported on some serious issues with securely erasing data from Solid State Drives:
Current methods for securely wiping data from magnetic hard disks simply aren’t reliable enough to use on solid state drives (SSDs), a detailed study by engineers at the University of California has found. (more…)
HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The extension encrypts your communications with a number of major websites such as: Google Searches, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, bit.ly, GMX, WordPress.com blogs, The New York Times, The Washington Post and many others. (more…)
Digital Inspiration posted a guide on one method for tracking when an email message has been read. This technique obviously only works if the recipient has clicked on the embedded link.
Use goo.gl to Know if your Email has been Read
How do you know if your email message has been read by the recipient(s)?
One option is that you embed a tracking image in your outgoing email messages. If that image downloads on to the recipient’s computer, it is a confirmation that your email has been opened and read. Obviously, this technique will only work if the recipient has enabled automatic image downloads and that he or she is reading your email in HTML and not plain text.
There’s another option as well. If your outgoing email messages include one or more hyperlinks, you may even consider taking the help of a URL shortening service like goo.gl for email tracking.
Lifehacker’s Hive Five recently asked for reader’s opinions of the best VPN service providers. The results are in and the leader was WiTopia with just over 19% of the total votes. Here we take a brief look at WiTopia’s service offerings.
WiTopia offers PPTP VPN service for $3.34/Month (paid annually at $39.99/Year), OpenVPN-based SSL VPN service for $5/Month (paid annually at $59.99/Year) and a combination SSL/PPTP VPN service for $5.84/Month (paid annually at $69.99/Year). Another interesting product offering is their CloakBox™ product which utilizes a pre-configured, plug-and-play VPN Router to connect an entire LAN to their network via VPN. The CloakBox™ is $199 and includes one year of VPN service. CloakBox™ service is $99/Year for subsequent years. All service offerings come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
Google has just recently announced the availability of two-factor authentication for GMail. This means that now a malicious attacker can not gain access to your GMail inbox simply by using your username and password. Once this is configured, you will utilize two different authentication mechanisms to access GMail:
1. Your password (just like always)
2. A single-use verification code that Google sends to your phone in one of three ways:
1) Using the Google Authenticator app available for Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry,
2) Via SMS text message, or
3) Through a voice call (you can use a landline if you don’t have a cellphone)