Laptop Computer Security

[Jackson]

Thread Starter.

[FredCool]

Not really, there are ways to bypass this security feature, (password User name security feature) your common everyday user, or possibly thief wouldn't know how to do this, but those of us that do know how, can do it in less than a minute.Hi,

I like to give you some Ideas while mongering:

-Use SafeGuardEasy: http://americas.utimaco.com/ the only safe solution for your Laptop.

-Use for mongering a special Mobile with only the numbers from the chicas inside, the real phone is in the safe.

-Never give a real emailaddress to a girl (only yahoo, msn,

And when I say never I mean never, also to non pros.

-If they steal your money, take care that they steal not all your money.

I like all your reports, they are realy helpfull, and some are realy funny.

To over pay a girl is better as you get cheatet from a girl, on my first trip to BA I overpay a girl from Black with USD 300, the next day I was better in negotiation and pay USD 100 and now I be in the situation to pay sometime nothing. I am lukky to be not cheatet (yet) but this can go very fast when you get drunk and the night show you the pussys.

Suerte,

FC

[Tinman]

Getting your computer stolen is shitty enough but if personal information is retrieved, as seen in this thread, it's like being violated.

I have a lot of personal shit on my machine and don't want some boludo going through it, even if it's just one of my friends asking to use my laptop.

Truecrypt is an awesome encryption program - I've been using it for some time now and it's free.

http://www.truecrypt.org

It "creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk" or you can encrypt "an entire hard disk partition or a storage device such as USB flash drive."

Basically when I bring my laptop on trips I store all of my personal stuff including contacts, pictures, password database, etc in the encypted volume.

So if someone steals my laptop they can't access any of my personal stuff.

It's really good for encrypting USB flash drives since they are easy to lose.

There is an even easier to use free program called "Microsoft Private Folder" but Microsoft pulled this off their download site after only a few days due to IT department complaints that they couldn't access their employees' presonal data - that means it works well! You can still find the install program online from various internet sites; however, Microsoft no longer supports it.

Private Folder is very easy to use, but it puts a folder called "My Private Folder" in your My Computer area, so there is no plausable deniability.

Hope this helps,

Tin.

[StrayLight]

Truecrypt is an awesome encryption program.It looks pretty good. Thanks for passing the info.

A program I use to protect my passwords is Password Safe - http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/ - that was initially developed by Bruce Schneier and also uses the Blowfish encryption algorithm.

I keep the encrypted database on my computer, but have a backup copy on a USB drive and also uploaded and stored online somewhere.

It makes life a hell of a lot easier, and I feel pretty secure with it.

SL

[Tinman]

I use KeePass for my password database - http://keepass.sourceforge.net/

But it looks like the functionality is very similar from the screenshots on the Password Safe site.

Keepass uses AES-Twofish and can be run from a directory without being installed for plausible deniability.

I will install Password Safe and give it a run through.

Suerte,

Tin.

[StrayLight]

I will install Password Safe and give it a run through.The main thing I like about Password Safe is that it was initially developed by Bruce Schneier, who is like the dean of American cryptographers. He wrote "Applied Cryptography" some years ago, which many considered the bible of cryptography for many years.

If you don't know him, you can read his stuff at http://www.schneier.com/

Bottom line is, his endorsement of Password Safe is what gives me the warm and fuzzy I have about it.

Ciao,

SL

[FredCool]

Hi to all,

Truekrypt, passwordsafe, are all very good tools but do not think with BIOS security and this tools you are save with your laptop. If you are using the Laptop for business you have more unsecure data on your disk as you think.

If someone steal the laptop, the first will be, if he can not enter the BIOS, he go to unplug your harddisk conect it on a normal PC and adios with your data, then he have all your data. If you are using not only a Webmail solution like MSN, yahoo, Outlook Web Access, all your email adresses are away. With an apple, you have no chance to save your data, with an Intel (Windows XP) you have options, but the only which gives you 100% security is SaveGuardEasy (I do not work for that company) this systems install the loader in the bootrecord from your Laptop and when you have all disk's encrypted, nobody can steal your data. With an Laptop with Linux on it you need a very good engeneer for install a secure system, a Laptop out of the box and no special configuration can not be save.

I travel a lott and for this reasons I try many Solutions, I use also truecrypt, but only for data I need on USB (disk or stick)

Passwordsafe is nice but not realy comfortable to use, I like to use one password for entering the pc and then I do not want to take care about anything. Some people travel with an USB disk for backup, this is the biggest fail they do, if someone steal this disk, again adios with your data.

The only secure solution (for me) is when all disk's are encrypted and the Data I need to backup when I am traveling is on the datastore in my company, connected with an VPN, all hotels, apartments, have now a good internetconnection so it is not the big deal to work inside an VPN.

How many of you are using Skype? I think many, do you realy shut down Skype each time you shut down the PC? Do you use autologon on Skype MSN, Yahoo? (many unsave data with messengers, phonenumbers, email, conversations all is stored unsave on your disk)

If you are traveling for business only a encrypted system can save all your data and the invest is nothing against stolen data.

Suerte,

FC

[Tinman]

Here's a good website for portable apps that don't install into the system registry, etc.

http://www.portableapps.com

This is nice because you can put programs like address books that contain personal information or web browsers that contain your favorites on a memory stick and take your settings with you.

For instance, this website has made a stripped-down version of Mozilla Thunderbird email / address book program. You can import your Outlook contacts into the program and it will keep the program and your data in a folder structure and not install everywhere in your system. Of course if you put this on a USB flash drive, you would want to encrypt the entire drive in case it falls into the wrong hands.

There is even a portable anti-virus that you can put on your USB drive and take to a friend's house.

Hope this helps,

Tin

[Jackson]

Greetings everyone,

I move the discussion about finding computer cables to it's own thread in this forum.

http://www.argentinaprivate.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4270

Thanks,

Jackson

[LateNightExcur]

I had my laptop, smartphone and tablet stolen while I was down here. None of my data was encrypted aside from the regular login password you would need to get to the main page. I wonder if they stole and kept all my information. I changed my password for my main accounts, but not sure if I should do anything else.

I wish I had an auto-wipe-out function where if my electronics get stolen, I can wipe / erase everything clean, so even if I do lose the device they won't be able to obtain any data from the device itself since it's cleaned.

[Daddy Rulz]

I had my laptop, smartphone and tablet stolen while I was down here. None of my data was encrypted aside from the regular login password you would need to get to the main page. I wonder if they stole and kept all my information. I changed my password for my main accounts, but not sure if I should do anything else.

I wish I had an auto-wipe-out function where if my electronics get stolen, I can wipe / erase everything clean, so even if I do lose the device they won't be able to obtain any data from the device itself since it's cleaned.Not a lot can be done for the laptop regardless of windows / mac. IPhones, and iPads can be wiped remotely.

For the future if it's a windows machine these are the precautions I would take.

Install Laptop Cop; http://www.laptopcopsoftware.com/ Good review at pcmag http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0.2817, 2386197, 00. Asp the only real flaw is they have to actually have your computer turned on and connected to the internet for it to work. If you're using best practice for OS password most times they won't be able to do that. If they are able to bust that level of security though you can remotely start deleting files from anywhere in the world.

Login password; minimum 12 characters, non-repeating, no words, combination of 3 of the following 4; Upper Case, Lower Case, numbers, and special characters. Check your password at http://howsecureismypassword.net/ I start getting comfortable with passwords when the take 100K years or so to break, though for important stuff like banks and work, I'm not really comfortable until 100 million.

If you're a windows guy upgrade to Ultimate and take advantage of Bitlocker. You can also use Bitlocker to encrypt thumb drives.

If you don't want to spring the extra for Ultimate you can always use TrueCrypt http://www.truecrypt.org/ One of the cool things about TrueCrypt is you can encrypt files and then mount them as a drive if you don't want to encrypt the whole drive.

To save passwords I use http://www.iliumsoft.com/ewallet Which is very cheap and easy to use. It stores your passwords behind 256 AES so they are double protected. First a thief has to break your OS password or drive encryption, then they have to break eWallet, which would be behind a different min 12 character non repeating mix of Uppercase, Lowercase, special characters and numbers password than your login. It syncs across devices fairly well. Truecrypt can do this as well it just takes more work.

At the end of the day if they have possession of the box and are determined to get in they will. The idea behind the above precautions is to give you time to mitigate the downsides. With all that being said I wouldn't be super worried. Even breaking the password on your login screen is beyond most of these boludos. What will most likely happen is they will sell it to some shop that will reinstall an OS and resell it.

I know this is a lot of shutting the barn door after the horse got out, wish I could help more for the current sich but this is all I got.

[Dickhead]

I had my laptop, smartphone and tablet stolen while I was down here.By a hooker?

[LateNightExcur]

Not a lot can be done for the laptop regardless of windows / mac. IPhones, and iPads can be wiped remotely.

For the future if it's a windows machine these are the precautions I would take.

Install Laptop Cop;

http://www.laptopcopsoftware.com/

Good review at pcmag.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0

2817, 2386197, 00. Asp the only real flaw is they have to actually have your computer turned on and connected to the internet for it to work. If you're using best practice for OS password most times they won't be able to do that. If they are able to bust that level of security though you can remotely start deleting files from anywhere in the world.

Login password; minimum 12 characters, non-repeating, no words, combination of 3 of the following 4; Upper Case, Lower Case, numbers, and special characters. Check your password at.

http://howsecureismypassword.net/

I start getting comfortable with passwords when the take 100K years or so to break, though for important stuff like banks and work, I'm not really comfortable until 100 million.

If you're a windows guy upgrade to Ultimate and take advantage of Bitlocker. You can also use Bitlocker to encrypt thumb drives.

If you don't want to spring the extra for Ultimate you can always use TrueCrypt.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

One of the cool things about TrueCrypt is you can encrypt files and then mount them as a drive if you don't want to encrypt the whole drive.

To save passwords I use.

http://www.iliumsoft.com/ewallet

Which is very cheap and easy to use. It stores your passwords behind 256 AES so they are double protected. First a thief has to break your OS password or drive encryption, then they have to break eWallet, which would be behind a different min 12 character non repeating mix of Uppercase, Lowercase, special characters and numbers password than your login. It syncs across devices fairly well. Truecrypt can do this as well it just takes more work.

At the end of the day if they have possession of the box and are determined to get in they will. The idea behind the above precautions is to give you time to mitigate the downsides. With all that being said I wouldn't be super worried. Even breaking the password on your login screen is beyond most of these boludos. What will most likely happen is they will sell it to some shop that will reinstall an OS and resell it.

I know this is a lot of shutting the barn door after the horse got out, wish I could help more for the current sich but this is all I got.Thanks a lot, this was very helpful. Will use those precautions for the new laptop.


By a hooker?Yes sir. I have never lost anything in my life, never got anything stolen or taken from me during my waking hours! I constantly have my stuff together. But I drank too much that night and passed out, but lesson learned!

[Esten]

Yes sir. I have never lost anything in my life, never got anything stolen or taken from me during my waking hours! I constantly have my stuff together. But I drank too much that night and passed out, but lesson learned!Sorry to hear about this, but hopefully you now realize the imprudence of your actions and inactions. From where did you meet this special lady?