security | spiralofhope

So I stopped using Google..

2013-06-14

Google, intelligence, internet, security, websites

Google’s informal motto is/was don’t be evil. They claimed to be pretty good guys.

However, Google has (as I figured) very obviously become Evil. Tracking.. hell, building activity webs. Why do you think they have all kinds of web developer services like captcha. They get to see who uses them.

So since they’re evil, I’ll stop using Google Search.

Instead, I’ll use DuckDuckGo. They claim to be pretty good guys.

Hey wait.

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Hacker harm reduction

2013-01-21

hackers, intelligence, quirks, security, todo

Hackers >

This is a rather interesting concept, first brought to my attention by:

Hackers As A High-Risk Population [29c3]
CCCen – Chaos Computer Conference, 2012
https://youtu.be/zq-bloM4Cmo

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Overwriting a file isn’t always trustworthy

2011-10-01

computers, HOWTO, security, storage

Computers > Digital forensics > Data sterilization >

If in doubt, don’t try to sterilize a file by overwriting it.

Overwriting a file isn’t always trustworthy. Caching and other mechanisms (e.g. S.M.A.R.T.) may silently write the file to any other location. There is no guarantee that a file you write will actually be written overtop of the old one.

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Steady State

2011-02-07

archivism, freeware, proprietary software, reviews, security, software, utilities, Windows, Windows software

This is the notion of “freezing” Windows in time, such that it can work as-expected but be “rolled back” to a previous state.

Software (Security) >

https://web.archive.org/*/social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/home?forum=windowssteadystate

I’m also lumping similar projects into this page, for reference.

Clean Slate

2010-10-31

archivism, dead, glances, GUI software, payware, projects, proprietary software, security, software, utilities, Windows software, Windows XP software

Software (Security) > Steady State >

https://www.fortresgrand.com/products/cls/cls.htm

A steady state-type program. Discards unwanted user changes at log off or reboot and has easy application-blocking.

I was exploring security on Windows XP and wanted a state-freezing system, so I can make dangerous changes and easily roll back. I purchased Clean Slate, played with it, was unimpressed and abandoned it. I don’t know what’s changed since those days, but this is a very complex and powerful program and I bet I could have put it to better use.

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