Here’s a question I received from a reader:
Can you recommend a good hard drive sweeper? I need to clean up my PC at work… been surfing the net a little too much.
Well yes. Yes I can…
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Protect Your Privacy, Delete Internet Usage Tracks
February 2, 2007 By 51 Comments
Most Popular Banking Encryption Method Cracked
January 30, 2007 By 1 Comment
According to the Epoch Times, in five years, the U.S. government will cease to use SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm) and convert to a new and more advanced “hash” algorithm, according to the article “Security Cracked!” from New Scientist.
The reason for this change is that associate professor Wang Xiaoyun of Beijing’s Tsinghua University and Shandong University of Technology, and her associates, have already cracked SHA-1. This marks the fifth straight encryption method that Xiaoyun’s team has broken (SHA-1, MD5, HAVAL-128, MD4, and RIPEMD).
What does this mean for the rest of us?
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10 Years in Jail for Chinese Blogger
January 21, 2007 By 2 Comments
Imagine a knock on the door after you have been on the Internet, blogging, and the next moment you are under arrest. Amnesty International launched a campaign in defence of Internet bloggers in many countries – including China, Tunisia and Iran who have been arrested for expressing views which have upset their governments.
But how have they been tracked down? It turns out that they have been turned in by major Internet providers such as Yahoo and Microsoft, who have supplied foreign governments with the information they need to pursue them.
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Citibank’s Random Credit Card Number Generator
January 6, 2007 By 18 Comments
I don’t know why Citi doesn’t make a bigger deal about publicizing this feature of their credit cards, but they actually have an excellent security option which helps protect customers making online purchases. They mention it only in one paragraph here.
If you have a Citibank credit card, you can use the Virtual Account Number feature to generate temporary “alias” numbers to give out in place of your actual number. Why would you want to do that? Well, there are lots of reasons… read on and I’ll give you a few.
  
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Computing System Security Tutorial
January 3, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Peter Gutman, from the Univeristy of Auckland, put together the most comprehensive Introduction to Security overview I’ve seen on the Internet.
I think it’s a fantastic starter for those who know nothing about security, and contains plenty of refresher or new information for security professionals. All in all the entire tutorial would be 400 pages if you print it out.
BMW’s Laser Cut Key System Defeated… Easily
January 3, 2007 By 3 Comments
People who thought their BMW’s sophisticated laser cut key system would keep their cars… well theirs… need to think again.
These brainiac German guys demonstrate quite clearly how to break into any modern BMW in a matter of seconds with a tool kit that costs about $1,200.
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Phone Interview with CraigsNumber Founders
December 29, 2006 By 5 Comments
I spoke with two of the founders of craigsnumber via phone as a follow up to my previous review of the service. Here are the notes from our phone call. The gentlemen I spoke to preferred to remain anonymous so I will refer to them as CN.
CN: From a legal standpoint we are currently in a “quite period” so we’ll share what we can, but it may be limited out of necessity.
My 51 Favorite Freeware Apps for Windows
December 29, 2006 By 26 Comments
People routinely ask about my favorite software so, I’ve decided to gather all my top picks in one place to make every one’s life a little easier.
All of the software listed here is free for personal use, meaning:
- Any of this software can be installed and used at absolutely no charge, forever. There is no nagging, spyware, or anything else nasty.
- Because it’s totally free, sometimes there is very little support. You either figure out how to use it, or just get rid of it.
So, without further ado, here is the list categorized by type of application:
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