You know how people are always talking about Ft. Knox being really secure? Well, here is the civilian equivalent!

Iron Mountain Inc is a company specializing in data storage. The best known Iron Mountain storage facility is a high-security cave in a former limestone mine at Boyers, Pennsylvania near the city of Butler in the USA.

It has been in operation since 1950, and it is here that Bill Gates stores his Corbis photographic collection in a refrigerated cave 220 feet underground.
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Windows security is sad. Although most of you have probably already read my article about using strong passwords, even the strongest passwords won’t keep your Windows login account from being penetrated. In fact, it takes only a couple of minutes to gain complete access to a Windows system using nothing more than a free CD ROM.

Now, if there is any good news - people are constantly locking themselves out of their personal laptops and home computers by forgetting the password. And recently I’ve had two different friends do this within a period of a couple of days. So you guys know how this works… when I start getting requests, I document the solution.
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I’ve previously written about how to access your PC from anywhere for free, and my favorite tool for this purpose is LogMeIn.com. The only problem with LogMeIn is, you need to have previously installed, and have running, the LogMeIn application in order to access the machine remotely.

But what if your buddy / relative / coworker calls you out of the blue wanting you to diagnose some computer issue and you know it would be 100 times easier if you could just remote control the computer? Well, no problem! CrossLoop is the fastest, easiest method of accomplishing this.
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Uugh. The Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) has really fulfilled their goal of making life for a billion travelers a year completely miserable. You know what TSA stands for?

• Thousands Standing Around
• Take Scissors Away
• Truly Stupid Activities

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Bruce Barber, from the Real Life Survival Guide, recently interviewed me via phone for a segment on Password Security. That segment will go live today on Connecticut Public Radio, so I’d like to welcome any visitors stopping by as a result.

For the rest of us that don’t happen to live in Connecticut, here is the interview as graciously provided by Bruce.

As further reading on the topic of password security, please see my complete article on How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords. And if you are looking for the password manager I referred to called Roboform I created a short RoboForm Demonstration Video to get you started.

You’ll also find over 30 other related articles in the Security category.

For the regulars around here, you really should stop by Bruce’s site and listen to his other interviews (he’s even got an RSS feed to subscribe to). There are a lot of great tips, and he is a true professional so these are high quality audio clips. Believe me, if it weren’t for the magic of Bruce’s editing prowess mine wouldn’t have been very good!

There is nothing like instilling a little fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) to help sell a product… or a consulting service!

Some young guys in L.A. garnered some serious attention when they told ABC News that they could hack cell phones of the rich and famous. And this short video is the result of that claim.
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Folks, I was at the airport and I popped open my laptop to hop on the net and upon doing so I encountered a seriously sneaky bastard. Do you see anything wrong with the image below?

Well, hopefully you notice the little icon of a laptop beside the network entitled “Free Public WiFi”. This is NOT a free wireless access point, but instead a laptop computer that someone has configured to capture your personal data and rob you blind.
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Folks, as you know by now whenever I come across security threats I like to share them. And this one is actually pretty pressing.

With a specially modified blank key and a small hammer - or even stick, 90% of home locks can be picked in a matter of seconds. The technique is called Lock Bumping, and the instructions are now all over the Internet.

Take a look at this news report, and then please take appropriate action to ensure that you are not vulnerable.
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Here are this week’s links… otherwise known as things that I would have blogged about, if I had time to do so…

• Beleaguered bear in bridge rescue (in Pictures)
• UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time
• Burmese monks ‘to be sent away’
• 20 Most Amazing Coincidences
• 10 Reasons To Eat More Chocolate

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I wouldn’t actually do this, but for some reason I’m just fascinated with these unbelievably simple methods of circumventing the system.

Just like the How to Pick a Padlock, this method of using a coin operated washing machine for free is so simple it makes you wonder how they would ever collect any money in these machines!
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I keep wondering two things, why does the RIAA continue to persecute people, and more importantly why do people do stupid enough things to keep getting prosecuted?

That organization exists for the sole purpose of suing the pants off of people, but they can only do so when people leave plenty of evidence about their activity - namely hosting content on their computers and allowing others to download it. Most of the time it seems these foolish people aren’t even aware that what they are doing by running Kazaa, eMule, Gnutella, or some other file sharing application puts them at risk.

But why in the world would anyone share their music, movie or software collections via open, anonymous connections? Especially when there are other virtually risk-free alternatives? (By the way, know your rights if RIAA comes calling.)
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A Canadian named Troy Hurtubise, invented a superhuman body suit specifically designed to be worn by troops and police officers which he claims is capable of stopping a range of weapons fire, blades and even shrapnel from IEDs.

This isn’t Troy’s first dance either. He previously invented a suit which was intended to be able to survive a bear attack, and even made a video of it.
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