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Waffles
Hazard to Others
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more frightening privacy stuff
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html
FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
12/01/06
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's
microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.
The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized
crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.
Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby
conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.
The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was
legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone.
Kaplan's opinion said that the eavesdropping technique "functioned whether the phone was powered on or off." Some handsets can't be fully powered down
without removing the battery; for instance, some Nokia models will wake up when turned off if an alarm is set.
While the Genovese crime family prosecution appears to be the first time a remote-eavesdropping mechanism has been used in a criminal case, the
technique has been discussed in security circles for years.
The U.S. Commerce Department's security office warns that "a cellular telephone can be turned into a microphone and transmitter for the purpose of
listening to conversations in the vicinity of the phone." An article in the Financial Times last year said mobile providers can "remotely install a
piece of software on to any handset, without the owner's knowledge, which will activate the microphone even when its owner is not making a call."
Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James
Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room
audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone."
Because modern handsets are miniature computers, downloaded software could modify the usual interface that always displays when a call is in progress.
The spyware could then place a call to the FBI and activate the microphone--all without the owner knowing it happened. (The FBI declined to comment on
Friday.)
"If a phone has in fact been modified to act as a bug, the only way to counteract that is to either have a bugsweeper follow you around 24-7, which is
not practical, or to peel the battery off the phone," Atkinson said. Security-conscious corporate executives routinely remove the batteries from their
cell phones, he added.
Check the link for the rest of the article. SCARY.
\"…\'tis man\'s perdition to be safe, when for the truth he ought to die.\"
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solo
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Mood: ....getting old and drowning in a sea of knowledge
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It's time to go back to the pager for incoming messages and take the battery out of phone until needed or rig up a kill switch just like those put on
cars but in a smaller scale to turn off all power off until manually turned on...............solo
It's better to die on your feet, than live on your knees....Emiliano Zapata.
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The_Davster
A pnictogen
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Or wrap it in tinfoil. That should work too.
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BromicAcid
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Just conduct all of the major business in a Faraday cage.
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enhzflep
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And on a similar note, albeit a rather old but effective trick.
If any of you ever have the police conduct a raid/search on your premises, watch the sneaky fuckers with the phone. A long standing technique is to
remove the reciever from the hook at the outset. Everything is then recorded.
This makes particular use of the fact that people often say more when they don't believe they're being recorded, relying on the simple principle that
"It's my word against theirs, they can't prove it and I won't admit it"
Combined with the initial shock of seeing the boys in blue at the front door, followed by them going through all your treasures.
In short,
a) say nothing incriminating
b) check the phone
c) say nothing incriminating.
d) you can always use the trick agasinst them 
Gee it's nice when you know people that used to be cops 
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chromium
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I suppose that for mobile phones there is way to know if it is used to spy for you. My idea is based on the fact that mobile phone can not send
anything without making strong high-frequency electromagnetic fileds.
Leave your phone near FM receiver and if it tries to send something you immediately hear specific noises from your receiver. Normally, if nobody is
calling you, mobile phones connect itself to network once per hour or two and noise lasts only secund or two. If noises last much longer (or are more
frequen) then you know that something weird is happening.
It should be rather easy to make electronic indicator that can be sticked to mobile phone and it will make sound or flash leds if phone sends anything
out.
Edit: This might not work very well if phone is programmed to send your speech with very low power to special receiver thats placed near your flat...
[Edited on 4-12-2006 by chromium]
When all think alike, then no one is thinking. - Walter Lippmann
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neutrino
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This may be of some use:
How to Tell if Your Cell Phone is Bugged
edit: typo
[Edited on 4-12-2006 by neutrino]
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franklyn
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_ P R O O F ! _ of conspiracy
I LOVE IT ! .
Back in the heday of seruptitious bugging, before everyone got in on the act,
a small appliance that attached to a phone called an "infinity transmitter" or
"harmonica bug" allowed one to dial that phone and with the appropriate tone
disconnect the ringer " hookswtich bypass" so that one could eavesdrop on nearby conversation.
But wait that's not all _
_ P R O O F ! _ of conspiracy
.
So you think your pc is yours alone, well then try this.
In Windows XP open notepad and write this :
" bush hid the facts " ( without the quotes )
then name it and save it.
Now open it and you see that small squares have
replaced all of the text.
Need more proof , see the links in this text file below.
I cannot post these links normally because they will not parse correctly sooo ,
just copy and paste the url 's into the address bar of your browser.
A related post is here _
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=671#pi...
[Edited on 4-12-2006 by franklyn]
Attachment: Links.txt (289B)
This file has been downloaded 1521 times
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Twospoons
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You want a real scare? Go to your Temporary Internet Files directory. Add " \Content.IE5\" (no quotes) to the end of the address bar. See all those
funny folder names? They contain records of your web surfing! Notice how you cannot delete them? See the file called index.dat? Thats got every
URL you've ever visited.
You can get rid of all this stuff, though. There are some pricey bit of software out there that do this, but the one I like is cheap - called
"PurgeIE". Seek and ye shall find ...
I only found out by accident when my virus scanner picked up a virus in one of these secret folders - and I couldn't see the folder in IE (show hidden
files / folders was turned ON!).
Are you all aware that Outlook never actually deletes an email?
[Edited on 4-12-2006 by Twospoons]
Helicopter: "helico" -> spiral, "pter" -> with wings
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enhzflep
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Frankyln:
"So you think your pc is yours alone, well then try this.
In Windows XP open notepad and write this :
" bush hid the facts " ( without the quotes )"
"Pfft. Yeah Right", says enhzflep. Who nearly falls over when he tries it and it works as reported. WTF ?!?
Thanks for that one TwoSpoons. I've never once used IE to surf the web on this current installation of windows. Have only used firefox, yet when I
went into the dir and tried to arj the file for quick and easy viewing, I was told that I couldn't since it was already open and in use by another
program..... Fkn Hell!
Ha, and microsoft wants us to pay for this shit.....
I mentioned it in another thread somewhere, but you'd be amazed if you saw all the extra data that Word stores in a word doc. I personally refuse to
use the format, but that's another story.
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12AX7
Post Harlot
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The markup in a word file must be horrendous. I've edited the refuse HTML produced by Frontpage. My work speaks for itself: I reduced a data table
totalling 112kB or so to 7kB. Each table entry had complete STYLE data inside it, what the fuck!
As for "bush hid the facts", type it out, actually type it out. Doesn't do squat. I can't tell what formatting Franklyn added, but apparently it
applies in Notepad when posted, but is not saved. At least, that seems to work for me.
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/bush-hid-the-facts-notepad.html seems to have some more information.
Edit: now it won't do it for me at all, whether typed or copied from anywhere. Curiouser and curiouser.
Tim
[Edited on 12-5-2006 by 12AX7]
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Organikum
resurrected
Posts: 2339
Registered: 12-10-2002
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"bush hid the facts" is an old paranoia hoax - thats a simple MS programming bug.
Whoever uses IE and Outlook gets rightfully fucked, no problem with me here.
But the world needs cellphones with open source firmware for a long time.
Already years ago I was shocked when I found out that the feature on my old Bosch phone which provided the possibility to detect if the connection is
actually encrypted (and such would have detected any IMSI catcher), that this firmware feature can be simply turned off by the service provider. And
they did after IMSI catchers got introduced to LE.
Further investigation showed that a cellphone is not owned by oneself as one might think. Actually about all functions can be used remotely without
notice. It´s scandalous but nobody seems to care.
I dont think this is going to change anytime. My hopes are on VOIP/WiFi taking hold soon and phones with open firmware and software including PGP
encryption showing up.
good luck
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franklyn
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Far more than you ever wanted to know
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=7144#p...
| Quote: | Originally posted by Twospoons
You want a real scare? Go to your Temporary Internet Files directory.
Add " \Content.IE5\" (no quotes) to the end of the address bar.
See all those funny folder names? They contain records of your web surfing!
Notice how you cannot delete them? See the file called index.dat?
Thats got every URL you've ever visited.You can get rid of all this stuff, though.
There are some pricey bit of software out there that do this,
but the one I like is cheap - called "PurgeIE". Seek and ye shall find ...
I only found out by accident when my virus scanner picked up a virus in one of
these secret folders - and I couldn't see the folder in IE
(show hidden files / folders was turned ON!).
Are you all aware that Outlook never actually deletes an email?
[Edited on 4-12-2006 by Twospoons] |
You are not alone others feel your ire and have found a way
Read my post below these links first.
___________________________________________________
http://www.microsuck.com/content/ms-hidden-files.shtml
the same also here it takes time to download _
http://www.devhood.com/tutorials/tutorial_details.aspx?tutor...
Scroll down to post #4 by Anonymouse
About DW15.EXE & DW20.EXE
http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=191508
Of course these
can be deleted, the reason it is difficult is because although Internet Explorer
and Windows Explorer have a different focus they are the same application. You
cannot easily delete a file that is in use by a running program. Don't believe it ?
Do this, open Windows Explorer by clicking the recycle bin icon which is usually
handy on the desktop and click the next level up arrow of the toolbar. This puts
you on the desktop duh. Well anyway, hit ALT[/color] and D[/color] , and type into the
address
bar something like www.google.com or www.sciencemadness.org
or whatever you like , and hit enter.
Suprise ! Internet Explorer opens up to that page.
Allright now do this, hit ALT[/color] and D , and type into the address bar of this
new
window of Internet Explorer , C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator , and
again hit enter , behold you are now taken to that folder , neat huh.
This shows you the reason there are so many holes in the supposed security of
the Windows OS. It's also the reason an alternative browser means little to your
peace of mind. How's that ?
Your browser stores the content you visited in the cache right !
The cache is stored by and available through Windows Explorer right !
Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are the same thing right !
I rest my case.
Index.dat files hidden on your computer contain all of the Web sites that
you have ever visited. Every URL, and every Web page is listed there. Not only
that but all of the email that has been sent or received through Outlook or
Outlook Express is also being logged
To obtain permission to access this and other locked directories and view the
contents or just delete what is in there , do this :
Open an Explorer window and click " Tools " at the top and select " Folder Options
"
click the " View " tab and scroll down to " Hidden files and folders ",
uncheck " Do not show hidden files and folders ", just below also uncheck
" Hide extensions for known file types " and also
" Hide protected operating system files ( Recommended ) ",
also at the bottom, uncheck the box that says " Use simple file sharing "
click apply and OK.
Now, in your root disk (usually C:\) the hidden directories will show up. But you
will indeed find out that you cannot access them.
Here is what you do next in Windows XP Pro :
Right-click the folder, and click on " Sharing and security " go to the Security tab.
There you will see that the only user allowed to access that folder is "SYSTEM ".
Let's assume your username is " psYchotic ". <- actual author of this tip from here
http://www.geeknewz.com/board/lofiversion/index.php/t2949.ht...
Click the "Add" button, then type "psYchotic" ( without quotes ).
Click the Check Names button. That should change the username to
"OTACON\psYchotic" where otacon is the name of your computer and psYchotic
your username. Check the "Full access" box, then click OK.
Now you have full access to hidden system folders and directories, for
security reasons, on shared computers It's advisable to undo everything you
did and remove your username from the access list.
More details this site here _
http://www.theeldergeek.com/system_volume_information_folder...
In Windows XP Home Edition, you'll have to use cacls.exe, a command
line utility for modifying access control , and permissions , if you do not
have it in your system32 folder , place it there , it is available here _
http://www.computerperformance.co.uk/ScriptsGuy/cacls.zip
How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder
Hit the Windows Key and R , type in " cmd.exe " without quotes and press enter
At the command prompt type the following with the quotes :
cacls.exe "C:\System Volume Information" /E /G username:F
The above command assumes that the current Windows installation is in C:\ If not,
change the drive-letter/Path accordingly.
Substitute for " username " your own account name, this is added to the ACL and
grants you Full Control.
After cleaning it out, the following command removes your username from the
access control list:
cacls.exe "C:\System Volume Information" /E /R username
In this case you D O use the quotes ( this allows DOS to recognize the spaces in
the folder name ) and " username " is your windows account without quotes.
or use this utility here that also will modify Permissions _
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
Another way shown here _ http://www.nearlyclever.com/?p=4
To gain access to hidden areas of Windows XP and Windows 2000 - Part 1
Do you know that there are areas of Windows that the Adminstrator account
can’t access? Have you ever tried to see what is in the
“ C:\System Volume Information ” folder? Would you like to know?
Viruses are starting to hide inside areas of the files system that users can’t even
get into, such as the “ System Volume Information ” folders.
Here is a simple way to access these areas.
First, as an administrator, you have the rights to request that the system execute
commands on your behalf. One such request is of the scheduler service, which
runs under the SYSTEM account. By scheduling a interactive command session,
you run programs under the SYSTEM account.
1. Open a Command Prompt ( Windows Key and R , type in cmd.exe press enter )
2. Type the following: " at time /interactive C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe "
. (without quotes ) replace the word time with the time you want the
. command to execute. ( I usually just add one minute to the current time.)
3. After running the above command, a second cmd.exe window will appear.
. However, it will be running under local system authority. Notice the title bar
. " C:\WINDOWS\System32\svchost.exe " differs from the previous cmd.exe window.
* Note - If this new command prompt does not appear , go to Control Panel ,
System Tools , Scheduled Tasks , there you will see " At1 ", right click
this icon and select " Run " first on the pop up menu. Now you have it.
Continued here _ http://www.nearlyclever.com/?p=17
To gain access to hidden areas of Windows XP and Windows 2000 - Part 2
In part 1 of this Howto, I explained how to get windows to open a cmd.exe window
running under the SYSTEM account. This is the highest set of rights on a Windows
system, the system itself. Due to the dangerous nature of this state, please be
careful. Windows has many safety checks in place to protect even the vaunted
Administrator account. There are no safety nets with the SYSTEM account.
Ok. Let’s get started. Most of us like using a graphical shell, so let’s run explorer.
Type in explorer.exe at the cmd.exe window running under the SYSTEM account.
Hmm…. What happened? Well if your screen looks like mine, nothing happened.
Explorer has a built in check to make sure that only one instance runs at a time,
even under the rights of another user. How do we get around this?
Thank goodness for Internet Explorer! ( I can’t believe I said that )
Internet explorer can browse your file system with ease. ( remember it's the same )
Type this “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe” at the command prompt
WITH THE QUOTES.
In the address bar, type in C:\ Now we are browsing as the SYSTEM account.
* Note - Actually there is a way to have multiple instances of explorer running
Click " Tools " at the top and " Folder options " then " View ", scroll
down and check " Launch folder windows in a separate process "
This next tip is from here _
http://windows.ittoolbox.com/groups/technical-functional/win...
Explorer has a folder called " System Volume Information ", where the restore
points of the System Restore function are kept. A 40 gig hard disk, inexplicably
nearly full, after checking all the directories there is nothing evident to
explain the loss of free space. The only possibility is the System Volume
Information directory, which is locked by NTFS permissions. Disabling System
Restore and rebooting did NOT return the free space and nor did using the
System Restore cleanup function of Disk Cleanup. After enabling access to
inspect these folders sure enough, there was nearly 30 gigabytes worth of
disconnected system restore crap in there. Deleted all to recover the space,
then enabled system restore again and created a new restore point.
( I recommend shutting off XP's system restore and using ERUNT instead,
described further on below here, but read on )
A warning to everyone using Windows XP with the NTFS filesystem who can't
account for their disk usage, that it's probably the " System Volume Information "'
directory. Temporarily disable System Restore, and clean out that directory. It
appears that just like Internet Explorer's Temporary Internet Files. When files
get disconnected from the tracking mechanism, they pile up and are never
removed.
When Window's user settings cannot be repaired it is because of faulty or
malicious entries in the registry. If, unknown to you, you've had some maloderous
excreta deposited by a " drive by installation " and now need to reposess control of
your system. You can do so by having first created an initial ERUNT backup when
your PC is running just the way you want. Go here for a tutorial on how to use
the " ERUNT " " Emergency Registry Utlity NT " to save backup copies for replacing
the entire registry. This is much more elegant than the bloated Windows System
Restore, which you can then deactivate. ERUNT with instructions for use is here _
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm
http://www.softcows.com/windows_washer_delete_indexdat.htm
How else can you manually delete Index.dat file ?
The index.dat files are used by Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer. Since you
cannot delete a file that is in use by a running program, if you feel you need to
delete these folders, you will have to shutdown all instances of Explorer and IE. This
includes applications that may host the Webbrowser control: Outlook, Messenger,
IE, Product Studio, Visual Studio, Help, Windows Media Player, etc. Your best bet
is just close everything. When you are left with a desktop and a start menu, you
will still need to shutdown Explorer.
1. Close all open programs.
2. Open a Command Prompt ( Windows Key and R , type in cmd.exe press enter )
. and leave it open.
3. Press , CTRL SHIFT ESC together or just right click the taskbar and select
Task Manager
4. To shutdown Explorer go to the Processes tab of Task Manager and right click
. Explorer.exe and select End Process
5. Next click " File " at upper left in Task Manager's tool bar and select " New Task
Run "
. type EXPLORER.EXE and leave the Create New Task box and Task Manager open.
6. Go back to the Command Prompt window and change to the directory the
. undeletable file is located in by typing CD and the path
. "C:\Documents and Settings\name of folder" ( or the offending undeletable file )
. with the quotes , then hit enter.
7. At the command prompt now type DEL filename ( filename with extension )
. at this point you should be able to delete the index.dat file.
8. Go back to Task Manager, and press OK in the Create New Task box to restart
. the Windows Explorer GUI shell
9. Close Task Manager.
This Freeware utility will delete all internet related files including index.dat
http://support.it-mate.co.uk/?mode=Products&p=index.dats...
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/indexdatsuite.html
For other stubborn files that don't know their place try this Unlocker utility
http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker
Windows Clean Disk utility will only clean out the cache not the index.dat
1. Reboot and to start up in Safe Mode, press F8 while booting and choose " Safe Mode "
. Press the Windows and R keys and type " cleanmgr /sageset:50 " without quotes.
. Leave a space between " cleanmgr " and " /sageset:50 " , and click OK. In the
. resulting screen, choose your options by checking the boxes.
2. To automate this process without rebooting into safe mode, type this instead
. cleanmgr /d C: /sageset:50
. NOTE: /d parameter is used to specify the drive-letter. The above command
. assumes that the current Windows installation is in C:\. If not, change the
. drive-letter/Path accordingly.
3. Select Temporary Internet Files and any other options by checking the boxes.
. Click OK to save the changes.
. Now, the cleanup configuration is stored in the registry. You can invoke the
. cleanup of Temporary Internet Files by calling this saved configuration. To do
. so, whenever you wish to clear the Temporary Internet Files cache, you just
. hit Windows key and R and type the original command cleanmgr/sagerun:50
. into " Run "
NOTE: When using /sagerun, you don't need to specify the drive-letter, as the
drive-letter configuration is already stored in the registry by step 2 - using the
/d parameter )
Of course the best and easiest thing is to have this ability as a built in
feature of your browser , Avant Browser is a shell that runs with IExplorer
and provides extensive and delightful additions and enhancements.
http://www.avantbrowser.com
Other Utilities to empty the trash _
I Use all of them often . these do no harm
CrapCleaner
http://www.ccleaner.com
DustBuster
http://www.casperize.com/2004/04/08/dustbuster-english-versi...
EasyCleaner
http://personal.inet.fi/business/toniarts/ecleane.htm
EmptyTemp
http://www.danish-shareware.dk/soft/emptemp
MRUBlaster
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/mrublaster.html
Install and run, click " settings " and " Go to Plugins "
enable " IE Temporary Internet File Cleaner " this
completely automates erasing the index.dat file
[color=darkred]BE AWARE THAT WHATEVER METHOD DESCRIBED ABOVE YOU USE ,
DELETING FILES ONLY MAKES THE DISK SPACE THEY OCCUPY AVAILABLE FOR
OVERWRITING. TO REMOVE THE FILES IT IS STILL NECESSARY TO ERASE THEM
WITH ANOTHER UTILITY.
Entering the " cipher " command at a DOS prompt in XP and Win2K will securely erase
already deleted files inside a directory. Type cipher /? for a list of options.
Hit the Windows Key and R , type in " cmd.exe " without quotes and press enter
At the command prompt type the following :
cipher /W:C:\"Documents and Settings\Username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5"
this will clean the Content.IE5 directory.
In this case you D O use the quotes ( this allows DOS to recognize the spaces in
the folder name ) and \Username\ is your windows account name.
Other file overwriting utilities
Shredder
http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/system/shred.htm
Simple file shredder
http://www.scar5.com
Ultra Shredder
http://www.xtort.net/xtort/ultra.php
BCWipe
http://www.jetico.com/index.htm#/bcwipe3.htm
Earaser
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser
Necrofile
http://www.nthsystem.com/nfinfo.html
[color=darkred]IT IS BEST THAT THESE OPERATIONS BE DONE ON A DISK THAT HAS BEEN DEFRAGMENTED
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
BETTER STILL INSTALL 1/2 GIGABYTE OR MORE OF RAM AND ELIMINATE THE PAGE FILE
ALLTOGETHER. THEN INSTALL A " RAMDRIVE " DRIVER. THIS CREATES A VIRTUAL DRIVE
IN RAM. http://www.surasoft.com/articles/ramdisk.php
SO WHAT?
YOU CAN THEN ASSIGN TEMPORARY INTERNET FILES, COOKIES, HISTORY, AND TEMP
FOLDERS TO IT. EVERYTHING DISAPPEARS WHEN YOU REBOOT !
GET IT HERE -> www.ramdisk.tk
This " Extended edition " is the one you should get _
http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/RAMDisk/ramdiskpro.ht...
An unbelievable value !
After it is installed and configured _
Click Start > Control Panel > Internet Options > General Tab > Settings > Move Folder
( MAKE IT B:\ )
Click Start > Run > ( type ) Regedit, Go to these two keys here _
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
( Click Shell Folders and User Shell Folders itself , not the [+] )
Locate " Cache ", " Cookies " and " History ", Right Click each , select " Modify
" and
change the drive letter to B:\ LEAVE EVERYTHING ELSE THE SAME
Last , Click Start > Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Enviornment Variables ( below )
In those two boxes upper and lower , Edit the four instances of " TEMP " and " TMP "
enter for all the value B:\Temp
Just one more thing , the Temp Folder has to be created each time you boot up.
This can be done automatically at bootup by keeping this batch file in the
C:\WINDOWS\System32 , folder. In Notepad write this
@ECHO OFF
MD B:\Temp
TEMP = B:\Temp
TMP = B:\Temp
MD B:\PRINTER_SPOOLER
Save it , name it CREATETMP and change the extension from *.txt , to *.bat .
Put it in the C:\WINDOWS\System32 Folder.
You now need to list the batch file in the Registry to invoke it at startup
Hit Windows key and R , type in Regedit and enter. Go to this Registry Key _
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
Right click it and select New and from the drop down list click " String Value "
A new entry highlighted in the right Window pane appears called New Value
click this and type in it's name CREATETMP.
Now right click it , select Modify and a text box appears. Type in
C:\WINDOWS\System32\CREATETMP.bat
and click O K, close all the trees and the Registry editor.
YOU'RE DONE !
If you want your printer's job folder , called the Printer Spooler to be in the
Ram disk also , then do this
1. Click Start, Control Panel then DOUBLE CLICK " Printers and Faxes "
2. In the " File " menu of the Tool bar at top , click Server Properties.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. In the Spool Folder text box, type the complete path to the new folder
. B:\PRINTER_SPOOLER
5. Click Apply , Click Yes , Click OK , and then close the Printers and Faxes folder.
IF YOU DON'T WANT THE PRINT SPOOLER TO WORK OFF THE RAMDISK , THEN
REMOVE THIS LAST ENTRY -> MD B:\PRINTER_SPOOLER , FROM THE BATCH FILE.
A MINOR BUT ANNOYING BUG IS THAT THE RECYCLE BIN ALWAYS ASSIGNS AND
SETS ASIDE A DEFAULT VALUE OF 10% IN THE RAMDISK. JUST REMEMBER TO
RIGHT CLICK " PROPERTIES " ON THE RECYCLE BIN AND SET B:\TO ZERO
AND " DELETE FILES IMMEDIATELY " WHEN YOU FIRST BOOT-UP THE SYSTEM.
______________________________________________________________
I am anguished by the disservice of computer tech articles to it's readers by
the continued pimping of outmoded and by now effectively obsolete methods
of protecting an Internet connected PC from virus and spyware infection.
To deal with such incursions piecemeal is futile and unavailing, even if you do
back up your registry. The only way to keep from spending interminable time
cleaning everything out is to write protect your drives - period.
There exits ample hardware and software solutions for this.
Good overview of both hardware and software solutions
www.cyic.com/howit.htm
PCI Bus cards variously referred by their manufacturers
as 'restore cards', 'recovery cards', 'reborn cards', 'HDsafe card'
. [color=darkred]* Warning - I know of none that will work with Raid and only
some support extended partitions.
MY PICK at $20
www.winter-con.com/productlist.html#recovery , Distributed by:
www.elstonsystems.com/prod/hard_drive_recovery_card.html
-- some of these are OEM others are resellers.
www.lenten.com/PD_PCI_XP.asp
www.eksitdata.com/guard
www.bluegeckogroup.co.uk/w.dogii.htm
www.hdsafecard.com/Products02.html
www.hddguarder.com/new
Alternatively Microsoft Windows XP Embedded developer's distribution contains
a feature called E W F Enhanced Write Filter overlay that writes everything
to a ' scratch file ' that is simply deleted upon reboot.
Motherboard manufacturers , AOPEN for one , already provides free the
ProMagic v.6.0 utility for supported motherboards that possess the necessary
EZ restore bios chip.
www.aopen.nl/tech/techinside/EzRestore.htm
There is third party software applications that will do this also.
MY PICK at $ 30 ~ $ 5 0 . . . ( this is what I have used , and is superb )
This is able to protect any or all partitions on all your Hard Drives
www.shadowstor.com/products/ShadowSurfer
www.shadowstor.com/products/ShadowUser
ANOTHER at $ 50
www.horizondatasys.com/product_page.html?page_id=1
( Drive Vaccine )
One final product that is related to these above is WriteProt
This utiliy will effectively write protect any IDE hard disk.
This is only useful for archived data and file storage hard disks since
if you write protect the disk with your operating system, nothing will work.
http://www.joeware.net/win/free/tools/writeprot.htm
[Edited on 25-6-2007 by franklyn]
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Sandmeyer
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New printers put some invisible "fingerprint" on the documents one prints, making them tracable. It's good idea to take copies at a large town library
istead of sharing direct printer prints-outs...
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Quantum
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I believe it would not be too difficult to wire a small switch into the battery area so you can turn the phone off for real without going to the
trouble of removing the battery - this would look odd in public.
I don't know why anyone is still using windows if they care about security. I use OpenBSD(openbsd.org) for all my computer needs and I run linux on a
PDA device. If you really need windows you could run it using VMware or on a machine that is not connected to the network or internet.
Some of you may be interested in this site. It's a blog and other things by the guy that made Blowfish about security issues.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/
What if, what is isn\'t true?
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tonyxxy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Twospoons
You want a real scare? Go to your Temporary Internet Files directory. Add " \Content.IE5\" (no quotes) to the end of the address bar. See all those
funny folder names? They contain records of your web surfing! Notice how you cannot delete them? See the file called index.dat? Thats got every
URL you've ever visited.
You can get rid of all this stuff, though. There are some pricey bit of software out there that do this, but the one I like is cheap - called
"PurgeIE". Seek and ye shall find ...
I only found out by accident when my virus scanner picked up a virus in one of these secret folders - and I couldn't see the folder in IE (show hidden
files / folders was turned ON!).
Are you all aware that Outlook never actually deletes an email?
[Edited on 4-12-2006 by Twospoons] |
Even though you think your information has been deleted, this simply isn't true. A hard drive almost never writes information on the same magnetic
space on a sector (a sector being the smallest physical storage unit on the disk). Therefore it is recommended to shred your files and overwrite (9x
recommended) the same sector with random data. This will keep forensic software away. When they really want to know what's on the drive, they will
send it to specialized recovery centers. There they will physically inspect the drive with specialized equipment. In order to really delete your data,
27x overwrites are recommended.
For web site surfing habits not only your computer contains relevant information but in some countries ISP's are forced to store every single bit of
data that travels trough your ISP to your computer during a certain period wich can be months literally. Of course you can surf trough the encrypted
https protocol and they cannot know what information is transmitted, but they have a pretty good idea of every keyword you type in google, wich
websites have been accessed and how long etc. Of course there are ways to surf the web securely and I don't mean proxies because, well those aren't
very secure imho.
For surfing wardriving is a possibility but even that isnt really secure because there are a lot of things to think of. I won't go in to detail here.
To be relatively secure one could start to open a ISP account in a country that doesnt require the ISP's to store the information that travels trought
their networks and run a physical vpn server from there. To be secure locally one simply opens a vpn connection to the server and the only thing your
local ISP could see is that you make a vpn connection to a server.
The future will only be more scary when in comes to privacy.
As for personal computer security the only way to be secure is to encrypt your whole harddrive. In order to boot you have to provide a password, this
being the only way to decrypt the information and start the system. This is considered a secure method, but never garanties the same security for the
future because encryption algorithms have been cracked in the past.
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chromium
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| Quote: | Originally posted by tonyxxy
As for personal computer security the only way to be secure is to encrypt your whole harddrive. In order to boot you have to provide a password, this
being the only way to decrypt the information and start the system. This is considered a secure method, but never garanties the same security for the
future because encryption algorithms have been cracked in the past. |
...and all your security will depend on single (pass)word. If you write it donw somewhere or if you use some letter combination that could be quessed
trying spellings and misspellings say 10 000 words you have used in public letters then successfull brute force attack might take even with slow
computers only some hours or days.
[Edited on 11-12-2006 by chromium]
When all think alike, then no one is thinking. - Walter Lippmann
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tonyxxy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by chromium
...and all your security will depend on single (pass)word. If you write it donw somewhere or if you use some letter combination that could be quessed
trying spellings and misspellings say 10 000 words you have used in public letters then successfull brute force attack might take even with slow
computers only some hours or days.
[Edited on 11-12-2006 by chromium] |
I agree, a single password that can be guessed by a simple dictionary/bruteforce attack isn't secure at all. However, some software allows to enter a
combination of four different passwords (all ASCII characters, minimum length 8) in order to decrypt the data. You can even run an OS within another
OS. This way when you're forced to reveal a password the attacker doesn't know your sensitive information.
I assume if you encrypt your whole drive that you know about password strength aswell.
[Edited on 12-12-2006 by tonyxxy]
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franklyn
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Give me a break
| Quote: | Originally posted by tonyxxyit is recommended to shred your files
and overwrite (9x recommended) the same sector with random data. This will
keep forensic software away. When they really want to know what's on the
drive, they will send it to specialized recovery centers. There they will physically
inspect the drive with specialized equipment. In order to really delete your data,
27x overwrites are recommended. |
. .
. .
. .
. .
And on whose recommendation exactly ?
I'm very interested to know your source for this , umm , revelation.
Anyone who would believe an overwrite of 27 X is needed
would never be allowed to keep secrets in the first instance.
The cipher command I mentioned renders deleted sectors unrecoverable
by any known forensic means. Its a simple matter to call any of the
dozen or so top rated data recovery firms and ask them if data that has
been overwritten this way and can be recovered. If they say , well we
would have to see the disk first , ask them if they charge even if they
don't recover data , if they do , then it is obvious bullshit , something
with which you are , I'm sure , very familiar.
Overwriting a disk is largely for the convenience of not removing the drive from
where it's installed. Hard Drive manufacturers wipe disks serviced under warranty
with a degausser. For the truly anal there is the Gutmann method often tauted
as meeting " government " specifications for erasure which overwrites 7X with
random data. This is entirely fiction since in practice a drive with sensitive data
is physically destroyed by incineration , and even this is excessive since once
the substrate heats above the curie point all magnetic domains vanish. To be
fair , Gutmann's original paper in 1996 theoretically postulated 35 writes to
obfuscate original disk data, on the original winchester drives that had been
in use probably before you were born.
See the epilogue on the end of this first copy of his paper here
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/secure_del.html
Read " Common misconceptions " here _
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_recovery
Read commentary bottom of page 21 here _
http://www.simson.net/clips/academic/2003.IEEE.DiskDriveFore...
http://www.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_security/security/v1...
Gutmann's paper
http://wipe.sourceforge.net/secure_del.html
http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/sec96...
[Edited on 13-12-2006 by franklyn]
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franklyn
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Video of lecture on computer security
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5159636580663884360&...
Handbook on hacking ways and means " Hacking Secrets Revealed "
it's slow to download , just wait a bit _
http://artofhacking.com/Tucops/hack/GENERAL/HACKSECR.PDF
.
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quicksilver
International Hazard
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Sandmeyer
New printers put some invisible "fingerprint" on the documents one prints, making them tracable. It's good idea to take copies at a large town library
istead of sharing direct printer prints-outs... |
I'm very interested in this. Where did you first learn about this fingerprint? I certainly think it's viable, etc. - I would want to learn more about
it. This is the actual printer were talking about; not the cartridge?
It believe that each ink jet printer has it's own individual spray pattern on a micro level but if one changes the cartridge that pattern changes with
the cartridge. However you're saying that the printer itself has a "fingerprint"?
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not_important
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printer fingerprints - see http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/secret_forensi...
While that is colour printers, supposedly some high resolution B&W printers do something similar by laying down a small blob that is encoded data.
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msp2
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Reminds you of soviet type writers does it?
| Quote: |
On Nov. 22, 2004, PC World published an online article entitled “Government Uses Color Laser
Printer Technology to Track Documents,” which stated that “several printer companies quietly
encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color
copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States,
already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters.” The article quoted Lorelei Pagano, a
counterfeiting specialist at the Secret Service, as saying that the markings are used only to
investigate counterfeiting cases: “The only time any information is gained from these documents
is purely in [the case of] a criminal act.”
EFF’s research indicates that Xerox and Canon color laser printers, among others, mark
documents with minuscule yellow dots invisible to the unaided human eye, the arrangement of
which likely encodes information such as a machine’s serial number and manufacturer’s name.
On documents printed by Xerox printers, the markings consisted of yellow dots arranged in a 0.5
inch by 1.0 inch rectangular space. The arrangement of dots was repeatedly printed over an
entire page. On documents printed by Canon printers, the markings also consisted of tiny yellow
dots, but they were not arranged within a rectangular space. At first glance, the dots appear to be
without rigid structure, but close examination reveals that they are merely arranged within a non-
rectangular polygon. Since these yellow dots are small and blend easily with a white paper
background, the unaided eye cannot distinguish the dots from the background. |
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/printers/
There is trend today to build devices forensic friendly from the beginning instead of relying on what is naturally there for you to analyze.
[Edited on 14-3-2007 by msp2]
Attachment: nip06-suh.pdf (371kB)
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quicksilver
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Makes sense. Canon took a laser color printer off the market back in the mid-1990's. Nothing was available as to the reason. It was a high-end color
printer that had no problems. The company had no response as to queries regarding the reason (even PC Magazine speculated....) for it's withdrawal.
But rumor had it that it was a government check counterfeiting issue. I remember I was working in an office that had one and it was NOT due to any
problems with it's functioning, as it was fantastic. The firm wanted to get more and they were surprised to learn that they were no longer available.
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JohnWW
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| Quote: | Originally posted by quicksilver
Makes sense. Canon took a laser color printer off the market back in the mid-1990's. Nothing was available as to the reason. It was a high-end color
printer that had no problems. The company had no response as to queries regarding the reason (even PC Magazine speculated....) for it's withdrawal.
But rumor had it that it was a government check counterfeiting issue. I remember I was working in an office that had one and it was NOT due to any
problems with it's functioning, as it was fantastic. |
What model of Canon color laser printer was that? I will see if I can get one second-hand, to foil government snoopers.
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