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BOOT CAMP 295 (07/10/03)
Paranoia part 3
In the final instalment of this short series on computer
privacy we’ll consider some of the measures you can take to protect data on your
PC from snoopers and nosey parkers.
First some basic tricks to hide your files from prying eyes.
The simplest method is to store your data in an anonymously named folder –
something like ‘stl03a’ – and bury it several folders deep inside a program or
application. It’s highly unlikely that anyone will stumble across your secret
folder by accident, and you can further improve its anonymity by creating
several other dummy folders with similar sounding names. Just make sure you
remember where you’ve hidden it…
This technique cannot protect your data against determined
probing so the next level of security is to make your files and folders
‘invisible’. In Windows Explorer right click the file or folder you want to hide
then select Properties and in the Attributes section check ‘Hidden’. Next, go to
Tools > Folder Options, select the View tab then under Hidden Files select
‘Do Not Show Hidden Files’. Close and reopen Windows Explorer and your private
folders will have vanished.
Once again this won’t fool anyone looking for concealed files
but there are ways to make folders disappear completely so they cannot be seen
by Windows Explorer or any normal file viewer programs. To do that you will need
a shareware program like Magic Folders or Hide Files. These utilities
effectively put your nominated files and folders into stealth mode so that as
far as Windows and anyone poking around your PC is concerned they simply don’t
exist. Your hidden files will only be revealed when the correct ‘Hot key’ and
password combination is entered. Fully functional trial versions of these
programs can be downloaded from the following web sites:
Magic Folders: http://www.pc-magic.com/ (Windows
95/98/SE/ME/NT/2000/XP, registration £14)
Hide Files: http://www.spydex.com/ (Windows
95/98/SE/ME/NT/2000/XP, registration £28)
http://www.vvv.com/~hidefiles/index.html
(older version for Windows 95/98, registration £11.19)
An interesting variation on the invisibility theme is
Steganography, where data is hidden inside another file. It works particularly
well with picture files, which are usually quite big to begin with and can hold
quite large amounts of extra data – which can be encrypted -- without any
significant change to the picture’s appearance or the size of the file. It’s
also a useful way of sending secret messages by email, with text documents
concealed inside innocent-looking photographs, sent as email attachments.
There’s a lot of interesting material on the web (search
‘steganography’ in Google) and if you fancy trying it out for yourself I suggest
a simple little freeware program called JP Hide and Seek, which you’ll find it
at: http://linux01.gwdg.de/~alatham/stego.html.
Click on the JPHS for Windows link. It’s not terribly intuitive but when you
have unzipped the files click on the Jphswin icon, select the image file by
clicking on Open JPEG, then the file or document you want to encode by clicking
on Hide. Enter a password, confirm it then select the file and click OK. The
newly created picture file containing your document will be only slightly larger
and in most cases indistinguishable from the original.
The ultimate security tool is encryption, a process that
renders a file totally unreadable without the correct decryption program and a
key or password. Encryption programs are now available that are virtually
uncrackable by all but the most well-resourced agencies with access to the most
powerful supercomputers. However, even
modest encryption programs will defeat all but the most determined snoopers;
there are plenty to choose from and for a good selection of freeware titles have
a look at:
http://www.spychecker.com/
software/freeware_encrypt.html
Don’t imagine that deleting your sensitive files will make
them disappear. Only the directory references are removed and the ‘deleted’ data
remains on the hard disc until it is overwritten, even then there are ways and
means of recovering data. To completely destroy files and folders they must be
electronically ‘shredded’, which means repeatedly overwriting the disc space
they occupy with random data. Fileshredder is one of a number of utility
programs that will permanently erase your sensitive files, it’s freeware and
you’ll find it at:http://www.sys-shield.com/fileshredder.htm
Finally, last week I mentioned that there haven’t been any
recent updates for Adaware (spyware removal program). That’s because a new
version (6.181) is available, which can be downloaded from: http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download/
Next week – On Line Auctions
JARGON FILTER
HOT
KEYS
A
combination of two or more keystrokes that activates a command or a program
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group (part of the International
Standards Organisation); file compression file format used to reduce the size of
image files
TIP OF THE WEEK
As any hacker will tell you the biggest loopholes in any
security system are the passwords people choose, children and pet’s names being
a particular favourite. Password Generator is a freeware utility that does what
it says; just tell it whether or not to include upper and lowercase characters,
numbers and symbols, click the button and you get a freshly minted random
password, which can be copied to the Windows clipboard with a single click.
You’ll find the download file, which is only 600kb at: http://www.atory.com/?a=2&id=6
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