Keep Passwords Secure with Encryption

Using a text file for passwords has always been handy. It's portable and you can send it whenever you need it. But it is inherently insecure. There are a lot of tools that can help you secure your valuable passwords, especially in these days of hack attacks and prevalence of intrusions.

One tool I recommend to friends is Keepass. KeePass is an open source project that encrypts your passwords to keep them protected from prying eyes. It supports AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and Twofish algorithm to encrypt passwords. These are considered 2 of the most secure ways to encrypt data. In addition, Keepass encrypts all data it keeps and not just the passwords, so even your usernames are protected. It also features on-the-fly encryption, which means even if your computer freezes while you're using it, your data is safe. Keepass is also portable, so it doesn't need to be installed in a particular computer. That means it doesn't leave any traces on a computer you use. Convenient, especially when you have Keepass on a USB stick and you ask to use a friend's computer to access your accounts online. No worries from keyloggers as well. While it is running, you can press a hotkey and Keepass can automatically fill in the password when it detects your logging in with a username you saved in it. You can also generate very hard-to-crack passwords by using its random password generator. Since your using it already for keeping your passwords, you need not worry about remembering a difficult password. Keepass has a ton of advanced user features as well. You can check them out here: http://keepass.info/features.html. Best of all, it is free!

Did I get your attention now? Here's how to start using Keepass in 4 easy steps:

1. Download the portable version of Keepass from http://keepass.info/download.html:

2. Extract the files from the .ZIP folder:

3. Click on KeePass.exe from the extracted files:

4. Start typing in your passwords!

If you need something more robust to work across multiple devices, there are other options. For one, Keeper Data Vault. Keeper Data Vault is compatible with PC, MAC and Linux operating systems and apps for mobile devices like the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, BlackBerry(r), Android, Vodaphone 360/Symbian are available. It's available in English, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, and Portuguese. It uses also uses 128-Bit AES cipher encryption and syncs your data across all your computers and devices. A random password generator comes standard and is aptly called 'Dice'. Keeper also supports automatically filling in usernames and passwords, convenient when using mobile touchscreen devices like iPhones and Android phones.

The most robust security feature on it has to be the Self-Destruct Mode. If set to that option, Keeper erases all data after 5 unsuccessful login attempts. If you tavel a lot and you have your passwords stored in Keeper on a mobile device or laptop, this has to be the single-most important security feature if ever you loose your device or laptop. So if you happen to leave your phone or your laptop on the train or taxi, you know your passwords are still secure. You also don't have to worry about your data on your other computers or devices either. Even with Self-Destruct turned on, your other devices are not affected. Since Keeper syncs data, everything can be restored by using the secure backup & restore features.

If you're interested in trying out Keeper, you can get it here: Keeper 50% Off. If you use that link, you can get a 50% discount by using the code KP50 at checkout.

So keep your passwords safe and download these 2 applications. Be careful out there.

What is DNS?

A DNS or Domain Name System is responsible for pointing your networked or internet-connected computer to the the right website or server for your request. Every networked or internet-connected computer is assigned an IP address. Basically an IP address functions the same was a postal address. Your mail gets delivered to the postal address, the same way that a request to connect is directed to a specific IP address.

Say you want to go to OpenDNS’ website. You type in http://www.opendns.com. Your browser will ask a DNS server, “Hey, how do I get to www.opendns.com?” The DNS server will then look it up in its records and reply, “Oh, that. Go to the IP 208.69.38.160 and you’re all set.” Your browser goes to that IP and you see the webpage.

Your ISP or office network (in the case of corporate networks) will usually have their own DNS server. It is not uncommon though for ISP’s and other companies to use DNS services provided by third parties so they don’t have to maintain it themselves. There‘s also the issue of speed. The internet is one gigantic intricate web of interconnected computers. Depending on where you physically are and where the server of the site you’re browsing is, your computer may have to find a route through different servers in different countries. It will ‘hop’ through each before it finds its way to the website’s own server. Your computer will have to find its way through that maze. Services like OpenDNS have servers all over the world and that helps because it can find the fastest route to the computer hosting webpage your going to.

If you would like to try and use a different DNS server to see if that’s faster than you ISP’s, give OpenDNS a try. It’s what I personally use. You also get the added benefits of web content filtering and phishing protection if you want to turn those on. That means it filters out those unsavory porn sites and fake banking sites that try to steal your login credentials. For instructions on how to change the DNS server settings on your Windows computer, go here.

Anonymous Browsing -- Hide Your IP

Once the question came up, there was no turning back. One time my wife asked me why I was freaking out about IP addresses. I explained that due to some enterprising people, geo-location has become a lot easier. It makes a useful add-on to social networking. Take a look at this site where you can test with your own IP:
http://www.ipligence.com/geolocation. Different services can use IP address information and cross-reference that with open API's like that of Google Maps to map the actual location of an IP. This is useful when sharing geo-location on services like that of Google Latitude, Foursquare and Gowalla.

If for example I go to Robinson's Place and they happen to have free WiFi, I connect and the outside world gets an IP. The ISP knows the billing address and what IP was assigned to its connection at the time. That's one way to trace the physical address. I check in to Foursquare and see another user had already noted the address of Robinson's Place. That's another way to establish the location, a user contributing the location so a social networking site. Foursquare sees I'm checking in from a location using the same IP. So the site knows where I am based off an earlier user's check in. Surprisingly, it knows where I am. It suggests I check in to Robinson's Place and tells me who the 'Mayor' is. My Foursquare friends will see I'm at a particular address at the time I checked in. If map data for Robinson's Place is available, my location will show up courtesy of a map service. All my friends need are driving directions. This all happens in the background when all I did was tap a button on the Foursquare app on my phone. This is all dandy, but it's a privacy hazard at times.

Say, you want to keep your IP address info confidential, like if you're browsing from home and you don't want anyone snooping your location. There is a quick and easy way to protect your IP address from prying eyes. Use The Onion Router. TOR, as it is popularly called, makes use of anonymous exit nodes. There are people who volunteer to have their internet connections used as exit nodes for TOR. What that means is they volunteer their IP to be used by anyone else in the TOR network to hide the original IP. There are literally thousands of these exit nodes.

Here's normal browsing is handled by your computer and ISP. Your computer is given an IP by you ISP. Your browse to a website and your IP information is visible to the website you go to as well as to any other servers that the connection passes through. This is how the web works. It's called the web for a reason. Computers are connected to other computers and if there isn't any 'straight line' to the website you're browsing to, your computer finds a route through other computers until it eventually connects to the right server hosting the website. The information from the website finds its way back through the complicated web by using your IP to identify you.

IPLigence on a TOR Browser, I'm in Chicago

Here's how TOR works to anonymize your traffic. Your browse to a website. Instead of computer following your ISP's directions to connect to the website's server, your computer connects to the TOR network. Inside the TOR network, your traffic is randomly routed to an exit node. The website sees your traffic coming from that exit node and it thinks the request is coming from that IP. Remember, I said that lots of people volunteer their IP's as exit nodes. Random is important because it is harder to trace back that way. The website you browse to with then only see the IP of your exit node and not your own.

Think of it this way. Let's say water in a river flows through a certain route, connecting to other rivers until it reaches the open sea. The route as well as the source is visible. It can be traced back to the source, as the routes are known and in the open. That's how web traffic usually works. Then imagine water flowing through underground pipes, the pipes branching off to many different pipes and water flows to the sea from many different exits points. Imagine at any given time water takes a different route and exits through a different pipe. Imagine there is no fixed pattern where the water flows through or which pipe it exits to the sea. That's how TOR works, routes are hidden and random. You can't trace it back because only the exits are visible.

TOR has been especially useful to people living in countries that restrict internet use to control information. It's well known that TOR is used by people in places like China or Burma to circumvent Internet restrictions imposed by their government.

Though our needs may be different, we can still use TOR to anonymize our browsing. It's a free service and volunteering is optional. For Windows users, there's a pre-packaged portable version of Firefox that's been set-up with TOR. You can download it from here: http://www.torproject.org/torbrowser/dist/tor-browser-1.3.9_en-US.exe. Just remember where you save it. When you want to browse anonymously, open the folder and launch the Firefox browser. There is no need to install it. It works straight out of the box. The default settings work just fine so no need to fiddle around with the TOR network settings unless you're comfy doing so. More information on its features can be had here: http://www.torproject.org/faq.html.en. Read the FAQ if you want to learn more about the settings and how to use all the features.

OpenDNS - Faster DNS, Faster Internet

I've been wondering for a few weeks why my internet connection had started slowing down the last few weeks and I haven't been able to figure out what was causing it. Last night I finally got it figure out. I had almost always used OpenDNS as my DNS server whenever I configure my machines (I wrote a post about how to do that here: http://techthroes.blogspot.com/2010/03/use-opendns-to-protect-yourself.html). Well 2 or so weeks ago, while troubleshooting a slow internet connection, I changed the settings on my machine to PLDT's default DNS servers. I made a mental note to instead set up OpenDNS on the router instead so I wouldn't have to do that on each of my machines. Guess what? I forgot to do it on the router - LOL.

So last night I remembered what I forgot to do while trying to isolate the cause of my slow connection. Pages took too long to load, about 2-3 minutes to load a page like SpeedTest.net. I was slower with large pages like Facebook or even Blogger. I decided to try using OpenDNS again. This time, I set it up on the router. Guess what? Every page I threw at my browser suddenly loaded a lot more faster. Facebook loaded in about 5 seconds. Blogger in 4 seconds. A welcome surprise was my torrent downloads, Linux images mind you, became  inexplicably faster. I'm not a networking wizard, so I can't figure out how resolving DNS addresses can make downloads faster. I can understand how that would make finding other computers seeding the images would be, but I'm amazed that the overall download speeds have shot back up to what they were before my troubles started.

Anyway, I'm just glad that it sped up. I can finally have the computer finish downloads faster. That means I wouldn't have to leave the computer on as long as it does when downloads take longer to finish.

Use OpenDNS to Protect Yourself

In a recent poll Paypal, the IRS and Facebook have been ranked the most phished sites. Clearly, scammers are out to get us and our valuable personal data and financial information. One way to protect your self is to use a service that screens out phishing sites. OpenDNS is one option and the good news is it is free!

OpenDNS features phishing site filtering, warning you if a site you're going to is a scammer's site trying to get your information. Add to that, OpenDNS can also help speed up your browsing speed or filter out adult sites with parental controls.

Its easy to set-up. Here's how to do it in Windows 7:

1. On your taskbar, right-click network icon (the one that looks like a computer monitor) and click Open Network and Sharing Center:

2. In Network and Sharing Center, click on Change Adapter Settings on the left pane:

3. In the Network Connections window, right-click on the Local Area Connection and click Properties:

4. In the Local Area Network Properties window, choose Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties:

5. In the IPv4 window, check the option Use The Following DNS Server Address and type in 208.67.222.222 as your Preferred DNS Server and 208.67.220.220 as your Alternate DNS Server, then click the OK button to save the changes:

After doing the steps above, you're all set. Your computer will ask OpenDNS where it should go every time you type in a website address on your browser. Be careful out there!

2nd Lemon - Router Trouble

Last week I bought an Edimax BR6226N router for my home setup and it work only for a day. Because of a busy week, I brought it in for a warranty replacement this morning. I brought home the router, set it up not more than a few hours ago and now it's dead... again. This is utterly frustrating. Not only have I been recommending this router to friends and officemates, telling them it's the best bang-for-the-buck router they could get. Now I am having problems with the exact same model I had been exalting not a few weeks ago.

I followed my usual troubleshooting, except for using a different working router (which I don't have, the reason why I bought one). The only common thing I could think of on both routers was that they died after I had ticked the options for the firewall and DDOS protection. Come to think of it, I also set them up with WPA2 using a PSK key from GRC.com's Ultra High Security Password Generator. The first one conked out the next day. This second one just minutes after I had applied the settings. Now that's bothersome and frustrating, expecting the second to work after getting a lemon. After that, I could not get to the admin page, or ping the default gateway. I did multiple resets. I changed cables and tested both cables linked directly to the modem and they worked. I modified the settings on the LAN, hard-setting them to 10 and 100 Mbps on both full-duplex and half-duplex, testing each time with just the DSL modem and then the router. On all occasions, my internet connection worked without the router.


I will have to take this back to the shop I bought it from tomorrow. A week's delay in getting my home network setup is enough. Did I mention this whole situation is frustrating? I'm giving up on this brand and I'll ask for a Linksys even if I have to pay extra. A whole lot extra.

JungleDisk 2.0 Launched

Jungle Disk has announced the release of the final version of it's popular backup software. Jungle Disk 2.0 includes many performance enhancement that make backing up important data easier than ever.

Jungle Disk 2.0's new features include :

• An Improved User Interface - with a better and easier setup wizard makes, a new backup preview dialog and a new backup selection dialog for easier to set up automatic backups.
• Support for new Jungle Disk 2.0 buckets - allows users to instantly rename files and directories, encrypt file & directory names, change encryption key (bucket password) instantly and support for unlimited number of buckets.
• Support for European S3 buckets.
  
• Support for connecting to multiple buckets at the same time.
• Support for multiple backup jobs with independent scheduling.
• Expanded bandwidth limiting - flexible choices to control network drive and automatic backup traffic, set limits on both upload and download rates, on the fly changing of limits and setting schedules for limits.
• New command line options that tightly integrate task schedulers and batch jobs.
• Optimized performance improvements for larger directories and larger cache sizes.

Jungle Disk Releases 2.0 Release Candidate

Jungle Disk has announced the availability of Release Candidate (RC) of version 2.0. This is going to be the last build for final testing. This is expected to be the final version unless any major bugs are found. As posted by Jungle Disk on their official site, the RC is considered very stable so users still running version 1.50 and the older betas are encourage to try use this updated build.

The release candidate can be downloaded from Jungle Disk's beta download page. You can find out more information about the improvements to this version by looking up the release notes here.

Jungle Disk Beta 3 Announced

Jungle Disk announced (rather quickly) it's 3rd beta release for Jungle Disk 2.0. (version 1.99c). This newest iteration already includes command-line capability that was for pushed back during the release of 1.99b. since it is still in beta, users are advised to still configure settings through Jungle Disk's GUI (Graphic User Interface).

Jungle Disk 2.0 will feature the following improvements over its predecessor:

• Native support for Windows, Mac, and Linux
• Extensive caching system for files and directories
• Background upload, delete, copy, and move support
• Desktop application for upload and download progress
• Complete encryption for all data
• Automatic restart of background operations in case of shutdown or crash
• Support for automatic backup on a timed or manual basis
• Automatic archival of old versions and deleted files
• Support for multiple types of Amazon S3 buckets

You can download Jungle Disk Beta 3 here. The announcement can be read here.

Jungle Disk Release 2.0 Beta to Public

Jungle Disk just announced the beta release of its version 2.0 . Right now it's version number is unofficially 1.99b, so it's almost there :-)

Jungle Disk is backup software that lets you create backups of your files using Amazon.com's S3 Storage Service to store your data securely. All your data is encrypted before it travels up to the clouds and it's multi-platform so you can use it on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The backups can be scheduled or automatic. You can install the software in as many machines as you want, but you have to pay a one-time $20 fee. The basic idea is you pay for the software one time and you get a lifetime of updates to it. The storage fees are billed from Amazon.com S3 and depend on the actual storage you consume. The storage fees are calculated at $0.15 per gigabyte-month of storage used. That's cheap storage and comes from a reliable service. What more can you ask for, eh?

Read about the full announcement from: Jungle Disk 2.0 Beta 2 (1.99b) Released

Scrub Your Browsing Clean

I found this great article from PCLinuxOS' monthly magazine about
changing browsing habits to protect your identity online. Although the
article is centered around Tor (The Onion Router), ordinary Firefox
users still stand to benefit from the tips the author suggested.
Basically it boils down to: a.) assume that someone can eavesdrop on
your browsing; b.) trust a site with your information only when using
SSL and even then be wary of giving any information out; and c.)
change your browsing habits to protect yourself.

Read the article from here:
http://mag.mypclinuxos.com/html/Issues/200702/page3.html
Read about Tor here: http://tor.eff.org/overview.html.en

Turning to Wine

After having been hit with a virus yet again, I am contemplating on totally abandoning Windows (yet again). After I get my hard drive in order, I'll be experimenting with Wine to see if I could get a few Windows apps (I need) to work. I've been doing some research and I'll see if I could get IE, M$-Office 2000 and AOL to play with Wine. These are either apps I test (for friends) or something the missus just needs to ease her apprehensions about editing work-related files from home. Wish me luck!

Protect Your Wireless Network

I recently saw several news articles online about drive-by pharming. Researchers posted a proof of concept online and the attack is made possible by the fact that so many people use their routers with the default passwords on. Because of the nature of my work, friends often ask me how they could secure their home networks or how they could set-up wireless at home. To them I offer the following advice (just sharing here) :

• Change the router's default username and password - this should be the first thing anyone should do. As indicated in the news article I linked to above, you'd be securing yourself from a lot of exploits just by changing your password. Router defaults are well-documented in user manuals and help forums online. Anything from default passwords to factory settings can be found online. Even lesser known models will have some obscure user documenting his use of it somewhere in the vast Internet. So change the default password 'admin' on that WRT54G, right now.
  
• Change the router's SSID - a brand name is a start. These default SSID names are well-documented online. Once snoops know what router your using, they could choose the best attack to speed up breaking into your network.
• Disable SSID broadcasts - don't advertise your network to the neighbors. Routers with SSID broadcast turned on inform every computer or wireless device nearby that your router is there. Piggybacking on your connection is just one concern. What if they're bright enough to break into your network and snoop on your computer? If its there, with big signs and bright lights, its bound to catch some bad guy's attention.
  
• Turn on the firewall - when you set your router up, it will in most cases ask that you set rules for your firewall. Routers are great firewalls because they're "dumb". They don't reply to strangers knocking on the door. If some other computer on the Net wanted to connect to yours, the router simply ignores the request if it were unexpected and doesn't reply back. The effect is the other computer will think nothing is there.
  
• Use WPA-PSK, not WEP - WPA-PSK is quite a common feature now in wireless routers. WEP is older and easier to hack into. WPA2 only comes in the newer (and more expensive) routers. So right now WPA-PSK is the best choice. How to use it? Go to this Windows guide, a bit old but the basics are still the same. For Ubuntu, the Ubuntu Guide provides a kernel of wisdom in that direction. One additional piece of advice I can give is to use a Pre-Shared Key by generating a random one from https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm. This page generates very strong random passwords that you can use on your router. I use the 63-character printable ASCII set because that's what most routers (I've tinkered with) accept. Note: the more random it is, the harder it is to crack it.

These are not professional grade tips but rather lessons I've learned while tinkering. I hope they prove as helpful to you as they have been to my friends. :-)

When the Law Does Not Protect the Innocent...

Case in fact, a substitute teacher is in trouble for being in the same room as computers that exposed kids to pornographic pop-ups. Sounds like Adware to me, which is something most Windows users don't really have control over. Adware is everywhere on the net and its hard enough to avoid getting them. Why put a subbie in jail for 40-something years for something the school's IT person was probably in more at fault with? I don't get it. Or was it just a technology-shunning judge or district attorney that made it possible? An erring defense attorney, maybe? This woman should not go to jail for this. It's just wrong.

Shout Out...

Barely a day after the official launch of Vista, a novel hack had already been publicized. Several news articles covered the hack that was made possible through Vista's voice recognition function. I remember hearing someone on a podcast say that if there is a system, someone will hack it. This was exactly what he meant by that. This must be a record of some sort, a hack exposed the day after the OS was launched. I bet you many are now going to adopt a wait-and-see on Vista, at least the people following the news.