Free can be very good!
Make use of alternate DNS servers. OpenDNS.org freely gives its clients access
to its name servers. In the past couple of years DNS has been a topic of
discussion in the security community. One could do all of the right things in
the home or office, but due to the insecure nature of DNS and the lack of
diligence of ISPs, not staying current on security fixes/mitigations you can
type in a URL or click a link and still become compromised. The state of DNS
security is so significant that some leading experts have proposed throwing away
the DNS protocol and establishing one that forces authentication of some kind. |
OpenDNS.org offers free
content filtering customizable profiles for all who choose to sign up, along
with tracking statistics of internet usage from your IPs.
Add an enterprise
quality firewall to your home domain. The Astaro Security Gateway is a free
Linux-based firewall that offers you feature such as: VPN, email spam and
antivirus scanning, intrusion detection/prevention, web content filtering,
and extensive logging features. The Astaro Security Gateway has been
specifically marketed toward customers who are at their end-of-life with
Cisco Pix router/firewall products.
ASG installs on hardware
as old hardware, even as old has a 486 DX2. Software which is hosted upon
the same OS that it is trying to protect can fail or have its own set of
vulnerabilities an attacker can exploit. Your security software can make you
unsecure, to some degree. By creating an additional defense-layer outside of
your computer at the network layer, you have just created a greater hassle
for anyone trying to probe you and with ASG (which has a built-in IPS) you
can catch and trap something as its trying to leave your network.
Lowering Your Digital
Footprint
As you may already know, The Onion Router aka ToR is the end all/be all for
web anonymity for the poor man. This is to say that it is the best option
out there for those who want "some" way to mask their web presence. It's
free to use and can be bundled with other software technologies to make it
even more powerful and enhance your discreetness.
ToR can be built into a
live Linux bootable CD/DVD or live windows PE CD/DVD of which can be
outfitted with a MAC addresses spoofing changing utility (such as "MadMACs")
to enhance your anonymity. Hypothetical situation: you take a laptop into
your favorite coffee shop or hotel parking lot, boot to your live-CD of
choice, change your MAC address, and go to work. Because you would be using
a live-CD no changes are made to your computer. Essentially your computer
becomes a very potent dumb-terminal. If you are compromised, reboot your
computer and move to another location, so that your traffic will originate
from another IP address.
ToR Bundle is a suited
version of ToR that can run independently off of a USB drive or a CD. It
uses FireFox with a built-in ToR plug-in, along with NoScript and a couple
of other add-ons.
ToR is not without its
flaws. Those who set up exit-node servers can eavesdrop on any traffic
leaving, as long as it’s unencrypted....and most of it will be. Anyone
looking to do secret-squirrel activities should be very cautious about what
content they are transmitting through the ToR network. Use encryption when
you can. If you are going to log into a site, use TLS/SSL. If you are
sending an email attachment, encrypt it....TWICE!
Using ToR to arrange a
meeting or time for communications on some other channel is appropriate, but
clear text transmission of documents is not. There was an unpopular incident
of a private citizen alerting the world that 'lettered agencies', both
foreign and US, were inappropriately using ToR for operational and
administrative use. To prove his point, he set up some exit-nodes on the ToR
network and collected hundreds of documents, user names, and passwords and
other juicy details from private citizens, corporations, and government
agencies.
Hardening the Greatest
Security Variable...You
Staying abreast of the latest threats and mitigations is a hard task. There
are many dedicated individuals who work hard to bring the public the latest
and greatest information. The following are some sites that offer podcasts
or videos to enable you to keep your brain sharp.
- www.GRC.com/securitynow.htm - Podcasts
If you are wanting a simple to understand AND very technical understanding
of the internet, hard disk drives, SSL/TLS technology, key exchange,
authentication, encryption, root kits, malware, and many other issues GRC's
Security Now will illuminate you and entertain you. Those of professional
caliber IT prowess through baby novices will be able to appreciate this.
- www.PaulDotCom.com - Podcast and Video Tutorials
No normies allowed! Paul and his group of super-geeks embrace the super-sexy
details of Penetration Testing and security remediation. This show is better
suited for those who have a general understanding of Information Security
and who are wanting to hone and sharpen their hacking skills, or those who
want to understand how hacking actually works.
- www.IronGeek.com - Video Tutorials
Learn how to hack windows passwords and more! IronGeek shows you the way.
- http://revision3.com/hak5 - Webcast
Circumventing Windows
Login
Crack the password by using a Linux live-CD called
0phcrack. 0phcrack automatically loads into its GUI and immediately starts
cracking all the accounts on a system. It may take minutes or hours for it
to find the password. When and if it does, it will display the password to
you in plain text. The free version of 0phrack will work on 99 percent of
passwords that are using standard characters. For passwords that have been
created using spaces and other special characters, the pay version of
0phrack will be needed.
If you have no need of
knowing what the password and merely want to reset it then ERDCommander, PC
Login Now, or KON Boot will get the job done. ERD Commander will allow you
to reset the password of any account on the system, but will not allow you
to create a new user account or unlock a locked account. PC Login Now will
allow you to do all of the aforementioned tasks even on hidden
administrative accounts.
Of these three tools,
KON Boot is the most unique. Its magic allows you to enter a system without
knowing the password. Simply type in the name of the account you wish to
access and you are in. When you reboot the system, all of the original
passwords will still be retained. KON Boot offers you the utmost
discreetness and quickness when needing to access a computer. There's no
waiting for the password to be cracked, no risking attributation of
activities by resetting a password or risking account lockout by guessing
the password, or incorrectly typing the right one in...Boot to CD, wait a
couple of minutes for windows to load...game over.
QUICK LINKS
