Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 Upgrade

OK, I won't moan about the NSA and GCHQ snooping overreach anymore - just secure everything you do to keep them and any other computer criminals out of your systems... One way to improve security, is to install a proper GNU/Linux Android system on your stock smart phone.  To do that, you need to have super user (The Linux administrator account is known as the root user) access.  The process is generally described as rooting your phone. By default, most phone manufacturers disable root access, since they do not want to be faced with a support nightmare due to millions of clueless users messing up their phones. Once you have root access, you can install different software applications and delete the crud applications that the phone comes with. There are various ways to get root access - you can do a minimal thing and only create a root account and install one or two basic utilities for root access, or you can completely replace the half baked Linux kernel that you get with y

Écrasez l'infâme!

Now even the French is admitting to be going at it with no judicial oversight, just the same as the NSA and GCHQ and the Canadian CSE was found to misuse court orders granted for spying on citizens to allow other 5 eyes members to spy on Canadians on their behalf. Voltaire The mass snooping is not working, it is not catching any terrorists, it is a gigantic invasion of privacy and a colossal waste of money and resources that could be put to work more effectively. Furthermore, the whole thing is beginning to backfire.  Cisco is losing orders for switch gear, Boeing is losing plane orders to SAAB, while Blackberry was abandoned by everyone after they subverted their own security and RSA is losing disgruntled customers since they sold their soul for 10 million shekels of silver. There is no war and no state of emergency, but the intelligence agencies are acting as if WW5 is under way.  This overreach has to stop. What the Western Allies have now created, puts the old Catholi

NSA Snoop and Error Proof Your Archives

An Englishman's Home is His Castle: In 1760, William Pitt (the Elder) made a famous declaration of this right. "The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the force of the Crown.  It may be frail, its roof may shake, the wind may blow through it. The rain may enter. The storms may enter.  But the king of England may not enter.  All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement." There is many a ruined castle in Europe.  You need to defend your castle if you want it to keep its value! You should also consider the problem of data corruption, since any single bit error in an encrypted archive, will render the whole thing unreadable. Also remember this: Always tar a directory, never tar a bunch of files.  It is extremely annoying when you get an archive from someone, untar it and end up with a million files scattered throughout your home directory... Encrypting an Archive with GPG An easy way to secure your data against unwarra