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Security and Privacy Guide


Encrypt Your Private Data

Encryption Warnings and Secure Form Fillers

''If you're not paranoid, maybe you should be. If you use a PC, unscrupulous types can intercept e-mail you send, and coworkers could be reading your documents. Encryption--the process of encoding data so that it requires a special key to be read--can protect your data from prying eyes. Once the domain of spies, encryption is fast becoming an advisable precaution for businesses and home users: It's your best tool for protecting your trade secrets and privacy.'' - PC World

Encryption is Not Enough: Four Warnings

WARNING: ''...with *all* OTFE [On-the-Fly-Encryption] programs, you need to have administrative privileges, or have the administrator install [the encryption software] for you. It has to do with being able to access Device Drivers...Clearly it's a solution best suited to home or personal use where those sorts of privileges are easily accessed and granted (if not the default).'' - I Want to Love Encryption-On-the-Fly (But Can't)

WARNING: Storing your encryption key on an internal hard drive, even if encrypted, instead of on an encrypted removable medium leaves it vulnerable to theft.

WARNING: ''Hackers can sniff out [encryption] keys because DRAM processors retain data for minutes after a computer is turned off.'' - Researchers Find Hard Drive Encryption's Achilles' Heel

WARNING: If a hardware or software password-capture utility or key logger is installed on your computer and you don't use secure* encryption key and web form fillers, or take the other security steps in this guide I strongly recommend taking, your private, encrypted data are vulnerable to viewing and theft.

*WARNING: If a screen logger is installed on your system and you use an encryption key filler that doesn't destroy your encryption keys after decrypting your data, those encryption keys and the private data they protect are vulnerable to theft.

*WARNING: If a screen logger is installed on your system, an otherwise secure web form filler / virtual keyboard does not protect your passwords, nor the private data they protect. They are vulnerable to theft.

If you're a business, government or spy with highly-valued data, your data is also vulnerable to theft by radio-frequency emissions such as ''Tempest'' attacks. But I'll let the experts tell you how to prevent or minimize that threat.

WARNING: If your computer or handheld is stolen after accessing encrypted data and before unmounting the encrypted volume, including when in Hybernation mode, your private data is available for viewing or theft.

WARNING: Accessing encrypted data on a computer that isn't one on which only you have an administrator account and keep sufficiently secure, leaves that data and your encryption key vulnerable to theft.

To minimize the chances of password-capture utilities and hardware and software key loggers stealing your encryption keys, passwords and web form data, I strongly recommend always using secure* encryption key and web form fillers.

A secure* encryption key filler protects your encryption keys and the private data they protect by creating temporary keys and entering them for you securely and automatically, and destroying them after encrypting or decrypting your data.

A secure* web form filler protects your passwords and web form data by entering them for you securely and automatically, and storing them with strong encryption.

Secure* Encryption Key Managers and Fillers

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*WARNING: If a screen logger is installed on your system and you use an encryption key filler that doesn't destroy your encryption keys after decrypting your data, those encryption keys and the private data they protect are vulnerable to theft.

Secure* Password Managers and Web Form Fillers

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*WARNING: If a screen logger is installed on your system, an otherwise secure web form filler / virtual keyboard does not protect your passwords, nor the private data they protect. They are vulnerable to theft.

An Antiscreenlogger

GNU/Linux Encryption Guides

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