[clug] Offline snooping

[Scott Ferguson]

On 05/02/14 21:24, Keith Sayers wrote:
<snipped>

> Nothing particularly critical in my systems but a good deal of
> personal stuff such as genealogy.

Maybe define critical as "anything you'd really regret if you lost it"?
Increasingly that extends to your identity (email identity and contact
list in your case) and your internet connection:-
http://krebsonsecurity.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/HackedPC2012.png


Then your primary concerns should be:-
;maintaining backups of your critical data and settings (even DVD
backups and notes are good)
;keeping your system secure against malware and scams by non-NSA threats
(keep your system updated, don't install software you can't trust or
don't need, exercise the same skepticism/trust/risk management practices
with the phone/email/web/computer that you would with mail/people
knocking on your door).

> 
>> give Mr Stallman and Coreboot some more respect and attention.
> 
> Who are they, please?

Richard Stallman, long time advocate of Open Source and crusader against
the dangers of closed source code. Without his work you wouldn't
recognise what you call Linux (or it wouldn't exist). Much of the
software used by the NSA is either hidden in commercial proprietary
software (Closed Source), or proprietary firmware (i.e. embedded coded
used for devices e.g. your hard drive controller, your network card,
your BIOS etc). Often labeled a paranoid or extremist for lecturing
about the very dangers now demonstrated to be realistic problems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_stallman
http://stalman.org

Coreboot is a project to develop and implement an Open Source
alternative to Closed Source BIOS (another place NSA uses to hide spyware).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreboot
http://coreboot.org


apropos of firmware, AFAIK Bunny is the only current source of a totally
open modern computer (Novena):-
http://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=3597
http://www.kosagi.com/w/index.php?title=Novena_Main_Page



<snipped>


Hope you stay on the happy end of the computer/tool relationship.
Kind regards.