Security for the Paranoid

[kr5kernel]

The pattern of the cuts would be more random, think back to when you made snow flakes out of paper. This is to through off the silly fool that tries to tape the confetti back together apparently.

[zENGER]

If anyone has the time to go through an entire bag of "dust" and just find the pieces that belong to one sheet of paper, much less put them back together... Wow..

I think its sorta like DES. We all know DES can be broken, but in general the theory is that it will take you longer to be broken than the validity of the data, i.e. DES is broken in say 4 hours, so you would change keys every 4 hours or something of the sort. It would take you... months to put one sheet back together, all to find out.. it was a print out of a print test page.

[RoadClosed]

He uses 3 firewalls to access the internet? Well unless he is segmenting users from internal networks then that is a complete waste. In fact he later says he only accesses the internet from a PC with NO access to his internal network. So it is definitely a waste since it only takes one to compomise even if you have 100. bUY HEY If you are protecting and segmenting super sensitive data, I don't think he goes too far at all. In fact I have some PCs installed backwards as well. But hey a 14 character password is just as good as one that is 50. It will still take a super super long time to crack... unless it's 1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950

[Tiger Shark]

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.....

Security is the balance between Security and usability.

The amount of security required is directly proportional to the potential loss incurred.

Security precautions/mechanisms should be appropriate for the assets they protect.

etc. etc. etc......

[Striek]

Is there such thing as TOO paranoid when it comes to computer security? Never!

Yes. There is. When passwords become too hard to remember, users simply write them down. If the doors lock all the smokers out, they stick a rock in the frame. One can easily become too paranoid with computer security, just as one can become too paranoid with physical security. I don't hire armed guards to protect my house. A simple deadbolt is enough for me. Now, if I had documents proving who really killed JFK inside, I might hire armed guards.

The security measures used must be balanced against the value of the information you are trying to protect.

He can sucure his home network up the ying yang all he wants. He might have a hard time selling this level of security to the bean counters though. Nobody's going to spend that kind of money to secure a webserver with no critical information on it.

There also becomes a point where policies become unenforceable (i.e. spreading shredded documents as mulch). Employees would simply stop shredding documents. Policies like this need to be easy enough to follow and enforce, yet strong enough to make a difference. Finding that point effectively is what separates the professionals from the wannabes.

[whatthe]

No rubber gloves to keep his finger prints secure and retinas not secured in an off-site location. Sloppy. Sloppy.

[RoadClosed]

Beside the fact: who wants to put poisonous inks and chemicals in their Mulch??????? Newspaper is ok because they are vegetable dyes but bills and laser ink? ACK.

[|3lack|ce]

[stupid, scary, off-topic factoid] Speaking of Newspapers.... The markers they sell on the open market nowadays to detect counterfeit bills.... on a regular bill they mark yellow, on plain paper they mark black... black being indicative of counterfeit bills. Why do they mark yellow on newspaper? Try one and see for yourself.[/stupid, scary, off-topic factoid]

[miracle]

Originally posted here by Tiger Shark
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.....

Security is the balance between Security and usability.

The amount of security required is directly proportional to the potential loss incurred.

Security precautions/mechanisms should be appropriate for the assets they protect.

etc. etc. etc......

Thank you! I'm glad someone brought this up. It's one thing to take all these measures at my workplace to protect company and client data, it's a whole 'nother thing to take these (extreme) measures at home to protect ????????

I mean, seriously, 14 character passwords so that your 8 year old can log on and play Clifford the Big Red Dog, or visit www.disneytoons.com?? Do you also implant RFID tags in your kids earlobes so that you can know where they are at all times (hmm maybe thats not a bad idea)?

Security precautions SHOULD be appropriate for the assets they protect. At home, having a hardware/software firewall, strong passwords, and using common sense best practices is all you need to do. If I get hacked at home, I can simply re-load one of my ghost images. If you have sensitive data on your home computer, by all means protect it...I choose to keep as little sensitive data in permanent storage as possible. As an aside, I'm more worried about the security on few online sites I've made purchases from that have my CC number.

I don't know who this guy is, but he must be superman. I have a hard enough time FINDING time to take care of all the security measure I need to on a given day at work, let alone having to come home, read the logs of my triple firewall along with remembering my 118559 character password and giving a blood and feces sample in order to log on and check my email.

[Double//Cut]

lol, his passwords probably arent that complex, just a favourite quote written in 1337 or another algorithm

My mates think im paranoid, but their not security pro's, im not as secure as i want to be, but i got 17char md5 passwords, but i also got the tables to break 1-8 char lower alpha numberic symbol 14, it cracked my old pwds...

With his kids, the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If one of children wanted to follow in his daddies footsteps, and tries to hack, the amount of trojans built into skiddie programs is amazing. If his son's computer was comprimised, then its only one more step to his computer.

I agree with everything he says, i enjoy going to sleep at night knowing that even i cant break into my own computer if i needed to. People call me paranoid, then the next day question me about security issues. My fathers computer has increased security, along with the rest of my families. I enjoy going to sleep at night knowing that it'll take more than a skiddie to break into our systems....

But dont get me wrong, most people have fears about spiders or snakes or ghosts, i fear key loggers and 0-days... Im in a bad mood all day if someone else tells me about the latest 0-day before i find out. I think 'if that guy wasnt my friend, he couldve broken in, and all my work would be for nothing'