Posts Tagged ‘Security’

Okay, here you are again. Another computer from another (self-proclaimed) client for you to fix. So, let’s boot this thing and see what’s wrong with it this time. Okay, first obstacle; logging into the client’s user account. Now for me, repairs would usually pause here while I’m waiting for the moment I can get a hold of my client and ask him or her for the correct password. Annoying…

more »

Ultimate Fish Battle Royale

Is NTFS really secure?

I have Mac PC, in which I have created a Windows partition and have installed Windows using Boot Camp. If I log in to the Mac OS, I can read all the files from the Windows partition from Mac. If I compare the same scenario from within Windows, Windows claims to secure a user’s private files (stored in My Documents for instance) from other users with equal or less privilege. I was expecting to see the same protection from Mac as well. I was expecting an error message in Mac to show that these files are inaccessible, if I try to see or open them. Can someone explain if my perception is right or am I missing something?

While the question specifically mentions NTFS the answer applies to almost every file system that is able to be accessed by another operating system and has not had native support for that file system built in.

The same would apply to EXT2/3/4 (Linux) support on Windows, HFS (Mac) support on Linux or any combination of file systems that are standard for one system and just barely “supported” on another.

more »

This is first episode of the Ask Different Podcast, an unofficial podcast about Apple and related technologies created by members of the Ask Different community.

Your hosts for this episode are Kyle Cronin, Jason Salaz, and Nathan Greenstein:

• We begin by discussing the return of the Stack Overflow Exchange podcast, and some of the interesting observations Joel made about where Stack Exchange users are coming from.
• Speculation abounds as we discuss iPhone tracking and the location visualizations as provided by iPhone Tracker.
• Jason provides tips for being safe on the web. Including using a strong Password Encryption/Storage service such as LastPass, and enabling always-use-SSL features on sites such as Twitter, Google Mail, and Facebook.
• Nathan talks about Mac security, such as enabling Secure Erase features, and protecting your computer at boot time by setting a Firmware Password.
• Kyle helps keep your iOS devices safe with the free “Find My iPhone” feature of MobileMe for iPhone 4 owners, and setting a passcode (or password) on your device.
• Speculation returns as we discuss the recent revelation that Dropbox is not necessarily a completely private storage service.
• Our Question of the Week was asked by nuc. “What are some great Dropbox uses?”.
  • Dropvox is $0.99 on the iTunes App Store.
  • MacDropAny is free.
  • StepMania is free (and fun!), although it is not directly related to Dropbox.
• Our App of the Week is Portal 2! Portal 1 has been Mac compatible since the day Steam was released for Mac OS X, and Portal 2 has been Mac-compatible from the very beginning.

This episode was recorded on Saturday, April 23rd. You can subscribe to this podcast via RSS or iTunes. If you’d like to get in touch with us, leave a comment on this post or email us at podcast@askdifferent.net.

Download

Not too recently, I answered two questions about Wi-Fi security. Although both about different subjects concerning Wi-Fi security, I thought it might be nice to sum up some Wi-Fi security techniques/tips, some known by “the general public” (read: non-superusers), some less known.

Is it a good idea to have Wi-Fi turned on all the time? How to see who is using my Wi-Fi?

So, what do I use to secure my network?

That’s an interesting question… It seems there’s no ultimate measure you can take to completely make your Wi-Fi network bullet proof. Like pretty much any other security method, there’s a way so hack and circumvent the measure taken. The ideal scenario seems to be to use different techniques to secure that oh-so-important wireless connection to the outside world.

In this blog post I’ll try to shed some light on which techniques are available, explain a little about how they work and share some tips that have always helped me.

more »