Security

Tale from the trenches: Physical security failure

Last Friday, a trouble ticket came in saying someone from our satellite campus could not access our database application. I immediately attempted to log in remotely and was unable to do so. The next check revealed that our NLAN link was down and had been since approximately 7 p.m. the night before....

The 25 most popular (and most insecure) passwords of 2012

Distributed passwords: A simple security precaution that works

Everyone of us has one: A user who has a "book" of passwords sitting in plain view at their workstation. This person absolutely insists on keeping passwords written down in longhand and refuses to use any type of password manager software. Yes, the book is usually closed and it's not obviously...

All credit card PIN numbers in the World leaked

Don’t make these five security mistakes

Everyone knows it's not safe out there in cyberspace. Your privacy and your money are at risk all the time if you don't know and practice safe computing. In particular, five security mistakes can really set you up for disaster.

Humor: How to destroy a hard drive in three easy steps

Couldn't resist a bit of Sunday humor... If you are looking to thoroughly and securely wipe a hard drive, here's how to do it:

1. Build a huge Tesla coil (a least 1 million volts);
2. Place hard drive as shown in illustration below;
3. Run Tesla coil for at least one...

Honest Geek prevents potentional personal data disaster

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Send private data securely

In my job as a Network Administrator, I'm constantly called upon to reset passwords to email, network shares and sensitive corporate resources. Up to now, it has been my standard procedure to transmit passwords and other login information only by phone, but this is tedious and time-consuming and...

Carry your passwords in your wallet

A portable app to password protect your USB sticks