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Encrypted digital message software applications and services - Page 2

post #16 of 21
8/25/10 at 10:35pm
Thread Starter 

I have to revive this thread by asking community members which specific VPN service providers exist on the Internet. I did a cursory search and I found this web page to be quite informative and useful:

 

http://filesharefreak.com/2008/10/18/total-anonymity-a-list-of-vpn-service-providers/

 

If I may ask community members, then which if any do you pay your subscription to? Why did you select it?

 

I may pay for a monthly subscription to a premium VPN service provider in September 2010. Right now, I am actively engaged in research phase.

 

I would be grateful for feedback from community members on this one because it involves yet another monthly subscription for me. Thank you very much.

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post #17 of 21
8/25/10 at 10:43pm
Thread Starter 

I just downloaded and installed Hot Spot Shield 1.49 for Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 bit.

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post #18 of 21
8/26/10 at 2:43am

I would be wary of that software as a quick google search reveals a decent amount of reports of OS lagginess/BSODs after installing it  and difficulty removing the software. Seems very spyware-like, if not simply bloatware.


Edited by Nebby - 8/26/10 at 2:47am
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post #19 of 21
8/26/10 at 3:52am
Thread Starter 

OK. I am going to uninstall it and do a cold boot. Thanks.

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post #20 of 21
8/28/10 at 11:32pm

I recently did an overhaul of my personal security policies.  I store all of my passwords/financial info within KeePass.  KeePass has this really cool feature where it hashes your password N times (N is like 1 million for me) so that it takes ~1 sec to verify your password.  This makes brute forces attacks implausible, so I feel pretty safe even with my 10 character password. 

 

I have a TrueCrypt volume for all my financial documents.  I also bought a fingerprint scanner http://www.amazon.com/Eikon-Digital-Privacy-Manager-Fingerprint/dp/B0018E72TY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1283062842&sr=8-1, which stores all of my passwords encrypted within the device.  Yes, someone can get my fingerprint and beat it.  But that is not a scenario I feel worth protecting against.  Plus you need the physical device itself because I guess it salts the encryption with a device specific code.  It is really nice, it fills in all of my web passwords automatically.  Plus, once I register a site, my wife can then get in to it too because I registered her finger as a part of my hand. 

 

I VPN into my university whenever at hot-spots, which is like never.  I also have a hard drive on the network in my schools lab, which I back up to through the VPN periodically.  This protects against losing my data to fire/theft.  Although, frankly, my data isn't that interesting.

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post #21 of 21
8/29/10 at 12:57pm
Thread Starter 

Ironkey has a built in user ID and password storage and retrieval system that is encrypted until I unlock the drive. It is convenient and easy to use. As for biometric fingerprint readers, I have an external NIST 128 bit encrypted hard drive with a fingerprint reader encased in an aluminum shell and powered by USB 2.0. It is 60 GB and I can reformat the drive to change the size of the unencrypted and encrypted partitions. This is where I store a local backup of my most critical files.

 

While I still do have a need for an external 2.0 TB hard drive utilizing USB 3.0 technology, what I already have right now is sufficient and it will carry me through for the rest of this upcoming fall semester.

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