List of Opera browser security and privacy widgets

Author: Frank | Category: other

I am a long time Opera browser user, when I first downloaded Opera, around ten years ago (there was no Firefox browser back then, its predecessor was called Netscape), it took me a few days to get used to it as I only knew Internet Explorer. I consider the three or four days it took me to learn Opera browser tricks and configuration one of the best investments I ever made.

As a long time user of I am probably biased towards the Opera browser, when you learn most tricks about a piece of software you will usually work quicker with it than something you do not know very well.

Opera is the internet browser I use and it is the best for my needs, it does not necessarily means it will also be good for you, maybe some Firefox addon that is really a must have for something you do will not be available in Opera, or something else that your browser has and Opera can not match.

I have used six other browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Konqueror, Safari, OffByOne and K-Meleon. Besides Internet Explorer which usability goes beyond all common sense, I like all of the others.

Opera browser9.6 layout above

For those who use the Opera browser, here goes a list of security and privacy widgets that may come in handy to add:

Text Encryption widgets:

UniCrypt: A widget to encrypt/decrypt given string. Supported algorithms are: MD5, SHA1, SHA256, URI, base64, xxTEA, AES, Blowfish algorithms are supported

Text Encoder: Encode and Decode Morse code and Base 64.

€ncryptør: €ncryptør lets you encode your text so that only other people using €ncryptør (or yourself) can view its contents. Note:This is not secure encryption against the Mi5!

EnKoder: This is a text encoder/decoder based on the TEAencoder . It supports paraphrase/password encryption.

Password Hasher: Password hasher creates secure passwords by performing an HMAC SHA1 hash of a general parameter (Gmail, Yahoo!, etc) and a “master password” provided by the user.

NOTE: Be aware that these encryption widgets will not stop professional snopers like Mi5  or CiA from reading your text! But they will slow them down.

Opera widgets running on MAC OS

Disposable Email Address widgets:

Yopmail: Have a disposable email address for Internet registrations. All inboxes are available without registration and password.

Temporary Inbox: This widget uses the service of Temporaryinbox to create and check throw-away email addresses.

Computer Internet Protocol research widgets:

IP Calculator: This widget calculates network information from a given IP address and netmask, address are shown both in dot and bit representation.

GWhois: Get the whois information for a domain name.

IP Address: This widget shows your current public IP address, for users with dynamic IP addresses.

Web Node Info: The widget shows the Response headers of various Web nodes/resources. It also highlights redirects  and response codes. It supports the HTTP and HTTPS URI schemes.

Binarization: Simple conversion text to Binary and Binary to text.

Internet Search Widget:

Google Hacks: Search the Internet using not well-known tricks to search for music, books, videos, lyrics, fonts, applications and torrents.

Download the Opera browser:

Secure your browser to avoid British police hacking

Author: Frank | Category: anonymous surfing

British police is now allowed to hack into personal computers without a warrant. Be very careful not to piss off your local police officer because he/she may go fishing into your computer to try and find out if you have paid your taxes this year or if your cat vaccines are up to date.

In order to carry out mass surveillance of  personal computers a huge amount of UK police officers will have to be given computing skills, this is highly unlikely to happen. It would not make any sense for the Government to spend millions of pounds training police officers in computers for the occassional use with the antiwar or animal rights protester.

Malicious computer hacker

Suspects of terrorism and other serious offences will be likely to have a highly skilled and experienced computer forensics  officer on their case, the others will have Robbie the bobby.

In my oppinion your local copper will be trained in 15 minutes on how to use a  trojan horse like eBlaster or Win-Spy. The police will send it to you by email, or you can be made to  inadvertently download it through your internet browser visiting a campaign site or forum. Then Robbie the bobby can use his point and click mouse to spy on you like a cheap 007 James Bond agent, with no knowledge at all about networking, computer antiforensics tools, encryption, cracking or anything else that requires a brain.

You will need a good internet browser to protect your family privacy and stop Robbie the bobby from spying on you and your children. Besides the obvious advice of saving all your holiday snaps inside an encrypted container, you should also use a secure an updated internet browser that will not be exploited to plant a trojan horse in your computer.

Innocent computer user

Multiplatform Internet Browsers (Unix,Windows and MAC):

Based on Presto rendering engine:

1. Opera Internet Browser(Unix,Windows and MAC)

Based on Mozilla Gecko rendering engine:

1. Seamonkey Internet Browser(Unix,Windows and MAC)
2. Firefox Internet Browser(Unix,Windows and MAC)
3. Flock Internet Browser(Windows only)
4. K-Meleon Internet Browser(Windows only)

Based on Webkit/KHTML rendering engine:

1. Google Chrome Internet Browser(Windows only)
2. Safari Internet Browser(Windows and MAC)
3. Konqueror Internet Browser(Unix,Windows and MAC)

MAC only Internet Browsers:

1. Camino Internet Browser
2. OmniWeb Internet Browser
3. iCab Internet Browser

Unix Only Internet Browsers :

1. Epiphany Internet Browser
   
2. Elinks text only Internet Browser
3. Dillo Internet Browser

IE Embedded Internet Browsers:

These are not really proper internet browsers but more like skins that embed in Internet Explorer. They are an improvement over Internet Explorer an add some extra features, but as they use the same base code and rendering engine as IE the security vulnerabilites will be corresponding and you get no major extra security gains.

Internet Explorer is probably the worst browser out there in functionality, security and privacy, but this is or should be a free World, if you want to risk unknow people knowing everything about you while you know nothing about them, then feel free to do so.

1. Maxthor IE Embedded Internet Browser
2. PhaseOut IE Embedded Internet Browser
3. AvantBrowser IE Embedded Internet Browser

PhaseOut IE embedded browser skin

Internet browsers that run from a USB key or encrypted container:

This is the best way to avoid leaving any tracks on your computer, and a must have for those using the Library or an internet cafe for internet surfing.

If you do all your internet browsing from inside an encrypted hardrive or encrypted USB key then all the cache and history will be stored there too. But do not get too excited yet as huge amount of private data can still be recovered from the operating system.

The files you download and view may be stored on a temporaty folder by Windows Media Player, Microsoft Word, etc… The names of the files you view can also be stored in unsuspected places inside the OS, and all USB thumbdrives have a unique ID number that will be stored in the Windows registry as soon as you plug it in.

Thanks to this unique number it is possible to proof that the owner of that thumbdrive used it on that computer and it is also possible to find out the maker/brand of your thumbdrive without even having it.

1. K-Meleon Portable Internet Browser
2. OffByone Portable Internet Browser
3. Arora Portable Internet Browser
4. Firefox Portable Internet Browser
5. Google Chrome Portable Internet Browser
6. Opera Portable Internet Browser

Internet browsers highlights:

The Safari browser has a privacy mode that will do all your internet surfing in RAM and will not store anything on your hard disk provided you have enough amount of RAM available.

OffByone is the smallest internet browser in the World, it is only 850Kb in size and it runs completely in RAM, which means no traces of your internet surfing will be left on the computer. It supports SSL sites but OffByone will have problems navigating webpages that make heavy use of Javascript and cascade style sheets.

Konqueror internet browser support for Windows and MAC is in beta, which means it may work or may not. Konqueror origins are in Unix and KDE.

SeaMonkey, Flock and Opera internet browsers are an all in one internet application suite, they include embedded features like an IRC chat client, newsreader and notepad.

You should avoid embedded Internet Explorer internet browsers as they do not offer any major security advantadge over IE.

What internet browser is the best?

As individuals we all have different needs and wants, it is not possible to advise an absolute browser for everyone without knowing what they want from it and how they will use it.

With so many choices available I would simply avoid Internet Explorer like the plague due to its tracked record of security problems. On my next post I will tell you the internet browser I use myself and what features I like and do not like from it.

Computer owned

Video: No2ID, stop the UK database state now

Author: Frank | Category: other

After rejecting the plans five times, the House of Lords finally dropped its resistance to fingerprint and take mugshots of everyone on the island.

Compulsory ID cards?

Of course not! You will not be required to use an ID card unless you wish to work, use the banking or health system, travel or receive benefits.

Will your data be secure on their hands?

Government items to have disappeared since 1997 include a motorbike, laptops, mobile phones, satellite phones, BlackBerries, a Victorian desk, numerous satellite navigation devices, a £10 wall clock, a toaster and 12 rolls of gaffer tape.

And this is not me making it up, this list is the written answer supplied to Mike Weir, the Scottish National Party MP for Angus.

No2ID Video

Review: Drivecrypt Plus Pack v3.95, full disk encryption

Author: Frank | Category: encryption

Review last updated on 01st April 2009

Some people out there are antagonistic to encryption software that is not open source and can not be reviewed for backdoors. Drivecrypt Plus Pack is one such propietary encryption product.

There maybe some reason why you may want to use it, for example some special feature of compatibility issues. I decided to download Drivecrypt Plus Pack after Truecrypt 6.1a started to give me problems at boot up time.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack full disk encryption has very few things in common with Truecrypt in relation to usability and functions, if you are a former Truecrypt user you will need to read the DCPP manual to understand some terms and features not present in Truecrypt.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack v3.94 Install

DriveCrypt Plus Pack allows you to secure your disk, including removable media, with a powerful and proven encryption algorithm (AES-256), AES-256 is a FIPS approved symmetric encryption algorithm.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack main features:

- Full disk encryption, encrypts 100% of your hard disk including the operating system.

- Pre-boot authentication, before the machines boots a password is requested to decrypt the disk and start your machine.

- It can create an encrypted hidden operating system which existence can be denied, this is useful if you are ever forced to give out your password.

- Strong 256bit AES encryption

- Optional USB-Token authentication at pre-boot level

Before you start encrypting your disk you must install what DCPP calls BootAuth, this is the Master Boot Record, if you attempt to encrypt the disk without BootAuth you will be stopped and a message will warn you.

The Good Stuff

Once you are registered with Securstar website you will have access to video tutorials online about how to use DriveCrypt Plus Pack.

DCPP allows the use of a USB key as a password, but if you think that the Stasi or any other repressive government agency can raid your home, you will be better off memorasing your passphrase.

Drivecrypt Plus Pack has specific administator/user rights, ideal for corporations and multiuser computers.

The master password to access the encryption keys held in your keystore can be hidden in pictures (.bmp) or sounds (.wav) using steganography.

You can set up a logon password that when entered will destroy the BootAuth, deleting the bootloader and making the disk unbootable. To use this against a repressive regime avoiding being accussed of obstruction to justice you can write the destruction password down next to your computer with the word “password” on it, and the Stasi will enter it for you in their computer forensics laboratory, destroying the bootloader themselves.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack comes with various BootAuth, this is how DCPP names the logon screen, one of them consists of a black BootAuth with the message “Hard disk failure”. It will not fool a computer forensics expert but can be optimal to fool your noisy flatmate.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack manual also explains how you can create your own customized logon screen with an image editor.

Securstar, the company selling Drivecrypt Plus Pack, accepts payments by check, Paypal, credit card or bank transfer. There is a Windows Vista 64 bit version available as well as the most widely used 32 bit.

You can test the integrity of the encryption method with a small utility included in Drive Crypt Plus Pack.

You can assign a hotkey to lock your computer if you have to go away from your computer for a few moments, this will activate a password protected screensaver.

If you have any problem or query Securstar provides support via email.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack Keystorage

The Bad Stuff

The software is propietary, nobody can access the source code and it only works in Windows.

Drive Crypt Plus Pack help file and instuctions are poor and not detailed enough,  the Red Screen and BootAuth destruction features in particular are poorly documented.

Their official online support team, although replying quickly, in my experience, are not too knowledgeable of the product.

Raid and dynamic disks are not supported, normally this should not be a problem for home users, only for businesses, it may still work but Securstar does not support it.

You can not use the non hidden operating system normally, only have it created in case you are forced to reveal the password.

A computer forensics investigator will be able to find out the last time you accessed that non hidden operating sytem by looking at the file timestamps.

Notice that Truecrypt hidden operating system feature also has the same problem, as the predicament arises from Windows itself,  download Mr. Bruce Schneir Defeating Deniable Encrypted File Systems research paper for more info on this.

You will need internet access to register the software.

Conclusion

Assuming you trust closed source full disk encryption software DriveCrypt will be a great choice. Unlike other similar commercial software like PGP whole disk encryption, DCPP has some features ideal for home users.

Some examples are: Creating an operating system which existance can not be proved, capability to destroy BootAuth entering a determined password to make the disk unbootable, use of steganography to hide your encryption keys inside a picture or sound file, realistic hard disk failure logon black screen and the possibility of creating your own preboot screen with a simple photo editor.

Truecrypt vs. DriveCrypt Plus Pack:

DriveCrypt Plus Pack is a commercial venture and can not compete in price against Truecrypt, which is free.

Truecrypt source code can be checked for backdoors and reliability (although to the best of my knowledge nobody qualified has looked into its source code yet and said it is safe).

DriveCrypt Plus Pack has a support team that will help you in case of problems, Truecrypt has not.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack has some extra features like customizing of boot up screen, hiding of encryption keys for the keystore through steganography and USB authentication token support.

Truecrypt works in Linux as well as Windows, if you encrypt an external hard disk with Truecrypt in Windows you can then open that encrypted disk with your Linux computer.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack does not force you to burn a CD before you install the software, this is my greatest grunge against Truecrypt developers. See my work around to install Truecrypt on a computer without CD drive if you want to install Truecrypt on your netbook.

Truecrypt instructions manual is first rate, and I think everyone should read it even if they do not use Truecrypt. Not only it contains help about their product but it also explains how you should tweak Windows to avoid data leaks. Truecrypt also has a wider choice of encryption algorythms than DriveCrypt Plus Pack, but DCPP AES256 is considered a standard and this is the one I would use with any encryption program.

DriveCrypt Plus Pack BootAuth in hidden mode

PS:

Whole disk encryption booting up problem solved!

I have experienced this with Truecrypt and DriveCrypt Plus Pack, this is not a software issue, it can happen with ANY whole disk encryption program.

Your computer hard disk will spin non stop and you will see this message on the screen while booting up your computer:

>Verifying DMI pool data…
>Boot from CD:
>Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter

This is a BIOS problem, as far as I know there is no easy solution other than getting into the BIOS and disabling the booting from CD option, you should be able to do this on any modern BIOS. If you then one day need to boot from a CD-Rom you will need to enable this option again.

Note: After some useful feedback from one of DriveCrypt Plus Pack developers, Mr. Shaun Hollingworth,  I modified/updated this review on 01st April 2009

Mi5 Spy chief Jonathan Evans, Britain’s buffoon

Author: Frank | Category: other

Jonathan Evans the director general of Mi5 since 2007 said recently in an interview that online phone calls are enabling terrorists to communicate with less risk and that online phone calls pose a risk to national security.

Instead of admitting that the UK government plans to log every phone call, internet use and email is flawed and a waste of taxpayers money, he much rather instill fear on society about dangerous terrorists.

Why am I not surprised that Mr Jonathan Evans said to the Daily Telegraph “If we are to maintain our capability, we are going to have to make decisions [on powers to intercept communications] in the next few years”. But doesn’t this man hasn’t got enough material to peek on living in the country in the World with most CCTV per habitant?

The environment in the UK is getting right so that at some point in the near future every citizen in the UK will have a surgically implanted microchip connected to Mi5 Headquarters for them to know when a citizen plans on throwing rubbish in the public pavement or avoid paying their council tax, that day maybe Mr. Evans and his voyeur friends wil be satisfied.

Something is wrong in the UK when one of the maximum responsable for spying on citizens admits that if you are a terrorist you can download Skype for free then make phone calls without them being able to log neither keep records.

Whilst James Rickards and his wife Marylin with their two little children will have all their Viagra and cancer treatment drug shopping online logged, Bin Laden friends will not, surely even a low level terrorist knows how to use VoIP software, still Britain is going ahead logging every phone call ever made in the country, with the exception of terrorists using very sophisticated equipment such as free online software to make free online calls.

If this man had some dignity he would be stepping out of his job and hand it over to someone who understands that you can not put your foot on citizens right to a private life and then claim that terrorists who know how to use VoIP will get away with it anyway.

This man is  slowly winning the idiot of the year award and we are still in February, another big achievement for Mr. Evans that is not likely to figure on his autobiography. Let’s hope Her Majesty’s buffoon is better at analyzing data than he is at scaring the shit out of people.

Why use VoIP software for calls?

Making a voice over IP phone call you will be avoiding the big voyeur agencies to keep long lasting and embarassing logs, and you can even improve that by encrypting the calls so that if the voyeurs instruct your ISP to route all your internet traffic through them, you will still be protected.

The latest generation of mobile phones can use VoIP software for making phone calls so you don’t even need a computer for using VoIP and avoid unwanted logs.

Ways to encrypt your Voice over IP phone calls:

1- Zfone^TM: A secure and free VoIP phone software product which lets you make encrypted phone calls over the Internet, Zfone uses a new protocol called ZRTP and is available as a plugin for existing soft VoIP clients converting them into phones that make calls encrypted.

Zfone does not work with Skype as it uses a closed proprietary protocol, which they do not publish. Zfone source code on the other hand, is available for review.

2- Virtual Private Network: Route all your traffic through an offshore (outside your home country) VPN, you can look at my past review of VforVPN or search for “secure VPN” in Ixquick, there are many other VPN choices available.

3- Built-in-Encryption: Some VoIP software offers encrypted calling capability in their software. TiVi will even encrypt video calls over the internet, its soft phone incorporates the ZRTP Zphone cryptographic and authentication protocol.

4- Secure Real-Time Transfer Protocol: Network administrators only! SRPT protects VoIP calls by creating an encryption key for each call, is ideal for protecting voice over IP network traffic as it has a minimal effect on the quality of the calls.

5 – Transport Layer Security and IP security:  Network administrators only! Transport Layer Security (TLS) and IP Security (IPSec) are  the most common ways businesses  encrypt their VoIP calls, TLS encrypts data transferred between two applicationis while IPSec encrypts information for the devices and their applications.

Software for VoIP calls:

1- Linphone (Windows and Linux)

2- Ekiga (Windows,NetBSD,Linux,OpenSolaris)

3- TiVi Phone (Symbian or Windows Mobile cellphone or PDA, also PC)

Get free privacy&security software through Trialpay

Author: Frank | Category: other

I had a virtual credit card with $1 credit left and I thought about giving a go at Trialpay, a company that promises you free software in exchange for signing up with one of their sponsors. I am very satisfied with the results, I got two products for free.

The first rule of Capitalism, is that no business will ever give you anything for free, one way or another they expect to make a profit out of you, with money, free advertising or whatever. Trialpay is no immune from this rule, very few of their “trials” involve no money, I only spotted two and both of them made it difficult for me to get out of the trial without paying.

1- I signed up with Realplay first, the product they were selling was absolute rubbish, a subscription to a radio station online that I can listen through other means, you will have 14 days to cancel their garbage, but they will not inform you of their little trick until you are going to cancel.

They do not accept cancelations online, you will have to call them over the phone to some US number. Luckily I then spotted that deaf people can’t  be expected to call over the phone, I contacted their representative over their 24hours online chat and I told her I was deaf so I could not cancel over the phone, she checked with her supervisor and quickly cancelled my membership. My software license was already in my inbox, cancelling the membership does not  render it invalid. The conditions where that I signed up for the trial which I did, keeping their garbage is optional.

2- Emusic, I used them to get my second free software, you will have 7 days to cancel before they charge your credit card and they allow you to cancel it online, the trick with this company is that they will not send you the license for your choosen software until 48 hours have passed.

You will have to cancel on the third day, and make sure you dont download more than 25 songs or your credit card will be charged. You will be asked to download their software to play the songs, on that screen look at the right hand side and very small you will find a small line in grey colour that says “skip”, click it.

3-Godaddy, they say if you spend $2.50 with them you get your privacy software for free, what they do not tell you is that the cheapest service they have on their page is a .com domain for $9.99, I dediced to skip on Godaddy.

Conclusion

You can easily get a free license to your choosen privacy and security software with the Emusic trial, with Realplay it will work too calling them to a US number, if you spend $10 on Godaddy you will get your choosen product as well. Trialpay has problems with the Opera browser I would advise you go with Firefox for visiting them.

Depending on what country IP Trialpay detects some sponsors will not be available and new ones may appear. If you use a virtual credit card without funds to register the risk of accidental theft will be reduced. You don’t even need to facilitate your real name, in that case the license for your software will be issued to the fake name of your choice.

Software payable through Trialpay

TitanBackup: Backup utility with incremental and differential backups, as well as AES 256 bit encryption.

TitanBackup through Trialpay: http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=085c9f9&tid=A7D8fAl

- ZoneAlarm ForceField: Virtualized browser security applest to protect your browser from executing malicious scripts.

ZoneAlarm ForceField Trialpay: http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=075a676

- Tracks EraserPro: Erase all tracks of your Internet activity.

Tracks EraserPro Trialpay: http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=hefwcx

-Tenebril GhostSurf: An anonymous Internet connection that hides your IP address.

Tenebril GhostSurf Trialpay: http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=c26caa2

-Avira AntiVir Premium: Protects you against threats from viruses, worms, trojans, rootkits, phishings, adware, spyware and bots.

Avira AntiVir Premium Trialpay: http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=3c168ad

- Roboform: Manage and encrypt your passwords, fill in forms and syncronize computers, it does not work with the Opera browser.

Roboform Trialpay: http://www.trialpay.com/checkout/?c=djojaj

-ICGHosting Linux VPS: A VPS is Virtual Private Server and it can be used for webhosting or SSH tunnelling in between many others.

ICGHosting Linux VPS Trialpay: http://www.igchosting.com/linux_vps.shtml select “Order Free with TrialPay”

Video: NBC Dateline online trap

Author: Frank | Category: child porn

Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC, the Saturday night edition of Dateline features a special on true crime series and includes the so called “To Catch a Predator” program.

This video shows how these low life journalists create sting operations posing as a teenager under the age of consent in a chatroom so that people who may have never committed a crime find themselves tempted with a fictitious underage kid online agreeing to a date with them inside a house full of CCTV for the TV crew to film them live while arrested by the local police, who seem more than happy helping a commercial TV station to increase their branding exposure and dollar profits.

Great for TV ratings and great for the though police too so they can spread fear of the internet dangers in between the population, this will help passing internet restrictions and censorship laws at a later date.

Review: Uncensored Usenet provider Altopia

Author: Frank | Category: anonymous surfing

Altopia founder created the company in 1995 after having been compelled to censor Usenet groups while working as a system administrator at college and they have been providing uncensored Usenet access since then.

The Good Stuff

Unlike other knee jerk Usenet providers like Giganews, which will happily censor newsgroups at the drop of a hat if they believe those groups to carry child porn, and will fund internet censoring organisations like the IWF.

Altopia has pledged to carry any group you request and is a contributor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union, they carry over 122,000 newsgroups.

At Altopia tou can find groups with names like:

alt.fan.adolf-hitler
alt.binaries.erotica.rape
alt.bin.pictures.child.childpornography
alt.terrorists.build-nukes

Make no mistake, I am not into the business of posting the names of groups that carry nazi, bomb making and child porn propaganda.

People carrying out illegal activities will be smart enough not to post illegal material on a group that announces them, they will more likely to choose a group dealing with anonymous encrypted messages like alt.anonymous.messages

Altopia ackwoledges on their FAQ that they know they carry groups named after illegal activities but anyone who has been on Usenet long enough knows that the name of a newsgroup does not necessarily mean the content is the same.

Altopia Corporation also provides free of charge Secure Socker Layer (SSL) connexion on all accounts, with alternative ports to the standard NNTP SSL 563. Port 443 (usually HTTPS) is available on Altopia and very rarely blocked by ISP.

Secure Socket Layer will stop a third party eaveasdropping on your downloads, which Altopia claims are not logged by them, they will of course still log your uploads, this is necessary to avoid abuse and spammers, all Usenet providers without exception log the uploads.

I have contacted Altopia support in at least six occassions and all six of them they replied to me in under 24 hours, even on weekends, you can be pretty sure that if you have any problem or query it will not take long for them to reply to you.

Altopia has a test account server providing access to the altnet and news hierarchies only:

Server: news.altopia.com
Username: testnntp
Password: altnet1

You can check Altopia retention at https://www.altopia.com/retention/retention.html

The Bad Stuff

You can only pay with credit card, and their binaries retention is really bad, at the time of writing this, multibinaries larger than twenty parts were as low as ten days retention. The account is not set up instantly, it takes a few hours.

Altopia does not do block accounts, very few Usenet providers do, I reccomend Astraweb if you need a block account, I have ,used Astraweb in the past and like Altopia they do not censor groups and allow SSL connexions on alternative ports.

Conclusion

You can find Usenet providers out there that will have a higher binary retention rate than Altopia but this will be useless if that provider does not carry the group you want. Those providers will also be far more expensive, as at the time of writing this Altopia is one of cheapest Usenet providers.

If you need an uncensored newsprovider with SSL and far higher binary retention than Altopia, I reccomend you use Astraweb which has all that and 200 days binary retention.

Altopia is a real uncensored Newsgroup provider unlike others that announce themselves as such but then have small letters on their terms and conditions.

I am a former Octanews user and once and I switched Usenet provider to Altopia for unrelated reasons I realised of all the groups that Octanews does not carry and all I was missing.

http://www.altopia.com

If you are intetested in privacy and computer security here goes a list of groups for you to check out:

alt.privacy
alt.privacy.anon-server
alt.anonymous.messages
alt.computer.security
alt.security.scramdisk
alt.security.pgp
comp.security.misc
comp.security.ssh
sci.crypt

Binaries search online:
Binaries.nl: http://beta.binaries.nl/
Binsearch: http://www.binsearch.info/

Video: Computer Forensic & Investigation

Author: Frank | Category: computer forensics

A computer forensics professional explains the basics of computer forensics, how data is recovered from people’s computers and what challenges they face.

This is only an introduction to what computer a forensic expert does, recommended for begginers.

Metasploit Anti-Forensic Investigation Arsenal (MAFIA)

Author: Frank | Category: computer forensics

These are high level antiforensic tools, not to be used by little girls, you will need a good understanding of computers to know what you are doing:

1- Timestomp – First ever tool that allows you to modify all four NTFS timestamp values: modified, accessed, created, and entry modified.

2- Slacker – First ever tool that allows you to hide files within the slack space of the NTFS file system.

3- Sam Juicer – A Meterpreter module that dumps the hashes from the SAM, but does it without ever hitting disk.

These are not new tools, they have been around for a couple of years already and they are still as useful as when they came out. You can download them at Metasploit website, a highly reccomended place for all those interested in antiforensics.

The next time your laptop gets seized at the border because the Customs Officer  did not get his usual bribe, or got pissed off that your wife hooters are bigger than his dwarfed and rusty piece of flesh he calls wife at home. Make sure the corrupt officers get to confiscate a full encrypted laptop and a thumbdrive UNENCRYPTED with all file timestamps changed to 20th April, 1889, a date they will be familiar with, as that is when Hitler was born.

http://www.metasploit.net/research/projects/antiforensics/