Cyber Security Myths and Tips

[NorCalHal]

Thanks New 2 Chronic! Great post!

Over the years, I too have been "paranoid' about posting and forums. It all started with the demise of a little site called "Overgrow". I am sure alot of you know what I am talking about. LEO seized thier servers, with EVERYONES posts/info.
PANIC spread thru the community. Panic like no other. I cannot describe to you the ripple effect that had. And when they arrested folks who were running the site, SHEER PANIC. I, myself, had not posted, or EVEN looked at a MJ site for a few years after that. We were ALL waiting for LEO to come bangin' down doors.
It NEVER happened. There were folks with posts of HUGE operations and pics and all kinds of "incriminating" things. Not ONE "poster" even received a letter or anything from LEO. Just the owners of the site. Mind you, they also ran a seed company, which is the main reason they went down.

But I agree with New 2 Chronic. There simply is not enough resorces to go after folks who post on the internet. The feds just can't do it. And the way I look at it, why would they spend time and effort tracking down small growers, when they can go to Cali and find 100's of storefronts that openly sell weed and clones. That is an eaiser bust and makes National headlines.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

Yeah Im not a lawyer but believe me ive done about as much research on the legalitiy stuff as I have on growing. Do not by any means consider my advice on legal issues rock solid....only suggestions... Research your areas and learn about the law so your prepared as can be.

 

[elmira]

I have seen my friends using their debit card and account details from an internet cafe. Can anyone let me know as to how far this is secured? I feel that this is a breach in security? Please give your inputs on this.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

Your friends are very foolish. While the sites that they visit might be a secured and certified site they are on a public computer system. There are a few ways thier information can be comprimised.

The most common way is for someone to come in, access the computer, drop a Data Miner program onto the computer and leave....

Come back a few days later and collect the information that has been typed at that station. Internet Cafe's are a favorite amoung the hacker community because of the anomosity they have while doing thier deeds from these places.

I would NEVER use my credit card information, online banking, or any of my financial information at an public terminal. Those places are for surfing the net, downloading files, chat, forums, and maybe checking email.....but thats about it...

Hope this helps.

 

[ugmjfarmer]

I've found that I cant anonymously browse the intenet at work. So I've brought out a small program that lets me use my home computer from my workplace workstation, VNC.

I use VNC so that all the history of what websites i visit are where it belongs, private and at home. Its handy.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

I have also used VNC in the past, but that unfortunately opens more ports than I would like at my house.

I use Gotomypc now and can hit my computer at home through a webbrowser....this is my preferred method now.

and you could browse anomomysly at work if you used a free proxy... the only histroy they would see at work is the proxy server web address....but then they would know you are trying to hide something....

 

[tesla]

I just wanted to throw my 2ct in. New_2_Chronic I can't argue with anything you said, good job. I am a Security Admin and umm.. whitehat hacker. I wanted to clarify one thing md.apothecary said in another post "Regardless of the SERVER location, the ISPs record ALL information sent through them in log files, including each of your posts you've ever made through your internet. It's like a huge keystroke recorder. " thats it totally not true, I used to own a isp there is no possible way to collect and store all that info from every isp worldwide. My only concern is with e-mail sent to you from MP with a program that is being used by the feds "'Carnivore". But IMO you don't need to worry about the feds they have bigger fish to fry.

I would suggest everyone to have a updated virus scanner. Becareful downloading illegal software(warez) alot of the botnets today are being installed this way and virus scanner think its a program that you wanted to install. Rumours in the underground believe the feds have their own botnets and capable of sniffing and sending data back to their servers for parsing.
Anonymous proxies are not 100% they can be traced back to you as in the palin email hack. Plus some of the free anonymous proxy servers are really servers that some intelligence agency have out there to collect info.
With this said, with a little precautions everythings cool Grow On!

 

[Hick]

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?p=460091#post460091

I think I'm closing this one, in favor of the identical post in the announcements area...

 

[Hick]

...rather,.. I'll leave this one open for further updates, and leave the other closed as a sticky. I can move relevant, worthy posts into i.

 

[dopestats]

Very informative! Tracking someone down by their IP address is a very time involving task. Furthermore, the fact that you managed to track a ping or some other signal back to a computer doesn't prove that there was an actual person using the computer. It could just be automated software talking to each other..

 

[Tweek]

Thank you so much for the valuable advice and taking the time to give it to us. Glad your on our side dude!

 

[stephengor]

China has become the favorite security bad-guy country. If you believe media hype, that half of Beijing is dotted with malware manufacturing sweat shops turning out some of the most devilishly clever digital pathogens since the Black Death.
There is no doubt that the Chinese military is experimenting with Cyberwarfare techniques and there have been several highly publicized security incidents involving Chinese citizens. But in terms of organized Cybercrime, China is not nearly as involved as the pundits say. By contrast, China has been quite cooperative in working with the international community to address security incidents. In fact, they were instrumental in identifying and shutting down the command and control servers for the Conficker worm. China has also implemented tough Cybercrime litigation and has worked with international law enforcement to apprehend and prosecute cybercriminals.

 

[Rockster]

Sorry chaps,posted in totally the wrong place,soz,my bad.

 

[knowboddy]

It's just the same as any other kind line in the sand.

Like if you're talking about protecting your home against thieves.


The idea isn't to make your home impregnable. It's impossible to accomplish for starters. And it's not to make people believe there's nothing of value. That would require living in squalor (and some morons will still try to rob you).

The object is to make your defenses too inconvenient for the given level of loot to be had. If the thief thinks you've got a couple hundred bucks guarded by a vicious dog, he'll look for the house that doesn't have the dog. If he thinks there's a few thousand bucks beyond the dog they'll look for a way around the dog.


Whether it's hackers or cops, the idea is to just not look interesting enough to waste their time on.

And like he says here, the TV cop investigation stuff, rebuilding deleted files, hacking, etc... that all costs buttloads of money - money they just don't want to spend without a really good reason.

 

[CungaBreath]

What do you guys think of the Tor network? Useful?

 

[medwinbird]

Security is one of the most important factors that could ensure the protection of privacy. In fact, it is the novelty of cyber crime is a problem for contemporary society. Therefore, you should know about the five myths about the security offered by the professionals.

- Having Firewall Equals Safely
-An E-mail from a friend is safe
-Links from Twitter and Facebook are safe
-Hackers target Financial Transaction
-Messages are safe, Attachments are Dangrous.

 

[Oldtyme]

Cool. I thought this thread was locked last I checked : )

Anyways..... How safe is it too browse / post on this & other sites like it?

Can they trace it back to me from my posts? Pictures? General browsing? /etc.

I only ask because this is the first time being active on this "type" of website & I'm pretty paranoid. :O

 

[Hick]

oldtyme.. I guess it's all a matter of perception.
I think "if" they want you bad enough, for what ever reason, they can get you.
BUT.. browsing and posting "IMHO" has little threat of being the source of any problem.
This thread has several good suggestions for protecting yourself. As well as the "Cell phone pictures" thread in the announcements area. It contains information on ways to strip pictures of any possibly identifiable data.

 

[DakotaS]

This all very useful. The OP has more experience as far as time goes, but I am a retired hacker and a current programmer and I would like to agree with everything he has to say. A very good tip if you are paranoid is saving your files in an artificial Win32 Folder (assuming you use Windows as most people do). Just go to C: drive, open WINDOWS then if you want you can go deeper but you really dont need to. Just create a folder titled Win32 or maybe Winsystem or Sys64... really whatever floats your boat. That most likely will never be searched.

You can even make this folder like your desktop by putting a copy of everything on your desktop there and just leaving it to remain open. That way all of your real stuff is hidden, and your have a complete costume for if it is ever searched. Good luck!

 

[Greivel4survival]

Never worry, never, fear, never mind, never dread. half of your perceived time you'll be alive, and of course the other you'll be dead. Fear no man or his technologies.

And yeah, this thread is awesome. I love it when people clarify reality for others over the optics of fear.