Category: Privacy & Encryption

Good Compsec Practices for Preppers, by T.

Compsec is a subset of OPSEC that is concerned with computer security. It can not be ignored if you plan to use computers now and after a SHTF situation. The personal computer is a powerful tool to help cope with any disaster or survival situation. The capacity for enormous data storage in a very small footprint makes it a valuable resource when the grid and net go down. You will have all the information you need at your finger tips; first aid and medical info, maps and topography, equipment and firearms manuals, personal records and pictures, and the list goes …


Two Letters Re: Questions About FRS Radio Capabilities

Sir: I’ll establish my bona fides by stating that I am a General class Amateur Radio licensee with extensive experience in the VHF and UHF radio bands. While I applaud your promotion of the MURS radio for general use, it is not the best choice for the gentleman residing in the concrete condos in Florida. Penetration of concrete and steel structures is significantly better (by approximately 30%) at UHF frequencies (as used by FRS/GMRS radios) than at the VHF frequencies as used by MURS. Though free air range favors VHF, UHF penetrates obstacles better, assuming the effective radiated power (ERP) …


The Grand Illusion: G8 – 1 = Cold War II?

Perhaps Anatoliy Golitsyn was right. He was a high level Soviet defector that predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union, claiming that perestroika and glasnost were charades that had been planned for decades by the Soviet-era KGB leadership to strategically deceive the West into thinking that we had “won” the Cold War. Some evidence: the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, Russia’s nuclear threats against Poland, and Putin’s hints of positioning ICBMs in Cuba. (As I’ve written before, history doesn’t exactly repeat itself, but it often rhymes.) Was Golitsyn right? The West may have been the victim of the greatest dezinformatisaya …


Letter Re: Advice on Preparedness for Travelers?

Mr. Rawles, I just picked up two rugged 4GB USB memory sticks at a rather good price of $15 each. ($19.99 less a mail-in rebate of $5.) Your readers might consider them for their emergency kits to store scanned in copies of their legal documents, insurance, investments and personal records and photos. This isn’t bullets and butter but might just prove more valuable than both when trying to get a replacement social security card or passport. The 10 year warranty is awfully nice so keep your receipt. Maybe you should scan that and save it on the memory stick too! …


Letter Re: Preparedness for Martial Law–Finding Gaps in Bilateral Rendition Treaties

James; This might seem like an odd [question], but have you given any thought to the [possible] aftermath of a major WMD terrorist attack, in which martial law is clamped down on the USofA? In times like that, political freedom might just evaporate. For [those of] us that have been [politically] outspoken–(I’m one of those cranky old guys with hundreds of published Letters To The Editor, and with one of those big Ron Paul [campaign] signs in my front yard)–where could we go in the event of some sort of round up? Now, in peril of sounding even more odd: …


Letter Re: Keeping a Low Profile is Crucial for Preparedness

Hi Jim, I agree with you that you shouldn’t “get so paranoid that you withdraw to hide under a rock” when using the Internet. Take precautions, certainly, but strike a balance. To illustrate why total privacy is practically impossible while making use of the Internet, here’s a discussion about recent work done with “de-anonymize” algorithms. In short, the researchers were able to identify 99% of anonymous users by comparing different datasets, one anonymous, and one not. Further, there have been studies with publicly available census data that show a person can be reasonably identified by all sorts of seemingly innocuous …


Identity Theft–The Jury Duty Scam

The following is one of those items that widely gets circulated via e-mail, but this one is legitimate and I think that warrants posting to the blog: “Be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surfaced. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she …


Letter Re: Keeping a Low Profile is Crucial for Preparedness

James, I have to disagree with some of C.D.’s measures listed in his letter (i.e. using Scroogle and Zone Alarm) and refer your readership to the best article I’ve yet seen on the great difficulty in online anonymity: The Ugly Truth About Online Anonymity Also note comment on the linked article 12 – even if all else could be secured, the moment you behave according to your established surfing profile, you’ll be spotted. Kind Regards, – J. in Kyrgyzstan JWR Replies: I have my own perspective about online activities: Do the best that you can to cover your cyber trail, …


Letter Re: Keeping a Low Profile is Crucial for Preparedness

Jim, My missus and I have been into “prepping” for about 15 years. Our house has a basement and it is practically wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with shelves–with just narrow aisles in between. The shelves are chockablock with storage food (all labeled and organized “FIFO“-style), medical supplies, assorted “field” type gear, tools, barter/charity stuff, ammo cans, propane cylinders (that fit our camp stove and camping lantern), reels of field phone wire, paper products, and so forth. Following the example of Mr. Whiskey (from your “Profiles“) we have recently built up 27 sets of designated “charity duffles”, each packed in a cheap …


Your Life in Your Pocket by John T.

A significant part of being prepared and being able to weather a crisis is having information. Remember, those in charge now will make it their first priority after TSHTF to return to the status quo. Banks and mortgage companies will do everything possible to continue banking and lending. Landlords will do whatever it takes to make sure they continue to collect rent from their tenants, and any police or military personnel you come into contact with will be very unhappy if you cannot prove who you are or otherwise deflect suspicion. You can call having critical information available during and …


Letter Re: Digitized Data for Your Bug-Out Bag

James: JN is absolutely right about TrueCrypt, it’s an excellent tool. Be aware, however, that you can be compelled to disclose your encryption keys in the UK legally, and you can always be compelled to do so via extra-legal means. If you have any data that you truly wish to keep secret, a good start is to use a second TrueCrypt volume containing important data inside the primary volume which contains data that is less crucial. Regards, – PH


Letter Re: Privacy from Google’s Prying Eyes

Hi It may be an interest to readers who use the Firefox browser, there is an extension call “Track Me Not“. [Here is a description I found on the web:] “TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one’s tracks), but instead, paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are essentially hidden in plain view. User-installed TrackMeNot works with the Firefox Browser and popular search …


Letter Re: Privacy from Google’s Prying Eyes

Dear Jim: You don’t have to be a “Secret Squirrel” to be concerned about Google tracking your online searching. Here is a quick and easy way to use Google but not get tracked: http://www.scroogle.org/cgi-bin/scraper.htm The following is a quote from their site: “Not only does Google scrape much of the web, but they keep records of who searches for what. If information about your searching is accessible by cookie ID or by your IP address, it is subject to subpoena. This is a violation of your privacy. Someday Google’s data retention practices will be regulated, because Google is too arrogant …


Letter Re: Rootkit Protection for Your Computer

Jim, Here is some info on what is presently a freeware application which I can quite-honestly classify as in the “Save Your Bacon” category. (it sure saved my rump, on at least one very significant occasion.) It does its’ job, it is small, and it is freeware. My conscience would bother me no end if I kept this gem to myself; perhaps you and/or the blog might benefit from this goody. – Ben L.


Letter Re: Anonymous Web Surfing Resources

Dear Jim, Tor (“The Onion Router”) has been up and running for some time. It’s a free and highly secure system for anonymous browsing. It requires installation of free, open source software on the host machine. Also of potential interest is the current release of Freenet, which supports a “scalable darknet:” A freeware, open source distribution of PGP (named, appropriately, GPG). A GPG for Windows front end. TrueCrypt (a freeware/open source hard drive encryption/steganography program) The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) tools page Hushmail: secure, free web mail Secure, free hard drive/file erasure Disclaimer and warning: Strong cryptography isn’t legal …