http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.

--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:37:21 -0600, Ignoramus17377
wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.


Whats the best way to kill a tank?

incapacitate the crew before they ever get into the tank.

A bit of drano in their water supply/beer/soft drinks/burgers may not
kill them, but will prevent their multimillion dollar behemoth from
going anywhere.

Im sure you get the idea.

Always strike at the weak links.

Which is why intelligent partisans and asyemetrical warfare is so
effective.


Gunner

"Not so old as to need virgins to excite him,
nor old enough to have the patience to teach one."

On 2009-02-09, Gunner Asch wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:37:21 -0600, Ignoramus17377
wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.


Whats the best way to kill a tank?

incapacitate the crew before they ever get into the tank.

A bit of drano in their water supply/beer/soft drinks/burgers may not
kill them, but will prevent their multimillion dollar behemoth from
going anywhere.

Im sure you get the idea.

Always strike at the weak links.

Which is why intelligent partisans and asyemetrical warfare is so
effective.

Yep. Very insightful.

--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/

Steve Ackman wrote:

In , on Mon, 09 Feb 2009
09:37:21 -0600, Ignoramus17377, lid wrote:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.

When I worked for the Navy as a machinist, I had the
"additional duty" of ISSO - Information Systems Security
Officer.

This was in the days when most of the machines in
the shop ran DOS 5.0, with the rare DOS 3.3 or
Windows 3.1. All of the machines were on a LAN, but
nothing connected to the outside world. My primary
duties wearing that hat were to keep McAffee updated,
inspect machines for unauthorized software (and attend
the somewhat inane security meetings). The sole
vector at the time was people bringing software in on
floppies (which they had downloaded from a BBS).

A few years later, I looked back on that experience
as a bygone era. Viruses just don't get transmitted
that way anymore when the internet is so much more
efficient. Ha.

Now it's USB keys.

I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff on
a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need from my
home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the heavily
firewalled corporate network.

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff on
a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need from my
home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the heavily
firewalled corporate network.

In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute
them. This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if
your thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently
about USB thumb drives from China containing malware.
--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:19 -0600, Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff
on a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need
from my home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the
heavily firewalled corporate network.

In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute them.
This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if your
thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently about
USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

.... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Tim Wescott wrote:

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:19 -0600, Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff
on a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need
from my home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the
heavily firewalled corporate network.

In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute them.
This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if your
thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently about
USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

"Pete C." wrote in message
ster.com...

Tim Wescott wrote:

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:19 -0600, Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff
on a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need
from my home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the
heavily firewalled corporate network.

In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute
them.
This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if your
thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently about
USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

My wife and I both use them for carrying work back and forth to home. I
carry my passwords on mine -- double encrypted -- and some books I read in
downtime. And I use it to carry large CAD files to a blueprint service when
they're too large to print at home, when I want to see a preview in person
before the file is printed.

--
Ed Huntress

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:13:36 -0600, "Pete C."
wrote:


Tim Wescott wrote:

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:19 -0600, Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff
on a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need
from my home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the
heavily firewalled corporate network.

In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute them.
This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if your
thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently about
USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

I carry photos, ebooks, tech manuals, exploded parts diagrams, music etc
on my 4gig thumbdrive. Lets say a client wants the programming section
from one of the manuals...he simply plugs my drive in to his computer,
and prints out the relevant portions. I do run virus scans on my flash
drive virtually daily and have it set to read only when Im out in the
field. Whenever its plugged into a computer other than my own...its
"read only" so it prevents something on their system from getting back
into my drive. And Im VERY cautious about my hardware. It only goes
into one laptop, heavily sheilded, which has access to only one desktop,
which is VERY VERY heavily sheilded

Works out just fine for portable data storage. You can get a ****load
of data on a 4 gig $15 flash drive.

Gunner

"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people,
we should look to limit those guarantees."

Bill Clinton 1993-08-12

Pete C. wrote:
Tim Wescott wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:19 -0600, Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff
on a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need
from my home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the
heavily firewalled corporate network.
In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute them.
This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if your
thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently about
USB thumb drives from China containing malware.
... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.


Oh!

Ok, I have one for my cad stuff (16 Gig!)
and another 16 gig for my iPod library.

Then two 8 gig with the coastal nav charts for the gulf coast (redundant)
And another for the Columbia river charts.

I have four 8 gig for transferring movies from home to the ships computer.
We don't take the DVDs out of the house. Too expensive to replace and too
delicate to survive being tossed around the boat.

A 4 gig with setups for the laptops.

One is dedicated to legal documents.

Basically anything you'd put on a CD.
Especially if it would take multiple CDs to cover it.

It that what you were asking?

cavelamb wrote:

Pete C. wrote:
Tim Wescott wrote:
On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 12:18:19 -0600, Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:
I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff
on a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need
from my home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the
heavily firewalled corporate network.
In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute them.
This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if your
thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently about
USB thumb drives from China containing malware.
... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

Oh!

Ok, I have one for my cad stuff (16 Gig!)
and another 16 gig for my iPod library.

Then two 8 gig with the coastal nav charts for the gulf coast (redundant)
And another for the Columbia river charts.

I have four 8 gig for transferring movies from home to the ships computer.
We don't take the DVDs out of the house. Too expensive to replace and too
delicate to survive being tossed around the boat.

A 4 gig with setups for the laptops.

One is dedicated to legal documents.

Basically anything you'd put on a CD.
Especially if it would take multiple CDs to cover it.

It that what you were asking?

Yep, pretty much.

Ignoramus17377 wrote:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html


One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.


Not real hard when the ones involved IGNORE warnings to patch the
problem over 4 months ago!

Typical of the French attitude though.
--
Steve W.

Ignoramus17377 wrote:

In Windows, a USB thumb drive can contain certain executables like
autorun.exe, or some such, and Windows would automatically execute
them. This is convenient under some assumptions, but not very safe if
your thumb drive is made in China. There was a big scandal recently
about USB thumb drives from China containing malware.


Actually, U3 device USB's thumb drives emulate a cd device and get around the restriction
on autoruns.

Wes

"Pete C." wrote:

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

A bunch of apps from http://portableapps.com/

A fairly large amount of documentation that is mine and not the companies that helps me in
my work.

Then there are personal files, I want to get to at break w/o putting them on a company
system.

Wes

On 2009-02-09, Steve W. wrote:
Ignoramus17377 wrote:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html


One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.


Not real hard when the ones involved IGNORE warnings to patch the
problem over 4 months ago!

Typical of the French attitude though.

They may have had some reasons. Such as worrying about stability of
latest updates, for example. Possibly it was merely negligence.

--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/

On Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:33:41 -0600, Ignoramus17377
wrote:

Possibly it was merely negligence.


The French????


Nah........never.......



"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people,
we should look to limit those guarantees."

Bill Clinton 1993-08-12

On Feb 9, 6:23*pm, Wes wrote:
Ignoramus17377 wrote:
...There was a big scandal recently
about USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

Actually, U3 device USB's thumb drives emulate a cd device and get around the restriction
on autoruns.

Wes

Good reason to uninstall and then delete U3.

I can't get Knoppix to boot from a thumb drive.

jw

On Mon, 9 Feb 2009 16:43:57 -0800 (PST), Jim Wilkins
wrote:

On Feb 9, 6:23*pm, Wes wrote:
Ignoramus17377 wrote:
...There was a big scandal recently
about USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

Actually, U3 device USB's thumb drives emulate a cd device and get around the restriction
on autoruns.

Wes

Good reason to uninstall and then delete U3.

I can't get Knoppix to boot from a thumb drive.

jw


Its usually motherboard bios dependant. Most older Bios will not look at
a USB port until much later in the boot process

Gunner

"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people,
we should look to limit those guarantees."

Bill Clinton 1993-08-12

By the way, it is not limited to French fighter planes.

Employer of a "person who I know well" has been hit by a Windows virus
today, and their computer operation is out at the moment.

--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/

On 2009-02-09, Pete C. wrote:

Tim Wescott wrote:

[ ... ]

... or if your USB drive has been plugged into a machine carrying the
virus.

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.

As I understand it -- the thumb drives were issued to people at
the Pentagon for transferring data which could (or should) not be sent
over the net.

Also -- they *can* carry encryption keys or encrypted
identification to allow the carrier to access (some) computers in the
restricted areas. (I don't know that they were used in this way, but it
makes sense.)

Someone loaded a bunch of drives of the same type and appearance
with malware and dropped them various places around the parking lot.

People found them, wondered who had lost them, and to determine
that, plugged them into their work computers to read who the owner was
so they could return them.

Zap!

Now -- everyone is having to figure out how to do the things
which the USB keys were being used for.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Pete C. wrote:

Yes, but that doesn't answer my question - What exactly are people
carrying on these USB thumb drives? I'm just trying to figure out what
the use is.
They may well be carrying flight plans and other
planning stuff from insecure computers to secure
systems. It is almost de rigeur that security is
increased until people can't perform their daily
work without breaching the security system in some
way. Everybody thinks they have done such a GREAT
job securing everything, and then all hell breaks
loose when they find out that general users have
been moving stuff around on floppies, CDs, thumb
drives, or whatever the latest technical wrinkle
is, and voiding all the careful security
procedures. Sometimes it makes such a big mess it
winds up in the papers. I'll bet this was the
same thing, the security honchos thought there was
no need to mess with mandatory security upgrades,
as there was "no way" any viri could find their
way into the secure inner sanctum of their
network. Ho ho ho!

Jon

On Feb 9, 2:43*pm, Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Feb 9, 6:23*pm, Wes wrote:

Ignoramus17377 wrote:
...There was a big scandal recently
about USB thumb drives from China containing malware.

Actually, U3 device USB's thumb drives emulate a cd device and get around the restriction
on autoruns.

Wes

Good reason to uninstall and then delete U3.

I can't get Knoppix to boot from a thumb drive.

jw

The latest Ubuntu is designed for it. I haven't tried it yet but I
just got an 8G thumb drive from Walmart to play with it.
Karl

On Feb 10, 6:18*am, " wrote:
On Feb 9, 2:43*pm, Jim Wilkins wrote:

I can't get Knoppix to boot from a thumb drive.
jw

The latest Ubuntu is designed for it. I haven't tried it yet but I
just got an 8G thumb drive from Walmart to play with it.
Karl

Ubuntu 8 doesn't see the hidden Dell utility partition. I used Knoppix
to delete the automatic reboot from its autoexec.bat and open it up as
a DOS 7 partition so I can program the serial and parallel ports and
attached homebrew hardware. Windows and Visual Basic took low level
hardware access away.

It's amazing how quickly a 2.2GHz PC boots DOS, 10 Sec from power-on
to C:\.

Jim Wilkins

In article ,
Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Steve W. wrote:
Ignoramus17377 wrote:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...49/French-figh
ter-planes-grounded-by-computer-virus.html


One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.


Not real hard when the ones involved IGNORE warnings to patch the
problem over 4 months ago!

Typical of the French attitude though.

They may have had some reasons. Such as worrying about stability of
latest updates, for example. Possibly it was merely negligence.

I have been involved in such things. It very much is a balance between
risk from inadequately tested updates and day-zero exploits.

A better question is why Windows was used at all. Any Unix (including
Linux) would have made this a non-problem.

Joe Gwinn

On 2009-02-10, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article ,
Ignoramus17377 wrote:

On 2009-02-09, Steve W. wrote:
Ignoramus17377 wrote:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...49/French-figh
ter-planes-grounded-by-computer-virus.html


One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.


Not real hard when the ones involved IGNORE warnings to patch the
problem over 4 months ago!

Typical of the French attitude though.

They may have had some reasons. Such as worrying about stability of
latest updates, for example. Possibly it was merely negligence.

I have been involved in such things. It very much is a balance between
risk from inadequately tested updates and day-zero exploits.

Yes, it is not an easy one.

A better question is why Windows was used at all. Any Unix (including
Linux) would have made this a non-problem.

The French are moving towards using Linux, as far as I heard, their
parliament switched to Linux and they are deploying it in some
schools. In large deployments it is more or less always a good
idea. Saves money and a lot of admin costs.

--
Due to extreme spam originating from Google Groups, and their inattention
to spammers, I and many others block all articles originating
from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
more readers you will need to find a different means of
posting on Usenet.
http://improve-usenet.org/

Ignoramus17377 wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.

WWIII will commence on patch Tuesday.

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Deja fubar: The feeling that you've made the same mistake before.

"Pete C." wrote:

Steve Ackman wrote:

In , on Mon, 09 Feb 2009
09:37:21 -0600, Ignoramus17377, lid wrote:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.

When I worked for the Navy as a machinist, I had the
"additional duty" of ISSO - Information Systems Security
Officer.

This was in the days when most of the machines in
the shop ran DOS 5.0, with the rare DOS 3.3 or
Windows 3.1. All of the machines were on a LAN, but
nothing connected to the outside world. My primary
duties wearing that hat were to keep McAffee updated,
inspect machines for unauthorized software (and attend
the somewhat inane security meetings). The sole
vector at the time was people bringing software in on
floppies (which they had downloaded from a BBS).

A few years later, I looked back on that experience
as a bygone era. Viruses just don't get transmitted
that way anymore when the internet is so much more
efficient. Ha.

Now it's USB keys.

I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff on
a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need from my
home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the heavily
firewalled corporate network.

Umm. You can boot an entire Linux system off a USB key.

Have you (or one of yor kids) ever logged on to the Internet and
downloaded some kewl new application? Its possible that this app is
quietly watching your every keystroke while you are on the corporate VPN
and phoning home with the data whenever the system goes back on the web.

--
Paul Hovnanian
------------------------------------------------------------------
Every time Windows crashes, a devil gets his horns.

On Feb 10, 9:28*pm, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote:
"Pete C." wrote:

Umm. You can boot an entire Linux system off a USB key.

Have you (or one of yor kids) ever logged on to the Internet and
downloaded some kewl new application? Its possible that this app is
quietly watching your every keystroke while you are on the corporate VPN
and phoning home with the data whenever the system goes back on the web.

Paul Hovnanian * *

I have AVG, Spybot and AdAware watching for that, plus ZoneAlarm
reporting and blocking Internet access attempts, and ProcessExplorer
and HiJackThis to identify running processes and registry malware. All
are freeware and they play well together. That may be excessive for a
new PC but I buy them used in questionable condition, and have to
patch up outdated office machines to use in the lab sometimes on
contract jobs. If a PC is really dirty I put its C: drive on a USB
adapter to virus-check it.

This PC is physically isolated from my newer one and is used only for
the Net and unimportant tasks. Before loading new programs I back up
the C: drive with Seagate Disk Wizard, which saves and restores a
complete running OS as long as you have a Seagate or Maxtor drive
somewhere. It worked for me with a Western Digital C: drive and a
Maxtor on USB. The manual is incomplete; you need to make the DVD
bootable and add the program before backing up a disk image.

BTW OpenOffice installs on C: but runs fine if you copy it to another
drive and change the desktop icon links. I try to keep C: small enough
that the SDW backup fits on one DVD.

The only real problem is companies that won't take a phone order and
check payment, for instance Newegg and Microsoft. I can't get the XP
SP3 CD without a credit card number.

Jim Wilkins

"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:

Steve Ackman wrote:

In , on Mon, 09 Feb 2009
09:37:21 -0600, Ignoramus17377, lid wrote:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ter-virus.html

One has to wonder how easy it is to remove military capability,
without even using any conventional weapons.

When I worked for the Navy as a machinist, I had the
"additional duty" of ISSO - Information Systems Security
Officer.

This was in the days when most of the machines in
the shop ran DOS 5.0, with the rare DOS 3.3 or
Windows 3.1. All of the machines were on a LAN, but
nothing connected to the outside world. My primary
duties wearing that hat were to keep McAffee updated,
inspect machines for unauthorized software (and attend
the somewhat inane security meetings). The sole
vector at the time was people bringing software in on
floppies (which they had downloaded from a BBS).

A few years later, I looked back on that experience
as a bygone era. Viruses just don't get transmitted
that way anymore when the internet is so much more
efficient. Ha.

Now it's USB keys.

I'm still wondering about that one... what exactly are people carrying
around on said USB "keys"? Their pirated music is on their iPuds and
most software won't run directly off a USB "key". I never carry stuff on
a USB "key" as I am able to readily access whatever I might need from my
home systems remotely over the 'net, even from inside the heavily
firewalled corporate network.

Umm. You can boot an entire Linux system off a USB key.

How useful... not...


Have you (or one of yor kids) ever logged on to the Internet and
downloaded some kewl new application?

No. I don't pirate music or run random garbage software.

Its possible that this app is
quietly watching your every keystroke while you are on the corporate VPN
and phoning home with the data whenever the system goes back on the web.

Nope. If I'm on the corporate VPN, I'm on the corporate machine and the
traffic is going through the corporate firewalls. If I'm accessing
something on my home machines it's again from the corporate machine
through the corporate firewalls.

On Feb 11, 10:24*am, "Pete C." wrote:
"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote:

"Pete C." wrote:

Steve Ackman wrote:

In , on Mon, 09 Feb 2009
09:37:21 -0600, Ignoramus17377, wrote:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl.../4547649/Frenc...

Have you (or one of yor kids) ever logged on to the Internet and
downloaded some kewl new application?

No. I don't pirate music or run random garbage software.


AdAware detected 13 tracking cookies this morning from sources like
telegraph.co.uk. Most had "ad" somewhere in the name. I added them to
the InternetProperties/Privacy/Blocked list.

jw

"DoN. Nichols" writes:

Also -- they *can* carry encryption keys or encrypted
identification to allow the carrier to access (some) computers in the
restricted areas. (I don't know that they were used in this way, but it
makes sense.)

One of the best/secure one I know of is the IronKey.

10 bad password guesses, (or attempts to open the case) and the device
erased all of memory using a built-in battery.

And it's not a software loop. It used a propritary mechanism to zero
memory using hardware.

Besides storing of secure information in a thumb drive, it has other features.
There are three flavors of IronKey. One has a password management, and anonymous
browser setup (using TOR).

On Feb 13, 10:46*am, Maxwell Lol wrote:
...
One of the best/secure one I know of is the IronKey.

The information in the key may be safe, but can the user still plug in
their own Sandisk?

Jim Wilkins wrote:

On Feb 13, 10:46*am, Maxwell Lol wrote:
...
One of the best/secure one I know of is the IronKey.

The information in the key may be safe, but can the user still plug in
their own Sandisk?

Ironkey is a flash drive.

https://www.ironkey.com/

On Feb 22, 4:04*pm, (Edward A. Falk) wrote:
...

By noon, 15/20 of the drives had been plugged into computers by employees
curious to see what was on them, and the enclosed autorun scripts had reported
in.

Other than holding down the shift key, is there a way to permanently
disable autoruns?

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:27:42 -0800 (PST), Jim Wilkins
wrote:

On Feb 22, 4:04*pm, (Edward A. Falk) wrote:
...

By noon, 15/20 of the drives had been plugged into computers by employees
curious to see what was on them, and the enclosed autorun scripts had reported
in.

Other than holding down the shift key, is there a way to permanently
disable autoruns?

YES!

Do a google with your particular OS and that question. It is
actually a registry change/entry, but there are prebuilt
regs files around for it. I believe TweakUI can do it too,
but again, make sure you get the version to go along with
your OS.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

On Feb 23, 12:39*pm, Leon Fisk wrote:
...I believe TweakUI can do it too,
but again, make sure you get the version to go along with
your OS.
Leon Fisk

Thanks. Microsoft was 404 so I downloaded TweakUI for Win2K from
HelpWithWindows.com and tried it. The tab Paranoia
ThingsThatHappenBehindYourBack has a box to disable Data CDs, didn't
see flash drives. I checked it but a Ubuntu CD still auto-runs, and I
lost access to the modem.

So I reinstalled the previous hard drive, swapped out yesterday.

Jim Wilkins

On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:28:20 -0800 (PST), Jim Wilkins
wrote:

On Feb 23, 12:39*pm, Leon Fisk wrote:
...I believe TweakUI can do it too,
but again, make sure you get the version to go along with
your OS.
Leon Fisk

Thanks. Microsoft was 404 so I downloaded TweakUI for Win2K from
HelpWithWindows.com and tried it. The tab Paranoia
ThingsThatHappenBehindYourBack has a box to disable Data CDs, didn't
see flash drives. I checked it but a Ubuntu CD still auto-runs, and I
lost access to the modem.

So I reinstalled the previous hard drive, swapped out yesterday.

Jim Wilkins

Try looking over this web page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoRun

From what I could tell via a quick read, there have been
some bug fixes addressing your issues for Win2K. I'm using
old NT4, so my settings are a bit different.

I suspect some direct editing in the registry will be the
way to go. After all that is all TweakUI does. Hacking
around in the registry isn't all that difficult. Save the
section/item first to a ".reg" file and then you can put it
back like it was later on by merging it. Or you can just
write down some notes, screen shot...

If I lived close by, I would stop in and we would probably
waste several hours time with this & that

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
Remove no.spam for email

On Feb 24, 12:30*pm, Leon Fisk wrote:
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:28:20 -0800 (PST), Jim Wilkins
.......
Jim Wilkins

Try looking over this web page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AutoRun

I suspect some direct editing in the registry will be the
way to go. After all that is all TweakUI does. Hacking
around in the registry isn't all that difficult. Save the
section/item first to a ".reg" file and then you can put it
back like it was later on by merging it. Or you can just
write down some notes, screen shot...

Leon Fisk

Thanks, that helps a lot.

"regedit" is one of the reasons I back up the system to DVD and clone
the hard disk.

Jim Wilkins