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Security from the Ground Up & Controlling a Computer

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Submitted By spathuri
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The first thing I did was try to understand the word paranoia. After checking a few dictionaries I found that it was a psychotic disorder characterized by delusions of persecution, grandeur, or excessive distrust. What is a delusion? It's a false belief held despite evidence to the contrary.

Are extreme security measures acting on false threats that don't really exist? Some consider some of my security strategies a bit extreme. I call it meticulous precaution. Sure, the threat might not be real. No one may ever actually want what you have on your PC. But does that really matter? Does the threat have to be real to warrant strong security?

Sometimes I have a "Password Day" where I change every password I own on the same day, just in case someone might happen to have one of my passwords. I frequently change my passwords after traveling.

Its not that I think someone is trying to hack me, but I also don't think someone is not trying to hack me. That's really not the point. There's no need to analyze the threat of every situation. Just practice strong security always and you should be okay.

I frequently see people posting PGP signed e-mails to security mailing lists. It's not that these people are afraid of someone actually spoofing fake comments from them on the latest CGI flaw; they just make it a practice to sign every e-mail, no matter how trivial it might be. Sure, these people are signing e-mails when it's really not important, but I doubt they get caught not signing when it is important. If you always practice the best security, you never have to worry about mediocre security.

I use very long passwords for everything, even with the lamest accounts I have. I require my kids to use at least 14 character passwords on our home network and I'm considering issuing them smart cards. No one else, not even my wife, knows my network password.

I don't just throw out shredded documents; I spread the shredded bits into my garden to use as mulch.

I don't do it because I think someone is going to go through my trash to reassemble bits of my research notes. I do it because it's good security. I try to run my own network the same way I tell my clients to.

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