Category: Other

Other computing tips

List of free speech and offshore hosting companies
When choosing a free speech hosting company you should assess the kind of content you host, for example, in the USA although the 1st Amendment protects free speech a powerful multinational can try to get around it by launching a frivolous lawsuit that a small webmaster can’t fight in court due to lack of resources, and in China any pro Tibet website will be taken down by the Government.

You will leave tracks behind when you upload your site and make payments, these companies are not truly anonymous even thought some advertise as such, to host controversial content anonymously use Tor hidden sites or i2P, but they will only be reachable by people using the appropriate software.

Free speech hosting
- DreamHost: Budget host offering shared and dedicated hosting, their terms and conditions allow for any content that is legal in the United States to be hosted, including pornography. DreamHost hosts the American Nazi Party website and refused to take down Prophet Muhammad cartoons even after a denial of service attack was launched against them by Alqeda sympathisers.
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- Privex: Small hosting company operating out of Belize (yes there is a country called Belize, look it up). They have been in the free speech business for around ten years and I have confirmation from contacts that if what you want to host is legal they will not censor it, this includes controversial art, cryptocurrency payments allowed and they are happy to host Tor nodes too.
- BuyVM: Also known as “Frantech Solutions”, affordable long standing free speech company they will host anything legal in the US as long as you pick a US server but they have servers in other parts of the World too.
- NJalla: Provider of hosting, VPN and anonymous domain name registration, they register it under their name on your behalf and it can be paid anonymously with cryptocurrency. Staff had links to piracy sites, a couple of lowendtalk posts accuse them of being left leaning biased.
- NearlyFreeSpeech: Webhost based in the US where you only pay for the amount of bandwidth and storage space consumed, it runs its own custom hosting panel, their terms and conditions state that the webmaster must register his real name and address, the company carries out random identity checks asking for a passport scan to be emailed.
- PRQ.se: Servers and company located in Sweden, if your content is legal in Sweden they will host it, no questions asked. They maintain minimum information about their customers and very few logs, PRQ used to host Wikileaks and other highly controversial content, support for SQL databases, SSL certificates and DNS.
- LiberationTek: Company owned, based and operated from the USA, they offer and all round service that includes hosting, domain name, e-mail address and others, they advertise as guaranteeing no censorship. They have partnerships with conservative websites.
Offshore hosting

The following hosts have a free speech policy that comes with restrictions, even if your content is legal they can refuse to host it, the only advantage over other traditional hosting is that their servers are offshore.
- OrangeWebsite: Company and servers are all based in Iceland, they will ignore all complaints against legal websites with the exception of racist or pro-paedophilia content, which is not allowed.
- CCiHosting: Operated and hosted in Panama, offering Linux and Windows servers, they advertise their services as anonymous webhosting. Support provided via live chat or phone.
- YoHost: Their terms and conditions claims that you can not use their servers to host any kind of porn, sites encouraging the destruction of property will also be removed as well as phishing scams. They only rent a VPS or full server and YoHost will collaborate with law enforcement if criminal content is found.
- KatzGlobal: Offering hosting in multiple Asian locations (Singapore, China, India, Malaysia, Australia) as well as hosting in the US. They use cPanel and have standard features that come with it, like SQL database, FTP access and POP3 mail boxes. There is no support to host multiple domains on a single account.
- SecureHost: Located in the Bahamas, it provides dedicated, shared and VPS hosting, they also provide a Bahamas based phone number and fax which messages can be retrieved from abroad. Their terms and conditions state that you can not host anything that SecureHost judges to be harmful to their reputation.
29 March, 2012
French Alqeda terrorist located thanks to his computer IP

Mohamed Merah, a self-confessed Alqeda member of Algerian origin responsible for the murder of three off duty paratroopers, one Jewish Rabbi and three children going to school was found by French detectives after scrutinising how many people had visited an online advertisement offering a motorcycle for sale that was used to lure the first victim into a mortal trap where he was shot dead.

Cypercops found 580 people had visited the advertisement, they narrowed it down to a list of computer IPs near the city where the first murder took place and its surroundings, then compiled an even shorter list with IPs registered to known terrorist sympathisers until they came across Mohamed Merah brother’s computer IP, whom was also a well known Islamic extremist.

The police also had other leads like a mechanic reporting that someone (Mohamed Merah’s brother) had enquired on how to get rid of a motorcycle GPS tracking device which description coincided with that of the get away vehicle.

Source: French newspaper LeMonde

26 March, 2012
HIPAA compliant email service Protected Trust

Protected Trust email encryption allows for real time email traceability with auditing logs recording who read the email and what they did with it, messages can be set to expire after a certain date so that they are no longer available or cancelled if they have been sent to the wrong person. Emails are encrypted with a unique symmetric key using AES256 then sent to Protected Trust servers, data never leaves the organisation computers unencrypted. If you email anybody not using the Protected Trust email service they will receive a link to read the message securely stored in the server.

The content is made available to the recipient until expiration, retrieved with a shared secret that can consist of a known password or receiving a PIN to your phone number. Cryptographic hashing makes sure that emails have not been tampered with or damaged in transit.

Protected Trust email HIPAA compliant

This email service is directed towards companies that need to comply with data privacy laws, it will cover legal liabilities if anything goes wrong and allows for accurate message tracking in case of security incidents. You can keep your current email provider and address, emails are easily sent using a Microsoft Outlook plugin that adds an encryption button to the interface, via Protected Trust web based portal supporting all major browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox) or from a mobile device (BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile).

Protected Trust complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulating how patient data must be protected, financial institutions also need to comply with Government regulations regarding non-public data. The free version of Protected Trust is limited to just a few messages per month and requires phone verification of your account.

Visit Protected Trust homepage

26 March, 2012
How the FBI used computer MAC addresses against Lulzsec hackers

Five people connected with LulzSec (Lulz Security), a hacking group loosely affiliated with Anonymous responsible for defacing websites and stealing credit card details from numerous companies have been arrested today thanks to one of their leaders turning FBI informant.

Their ringleader, Hector Xavier Monsegur, aka “Sabu“, was raided by the police last year and has been working for them since then. According to Fox news Monsegur was tracked down after he logged into an IRC chat server using his home IP by mistake (he normally used tor), it just happened once, enough for the FBI to track him down get a court order and convince him to work for law enforcement gathering evidence against the other members of his malicious hacking group.

LulzSec had security mechanisms to detect if a member’s identity was being usurped by law enforcement after arrest, they would ask personal questions over Jabber or IRC from past activities only known by them, not of much use when one of your own is voluntarily working for the FBI.

According to the complaint against Jeremy Hammond, aka “sup_g” his physical residence in Chicago (US), was under continuous surveillance after being identified as a LulzSec member, FBI agents measured his wireless router signal strength and determined that it was located towards the rear of his home.They then applied for a court order to monitor all traffic coming in and out of that router with a trap and trace device identifying all unique MAC addresses connected to the router, an FBI expert then linked the suspect’s computer MAC address with an IP connected to the tor network (first node).

Although the FBI was unable to read traffic over tor, e.g. visited sites, thanks to physically surveillance of the suspect home they observed that activity in between the MAC address belonging to the suspect’s computer and the tor network only occurred while Jeremy Hammond was inside the house. The FBI used connection times to link him with IRC online chats conducted behind a tor proxy with their informant, “Sabu“, on IRC channels at that very same time.

Combined with personal information the suspect willingly gave away on the chat, the FBI managed to establish that a bunch different aliases like “yohoho“, “credibethreat“, “POW“, “burn“, “tylerknowsthis” or “Anarchaos” all belonged to the same person.

7 March, 2012
Encrypted chat software Bitwise IM

Bitwise Instant Messenger offers encrypted P2P chat communications, you can use this tool for voice over IP chat, group tab conversations, talking with multiple people at once, whitelisting users able to contact you and offline messaging where everything is forwarded to your email (accessible with a mobile phone?), skinning, emoticons and even a whiteboard that can be shared in between users to draw and paint diagrams in real time, the whiteboard will automatically open up when someone starts drawing.

Encryption can not be turned off, this is good practise as it stops irresponsible users, when creating the password Bitwise will reject it if someone chooses a common dictionary word, often used by password crackers. Encryption consists of 128bit Blowfish and a RSA key of 512bits in the free version, the paid version adds key strength, people with serious opponents will have to upgrade, encryption defaults are a little poor. File transfers and voice over IP calls are also encrypted, VoIP works on dial-up thanks to a compression algorithm called Speex reducing bandwidth usage. Calls are not routed through any third party server they run via a direct connection, you can create conferences for multiple people, they will be able to join by invitation only and the chat can be logged to your hard drive.

Bitwise IM settings

The part I would watch out for privacy wise is that you are using Bitwise own server to login, this means access logs (no contents), and the people you are talking with can get your IP address, you can’t have a P2P chat without an IP as the software wouldn’t know where to send the data, you will need a valid email address to open an account with Bitwise. This tool is not an anonymous IM but a private one. All other mainstream messengers also fall foul of these problems with central server logs recording who is logging in with timestamps and exposing the user IP in P2P. The main advantage of this messenger is encryption stopping third party eavesdroppers, the paid version allows you to use your own RSA encryption keys.

The software is available in multiple languages for Windows, Mac and Linux, there isn’t a portable version of Bitwise IM but there are instructions on the help pages on how to easily create it by copying settings and Windows files to an external memory card or drive. There are no public chatrooms, you can only communicate with people you already know or those who have chosen to make their information public in the directory, there is no webcam support either and you won’t be able to chat with MSN, ICQ or Yahoo messenger users, Bitwise has its own protocol.

I can see this IM being fine for a small business setting up a no distractions secure messenger, specially indicated for those who only want an IM for sensitive work and do not need anonymity in between members. If you would like to rescind from a third party central server for IM then use Hamachi or Comodo Unite.

Visit Bitwise IM homepage

29 February, 2012
PirateBox wireless network for private file sharing

Piratebox is a self-contained hardware device providing file sharing services to anyone who connects to the network, it includes shoutbox for communication in between users. A Piratebox is not connected to the Internet, it creates an ad-hoc wireless network acting as access point broadcasting its signal to anyone around to share files, there is no need to login, for privacy reasons activities aren’t logged. The software can run on any router supporting Openwrt and dd-wrt Linux firmware,or a laptop, there are initiatives to run Piratebox on an Android phone.

When a Piratebox is switched on it will broadcast the wireless SSID (Service Set Identifier) “Pirate Box- Share Freely” after someone connects to the network the Internet browser is launched with a minimalistic interface allowing people to upload/download files, browse available files or chat over the network.

Piratebox file sharing hardware

By not being connected to the Internet the number of users are reduced to Piratebox’s broadcasting range, around 30 meters, on the other hand this tool can not be taken down like a server, it is portable, easy to set up, and it only needs an Internet browser to work, there is no need to download any software, smartphones with Wi-fi can access it too.

Tools like the Piratebox can be useful in countries where there is no Internet due to a Government cutting it off or lack of material resources, but the location of a Piratebox could be pinpointed using radio triangulation and there is no encryption making it possible to eavesdrop on users, besides the fact that someone could set up a rogue Piratebox to entrap people, the greatness of Piratebox resides on its portability and not needing an Internet connection. It is a good tool to share low level risk files and to quickly set up a filesharing network without Internet access, but not a a serious privacy tool that will protect you from state sponsored opponents.

Visit Piratebox DIY homepage

2 February, 2012
Unlock and delete blocked files with LockHunter

Lockhunter can unblock and erase files or folders blocked for no reason, like malware protecting files against user deletion. LockHunter can be used through the interface or with the integrated Windows right click context menu, after selecting a file you will see a choice reading “What is blocking this file?” that will give you information on the process that is holding it up, instantly knowing if the file is in use or it is maliciously prevented from deletion.

It is not necessary to erase a blocked file, you can choose to unlock and rename or unlock and copy it somewhere else, the program can be used from the command line, useful in case you can’t launch software due to computer problems. LockHunter can unload DLLs (Dynamic Link Library) from processes without terminating the process, a DLL is a a Windows executable shared library with the extension .dll , .ocx , .cpl or .drv and can cause files to lock.

Lockhunter unlocks blocked files

In my experience specialist data wiping tools like Eraser can also get rid of blocked files or folders, but LockHunter adds many more options, it gives you information on what process is using the file or folder and it sends it to the Recycle Bin making it possible to restore it if necessary, greatly reducing the possibilities of erasing something by mistake, just because a file is locked it doesn’t mean it is malware. A portable version of Lockhunter is planned for the future.

Visit LockHunter homepage

30 January, 2012