Gibberbot renamed ChatSecure is a secure Instant Messenger app for Android phones, it works with any Jabber or XMPP compatible chat software (Facebook chat, GTalk, Ovi, Openfire, etc) this open source messenger developed by the Guardian Project uses end to end encryption with Off-the-Record messaging (OTR) standard, it will keep your service provider out of the equation making it impossible for an eavesdropper to read the messages.
Optionally ChatSecure can be used with Orbot (tor on Android app) to chat over the tor network, adding anonymity to an already private chat and circumventing censorship firewalls. Before signing into the chat you will be asked if you would like to save your password, you shouldn’t do this as anyone with access to your phone would be able to impersonate you.
Android secure IM ChatSecure
Off-the-Record encryption needs both parties to be using it, the people you are chatting with must have ChatSecure installed or be using a desktop computer with an instant messenger that has the plugin installed, Pidgin (Windows&Linux) and Adium (Mac) can all use Off-the-Record (OTR).
You should swap digital fingerprints first to make sure he/she is the right person behind the keyboard, ChatSecure allows you create a scannable QR (Quick Response) code out of a digital fingerprint making it easy to exchange in person, after verifying fingerprints with your partner the chatbox will be shown green indicating that encryption and identity have all been authenticated, if you can not verify your partner’s identity the chatbox will be coloured orange indicating that encryption is working but identification failed, if encryption doesn’t work because the other end hasn’t got ChatSecure installed the chatbox will be shown in red colour and can still be used.
Border control officers at land crossings and airports in many countries have the right to search traveller’s laptop and smartphones without a court order, that is where your family photos, banking details and list of visited websites reside. Lawyers, doctors and businessmen should also be concerned about this practise, if you care about your privacy here are some tips to protect your digital data from noisy border agents:
Backup your data: There is the possibility that a border agent damages or seizes your device, always have a backup somewhere else and never take the backups with you, leave them at home. If you need to backup your data at the guess country, i.e. holidays photos, use an encrypted cloud service like SpiderOak or Tresorit, encrypt the and SFTP to your server, or back it up to an encrypted USB thumbdrive and mail it to your home.
Use whole disk encryption: Whenever it is possible use full disk encryption as opposed to file encryption, there are too many places where the operating system creates temporary copies of personal data to be able to securely wipe everything. If you can get away with using a Linux live CD for your day to day Internet usage this is the best course of action, remove the laptop hard drive or wipe it, with a live CD nothing will be saved to your hard drive.
Officer searches laptop at border crossing
The country you visit could have different encryption laws to that of your home country, in the UK for example, it is a criminal offense not to reveal the password to your encrypted files when law enforcement asks for it, the penalty for refusing is up to 5 years in prison. If unsure about local cryptography laws, store your data encrypted on the cloud and take only a live CD with you, download your files only after going through customs and make sure to never save anything as you could be asked for access at any time during your stay or on your way out.
Smartphone protection
If you are using an SD card for storage, extract it and wipe the memory card on a PC using specialist software (Eraser, ProtectStar, BCWipe, etc). On Android phones, download the Whispercore app for full phone encryption. Another choice is to use a second phone only for travelling, unless you really need a smartphone abroad, buy a cheap phone and transfer your SIM card there, this should also help you protect against theft by making it less attractive.
Digital cameras
Border agents might want to look at your holiday photographs for whatever reason, sometimes searching for illegal pornography or to corroborate that you really have been on a leisure break. There is no easy protection against this other than extracting the memory card, encrypting it and mailing it to yourself, it will help not to look suspicious by coming back from holidays with an empty camera by introducing a second memory card in the digital camera with photos you don’t care about anyone seeing
The decision on whether to search your electronic devices or not will take into account the countries you have visited, your background (criminal record), how you behave at the border, and the state of alert at the time, electronic devices can also be searched at random or just because the border officer feels like it.
Border control agents could swap test your laptop for bomb residue, this test is called Explosive Trace Detection and it can be carried out on any piece of checked baggage.
RemoteRebootX is a portable application to remotely monitor a computer in real time, it can also be used to simultaneously shutdown, reboot, ping or Wake-on-LAN multiple computers, the best part is that it does not need to be installed in the remote computer, simply launch RemoteRebootX and add hosts. A task scheduler allows you to automatically execute actions without supervision, other useful options are retrieving the last boot time of a host, acquiring its MAC address and looking at the drive space information, all of the actions can be done using the interface or right clicking on the computer IP.
On restricted computers you will be asked to login first before executing any command, using the padlock icon, it will also ask you for the computer Workgroup. This tool can be used by system administrators in conjunction with BatchPatch, a paid for application, to install updates on multiple servers and reboot them simultaneously.
Computer management RemoteRebootX
RemoteRebootX interface is not as pretty as that of EMCO Wake-on-LAN, another tool to remotely control a computer over the Internet or inside a network, but it has higher capabilities, allowing you to reboot and shutdown computers, which EMCO Wake-on-LAN can’t do, and it can be carried on a USB thumbdrive.
McAfee Stinger does not need installation and can be run from a USB thumbdrive but it asks for administrator rights, this tool has not been designed as a replacement for a fully fledged antivirus, you could use it when you are travelling to check an Internet cafe computer before using it, McAfee Stinger is light on resources, small and fast. After executing it you can select a directory for scanning or scan the whole computer which took me 2 minutes for a 300GB hard drive, McAfee Stinger will scan subdirectories and compressed (.zip,.rar,.7zip) files too, if anything is detected you can choose to repair, rename, delete or report only.
Besides providing protection for travellers using unknown computers this tool can be used as a second opinion if you detect an anomaly, the first thing quality malware will do is to disable your local antivirus, that is why it is important to scan your files with two different antiviruses when something does not add up, as well as checking for outgoing Internet connections.
Portable antivirus McAfee Stinger
This tool scans the boot sector which is where rootkits tend to lodge, processes and registry are also scanned, with an heuristic check which sensitivity can be adjusted from Very low to Very high, the default is Medium. Heuristics is a system to detect antivirus like behaviour, meant to discover zero day never seen before threats. McAfee Stinger comes with a very limited list of virus signatures, around 4000, they can be seen by clicking where it says “List of viruses“, it is mostly made up of trojan horses, McAfee claims that it can remove prevalent Fake Alert malware.
If you suspect your computer is infected you might want to check other software that McAfee’s has on its free tools page AntiMalware section, RootkitRemover and GetSusp, both directed at beginners and easy to use, good computer security is made up of layers, the more passive and active security layers you have the less chances of infection, another choice is to use an online antivirus if you are comfortable allowing access to your files.
ProxyDNS is a proxy service designed to access geographically restricted services like Pandora Radio, Netflix and ABC. Unlike a VPN where you need to download software, ProxyDNS only requires you to change your DNS settings, their homepage has instructions on where to find them in Windows, Mac and Linux. The DNS could also be changed in your router, which is operating system independent, this kind of proxy works in all operating systems no matter how obscure they are, it can be used with the Xbox and Roku.
I have been using ProxyDNS for a couple of days and everything works pretty good, I managed to watch CWTV and Hulu series from abroad with no glitches, something to bear in mind is that unlike a VPN, this service has not been designed for privacy, when you visit any website not included in the DNS spoof list, your real IP will not change. ProxyDNS is using a DNS proxy so that when you request page X,the DNS server automatically swaps your IP for one of theirs in the US, this creates a situation where you can see your real computer IP on one browser tab and on the other browser tab you can watch an online TV service restricted to USA residents only, you will not even notice the proxy is there.
Windows DNS settings
ProxyDNS is a smart very easy to use solution to access georestricted services in the US, it can access all well known TV and online radio companies, users can request new services are added to their list. The proxy is still in beta, you could have it working in your computer in under 2 minutes with no software download at a cheaper price than a VPN provider.
iObit uninstaller is a tool to help you get rid of junk left behind by uninstalled programs, some of its advantages over the standard Windows uninstaller is that it will scan the registry and hard drive to find invalid keys and leftover files, allows you to uninstall various program in batch mode using a single click, and it has a “Force Uninstall” mode to eliminate software not listed in the Windows Add/Remove control panel or if the original uninstaller no longer works, however this is not guaranteed to succeed all the time.
It’s tabbed interface classifies installed programs in “Windows Updates” ; “Rarely Used” ; “Large Programs” ; “Recently Installed” ; “Toolbars” and “All Programs“. This makes it very easy to find what you want to get rid of, an instant search box is also included, after using the Powerful Scan you will be presented with all the leftover files found and asked if you would like to erase them, anything you do is logged inside a text file accessible from the menu together with a shortcut to Windows Restore Point to reverse changes, iObit uninstaller will create a restore point every time you use the advanced uninstall mode.
iObit free Windows uninstaller
This program does not need installation and it can used in portable mode, it is a good tool to have for IT administrators, however, it requires administrator rights, unlike some of their competitors iObit uninstaller does not track what changes are made to your computer when you install software, the program is not as complete as Revo Uninstaller Pro, but it is free, if you are having problems eradicating a hard to go program it is well worth a try.
Aircover is a security and privacy app for Android with an iPhone version coming soon, what makes this app stand out from the crowd is that it pretends to be an all-round solution not needing anything else to secure your smartphone.
This app comes with an anti-virus offering real time protection against malware, GPS tracking to locate your loved ones with automatic notification when someone moves out of a pre-defined location, privacy protection allowing the user to control what apps can access what, online cloud backup with 2GB of expandable storage space to copy and restore personal data to a new device in case the mobile phone gets lost or stolen, a device found alarm that lets you track down a lost mobile phone from a PC and remotely wipe it to protect your personal data, and system optimization providing details on resource usage (CPU, battery,memory) able to kill processes, clean cache and other tasks that will speed up your device.
AirCover mobile phone security software
The battery meter tells you the approximate time you have left to complete a particular activity (Wifi, voice call, 3G Internet) before it cuts off averting getting stuck in the middle. Aircover is an excellent idea, instead of having five apps to do everything, you download a single app to address all of the problems that most security conscious people have, it will help you make your mobile phone theft proof.
It probably could be improved with a screen lock, and if you are picky, not knowing what anti-virus engine Aircover is using to find malware could be a bit concerning, we will have to trust it is as good as the likes of KasperSky and F-Secure, the only thing I would not be using this app for is the online backup, there is no mention at all of encryption for data backups, I can see someone hacking a server and getting access to your private data due to this, I am not comfortable having unencrypted data stored online, the app is still in beta and I hope the developers add encryption to their online backups in future versions.
