I bought a new laptop notebook computer today.

[koti]

11 hours ago, Sensei said:

I love the all people.. especially children.. and animals...
They love me too.. they want to touch me.. and staring at me when I am looking at them..

...but I just asked whether your the all smartphones all taped the same as laptop.. if one can get to laptop.. one can get to smartphone too..

 

Theres very little chance youre getting into my Ubuntu taped laptop which Im using for company bank transfers. You can get into my phones all you want, I dont use phones for sensitive stuff. I presume the first part of what you posted is a simulation of some sort of a psycho? I don’t get it.

Edited August 31, 2019 by koti

[StringJunky]

11 hours ago, Art Man said:

I sorta thought that the password save function and the code that runs notepad were already similar enough to a covert keylogger app that all a hacker would need to do was modify the already existing code and use that to record all the key presses. You're right that you can't let security paranoia keep you from using computers. Some hackers simply want to stop you and if they can use your uncertainty against you without actually using some deep hacks well then they'll settle for that. Ordinary people living ordinary lives shouldn't need to worry all that much.

Generally, I think your activities a lost in the noise of everybody elses noise... as long as it's the same kind of noise.

[Trurl]

 

 

9 hours ago, koti said:

Theres very little chance youre getting into my Ubuntu taped laptop which Im using for company bank transfers. You can get into my phones all you want, I dont use phones for sensitive stuff. I presume the first part of what you posted is a simulation of some sort of a psycho? I don’t get it.

 

 

I've been told Linux is secure because the code is public. You se what is put on the system. In cryptography an open cipher is more secure than hidden.

But is this true?

The fact is we don't know what is going on when the computer is processing thousands or computarions.

I warned a friend about software piracy. They just don't give software away it is loaded with viruses. I told him the movie files could hide viruses in the file. He says he knows it is virus free because he is extracting a pure movie file. I disagree because movie files are packaged with instructions for the codec.

The question to ask is "is our Linux more secure?"

Edited August 31, 2019 by Trurl
Forgot quote

[Sensei]

13 hours ago, koti said:

Theres very little chance youre getting into my Ubuntu taped laptop which Im using for company bank transfers. You can get into my phones all you want, I dont use phones for sensitive stuff.

..and here we can see again, how important is knowledge.. suppose so you have virus installed on smartphone already.. one day you enable WiFi from smartphone to laptop, or Bluetooth tethering from smartphone to laptop, and smartphone is sharing the same intranet with laptop. If virus is specially prepared it can intercept the all communication to/from laptop and smartphone. If laptop will be performing automatic update of software (i.e. Firefox and Chrome auto updates regularly), virus on smartphone could send modified version of update..

4 hours ago, Trurl said:

I warned a friend about software piracy. They just don't give software away it is loaded with viruses. I told him the movie files could hide viruses in the file. He says he knows it is virus free because he is extracting a pure movie file. I disagree because movie files are packaged with instructions for the codec.

They are not instructions but data for the codec. Instruction is direct executable machine code, executed by CPU as-is. Data guides parser what to do. Data are interpreted according to specification. Codec would have to be seriously buggy to get in this way. But there is "million" of codecs, so you can't be sure what you will get. Chances are much much higher is somebody would prepare movie file with some proprietary codec, unknown to your movie player software, and offer it to download on his or her website, or simply attach in ZIP together with the movie. So user would search net for codec to decode movie and install executable from hacker by mistake. Hacker utilizes user's lack of knowledge and over self-confidence.

On piracy websites there are also offered entire CD/DVD dumps as-is. Such CD/DVD has auto boot feature. If user burns DVD and double click on, setup.exe executable is executed and boom, it could be virus/Trojan by itself, and hacker gained access to the machine. DVD are often packed with entire movie player software, from unknown source...

Edited August 31, 2019 by Sensei

[koti]

34 minutes ago, Sensei said:

..and here we can see again, how important is knowledge.. suppose so you have virus installed on smartphone already.. one day you enable WiFi from smartphone to laptop, or Bluetooth tethering from smartphone to laptop, and smartphone is sharing the same intranet with laptop. If virus is specially prepared it can intercept the all communication to/from laptop and smartphone. If laptop will be performing automatic update of software (i.e. Firefox and Chrome auto updates regularly), virus on smartphone could send modified version of update..

Why would I want to hotspot my phone to a secure laptop running Linux which I use for sensitive stuff? That would completely render the „secure laptop” idea invalid wouldn’t it? My wifi has mac filtering btw so no, no one is connecting to it not to mention installing fake updates on my phone or computers. You have far broader knowledge on IT security than I do, why can’t you understand „dedicated laptop for sensitive stuff” ?

[Sensei]

4 hours ago, koti said:

My wifi has mac filtering btw so no, no one is connecting to it not to mention installing fake updates on my phone or computers.

MAC filtering won't prevent installing fake updates.. These things are completely unrelated.

Fake updates can be injected to other devices such as laptop, desktop, if device in the middle (such as smartphone working as router, or true Hotspot router) has been compromised already. You said "you can get into my phones all you want, I dont use phones for sensitive stuff.".. I made shortcut, and imagined that I took your smartphone already. I just showed that interception of your phone can, just in theory, compromise further devices in your "secure" network, if you use devices like any ordinary user..

You were on the foreign holidays recently.. I am wondering how did you connect to the net. After all you wrote here on forum and sent couple photos. Did you buy new local country LTE SIM card for the all your devices? Or did you use "free" WiFi at hotel.. ? Or you used Polish LTE SIM card (that could be really expensive, network roaming).. ? Did you take your "secure laptop" with travel with you? Or you were completely off-line off-banking the all these days (doubtful!).. ? Did you (or your wife) connect your laptop(s) to free Hotspot at hotel? Did she connect her smartphone to any free Hotspot at any place (hotel, motel, airplane, airport).. ?

4 hours ago, koti said:

My wifi has mac filtering btw so no, no one is connecting to it

..no one is connecting to it.. unless knows what is your/wife smartphone MAC address, or your laptops MAC addresses (connection to any hotspot anywhere reveals MAC address)..

People tend to switch to hotspot at their workplace. People tend to switch to their wifi at their home. People tend to switch to hotspot in the hotel, motel, airport, airplane, McD, restaurants, etc. etc.

4 hours ago, koti said:

You have far broader knowledge on IT security than I do, why can’t you understand „dedicated laptop for sensitive stuff” ?

..because it is example of what is called earlier "Hacker utilizes user's lack of knowledge and over self-confidence."

I know somebody who knows IT very well, working as programmer at Oracle. He also uses "dedicated Linux laptop just for banking". I explained him a way to took the all money from his account. And he replied (approximately) "yeah, that would work, hopefully nobody will do it for me"..

5 hours ago, koti said:

Why would I want to hotspot my phone to a secure laptop running Linux which I use for sensitive stuff?

e.g. you are in the middle of travel, and have to make urgent transfer of money.. people usually uses their smartphone WiFi, if laptop has no dedicated LTE modem with LTE SIM card, to share network with laptop. I am doing it every day..

[koti]

3 hours ago, Sensei said:

MAC filtering won't prevent installing fake updates.. These things are completely unrelated.

Fake updates can be injected to other devices such as laptop, desktop, if device in the middle (such as smartphone working as router, or true Hotspot router) has been compromised already. You said "you can get into my phones all you want, I dont use phones for sensitive stuff.".. I made shortcut, and imagined that I took your smartphone already. I just showed that interception of your phone can, just in theory, compromise further devices in your "secure" network, if you use devices like any ordinary user..

You were on the foreign holidays recently.. I am wondering how did you connect to the net. After all you wrote here on forum and sent couple photos. Did you buy new local country LTE SIM card for the all your devices? Or did you use "free" WiFi at hotel.. ? Or you used Polish LTE SIM card (that could be really expensive, network roaming).. ? Did you take your "secure laptop" with travel with you? Or you were completely off-line off-banking the all these days (doubtful!).. ? Did you (or your wife) connect your laptop(s) to free Hotspot at hotel? Did she connect her smartphone to any free Hotspot at any place (hotel, motel, airplane, airport).. ?

..no one is connecting to it.. unless knows what is your/wife smartphone MAC address, or your laptops MAC addresses (connection to any hotspot anywhere reveals MAC address)..

People tend to switch to hotspot at their workplace. People tend to switch to their wifi at their home. People tend to switch to hotspot in the hotel, motel, airport, airplane, McD, restaurants, etc. etc.

..because it is example of what is called earlier "Hacker utilizes user's lack of knowledge and over self-confidence."

I know somebody who knows IT very well, working as programmer at Oracle. He also uses "dedicated Linux laptop just for banking". I explained him a way to took the all money from his account. And he replied (approximately) "yeah, that would work, hopefully nobody will do it for me"..

e.g. you are in the middle of travel, and have to make urgent transfer of money.. people usually uses their smartphone WiFi, if laptop has no dedicated LTE modem with LTE SIM card, to share network with laptop. I am doing it every day..

Youre overthinking. I used LTE with Polish sim card in Greece, 30 bucks for 10gigs or something like that. I didn’t even take my secure laptop with me, I took the regular one for photo usage and cartoons for our kid. The only IT compromise in my life is the one you know about caused by human error, my error. 

[Strange]

4 hours ago, Sensei said:

Or you used Polish LTE SIM card (that could be really expensive, network roaming)..

You do know that roaming charges in the EU have been removed?

[Sensei]

On 9/1/2019 at 11:44 AM, Strange said:

You do know that roaming charges in the EU have been removed?

It's more complicated with network traffic..

https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/internet-telecoms/mobile-roaming-costs/index_en.htm

 

[paulsutton]

On 8/30/2019 at 9:44 PM, koti said:

Or you could use Ubuntu. A fresh install online is 40 minutes and youre free of all the crap. The bad news is that Linux these days is RAM hungry too so if youre at or below 8 gigs its going to lag. 

I have a fully working Debian netbook (atom processor)running nicely in 2gb ram,  if you use a really light weight front end you should be fine.  In fact it works ok with 1gb ram. 

Another netbook same spec with 1gb ram,  is also running FreeBSD nicely.

 

Paul

[koti]

1 hour ago, paulsutton said:

I have a fully working Debian netbook (atom processor)running nicely in 2gb ram,  if you use a really light weight front end you should be fine.  In fact it works ok with 1gb ram. 

Another netbook same spec with 1gb ram,  is also running FreeBSD nicely.

 

Paul

I currently have 4Gb on my „banking only laptop” running Ubuntu and Chrome. I will need to add ram just to avoid therapy due to the lag I get while doing wires.