Unfortunately the world of the Internet is full of tossers that build their financial well being on the stupidity of “Private InternetSurf”. Private InternetSurf is blinded by the flashing neon lights of the large internet Eldorado – while behavior is being analyzed, profiles are being generated, and Private InternetSurf becomes Prospect0815.
Fortunately Corporate America is full of acts of stupidity that sometimes remind me of the necessity to protect my internet identity. One of these acts of stupidity was the publishing of search logs for 500.ooo users of the AOL search engine. Another one is a recent law passed in the US enabling government officials at US airports to basically copy all the data you carry around on your laptop.
OK … you get the point? Time to become an Info Warrior! Here is my top ten list of tools you should have on your laptop when you want to protect your identity and your data:
CA Personal Firewall 2007 – what used to be “Tiny Personal Firewall” is now being sold by CA for $30. You can close all the holes on your laptop making sure even MS can only do what you allow it to do.
Avira AntiVir Personal Edition – A standard virus scanner with regular virus signature updates but … it is for free.
Sophos Anti Rootkit - To counter another act of stupidity (Sony using a rootkit for DRM) this little tool lets you check your computer for installed rootkits
Hijackthis - As some folks think they are funny, they try to install dodgy software on your box while you are surfing. Hijackthis creates a nice protocol of all the stuff that is installed and running on your box. Sometimes this may be quite surprising output …
Process Explorer - If you belong to the “seeing is believing” section of the house, procexp will help you fight your paranoia. This tool is so cool that even MS recommends it on TechNet.
Torpark - Once you have used all the tools above to protect your box, it is time to protect your identity. Torpark hides your identity while you are surfing the web. A nice sidekick: it perfectly tunnels your corporate firewall.
TrueCrypt - So you have secured your machine against the internet, your identity is hidden … all you need to do now is protect your digital belongings against the nice security officer at the airport. TrueCrypt leaves him with a copy of random bits that even NSA will have trouble to bring back into order.
Eraser - If you think you are safe by now … think again. The files you copied into your encrypted drive are still there – you just do not see them anymore. To really get rid of every piece of evidence on your hard drive, this tool is the right choice (meets US DoD 5220-22.M requirements). You can even schedule a disk wipe so that your disk gets cleaned every Friday at night.
TOP 9 … still open – please send me your suggestions
TOP 10 … still open
