Which would be the best security option ?

[neonguy528]

Does anybody have any thoughts on the best type of computer security?
Stealth tecnology or encryption?

 

[seepy83]

This is WAY too broad of a question. What are your goals? And please explain what you mean by "stealth technology".

 

[lxskllr]

Strong encryption will be better than obfuscation. Encryption is tough/impossible to break, but once someone finds out your trick, they're in.

 

[neonguy528]

Computer security. Protecting my docs, banking, credit card numbers, etc.

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: neonguy528
Does anybody have any thoughts on the best type of computer security?

Defense-in-depth strategies are a good place to start, here's my contribution for Windows users: http://www.mechbgon.com/security

 

[nova2]

make sure you know just how far you are willing to compromise usability in the face of security. Some will make large sacrifices just for a little bit more, thinking it will help their profits.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: neonguy528
Does anybody have any thoughts on the best type of computer security?
Stealth tecnology or encryption?

Wow.

Ok.

Wow.

Neither. Either or both of those ideas/technologies can aid in security, but I wouldn't consider either of them alone to be a type of computer security.

Computer security. Protecting my docs, banking, credit card numbers, etc.

Good encryption will help you out better than just hiding this stuff. PGP and/or true crypt can do wonders. But nothing will help you if the machine is already compromised.

I was reading about the torpig botnet (researchers took over the botnet for 10 days and gathered ~70G of data from it) and the amount and types of data it gathers floored me. Everything from every username/password you type on the system to the emails you send. It's quite interesting, and I'd love to get ahold of the code for a project I've been noodling. :evil:

Anyhow, protecting your personal information takes a lot more than a good encryption program and/or hiding files. Unfortunately you have to look at everything starting at the wire to the outside world straight through to the user.

 

[neonguy528]

What if your IP address is changed through stealth. While I am not
as knowledgeable as every one here, if the hackers can't find you,
that's pretty good security.

 

[Crusty]

Originally posted by: neonguy528
What if your IP address is changed through stealth. While I am not
as knowledgeable as every one here, if the hackers can't find you,
that's pretty good security.

If the hackers can't find you then the rest of the Internet can't either

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: neonguy528
What if your IP address is changed through stealth. While I am not
as knowledgeable as every one here, if the hackers can't find you,
that's pretty good security.

Assuming you at least have a firewall and/or a router, your primary danger isn't hackers "finding you" and attacking your system over the wire. Your primary danger is your system getting compromised by what YOU do with it from your end. You can have the uber-undetectable-from-outside setup and still be extremely vulnerable. So I suggest looking at my previous link and getting your system as secure as practical, before worrying about changing your IP address and stuff.

 

[neonguy528]

I believe hiding your IP address is about protecting yourself against attacks. People could
still find you by email address, IM, etc. No?

 

[Oakenfold]

Originally posted by: neonguy528
I believe hiding your IP address is about protecting yourself against attacks. People could
still find you by email address, IM, etc. No?

You should take a look at the link that Mech provided. I think what you are referring to is attacks that would occur at the border of a network (i.e. in a home enviornment) this is your router often times. What Mech is pointing out to you is that you can have a router setup securely but if you have poor computer practices and poor operating system and application controls the security of your router becomes moot.

For example the router generally doesn't care about traffic coming from a client on the LAN, if your computer is compromised it's gamer over.

The above of course is very basic just to illustrate the differences of network security and strong computing controls (i.e. operating system and application). Someone else feel free to jump in.

 

[balloonshark]

By "stealth technology" are you talking about disabling the broadcasting of your wireless routers SSID? Or are you talking about anonymous browsing? It sounds like you have more privacy concerns than security.

As far as being safe when doing financial transactions, I always clear my browsers cache, history, etc. with CCleaner and then go directly to the site (bank, store) do what I need to do and then close the browser and then run CCleaner again. Well, in all honesty I use Sandboxie and just delete the contents before and after going to a personally sensitive site.

But nothing you do will help if your not practicing safe computing practices as Oakenfold and mechBgon are hinting at. Learn a little about how malware can get on your system and execute and target your efforts at preventing that from happening. There are countless ways to achieve this goal and it's not a "one size fits all" thing.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: neonguy528
I believe hiding your IP address is about protecting yourself against attacks. People could
still find you by email address, IM, etc. No?

You can't hide your IP address from everyone. You can't hide your IP address from things that aren't looking for you (random scanning).

You're thinking about it wrong.

 

[rasczak]

for what your asking I have a simple solution. Go to the back of your machine and find your ethernet cable. Once you find it, unplug it. Best security ever from a user standpoint. But since that probably isn't realistic, (i mena cmon, you wouldn't be able to browse anandtech if you did that) you're going to have to live with a little bit of risk when using the internet. Check out mechBgon's link to start, and be careful about what sites you visit. If that still isn't enough for you, just gold disk your machine and turn it into a fancy typewriter.