encfs for the paranoid

peeterpaul@motskula.net (Peeter P. Mõtsküla) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000

EncFS is a free (GPL) FUSE-based cryptographic filesystem that transparently encrypts files, using an arbitrary directory as storage for the encrypted files (Wikipedia article).

One of the good things about encfs is that it allows you to keep your encrypted directory backed up on a removable disk or remote server, without having to decrypt and re-encrypt the data. And if you exclude the configuration file (that contains the key, which, in turn, is encrypted with a passphrase of your choice) from the backup, then you don’t have to worry about whether someone else could get a look at your backups — all they’d ever get is random gibberish.

Skype worm? Not!

peeterpaul@motskula.net (Peeter P. Mõtsküla) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:00 +0000

This week kicked off with a bang. A worm had been unleashed into the ’net, targeting the users of Skype for Windows. You can check out Villu Arak’s post in Skype’s Heartbeat blog to read more about the worm and how to protect yourself from similar attacks in future.

Phil Wolff posted a nice, but oversimplified graphic explanation in Skype Journal:

Why is this oversimplified? Because this explanation fails to address probably the most important point given in Villu’s post:

Infosec on @ppmotskula

encfs for the paranoid

Skype worm? Not!