A question concerning human nature

before i switched to a mac, i used pretty basic security measures (usually free virus programs, a couple of times i bought mcaffee) on any of my windows machines and never got any kind of infections, most of it depends on where you go and what you download or open

even when i never had any type of security, other than what windows offered, i never had problems, and i search and download a lot of info, just do it carefully

also, as soon as i heard of firefox i ditched IE

so far the mac has be good

Most people worldwide don't keep their computers secure because they are running pirated Windows.

Most other people who don't keep their computers secure don't do so because they came with bad defaults about updates (pre xp service pack 2).

But Bit Locker, PGP and Truecrypt have nothing at all to do with the simple security steps to keeping your computer secure. I don't use any of them and my computer is just as secure as yours is.

I don't need to worry about child porn being found on my computers, or anything that would send me to jail in any country I would live for that matter so I don't have strong encryption needs. Neither do you, or most users and you know you are a bit "nutty" about this. I'd call it paranoid.

ha, i didn't read past the first few sentences, i thought this was just a rant about not opening dodgy attachments

Robert I travel with my netbook that contain all my credit cards information and all my bankings and others such information and every year a million of so laptops go missing from their owners at airports alone!

So if you travel with your laptop please tell me again that you are as secure as I am if you do not run such programs as truecypt!

Yes you can not place such information on a laptop but that is a pain if you wish to do online banking when traveling.

If I lost or have my laptop stolen all I would be out is around 300 dollars the price of a low end netbook and with not a worry in the world that my ID would be taken.

Oh as far as internet security I to keep my computer updated and run my bowser in a sandbox and have a program call process guard plus the normal AV software.

Once more please tell me that you are as secure as I am.

Second, that was not my question once more why does people who have reasons to have security as they can be send to prison for 5 years not have such security on their computer?

Hell 99.9 percent of people do not even used the ATA lock for their hard drive that would cost someone as least a hundred dollars or so to get around.

I just use one of many electronic wallet options. A free one is http://keepass.info/

You don't need to be encrypting at the filesystem level to have this kind of data secure and this kind of solution is much more user friendly for this kind of purpose.

I personally use e-wallet and it syncs with my phone so I always have all that information with me at all times and it's always encrypted and I don't need to use file-system encryption options at all.



Sure thing. Your paranoid overkill doesn't make you any more secure. At some point it's just extra security theater for you.



You asked, "what is it about human nature that keep 99.999 percent of people from taking simples steps to keep their computers secure even when they had damn good reasons to worry about such security" and my answer is that most people don't have stuff on their computers that will send them to prison.



When you make up percentages, do you just randomly decide how many 9's to use after 99.?

To me Robert you are living in a fool paradise and telling others to live in it with you!

First Robert my computer "expert" Windows and to a large degree all others computers OS leak information all over the place so keeping an electronic wallet of some manner does not mean that information such as credit cards numbers or passwords for banking is not in the clear on your hard drive now does it?

I will bet a large sum of dollars that given your hard drive and an hour or so even with my poor knowledge and tools of computer Forensics, I could find information of your computer that would prove very costly to you indeed!

Therefore, you seem to be willing to bet that anyone who does end up with your computer will have far less knowledge then I do for what and where to look on your drive. At the very least used the damn build in ATA hard drive lock found in all modern laptops bios!

Now with truecrypt I do not care if NSA are the ones looking at my drive I do not have a worry in the world and the cost this protection over your is zero in dollars. Second, any slow down on accessing my drives because of the free truecrypt program I personally cannot detect.

As far as internet browser security, protection and layering the security that also cost little and in fact, I had pay only 30 dollars or so for one program one time and all my other protections cost me zero.

Look at Security Now Podcasts or look at how many security holes that Microsoft need to patches every second Tuesday of the month and then tell me that running less then maximum security made any kind of sense.

Now as far as how many .999 yes that is random as there no known studies that I am aware of but still most people do not take any precautions even the weak ones you are so proud of other then running a AV and a firewall.

That to me is remarkable, as even the sub-set of computer users with child porn on their hard drives seem not to take any precautions and as those possible precautions are free for the downloading I find that very very strange.

Last note that strangeness was the subject of this thread not the one you are leading it down Robert that only minimum security is needed for most of us. Yes, I had reply to you on that issue as to me it is important that your silliness does not go unchallenged. Any precautions are better then none but you are only one step above none with your encrypted wallet and seem proud of it.

umm, how about you just don't lose your computer when you're out and about

That would be nice however as I already stated a million or so people roughly a year do in fact loss their computers at airports alone every year.

Side note for Robert, Windows 7 now does a shadow copy of all files on the C drive as part of the restore function not just programs files.

Windows place security way down the list of features and it one hell of a lot safer to keep anyone from accessing the hard drive then to plug a million and one ones holes that allow information leaks.

Now I also would love to get back to the subject of this thread and that is given the many programs some free some at low cost and some even build into the OS that would protect a computer drive from any known threat level attack why do even people who drives contain files that could sent them to prison for a decade or more not seem to made used of them?

On the one hand I had read hands wringing articles that Bit Locker alone will stop law enforcement dead in it tract with special note concerning child porn and to a lesser degree terrorism.

Yet googling Google News this concern seem not to have come about and that to me is strange indeed.

Yes, as Robert love to point out I am over the top as far as computer security is concern and had been so since the DOS/windows 3.1 days when I was running the first versions of whole disk encrypted programs. Such programs are not new and do date back far before the first version of either pgp disk or truecrypt.

Selection bias.

The criminals smart enough to use security and encryption don't get caught.

DrewDad I am sure that is part of the answer but I can not see how that would be the whole answer.

Hard drive encryption only protects your information when the machine is powered off. While the machine is running (even in sleep mode), the hard drive is visible to the OS.

Most people are much more vulnerable to social engineering (phishing), malware (trojans, keyloggers), and data interception than they are to having their device physically stolen and then analyzed.

i don't see this as a problem, so your suggesting that pedophiles should take better care of their files, i say just the opposite, it's good that on occasion we catch these folks by way of their sloppiness

If someone seize your computer in power-up mode you are in a world of trouble even those there are steps that can still be taken to give the average search and seize warrant team a hard time.

First if they are first stupid enough to unplug it to carry it away to be look at by an expert or reboot it to get around the admin password you are once more golden.

With the USB auto run feature shut down,no firewire port and a monitor program running that does not allow any strange/new programs to run unless you give permission and the admin password engage such programs of a nature of cofee would be worthless.

Unless the police or whoever are looking for those kind of safeguards to be in place ahead of time it seem unlikely that they would have a forensics expert along able to deal with the system even in running mode.



Sandbox for bowser/monitoring program that does not allow such things as a software keyboard hooks to be enplaced, using open wifi, VPN, tor network and on and on take care of the above concerns.

It is good that they do not take safe guards however it is damn strange that they do not do so and that is my question. Why???????