[PDLM]

You see the power of this man? He even has expat forum managers living in fear!

[KnowItAll]

PDLM - Dunno whats worse ... his triads or the rugby union's solicitors.

[tsuiwah]

Originally Posted by PDLM

Now he's really in trouble: 3 pictures of Vincy Yeung in the shower have been released. I reckon he has not long to live now.

Don't you have something better to do than wait for the next batch of photos?

[tsuiwah]

Originally Posted by jimbo

Xi Yan

Yes in theory but if there are confidential files on there then its up to the user to ensure its encrypted, If it isn't then you only have yourself to blame.

can you recommend some encryption software that a smart computer technician opening your computer won't be able to break into?

[PDLM]

TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux if you want to encrypt you entire harddisk or a partition of it with plausible denyability in a way that would require CIA/MI5 levels of computing to crack.

But just to stop casual browsing a password encrypted RAR or Zip file would be fine (choose a longish password, preferably with some non-alpha characters in it to stall dictionary attacks).

You should also install something that lets you fully erase files (just deleting them doesn't really do anything of the sort) and also wipe the blank space on your harddisk from time to time.

There are lots of programs around. Some of them might cost you the price of a few beers to download.

[XI_YAN]

yeah good question? Is anything actually totally secure? Is the answer to stand over the technician to make sure the contents of your hard drive don't get copied even if encrypted for decryption later? How do you realistically protect yourself?

[PDLM]

Well if you are really serious then you store all your data on a separate external hard drive protected by Truecrypt. And have a second backup copy protected in the same way in case one fails. If one does fail then you buy another one and make another backup copy, and simply physically destroy the disc that failed.

And apply all the erasing and blank space erasing mentioned above to avoid stuff that was being stored in a cache or pagefile on your main disk becoming available later.

Or if the data is "static then simply copy it off (in a password protected file using something like KGB) to a DVD/CD and keep that physically secure by other means.

[XI_YAN]

sounds like the level of paranoia shown by some whacko on an episode of X-files or something. Very sad world we live in isn't it but advice noted thank you. I assume the software mentioned above will also protect your info if the entire drive is copied?

[discobay]

Yes, he is a dick head for leaving sensitive pics on his pc but like a lot of people he probably thought a windows logon password was sufficient. On-the-fly encryption has traditionally been at the very least shareware and not free. Other forms of encryption become an annoyance when you want to get to a file quickly. I assume that he had a "hardware" problem and couldn't get to his files to delete/encrypt before sending it off for repair. On that point, you would think that with the money he has made he would have used a large reputable firm and not, I assume, some two cent Joe Wong in Shamshuipo.

On the subject of the pics - lucky ba*s**rd! - why? ... because I thought those girls had more taste. White guys acting and singing like black guys - seen it before. The Japanese have done this. Last thing we need is a Chinese guy doing it too. And he s**ks at it.

[jimbo]

Originally Posted by XI_YAN

sounds like the level of paranoia shown by some whacko on an episode of X-files or something. Very sad world we live in isn't it but advice noted thank you. I assume the software mentioned above will also protect your info if the entire drive is copied?

Well if you leave any sensitive information on your pc then it does need to be secure in case of theft etc. Its not paranoia at all, You need to do what you can to protect yourself etc in case sensitive information gets out into the public domain.

Look what happened to Gary Glitter when he sent his pc in to be fixed, Yup he got sent down because the technicians had a snoop around and found pictures of young children in his hd, And of course he got send down for being a paedophile.