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Comment What are Subaruâ(TM)s options? (Score 1) 60

Iâ(TM)m not quite sure how they would âoepatchâ without a recall of all affected models, as there is no OTA upgrade method for these. OTOH, as a driver of a vulnerable car, I would love to extend this feature to be able to unlock my car using my phone via a custom Bluetooth-enabled app. Iâ(TM)d be very interested in getting my hands on the code for my own (legal) personal use. I also think that publishing as much information as he already has is quite irresponsible given that it may now be quite easy to reverse-engineer.

Comment Defence in depth (Score 1) 262

I do the following:

- Store copies of important data in multiple locations (backed up to a device in my home as well as cloud).
- Use a long, complex password.
- Encrypt my hard drive.
- Enable Firmware Password. This is not preventative but it does give me some peace of mind knowing that if my laptop was stolen, it is not able to be wiped and re-used.
- Enable Find My Mac. I do not have any experience using this to locate a laptop but it has saved numerous friends' phones.
- Display a logon message with my full name, phone number and email address.
- Have insurance that covers me for theft when I am at home or travelling.

Comment Re:What's wrong with Gmail? (Score 1) 121

Oh, and not to mention that there is no doubt your handy iCloud backups which are conveniently located on Apple's very own servers will contain a readily available copy of any keys stored within your app's document space, just waiting for the first person who rolls through their doors warrant-in-hand.

Comment Re:What's wrong with Gmail? (Score 2) 121

I didn't read TFA, let alone finish reading TFS, but what you're suggesting is that securing the message in transit between the client and server is sufficient security. What about between the client and another client (SMTP)? Or when the bits are sitting idle on Google's spindles (read: being indexed and monetised)?

The problem I have with this type of solution is that we are placing absolute trust in the vendor's promises that it won't snoop on our data. If I personally generated my CSR and kept my keys secure and in a known location then I would have a little more faith, but unless they open source this and allow me to maintain my own back-end infrastructure I would be more concerned about sending my confidential information using this solution than not - as it's effectively a choke-point for all things sinister and you can bet your last $20/month that the authorities have all they need to intercept your data. After all, and I'm assuming the service is hosted in the US, the White House has access to any keys which are transmitted to and from Silent Circle's systems.

There was another app touted as having military-grade privacy recently, the free-to-install Wickr for iOS. I contacted them after downloading the application in June to pose the question of just what level of trust they expected me to place in their application and infrastructure, to which they promptly responded that their code was under review and they would update their FAQ over the subsequent days. I've just checked and can't even see a FAQ on their website.

Comment Use file size to identify duplicates (Score 1) 440

If it were me, I would use the file size to identify which were likely duplicates. Less reliable than hashing, but much faster. Using PowerShell:

Get-ChildItem D:\MyData -Recursive | Export-CSV mydata.csv

$objData = Import-CSV mydata.csv
$objData | sort Size | Export-CSV mydata_sorted.csv

$objSortedData = Import-CSV mydata_sorted.csv
$objUniqueSortedData = $objSortedData | sort Size -unique

Then loop through comparing both sets of data, comparing file extension for those files of the same size. Do a few test runs until you're confident and then run with Remove-Item -Confirm:$false.

Comment The most secure I've found (Score 1) 198

Neither of these are open-source or linux-based, but... Cyber-Ark is the most secure solution I've come across - multi-factor authentication, as well as presenting passwords through a portal rather than granting access to the password file itself. Citrix had a similar solution, Citrix Password Manager, but I believe it is now EOL. For it to provide any real level of security the database needs to be abstracted from the users, otherwise it can easily copied offline and brute forced. "Use a secure password" you say? Of course, but where do you record this 128-bit randomised password?

Comment Re:A long list of reasons (Score 2) 744

I'm not sure that the parent was particularly insightful...

- Walled gardens, vendor lock in

They are a company who manufactures proprietary products. I can't think of a single proprietary company who does not have an aspect of vendor lock-in. And I'm not even sure what element of Apple's offering would be considered lock-in (unless you're talking about the App Store).

- Taking down applications from the App Store and including versions in iOS

I think you'll find more-often-than-not that Apple takes features from jailbreak apps rather than those sold in the App Store. Fair game.

- Spurious litigation and anti-competitive lawsuits in Germany and Australia

I'll admit this is some pretty poor form. I do, though, think it's fairly obvious if you look at the smartphone industry before the iPhone vs after the iPhone you'll see how many other brands have copied Apple's look and feel. Not that look and feel should be patentable, but the entire industry was sitting on their hands selling mediocre products and then as soon as Apple releases their product they all rush to sell the same thing. Where's the innovation? Things like this are pathetic.

- CarrierIQ, GPS tracking privacy gaffes

At least iOS asked you if you wanted to opt-in for tracking (CarrierIQ). Other OS'es did not. I think you'll also find that Android had a similar 'bug' where a user's GPS location was tracked along with wifi data.

- Planned failure just after warranty period (ever since the original pod)

I own 7 Apple devices with all bar one (iPhone 4S) out of warranty. None of mine have failed, but I suppose YYMV (especially 11 years ago).

Comment Re:Siri (Score 0) 290

Actually, it's a feature of the iPhone 4S and iOS 5. Transferring 'voice data' as you put it has been around since Bell's days, the gimmick that Siri offers is the promoted ability to understand natural language and not the transfer of data. Siri is a feature of the phone, no matter which way you look at it.

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