Cybersecurity 101 - A brief introduction to protecting yourself online.

[ItsTheShitt]

Word saves the total amount of revisions, username of the user who last wrote or created the document, the version of Word used to write it, how many time wasted writing the document, and probably all the users who made changes to the document

I can just access docx/doc metadata with LibreOffice (File > Proprieties), Although in LibreOffice, I can configure it to save no metadata at all (Tools > Options > Security > Security Options and Warnings > Remove personal information on saving) and save to ODF, Then it saves the document with no metadata except the total editing time being 0 seconds and total revisions being 1

I'm not sure if this has already been mentioned, but I suggest Eraser as a piece of file deletion software. Open source and under the GNU General Public License (Eraser's home site), it works by overwriting a file a number of times as per various presets (e.g. Gutmann at 35 passes, "US DoD 5220.22-M (8-306. / E, C and E)" at 7 passes, etc.) so that the true data is obfuscated. This way, the user can nuke any file from orbit. You also have the ability to make your own presets, but I never touched that so I can't vouch for that or describe how it works.

For the rightfully paranoid, this is a godsend as it throws even more of a hamper on the feds, law enforcement, and criminals who have actual know-how to obtain the info after it has been deleted normally. I suggest it's portable variant as it's small (3 megabytes max), gets its job done, and can be fit onto a USB drive.

https://portableapps.com/apps/security/eraser-portable - Download link for if the hyperlink does not work
https://eraser.heidi.ie/ - Information link for if the hyperlink does not work.

GNU shred exists though

 

[Coleslaw]

Word saves the total amount of revisions, username of the user who last wrote or created the document, the version of Word used to write it, how many time wasted writing the document, and probably all the users who made changes to the document

I can just access docx/doc metadata with LibreOffice (File > Proprieties), Although in LibreOffice, I can configure it to save no metadata at all (Tools > Options > Security > Security Options and Warnings > Remove personal information on saving) and save to ODF, Then it saves the document with no metadata except the total editing time being 0 seconds and total revisions being 1

GNU shred exists though

Yeah remember this is how they got BTK.

 

[MarvinTheParanoidAndroid]

Anyone know of a good anti-fingerprinting extension? My firewall tells me that Canvas Blocker is malicious, which is odd since these extensions are supposed to be vetted.

 

[ItsTheShitt]

Anyone know of a good anti-fingerprinting extension? My firewall tells me that Canvas Blocker is malicious, which is odd since these extensions are supposed to be vetted.

Fingerprint resistance is bulit-in Firefox anyway (copied from Tor Browser)
CanvasBlocker is not malicious, it's probably been false flagged by your "firewall" or "antivirus", might be accidental or intentional (corporates seething at not being able to fingerprint people)

 

[n/a]

I don't know if this is the right thread for this (or if this was already posted somewhere) but.
Something i discovered recently is that Google's search index/results and caches can probably fuck you in the ass should you decide one day to tweak your profiles to remove stuff or be more privacy-conscious. Because sometimes it can take months for the webcrawler to update results if you're an average citizen of the net (and, miscellaneously, from what i've seen they don't even remove deactivated/deleted social media accounts from searches (saw this happen with a tearzah orbiter whose twitter and instagram are still searchable/visible, even though the pages have been dead for over six months)).
So if you accidentally put your name in your bio, then purge it after realizing what you've done, googling your username will most likely show the preview of the (now outdated) bio and let people have a gander.

 

[l2l4l]

Something i discovered recently is that Google's search index/results and caches can probably fuck you in the ass should you decide one day to tweak your profiles to remove stuff or be more privacy-conscious. Because sometimes it can take months for the webcrawler to update results if you're an average citizen of the net (and, miscellaneously, from what i've seen they don't even remove deactivated/deleted social media accounts from searches (saw this happen with a tearzah orbiter whose twitter and instagram are still searchable/visible, even though the pages have been dead for over six months)).

You can use Google Search Console to make Google's webcrawler update results faster. In my experience it doesn't update instantaneously but in a day or two results should've been updated.

 

[n/a]

You can use Google Search Console to make Google's webcrawler update results faster. In my experience it doesn't update instantaneously but in a day or two results should've been updated.

I heard that only works for things like websites you own though? https://wpauditor.com/cant-add-social-media-profiles-to-google-search-console/
There's also google's 'remove outdated content' thing but i think it only works about 0.001% of the time and temporarily for about 180 days.

 

[l2l4l]

I heard that only works for things like websites you own though? https://wpauditor.com/cant-add-social-media-profiles-to-google-search-console/
There's also google's 'remove outdated content' thing but i think it only works about 0.001% of the time and temporarily for about 180 days.

I was mistaken, apparently Google got rid of that. But I remember submitting website addresses precisely in order to remove dox some years ago.

 

[No. 7 cat]

I used a username thrice and two of those forums are stone dead. Anyhow being security aware is always good.

 

[why am I fucking here]

(and, miscellaneously, from what i've seen they don't even remove deactivated/deleted social media accounts from searches

Recently had to deal with this, you can try removing stuff with Google's outdated content form but all my requests have been denied. Finally had shit removed pretty quickly by contacting the site owners/staff, in most cases this is probably your best bet.

 

[n/a]

Recently had to deal with this, you can try removing stuff with Google's outdated content form but all my requests have been denied. Finally had shit removed pretty quickly by contacting the site owners/staff, in most cases this is probably your best bet.

I wonder if this would work with yandex as well? Because i decided to fuck around and check through a bunch of search engines i haven't previously checked and yandex was definitely clinging onto old links, and i'm not sure i want to sign up with them just to see if their webmaster console can remove sites you don't own.

 

[gooseberry-picker]

I used a username thrice and two of those forums are stone dead. Anyhow being security aware is always good.

Imagine not randomly selecting your username from nouns mined from a Wiktionary metadata dump, fucking cringe.

 

[gooseberry-picker]

Imagine not randomly selecting your username from nouns mined from a Wiktionary metadata dump, fucking cringe.

Yes, I actually did this. Now you can, too:

shuf nouns.txt | head -n 1

If you're a Wintoddler, install MSYS2, WSL2, or a Linux VM. The above commands should also work on macOS just fine.

EDIT: forgot I had a better version that is ASCII only. Updated command and replaced file. I also added some adjectives.

 

[Reddit]

Too unique or too generic is fine, just make sure you're not using it outside of this god forsaken hellhole.

 

[Rozzy]

A cross-browser tracking bug has surfaced which targets browsers. The vulnerability allows identification of users even when using different browsers on the same device.

https://latesthackingnews.com/2021/05/20/cross-browser-tracking-bug-affects-numerous-browsers-including-tor/

The test.

https://schemeflood.com/

Mine is 91.04% unique.

 

[Kosher Salt]

https://latesthackingnews.com/2021/05/20/cross-browser-tracking-bug-affects-numerous-browsers-including-tor/

The test.

https://schemeflood.com/

Mine is 91.04% unique.
View attachment 2209460

Doesn't appear to work in Brave's Tor window. It says "Wait a minute please" and launches a popup, but the JS console has errors, Brave's shields adblock is blocking a link to googletagmanager in both of the windows, and it doesn't appear that anything else is happening.

edit: if I turn shields off for the site I get different errors in the js console, but the popup still says that some request was blocked by "an extension" and I assume it's one of Brave's built-in extensions because I don't have any separate ad blocking extensions installed.

 

[Toucan]

Hello
The company I work for has recently added a new clause to my contract this year which I am considering. It essentially gives the company permission to monitor my social media and install a keylogger on my workplace computer. Furthermore I have been asked to download an app on my personal phone, ostensibly a productivity tool that allows me to file records to a central data base instantly from my phone while at work, but I do wonder if it is a back door to my personal life.

This clause is making me seriously reconsider continuing at this job. However I really dont want to go through the mortifying ordeal of unemployment and interviews and the like.
So my question is how can i limit my company from intruding on and monitoring my personal life. I am aware of the easy ones like put everything on private etc. But are there any more obscure tips some of you are aware of?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

So my question is how can i limit my company from intruding on and monitoring my personal life. I am aware of the easy ones like put everything on private etc. But are there any more obscure tips some of you are aware of?
Thanks in advance.

Get a cheap android tablet for the personal device app and only use it for work. Connect it to a throwaway Google account if you need to. Otherwise your only option is to tell the company they can't require you to use your personal devices for work, and to give you one if they have to.

As for the work computer keylogger there's nothing you can do, and you shouldn't be doing personal work on it anyway.

 

[Toucan]

As for the work computer keylogger there's nothing you can do, and you shouldn't be doing personal work on it anyway.

Maybe I should clarify that i dont do personal work on my work computer and also I dont believe it if being installed for that purpose. I believe it is to allow management to monitor my productivity at all times and never allow me to take a rest.

 

[Dante Alighieri]

Maybe I should clarify that i dont do personal work on my work computer and also I dont believe it if being installed for that purpose. I believe it is to allow management to monitor my productivity at all times and never allow me to take a rest.

It's just standard IT practice these days, you'll be hard pressed to find a company that doesn't have some kind of monitoring solution.