Two Quick Announcements

* Regular readers will know that I frequently mention (and recommend) the Web Of Trust (WOT) web browser extension (a toolbar for IE, and a plug-in for Firefox) as a free, simple to use and understand, dangerous website alerting tool.

After installation, WOT examines URL’s (website addresses) and inserts a green, yellow, or red symbol next to them, to rate their danger level. It integrates into your search results, as well as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail.

Today I received a notice from them that I had been part of a small group awarded special recognition for helping to spread word of this free security enhancer.. which has now been downloaded over 3 million times.
You’re quite welcome, folks at WOT. The Internet is a dangerous place (even the “safe and sane” sites get hacked) and I very much appreciate what you do.

Kind of a nice way to start my day..
For more on the award, click here. And to download this great plug-in, click here.

* And, regular readers will also recognize the name Bill Mullins. He is a highly regarded Internet Security blogger and the author of Tech Thoughts (The first website posted to my Blogroll). I often mention his articles.. and I highly recommend him to you.

Some while ago, I had the honor and privilege of being Mr. Mullins’ first Guest Author. I am pleased to announce that he now has devoted a newly created page on his site just for Guest Writers. This is a great opportunity for those of you who write tech-oriented articles, and would like to gain the exposure of appearing on a popular site.

Although there is currently only a few submissions, I expect this to develop into a wonderful “reading room” rather quickly.
http://billmullins.wordpress.com/guest-writers/

[note: no, I don’t know how to go about making your submission. I believe you’ll find his contact info on his About page.]

Part 3 is coming soon.. just have to figure it out and write it..

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

More security for Gmail

Your email account contains a lot of personal information, from private, personal letters to business documents. Email that you (probably) don’t want other people to see.

If you are anything like me, you probably sign in to your Inboxes from multiple computers. I, for example, occasionally sign into my e-mail accounts from a friend’s computer, or when traveling, a public computer. As a security paranoid kind of guy, I am sure to sign out before I leave… but every once in a while I wonder if I really did.

Thanks to a new feature in Gmail, I no longer have to wonder about that particular account; with this, I can now track my recent sessions and sign myself out remotely if I somehow forgot to do so.

At the bottom of your inbox page, you’ll see information about the time of the last activity on your account and whether it’s still open in another location.

By glancing at this from time to time, I can see if something “doesn’t jibe”; like, my account was accessed 15 minutes ago, and I haven’t logged on yet today (that would be a pretty good indication that someone has gotten hold of my logon, and is reading my mail!).

To really see what’s going on, I click on the “Details” link.

And here I can see my activity history, the IP Addresses that accessed my account (a “*” indicates a match to my current IP), and what type of connection was made. This info can help determine if (and who) unauthorized access is occurring.

But what I like best is the “Sign out all other sessions” button. Clicking this will disconnect any other machines which are logged on by remote control… say, if I did walk away from a session without logging off.

This feature, and the “always use https” setting featured in yesterday’s article, may make security-conscience Hotmail and Yahoo Mail users consider the switch to Gmail. (It has more storage, too.)

Today’s free link: 5-Star rated DriverMax is a powerful free utility which helps you download, backup and restore the drivers installed on your Windows Vista or Windows XP computer and check if newer versions are available. This tool can save you a lot of time when reinstalling Windows, especially on older computers for which the original CDs containing the drivers have been lost. You no longer have to track down old driver installation CDs, or spend hours searching for drivers on the Internet. DriverMax is also able to display a detailed report about all drivers (versions, release dates) installed on your system. And will help identify “unknown” devices in your computer.

Copyright 2007-8 &copy Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

Share this post :

How to encrypt your e-mail, the easy way

Great! You have exchanged e-mails with Comodo, and completed the free certificate installation {and so has the person(s) with whom you want to exchange private messages} as I described in the proceeding article. That was easier than you thought, right? You are now mere clicks away from simple-and-easy private exchanges.
All we have to do is associate the new certificate with the (appropriate) e-mail account. Once that is done, the encryption will be virtually transparent.. as in “automatic”.

1) Verify install (Optional): Open an instance of Internet Explorer (if it isn’t already) and click on the “Tools” menu item in the upper-right. Select “Internet Options” from the Context Menu. Now click on the “Content” tab. Look to the middle for the “Certificates” button, as shown below.
 
Now you should see your new Certificate listed…
 
As shown here. If you don’t see this, it means that Windows did not complete the certificate installation. You will need to re-open the Comodo e-mail, and revisit the link, and repeat the Install process.
But, that’s thinking negative, so let’s proceed as if everything (so far) looks right.

2) Associate Cert with e-mail: Close IE and open your e-mail client. In my screenshots I am using Live Mail, but the process steps apply to Mail, Outlook, and OE as well. (Thunderbird and AppleMail are slightly different menu choices, but the principle is the same.) Click on “Tools”, and then select “Accounts”.
This will list your configured e-mail accounts.
 
Select the account you requested the Certificate for by clicking (once) on it, {For demonstration purposes, I am associating the Cert with this site’s e-mail account.} and then click on the “Properties” button. Select the “Security” tab.
 
Start by clicking the “Select” button for the “Signing certificate”..
 
And click on the certificate shown (if you have more than one personal Certificate showing, use the dates issued to choose the correct one) and then “OK”. Repeat this for the “Encrypting preferences” “Select” button.
Your e-mail account is now “Certified”! And you are ready for…

3) Send a “Signed” e-mail to your friend: Address a “New” e-mail to the person(s) you want to exchange encrypted messages with, and click the “Sign” button, then “Send”. By “signing” your e-mail, you are sending them your “Digital ID” and a copy of your “public key”.

4) Have the other party do #3 to you: Having the other party send a “signed” e-mail to you, gives you a copy of their DID and their public key. Now you both have the keys you need to exchange secure, private, encrypted e-mails to each other.

5) Click the “Encrypt” button before you click “Send”: That’s it.. it is now that simple. Your e-mail will appear in their Inbox like this..
 
And when they open it (no special actions needed) they will see this…

.. and visa versa. From now on, it will be so smooth and easy, you might begin to wonder if your mail really is being scrambled/unscrambled. (It is.)

To read the How to on getting the free e-mail Certificate (part 1 of this article), click here.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.

Share this post :

Continuing adventures in e-mail security

Who’s reading your e-mail? Are you sure it is only the person you sent it to? Could it hurt you, or your business, (or, your marriage?) if someone else was reading it? Wouldn’t it be great if you could ensure that only the intended recipient could read it?

Loyal Friends and True of this series will remember that I while back I wrote a series on using WinPT and GPG to encrypt your e-mail and keep your important conversations private. (If you would like to take a look, click here.) I feel compelled to confess to you, Dear Reader, that the topic was not too well received, and my stats took a bit of a downturn during its run. It is my belief that this was due to the fact that the method described is not one-click simple. It is, in fact, a bit complicated.

In the prior series, I explained (in my limited way) that the encrypting of files, and sending them to someone else, where they then need to decode them, is best done by the exchanging of “keys” in what is called “Public-key encryption” (for Wikipedia’s explanation on that, click here). I will not be lecturing on that today.. though, I invite you to click the link if you’re interested in (or curious about) cryptography.

It is not hard to understand how encrypting your writing — so that it can travel across the Internet in an unreadable format — is a “good thing”.. a desirable thing.. and would have serious benefits. The encrypting of e-mails is often required by businesses, and they install cool (and expen$ive) machines on their networks that automatically encrypts all company e-mail. But what about us? Here at home? How do we do it? Can it happen automatically.. like it does at our job? Well, yes and no. The first step is to get yourself a “key”. (GPG allows you to generate keys, btw.)

I mentioned in yesterday’s article that I had started using a new (to me) e-mail client (Windows Live Mail) to access my webmail accounts. Live Mail, and all other e-mail clients (Outlook, OE, Thunderbird, etc.) natively support the use of “keys”, and allow you so “sign” and/or encrypt your e-mail with a single click… assuming you have taken a couple of steps first.
You may have noted that I have been putting the word key inside quotes; that’s because when I’m speaking at the level of how crypto works, I am actually speaking about algorithms and when I talk about using those keys, I am talking about “Certificates”. To encrypt your e-mail you need to get a Certificate… which is really a key (pair). Confusing, I know.

Tip of the day: Get a Certificate for your e-mail account(s). There are several Certificate Authorities that offer free Certificates for the personal use in e-mail, but I have found that if you are using any Microsoft products.. or you suspect that your recipient(s) may be using Windows and/or Outlook (which is a fairly good bet), you want to get your e-mail certificate here:
Today’s free link: Comodo Free Email Certificate 

Fill in the form, and use the e-mail address that you want to protect with encryption (If you use more than one e-mail address regularly, repeat this process for each one: each account needs its own Cert), and click on the “Advanced Private Key Options” link, and place a check in the “User protected?” checkbox, and enter a “Revocation password (twice). Click “Agree & C ontinue”.

A window will open telling you that a Certificate is being “requested on your behalf”.. agree. Now you will see the screen (pictured). Click “OK”.

If all goes as it should, the Comodo webpage will change to a “Congratulations!” page, and instructs you to check the Inbox of the account you created the Cert for. Do so. There will be an e-mail from Comodo containing a link. You will need to click it to complete the process (Copy>Paste links into the address bar of your browser, remember?!).

Your e-mail will look like this. When you’ve copy>pasted the e-mail’s link into your browser’s address bar, and requested the Cert download, Windows will then automatically try to install it for you, but needs your permission..

Click “Yes” to give it.

This tells you you’re done, and now you can digitally “sign” your e-mail.. which is the first real step to exchanging encrypted email.. which I will describe tomorrow.
Now, e-mail a link to this article to the person(s) you want private conversations with, and tell them to click the link and follow the Comodo wizard and get their key.. you’re going to need it. Once you and they do this, encryption is a click away.

The conclusion of this How To is now available here.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.

Share this post :