Another security tip is not to post on poker-related forums unless you know what you're doing. People can get your IP address easily and try to target your computer.

Or easier : if you know a HUSNG high stakes player who posts on 2+2, just grab his IP address, play against him, and disconnect him with a ping flood attack from a big internet connection (just rent a VPS from some hosting company, it's cheap and it can disconnect most cable/DSL connections). It's a very easy way to steal 5000 dollars without anyone knowing it's a steal (unless you do it many times). It can't fail if your target has a static IP address.

Would you say DropBox is still secure? http://www.boingboing.net/2011/04/21...Boing+Boing%29

Or do you recommend anything else to backup the key file for KeePass. thanks for the great series again.

It raises privacy concerns but even if someone gained access to your dropbox account they wouldn't be able to read your keepass db. All of your sensitive information should be encrypted with keys that you control.

Also, if you use a keepass key-file, you shouldn't store it with your database.

Thx really appreciate the help. I feel much more secure now after implementing your recommendations. Going to be buying a used Linksys router soon that supports Tomato.

What's a key file? I'm assuming it's ok to backup the .kdbx file online somewhere because you'd still need the master password to access the data right?

(Grunch)

Came across this earlier today. Everyone on here could already know about it, but I'm pretty impressed:

http://preyproject.com/

(No affiliation). It's basically a cross-platform "lojack from laptops" that's free, doesn't hog system resources and works with mobile devices (iOS coming soon I'm told). Does the usual stuff -- monitors traffic, screen shots, webcam, file system changes, etc -- but not until you report your machine as missing.

Thanks so much for the vids

I just had a weird problem after installing Secunia. When it tried to check for Windows updates, Windows didn't like that and force-closed the program, or tried to anyway. It seemed to keep running in the background and updated 1 or 2 other things, but even after a fresh install I am unable to open the user interface Looked through the FAQ and forum on the Secunia site but couldn't find anything like this.

I'm running XP btw.

Try Secunia PSI version 1 if version 2 is acting up.

Any idea where I can find that?

http://secunia.com/PSI1Setup.exe

^I tried that but the application gets completely shut down after a few seconds. I mentioned via pm that I wondered whether my version of Windows might be cracked and I'd screwed something up, but have since confirmed that it is a real bought version so idk what the problem is

fml, 20 hours for truecrypt to complete encryption :S

something wrong?

Really really good stuff.

I want to say thanks for taking the time out of your day to create these videos. I can tell you put a lot of hard work into them.

Cheers,

Dave

In case anyone is having the same problem I had with Windows Data Execution Prevention trying to shut down Secunia PSI, try the following first:

Control Panel->System->Advanced->Performance->Data Execution Prevention->"Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select:"

then add Secunia if necessary; for me it was already listed so I just checked the box.

Unfortunately after rebooting the problem still wasn't fixed so I turned off DEP altogether:

Control Panel->System->Advanced->Startup and Recovery->Edit->

change end of last line to read NoExecute=AlwaysOff

File->Save->OK->OK->Reboot

Hopefully someone can inform me if turning off DEP is a really bad idea

OK,

first of all thank you a lot for all your effort.

I have completely formatted and re-installed windows XP (thanks to your videos on how to do it almost 100% problem free)

I'm probably going to have a few questions in the coming days.

Here are the first two: When logging into a site (like the 2p2 forums), and after entering my master PW Firefox doesn't automatically enter my username and password into the login field. Instead I have to type "S" and only then a sort of drop down menue appears that shows "Sugar Nut". If I click that, my password gets entered. Is there a way to tell FF to automatically enter all of that info?

My second question:

I have downloaded and installed Secunia PSI and due to the nature of my sestem being fresh it didn't detect much. However this scared me:

I couldn't find anything like C:/programfiles/macromedia and in control panel -> software there is also not an entry for it. Is it really dangerous and if yes how do I remove it?

hey, i just opened this link that ppl say its infected, i didnt install anything but i saw the flash movie do i have to worry about my pc being infected? i scanned with avira
premium, malware bytes and super anti spyware and nothing suspicious was found...

http://www.cnn-sport.com/U.S.%20News...ZOOzy&wom=true

what else can i do so i can be sure im not infected?

Great thread funkyworms! I'm a little bit out of date but I must tell you
that these videos are great and really helped me out.

I must admit I got a little lost when you spoke about router security and "tomato".
I currently use a Lynksys E2000 with a password and thats about it. What would you suggest?

I'm also wondering if you still consider avira as the best free antivirus nowadays? Still recommending secunia as the best updating software?

Once again, awesome thread very useful to the poker community!

Concerning Keepass, it seems nice but what if your master password gets cracked ? The hacker would have access to all your password and you're screwed.

That's kind of impossible unless it's your own fault.

@funkyworms: someone on the forum is offering me VPN services, but he does not have anyone to vouch for him yet. Could it be risky to use a stranger's VPN services regarding getting hacked or him sniffing my packets, and/or him getting access to confidential information such as passwords?

Syndr0m, I hope you don't mind if I reply to your question even if I'm not funkyworms and maybe not as knowledgeable as him. The person who is offering you VPN services can of course sniff everything you send via his VPN server. You probably already know that if you speak of sniffing packets. Plus, he can reach your computer directly, because your computer and his computer are on the same virtual network, and he knows your IP address on this network (because he's the one who gave you the IP address). It may even be possible for him to execute programs on your computer remotely (see this), although the probability that he's able to do so is very low. Unless you download some program from the internet via his VPN using a non-encrypted protocol (http, bittorrent, ftp, etc). Then it's easy for him to execute whatever he wants on your computer.

Of course, you can choose to use his VPN to route encrypted traffic only (let's say some poker software), and you can use some firewall to block incoming connections. But still, you can't be sure that the guy isn't smart enough to manage to exploit your computer.

He could even detect when you're playing poker, and if he knows your screen name at the poker site, then he could play against you and disconnect you (either by shutting down the VPN or by flooding your internet connection) so he can win a big pot against you. But if you don't use this forum securely as I said earlier in this thread, then anyone who knows your screen name can already do this do you.

Also, if you intend to play poker via this guy's VPN, then you must ask him if other people will do the same, with the same outgoing IP address, because it could trigger an alert at the poker room if 10 guys are playing with the same IP address.

In my opinion, one should avoid to use VPN services from individuals or from company specialized in VPN. What I would do if I wanted to use a VPN is to rent a dedicated server with a dedicated IP address from a very big hosting company, and install my own VPN server on it. The only problem would be that my IP address could seem suspicious to some poker room, as it would not be an IP address from a cable/dsl connection (maybe you have the same problem with the guy who is offering you VPN services).

Quality information raco, thanks!! I decided not to go for it.

Could you recommend some big hosting companies for me to rent a server? Anything in particular I should look for while choosing one?

Now just have to find out how to run a VPN server on it

Syndr0m,

Maybe you can try http://dada.pro/, they operate under different brand names in several european countries. I had a VPS with them that was very cheap (5 euros per month) and worked well (a VPS provides somewhat the same service as a real dedicated server, is much cheaper, but the setup of a VPN server might be more difficult -sometimes even impossible- on a VPS).

What you should pay attention to :
- the country the server is located in
- the terms of service, to check if what you want to do with your server is allowed
- traffic/bandwidth limit
- whether the server is a VPS or a real server

That's all I can think of. I hope I don't forget something.

Hi,

like suggested I use router Linksys WRT54GL but it goes "only" up to 54 Mbps download and my connection is 100 Mbps, so must buy a new one and would need some recomendations, which router would be OK?

Thak You.

I've just installed eset security system and malware bytes. Is that a good combo?

Eset is fine.