My Technical To-Do List

Good day minions!

Well, today we're kicking off with completing some of my technical to-do list. Whats that you ask?
My Technical To-Do List is precisely that, a to do list of technology based things to learn. I'm completing this list because i want to be the best i can possibly be and know as much as i can about computing.  I have a list based within a 3 month time scale and i aim to complete it.

So for the first part of an inevitable number of posts today is Information Security - Confidentiality which is part of a CIA principle, not the American CIA but in IS - Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability.

So yeah, we're starting with Confideniality whcih is as you would imagine, preventing information from reaching people who have no right to it, a bit like medical records. You know, you and your doctors are supposed to see them but the random night shift cleaner or visitor isn't supposed to.
Operating under that principle, in computing terms, what would be the best way to prevent these random people looking at private files?

A good start to this is encrypting your files, there are many ways to go about this. If you remember my last post about ROT13, thats an encryption method, theres also Twofish, blowfish, AES, DES, RSA, MD5, SHA-1. My point being, is that there are many many ways to protect your data, to make it confidential.
For instance, one of my security-paranoid friends, i think encrypts his entire HDD and his files, plus everything on his USB stick for the sake of security. NOBODY is getting into his files, trust me on that one.

There are numerous different encryption programs available to make your data confidential, both free software and paid for, as is always the case but to name a few:

1. TrueCrypt
2. BitLocker

But there is also the methods i have previously mentioned if you want to do it by hand and you know, with a bit of googling, you can find your own software.

However, a further word on Confidentiality - Its not all about encryption, theres more to it than one small part of it. Its about general security, its making sure you use your physical locks, two factor authentication, actually using a password.

Also, on the subject of passwords,  its a subject near and dear to my heart really. Just don't be an idiot with a password. Don't sit there complaining that your email has been hacked or whatever when your password is Password01 or password123 or your name.
If you use a secure password, like many sites are forcing you to these days, its for a good reason. They are asking pretty much for the blood of your first born so that your data stays private and confidential. You could almost say that it is your duty or responsibility to keep your data and everyone elses secure.

Final note on passwords, for the love of all things intelligent - DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PASSWORD ON A POST IT ATTACHED TO YOUR COMPUTER!!!!

Just don't do it, don't be that person.

There will be other posts today so stay tuned folks!