Don't Get Caught! How to Protect Your Hard Drives from Data Forensics

Over the past few days, a lot of questions have been posed to me about removing sensitive data from hard drives. Ideas seem to range from magnets to microwaves and a lot of things in-between. So, I'd like to explain a little bit about data forensics, how it works, and the steps you can take to be safe.

Often, an anon will delete files from his computer, but that is only half the story, as those files are still really there. And if the careless anon doesn't take steps to fix that, when his door gets kicked in and the FBI takes his hard drive, they will be able to see everything. Don't be that anon.

What Is Computer Forensics? The People on 'CSI'?

Computer forensics is the collection, preservation, analysis and presentation of computer-related evidence. In summary, it helps determine the who, what, where, and when related to a computer-based crime or violation. When the feds are finished arresting you and boxing up your belongings into evidence crates, they will ship them off to the FBI data lab in Washington, D.C.


In addition, an examiner will work to uncover all files on the subject's system. This includes existing active, invisible, deleted, hidden, password-protected, and encrypted files. In many cases, information is gathered during a computer forensics investigation that is not typically available or viewable by the average computer user, such as fragments of data that can be found in the space allocated for existing files (known as “slack space”). Special skills and tools are needed to obtain this type of information or evidence.

An expert can recover pretty much all of your deleted files, along with other data that has not yet been overwritten. As a computer is used, the operating system is constantly writing data to the hard drive. From time to time, the OS will save new data on a hard drive by overwriting data that exists on the drive, but is no longer needed by the operating system, i.e. a deleted file.  So, the ongoing use of a computer system may destroy data that could have been extracted before being overwritten.

How to Protect Yourself

While erasing files simply marks file space as available for reuse, data-wiping overwrites all data space on a storage device, replacing useful data with garbage data. Depending upon the method used, the overwrite data could be zeros (also known as "zero-fill") or could be various random patterns. This is why simply deleting information is never enough. You must take proactive steps to ensure your removal is complete.

We are going to use a great boot disk called DBAN to perform this operation.

Step 1

Obtain and Burn DBAN

You can download the 2.2.6 Beta release from Sourceforge. Once you have the .ISO, all that's left to do is burn it to a blank CD/DVD. Place the media into your drive and restart the computer. Most computers are set to try and boot from the CD drive before the hard disk. If this is not the case, and your computer does not boot the CD drive, you will need to enter your BIOS setup and change the boot priority order.

Step 2

Boot and Run!

After the CD starts, you will be greeted with this screen:

We want to simply press enter here to start DBAN in interactive mode. The main menu shown below should display your hard drive to be wiped.

The next screen shows us DBAN is ready to get down to work, the default method is a DoD Short wipe, and it will work fine for us.

Hit the space bar to select and it will start. Be warned though, the DoD wipe takes a bit of time, especially on larger hard drives. But not as long as a prison sentence would be.

In Closing

DBAM is a great tool to clean a hard drive. I carry a copy of it in my laptop bag when I travel and you should do the same. It is quick and easy and works better then most other tools I have used. Be careful as (obviously) it is impossible to recover if you zap the wrong hard drive!

How to stop email spam on Gmail

One of the most compelling reasons to use Gmail is to avoid excessive amounts of spam email. Gmail uses innovative technology and community reporting to recognize and automatically filter out spam emails. However, even the most advanced spam filters are not 100 percent effective, and some spam will eventually trickle through the system. To minimize your spam exposure, you can report the spam using Gmail's reporting system and alter your email usage to further protect your email address.

Here i am giving you some steps on How to stop email spam.

Modifying Your Email Address for Filtering

Step 1
Modify your own Gmail address with periods (".") within your username, such as transforming "myemailaddress@gmail.com" to "my.email.address@gmail.com." Gmail will read it as the same email address.

Step 2
Extend your email's username with pluses ("+"), followed by a keyword, such as changing "myemailaddress@gmail.com" to "myemailaddress+possiblespam@gmail.com." Gmail will still recognize the email address as yours and deliver it to you.

Step 3
Use "googlemail.com" domain instead of "gmail.com," such as changing "myemailaddress@gmail.com" to "myemailaddress@googlemail.com." This is the old Google domain, but still functions as if you used the current domain.

Step 4
Use these modified email addresses when entering your email on websites. This gives you the ability to filter them, should they become targeted by spam.

Filtering Modified Emails

Step 1
Click "Create a filter" at the top of the Gmail window, to the right of the search bar.

Step 2
Enter the modified email address in the "To" field, and click "Next."

Step 3
Select the appropriate action, such as marking the message read, sending it straight into the archive, applying an identifiable label or deleting it. Click "Create Filter" to create the filter.

Step 4
Create additional filters for each modified email address.

Filtering Specific Emails

Step 1
Select the email you want to filter.

Step 2
Click "More actions" and choose "Filter messages like these." The "From" email address is automatically filled.

Step 3
Modify any other filter criteria you desire, such as subject lines or keywords, and click "Next."

Step 4
Select the action, such as deleting it, applying a label or sending it straight into Archives.

Step 5
Click "Create Filter" to apply the new filter.


Tips & Warnings on how to stop email spam

• Select any spam messages and click "Report spam" on the top menu to move the message to the spam folder. This also marks the sender as a spam sender, which usually stops subsequent messages and helps Gmail identify spam email to help the Gmail community as a whole.
• Consider creating a completely separate email account for signing up with websites. As an example, some sites may require you to enter you email address to set up an account or grant access. However, you may not want to receive email from this site, so you could give them the "junk" email address. If they start sending spam, it only goes to this junk email address.

How to make any Internet Download Manager (IDM) full version with serial key crack or keygen

Internet Download Manager is a download accelator. By using this software we are able download from the Internet at a high speed.But when we are downloading the software from its official site it is not a full version. That is a 30 day trial pack. After these days are past it will ask you to enter serial key or to buy. So here is the process to make any downloaded IDM full version.
After making this it will be registered for lifetime and not ask to register it further.


Process:

1. Download latest version of IDM from Here or If you already have IDM installed Update it [Process for update: Click on help on the menu bar and then click on check updates. It will search for updates and ask you to install]

2. If you like your installed version of IDM very much. Then don't update or skip the first step.

3. Now click on "registration" on the menu bar.

4. When you click on registration, Now a new window Will be open ask your First Name, Last Name, Email Address and Serial Key. See Screenshot

5. Enter your First name, Last Name, Email address in the required field.

6. In the serial key field enter any of the following given below

   

     RLDGN-OV9WU-5W589-6VZH1

     HUDWE-UO689-6D27B-YM28M

     UK3DV-E0MNW-MLQYX-GENA1

     398ND-QNAGY-CMMZU-ZPI39

     GZLJY-X50S3-0S20D-NFRF9

     W3J5U-8U66N-D0B9M-54SLM

     EC0Q6-QN7UH-5S3JB-YZMEK

     UVQW0-X54FE-QW35Q-SNZF5

     FJJTJ-J0FLF-QCVBK-A287M

And click on ok to register.

7. After you click OK, it will show an error message that you have registered IDM using fake serial key and IDM will exit. See screenshot

Now the actual My Creations process starts:

8. First of all go to "C:/" drive then go to "Windows" Folder and then go to "System32" folder and then go to "Drivers" folder and then go to "Etc" Folder.

Path is: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc

Or Simply "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc" paste this (without quotes) in the address bar and hit enter. 

It will open the required folder.

9. In the Etc folder you will see the hosts file. Open the file with notepad.

Now copy the below lines of code and add to hosts file as shown below the image box :

127.0.0.1 tonec.com

127.0.0.1 www.tonec.com

127.0.0.1 registeridm.com

127.0.0.1 www.registeridm.com

127.0.0.1 secure.registeridm.com

127.0.0.1 internetdownloadmanager.com

127.0.0.1 www.internetdownloadmanager.com

127.0.0.1 secure.internetdownloadmanager.com

127.0.0.1 mirror.internetdownloadmanager.com

127.0.0.1 mirror2.internetdownloadmanager.com

10. After adding these codes, save the notepad file. And exit from there.

Now again repeat the 3rd step to 6th step.

Reboot or restart your PC. After restart Now open your IDM it will be full version and not ask you to register.

In windows vista and seven  we are not able to save the "hosts" file  due to security resion. For that first of all we have to take the ownership of the file to our logged user.

How to change IP with Proxy

One way to change the IP address of the computer is by using a Proxy.
Now we need to go in deep of this creation for better understanding.

What is a Proxy?

In general a proxy is an IP (Internet Protocol) or an intermediary who can serve as a media liaison with the ISP connection. Proxy is one of the functions can change our computer identity (IP) with a different IP. Here are tips on replacing the IP with a proxy:

For this creation I use the Mozilla Firefox browser.

Consider the following example, before I change to using the tool what is my ip IP and location of the server looks as follows (IP deliberately Blur because the interests of privacy):

After I enter the proxy would look as follows:

All identities will be changed by entering the proxy.

Follow these steps to change the IP

In the Browser tap  Tools> Options , then the box will pop up the following configuration

Then select Advanced> Network> Settings , will appear as follows:

Fill HTTP Proxy with your Proxy, for example I use data

IP: 89.97.232.161

Port: 80

Country: Italy

Then press the OK to terminate. You can find out your computer with the new IP tool what is my IP . while for some you can use proxy to download Proxy here.

If still you are facing problem regarding my post then you can mention in your comments.

Good Luck :)

How to Get Back Deleted SMS in Mobiles

Get back Deleted SMS in Mobile | Vivek Creations

In my previous posts on Mobile i have shared some interesting and useful creations like How to track your lost mobile phones And How to access Mobile sites on PC etc..

So, today i am going to share another useful creation of Vivek Creations.

How you can recover your Deleted SMS in mobile phones. Don't forget everything is possible just you have to find a on track :)

Ok lets start this post..

Things you will need :

1. A Nokia Mobile supporting application download.
2. Second search for any File-Manager like ( FExplorer, Fileman or any other )
3. Install that application on your cellphone.
4. Now when everything is ready follow the below steps:

Procedure to Read Deleted SMS in Mobile:

1. Open your File-Manager i.e.. FExplorer or Fileman

2. Select the memory card drive that can be C: or D: just check it out.

3. Now after opening drive navigate to

System > Mail

4. Now in Mail folder you will see different folders like ( 0010001_s )

5. Now the above folders are the actual messages which you are going to read, now there will be many folders which are actually all the messages now search for the one you are browsing and than do not open that directly as it will not be supported, choose the one you wanna open than choose

open > file > hex/text viewer

6. That’s it now you are reading the deleted SMS which you can copy or transfer into other phone by sending it through Bluetooth.

If you are still facing any problem regarding my this creation then you can mentioned in your comments.

Facebook Auto Poke Back For Mozilla And Crome

In my previous posts related to Facebook I have posted a lot about facebook tweaking and tools, as you can check Facebook Chat Code Generator Or Fake Facebook Status Machine..

Today i am going to share an interesting post on Facebook in which i will explain about a trick on Facebook Poke Back. Means you can poke back all the peoples who poked you by just a single click. And also you can poke random peoples on facebook. I will share two paths of Facebook Poke Back trick 1st one is through Google Crome and second one is through Mozilla Firefox.

Now lets start with 1st path..

HOW TO AUTO POKE BACK IN GOOGLE CHROME

Step 1:

Open your Google Chrome browser.

Now Click here to go to ‘POKE ALL FOR CHROME’ Extension in Chrome Store and install the Extension by clicking Install button.






Step 2:

After clicking Install, you can see the Installed conformation message in your browser top right side. Now the Extension is Installed.

Now you have to configure the Extension. You can see the Extension FACEBOOK ICON in the Top right side of the browser, Click on it and Check the option ‘AUTO POKE’. (Screenshot below)



Step 3:

Thats all, all done.
Now lets check it.
Ask any of your friend to poke you and Refresh the page or nagivate to some other page in facebook to get poke notification. After that you can see the message in the poke notification area that Auto poked with your Friend name who poked you. Example shown below




If the Extension not working, Clear the Cache and Restart the Browser to try again. Any problem ask help in comments.

I hope you understand our 1st path of Facebook auto poke back trick. Now Lets take a look on How to do the same with Mozilla Firefox.

HOW TO AUTO POKE BACK IN MOZILLA FIREFOX

In Mozilla Firefox you have to install Grease Monkey add-On before we install FACEBOOK AUTO POKE script.
If you already installed Grease Monkey add-on in your Firefox browser, then you can skip this step and go to Script Installation step.

Step 1: Click Here to install Grease Monkey


Step 2: (Installing Facebook Auto Poke Script)
After installing Greasemonkey Addon, you should restart the browser to take effect and now Click here and go to ‘FACEBOOK AUTOPOKE SCRIPT’ page and Click ‘INSTALL’ button which is located in the Top right corner of the website.



Now the Installer popup will come, Click ‘INSTALL’  in that popup box.



After clicking ‘INSTALL’. Greasemonkey will show notification in the Bottom side corner that script is installed.



Now the Script Installed Correctly. Now ask Your friends to Poke you in facebook and you check your poke notification area, you can see its already poked back automatically.





Thats all :)
Please mentioned your views in comments about my this creations.

How To Mount A Hard Drive Automatically During Start up In Ubuntu

I do not know how many times I will ever receive requests such as “ Hello, how can I automatically mount a hard disk boot Ubuntu? ”. Finally I managed to find some ‘time to write this article I will show you the steps necessary to ensure that, in a completely automatic, power up your Ubuntu are also mounted hard drive or hard drive you need . Let’s start with a first method , longer and more cumbersome, but you will have full control of what you are doing. Open the terminal and type:

sudo mkdir / media / namepersonaldetails

Of course replace “ namepersonaldetails ” with a name to your liking. With this command we are not doing is create a directory under / media where we will mount our hard drive.Now comes the slightly more difficult to know the name of your HD (/ dev/sda2 / dev/sda3, etc.). You can do this from a terminal type the command:

sudo fdisk-l

or the command:

df-h

Now we have to edit the fstab file is a configuration file used to indicate which and how many drives loaded at boot time, with their options. Enter, therefore, the following command:

sudo nano / etc / fstab

and, at the end of the file, add:

/ Dev/sda3 / media / namepersonaldetails ntfs auto, rw, exec, users, dmask = 000, fmask = 111, nls = utf8 0 0

As you can see it, in this case, a HD with NTFS file system. To check that the HD is really mounted, type:

sudo mount-a

Another effective method , and very fast, is to create a small startup script. Type:

gedit ~ / mount.sh

and paste the following code:

# / Bin / sh 
gvfs-mount-d / dev / sdaX

Where, of course, instead of sdaX you need to put the id of your HD. Now granted execute permissions to this script:

chmod + x ~ / mount.sh

And add it to “ boot applications ”in Ubuntu. All very simple, do not you think?