Questions tagged [security]
The protection of computer systems and information from threats such as theft or data destruction.
561
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110
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11
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Securely erasing all data from a hard drive
I am about to sell my old desktop PC and I am cautious about some of my sensitive information being available to the purchaser, even after reformatting the hard-drive, using data recovery software.
...
44
votes
9
answers
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Automatically login and lock
I want to configure Windows 7 to login automatically after the computer is switched on. That's not because I'm lazy and don't like typing passwords. That's because I want programs that are configured ...
59
votes
4
answers
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Is my host machine completely isolated from a virus-infected virtual machine?
If I am running a Windows 7 virtual machine on a Windows 7 host using
VMWare or VirtualBox (or anything else) and the virtual machine is completely
overloaded with viruses and other malicious software,...
33
votes
3
answers
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How do I disable administrator prompt in Windows 8?
I am using Windows 8 Enterprise on my development machine. Most of the time, I need full administrator for debugging, changing system files, etc.
In Windows 7, setting UAC to "never notify" would ...
103
votes
23
answers
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How can I make a Windows PC bullet-proof for home users? [closed]
I realize that virus-proof on a Windows PC is far fetched, but in the interest of keeping time spent as the "family-tech-support" to a minimum, I am looking for ideas to lock a computer down to the ...
36
votes
6
answers
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How to securely delete files stored on a SSD?
From a (very long, but definitely worth to read) article on SSDs:
When you delete a file in your OS, there is no reaction from either a hard drive or SSD. It isn’t until you overwrite the sector (on ...
23
votes
7
answers
33k
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How do I safely investigate a USB stick found in the parking lot at work?
I work at an embedded software company. This morning I found a USB stick in the parking lot in front of the building. With all the stories of "dropped USB stick attacks" in mind, I'm obviously not ...
21
votes
2
answers
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Why do I need to run commands as administrator if my account is member of administrator group?
If my account is already a member of the administrator group why do some functions on Windows 7 require me to run them as administator? I kind of thought that was implied?
352
votes
19
answers
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How to reliably keep an SSH tunnel open?
I use an SSH tunnel from work to go around various idotic firewalls (it's ok with my boss :)). The problem is, after a while the ssh connection usually hangs, and the tunnel is broken.
If I could at ...
24
votes
6
answers
4k
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Password protect a folder
What are the available options for password protecting a folder? I'm talking about requiring a password to actually access the folder, not just user access rights. Is the third-party software out ...
152
votes
8
answers
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How to disable Google One Tap sign-up prompts?
I've recently begun seeing common pop-ups on sites on which I do not have an account.
The pop-ups prompt me with my real name and Google sign-in email, which is being provided either by being signed ...
59
votes
4
answers
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Finding out which app is using the webcam
Yesterday I was working on my laptop. Suddenly I noticed that the indicator light of the webcam was on, despite the fact that I wasn't making a video call or using the webcam in any other way at the ...
202
votes
15
answers
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"This file came from another computer..." - how can I unblock all the files in a folder without having to unblock them individually?
Windows XP SP2 and Windows Vista have this deal where zone information is preserved in downloaded files to NTFS partitions, such that it blocks certain files in certain applications until you "unblock"...
42
votes
2
answers
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How to block all traffic but one IP in Windows Firewall?
I'm trying to use Windows 7 firewall to block all outgoing and incoming traffic, from all IP's and for all protocals, except for UDP to and from one particular IP address.
The reason why is because ...
31
votes
12
answers
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Is there a keystroke that can lock the Mac OS X screensaver?
On Windows I can hit Windows + L to lock my desktop. On Leopard there doesn't seem to be this capability. While I can set the screensaver to come on very quickly, I would like to hit a key combo to ...