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Questions tagged [security]

The protection of computer systems and information from threats such as theft or data destruction.

110 votes
11 answers
18k views

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. ...
Josh Hunt's user avatar
  • 21.3k
44 votes
9 answers
49k views

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 ...
utapyngo's user avatar
  • 1,933
59 votes
4 answers
207k views

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,...
Diogo's user avatar
  • 30.5k
33 votes
3 answers
123k views

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 ...
Arnold Zokas's user avatar
103 votes
23 answers
17k views

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
57k views

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 ...
user avatar
23 votes
7 answers
33k views

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 ...
Villemoes's user avatar
  • 421
21 votes
2 answers
6k views

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?
MikeJ's user avatar
  • 746
352 votes
19 answers
322k views

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 ...
Peltier's user avatar
  • 6,324
24 votes
6 answers
4k views

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 ...
Lee Treveil's user avatar
152 votes
8 answers
55k views

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 ...
pkamb's user avatar
  • 4,463
59 votes
4 answers
104k views

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 ...
Ram Rachum's user avatar
  • 5,250
202 votes
15 answers
271k views

"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
184k views

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 ...
thegreatdane23's user avatar
31 votes
12 answers
13k views

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 ...
Brian Lyttle's user avatar
  • 1,021

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