Category: Privacy

OpenVPN reconnect

My OpenVPN likes to have difficulty and go yellow from time to time.  The problem with this is twofold – I have any and all downloads stop at the absence of VPN, and when I’m not home connecting to my server is more difficult when VPN has hundged up.  The simplest fix for now is just to restart/reconnect VPN on the daily.

I use OpenVPN with PIA.
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#AltGov Twitter accounts

Surely a growing list.

@RoguePOTUSStaff
@alt_fda
@AltNatParkSer
@altUSEPA
@RogueNASA
@AltUSFWSRefuge
@blm_alt
@Alt_NIH
@altNOAA
@AlternativeNWS
@AltForestServ
@AltNatParkSer
@altusda
@RogueED
@AltEEOB
@AltHomesteadMon
@AltDptEducation
@AltHHS
@Alt_DeptofED
@AltStateDpt
@alt_doj
@alt_labor
@rogue_ALA
@AltHomelandSec
@rogueFEMA
@alt_treasury
@Alt_FAA
@rogueUSedgov
@Alt_Interior
@AltFedCyberz
@AltSmithsonian
@alt_fec
@AltUSDeptHUD
@HUDFacts
@realUSDOE
@altFBI
@alt_NASA
@alt_CDC

OpenVPN Autologin

I wanted OpenVPN to autologin on one of my servers.  The issue here is two fold: UAC grabs the executable and demands confirmation, and the gui doesn’t retain credentials.  The solution to the latter does unfortunately require storing those credentials plaintext in a file, but if you’re not worried about that then read on. Continue reading

Windows – Force Applications to Use VPN

Got an app you want to work only when connected to VPN?  Have Windows Firewall do the work for you

First, connect to your VPN.  Then, ensure that your Public connection is that VPN connection.  You can do this by opening Network and Sharing Center.  In the example below, clicking on Ethernet 3 on the Unidentified network reveals the VPN IP address.

apng Continue reading

Pale Moon and HTTPS Everywhere

For reasons I won’t get into here, the EFF has decided for now not to support Pale Moon, which is my current browser of choice (sideplug:  Like Firefox but tired of it gobbling all your resources and crashing?  Pale Moon my friend).  The inability to install HTTPS Everywhere nearly had me leaving Pale Moon until I discovered that there’s a fork of it out there that works!  So use Pale Moon, and install Encrypted Web (and uBlock Origin).

TrueCrypt – No longer safe?

Bad news.  A serious flaw in TrueCrypt has been found that potentially allows full system compromise.  The worse news?  There’s no truly trustworthy TC successor for Windows out there in the wilds so far.  Microsoft and Symantec both offer encryption solutions, but surely they’re rife with back doors.  VeraCrypt is a fork of TC, but so far there’s nothing to generate any confidence that it too isn’t compromised.

The good news, I suppose, is that so far it appears that TrueCrypt on Linux doesn’t have this newly found flaw.  Also, it seems this flaw requires the machine to be on and in Windows.  In other words, if your fully disk encrypted machine is powered down, or your drives are removed or are external and the machine isn’t with them, your data remains safe.  Cold comfort, really.

AVG selling your browser history?

According to this reddit thread, yes.  Time to move on if you’re using it.  See below from their current privacy policy.  Emphasis mine.

We collect non-personal data to make money from our free offerings so we can keep them free, including: Advertising ID associated with your devices Browsing and search history, including meta data; Internet service provider or mobile network you use to connect to our products; and Information regarding other applications you may have on your device and how they are used. Sometimes browsing history or search history contains terms that might identify you. If we become aware that part of your browsing history might identify you, we will treat that portion of your history as personal data, and will anonymize this information. We may also aggregate and/or anonymize personal data we collect about you. For instance, although we would consider your precise location to be personal data if stored separately, if we combined the locations of our users into a data set that could only tell us how many users were located in a particular country, we would not consider this aggregated information to be personally identifiable.

That’s a huge italicized if.  Basically a get out of jail free card.  IF we become aware that we’re collecting identifying data.  If we don’t, well, sorry.  We weren’t aware.