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What Is Security Through Obscurity?
Are "Fast" Browser Versions A Good Idea?
A Simple Tweak Which May Boost Firefox Performance

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 03:30 AM PST

"Security Through Obscurity" is a term a lot of geeks throw around but there are more than a few out there that don’t quite get what it means.

First I’ll tell you what security through obscurity isn’t.

It is not choosing a stronger password.
It is not anything that can be immediately identified as secured.
It does not ordinarily involve encryption of data.

Security through obscurity more or less means "hiding in plain sight". Where data storage is concerned it depends on hardware rather than software, and you’ll understand what I mean in a moment by that.

Here are three ways of using security through obscurity:

5.25 Floppy Diskettes

If you write data to a 5.25 floppy diskette, nobody else will be able to read it because save for vintage computer hobbyists, nobody has the drives. The data on the diskette can be completely unencrypted and it doesn’t matter, because who has a drive to read it?

And to date, unless someone can prove me wrong, there is no such thing as a USB-connected 5.25 floppy diskette drive you can actually buy. 3.5-inch yes, but 5.25-inch, no.

No, I’m not suggesting you write your sensitive data to 5.25 floppies, but it is a very good example of security through obscurity.

"Broken" USB Cable

hacked-usb-cable

The HACKED! USB Cable appears to be a plain cable that’s been ripped apart, but it isn’t. In fact, it is a fully-working USB drive that’s been made to look completely broken.

Data Files On Audio CD

compactdisc

This one involves a bit of know-how when it comes to writing data to CDs, but it is totally possible to write audio and data to the same disc. Nero Burning ROM allows you to do this easily. For anyone that pops the disc into a music player, it will play the audio present. When put in a computer, the data files can be accessed.

If looking to hide data in plain sight, this is probably the easiest of the three.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

What Is Security Through Obscurity?

Are "Fast" Browser Versions A Good Idea?

Posted: 08 Feb 2011 03:00 AM PST

Mozilla is going to "pull a Google" so-to-speak and release Firefox 4, 5, 6 and 7 this year; it’s true. This is something where I’m not sure if I’m in total agreement with. Google has been able to get away with fast-change Chrome browser versions and nobody seems to mind. The current Chromium nightly builds for example are already at version 11.

I personally use a Chromium nightly build because it seems to work very well. If I download a version one day that’s a little buggy in some areas, it’s no big deal because it will most likely be fixed with tomorrow’s release. In addition, I haven’t had any browser extension break from release to release. For example, Lightshot, which I use and is a fairly "heavy" extension, has never failed on any nightly build of Chromium I’ve used, including the latest version.

With Firefox on the other hand I can’t use nightly builds or beta releases because of my dependency concerning certain add-ons. For example, the LogMeIn Firefox add-on is something I absolutely have to have working so I can support my father’s PC when necessary. That plugin does not work in Firefox 4 beta or at least it didn’t the last time I checked and it’s not worth the effort to see if it does.

Firefox add-ons are both the best and worst part of the browser. It’s great that there are so many add-ons to choose from, but the problem is that if you become dependent on any of them (such as I have with LogMeIn), you must remain with current-release-only, otherwise you suffer from broken add-ons. Heck, there are still people who refuse to upgrade from Firefox 3.0 for this reason, never mind 3.6.

Fast-revision changes used to be solely for betas and nightly builds, but not anymore. Now they’re being applied to official-release browsers at the same lightning speed.

Will these fast-version changes bust all my Firefox add-ons that I depend on? I hope not. With Chromium the browser extensions continue to work from version to version, but what about Firefox? It’s well known that for every Firefox release, add-ons bust routinely. Will my installed add-ons "survive" through four major releases in less than 12 months?

Fingers crossed.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

Are "Fast" Browser Versions A Good Idea?

A Simple Tweak Which May Boost Firefox Performance

Posted: 07 Feb 2011 06:00 AM PST

I read a tip on Lifehacker recently where a reader offered a very simple tweak which may boost your Firefox performance.

Essentially, if you have multiple languages set in Firefox, it will slow down the rendering engine (as each language gets processed separately). By default, US installations will have 2 languages configured: English and English/US, so by removing one of them it saves some processing Firefox does on page loads. Here is how to make the change:

Go to Tools > Options
In the Content tab, click the Choose button in the Languages box
Remove one of the languages selected (if you have more than one)
Save your changes

I removed the "English/United States" option. Regarding the content display I can’t tell the difference but, quite frankly it is hard to tell if there is any speed increase because there are several factors involved. Overall though, the concept makes sense so why not?

Give this a try and if you notice a difference, please share.

Post from: PCMech. Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On And Live The Digital Lifestyle.

A Simple Tweak Which May Boost Firefox Performance