Comments on: Quick Tip: Obscure Your Address Book Data

By: Guy

Guy — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:44:30 +0000

It’s frankly laughable. The same kind of idea that comes from inept senders of emails warning about new fraud methods… Some people really need to be sacked.

By: Mary Parry

Mary Parry — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:58:27 +0000

Thanks for answering my question as to why I needed my old computer as back-up for my iPad. I have questioned everyone at Apple as to why, why,?? I bought the iPad to replace my old computer and found out I still needed the old, old, computer. I am 78 years young and wanted to get rid of the ancient mariner.

Thanks for the explanation.

Mary Parry

By: Khürt

Khürt — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:02:01 +0000

If you are smart enough to work out a cipher for storing your sensitive data in plain sight (steganography) why can’t you memo rise the information?

Just write down your password etc and keep it somewhere safe.

This whole store it in plain sight using a cypher is plain stupid. What do you think an 256 bit AES encryption codec does?

By: Igor

Igor — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:07:45 +0000

There are 1918 cards in his address book. All credit cards?

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:33:34 +0000

I’m loving it. Logs of ideas of how to store information and I’ll definitely be using some of these ideas in the future for my own data storage. I have seen people do that number to letter conversion before.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:08:12 +0000

A basic cypher can easily work better than 1password for example if you have a 1password file someone can steal it (or your keychain) then spend time cracking it. If you hide information in plain site with the cypher only in your head it is way more secure than a password system as nobody knows what file (or files) are hidden data and what are just normal files.

The example in this article is fairly basic but I have used something similar and it works fine. Another example is using numbers disguised as letters using the code from a touchtone phone you can then convert someones name into a digit passcode.

Hidden in plain site your normal data hacker will just pass right by it. Yes it has flaws but people calling it irresponsible are overreacting, I would lay a years wages the fact that my in plain site reminders would not be found if you went through my hard drive as they are a mixture of different codes and personal knowledge without knowing both even if you found the off strange number or word combining them together would be an impossible task (even with a computer).

I would not recommend storing long or detailed information in plain site but to say that it is insecure and a security risk is untrue just like using 1password is not secure by default. They both depend on the user, for example my use of this system is a lot more secure than someone with 1Password and their user login password stuck on their machine with a sticky note!

By: Khürt

Khürt — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 11:08:56 +0000

If I understand you correctly, your thesis is that people are too lazy to install an app that secures their sensitive information but they’ll expend time and effort to invent their own cipher!?

By: Levi

Levi — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:24:13 +0000

Jesus, this is crazy. I understand that people do it. They don’t read these websites (I hope) if they do, they would really benefit from a horror story and the post with dedicated apps. But what will this accomplish?

Why not just not store credit card info (with the exception of the phone number in the back, that can go in plain sight) at all anywhere. And remember your darn passwords. If you can’t, use a dedicated tool.

You say, you won’t reveal your exact strategy? Are you crazy enough to use this?

By: Dave Greenbaum

Dave Greenbaum — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:54:25 +0000

That comment has to win an award!

By: grog

grog — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:36:17 +0000

but that’s the other big problem… too many people are unwilling to create a truly secure password even for apps that hold all their sensitive info. they refuse to even attempt to commit a string of 8-10 or more random characters to memory, acting like it’s some monumental task that will hurt their brain. i have 4 random alphanumeric passwords of around this length. i forced myself to remember them. if you can remember your own phone number this shouldn’t be any different.