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Encrypted external drive with LUKS

Update: LUKS2 is out, use it instead! LUKS2 was released in 2018, you should double-check the documentation for it before you blindly follow this guide. 🙃 Introduction Since TrueCrypt is no longer under active development, I’ve decided to wipe my external drives and re-encrypt them with LUKS and dm-crypt. These are standard Linux tools that are available by default in most distributions. I’ve used LUKS and dm-crypt in the past, when I installed Arch Linux on my laptop. Here, I’ll be performing a similar procedure, but without LVM. ...

2015-05-06 · 7 min · 1312 words · Logan Marchione
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OpenWrt with OpenVPN client on TP-Link TL-MR3020

Hey! Listen! This post is part of a series on using OpenWrt. Check them all out! Date URL Part 2024-02-06 Beryl travel router with OpenWrt OpenWrt revisited 2016-04-28 OpenWrt upgrade process OpenWrt upgrade 2015-08-26 OpenWrt with OpenVPN server on TP-Link Archer C7 Initial post 2015-02-15 OpenWrt with OpenVPN client on TP-Link TL-MR3020 Initial post Update: Multiple posts Originally, this series consisted of three posts with basically the same content, but small improvements each time. The original links are below: ...

2015-02-15 · 30 min · 6225 words · Logan Marchione
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UPDATE: TrueCrypt may not be secure

Ever since TrueCrypt disappeared a few days ago, there has been a lot of speculation as to what happened. There are plenty of theories on r/netsec, r/linx, and r/crypto. Even Bruce Schneier doesn’t know what’s going on. There is a theory that the developer threw in the towel, however, the most popular theory going around is that the NSA/FBI/other-three-letter-organization was involved and this is TrueCrypt’s warrant canary. Because they would not legally be allowed to divulge the fact that they were being forced to backdoor their software, they decided to suggest alternatives known to be backdoored, knowing that users would understand the secret message. ...

2014-06-02 · 2 min · 385 words · Logan Marchione
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TrueCrypt may not be secure

Recently, I posted three articles of a four-part series showing how to encrypt an external drive with TrueCrypt on Fedora 20. As-of today, May 28th, TrueCrypt may not be secure after-all. The truecrypt.org website now redirects to truecrypt.sourceforge.net. A warning is displayed that reads, “WARNING: Using TrueCrypt is not secure as it may contain unfixed security issues” and it directs users to alternative encryption packages for Windows, Mac, and Linux. ...

2014-05-28 · 2 min · 237 words · Logan Marchione
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UPDATE: Dropping Dropbox

In March, I cancelled my subscription to Dropbox over privacy concerns. Seems like that was a good idea. Dropbox just announced that they’re adding Dr. Condoleezza Rice to their Board of Directors. I don’t have to tell you why this is a terrible idea. See the official petition here, and my letter to Dropbox customer service below. To whom it may concern, I have been a paid subscriber to Dropbox since 2010, and have loved every minute of your service since day 1. However, with recent revelations about the NSA, I’ve been growing increasingly worried about storing my data in the cloud. Before my subscription renewed in March, I removed all of my files and downgraded to a free account. Originally, I had planned to re-subscribe once I decided how to encrypt my data locally before uploading. ...

2014-04-10 · 2 min · 239 words · Logan Marchione
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Dropping Dropbox

I dropped Dropbox! Well, not entirely. I’ve been a Dropbox user since Day 1. I remember when their service was first introduced. Cloud storage was just coming out and it was so convenient to be able to access your data anywhere. I quickly outgrew the 2GB free limit, earned a few extra GB through DropQuest, and then decided to start paying for their storage. For the past few years, I’ve been paying $99/yr for 100GB of space. Honestly, I have never had a single problem with Dropbox since I first started using it and I would recommend it to anyone in a second. ...

2014-03-26 · 2 min · 380 words · Logan Marchione
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