Zarqawi had a 'Thumb Drive' in His Pocket

[Vin DSL]

And, so do I...

Anybody using these things except terrorists?

I been using a 'thumb drive' for about 2 years, experimenting with different formats, encryption schemes, proggies, and so forth, and so on.

I got it down pretty good now -- currently: Portable Firefox 1.5.0.4, Lavasoft Ad-Aware SE, Spybot Search & Destroy, Winamp, WinRAR, WinSCP, et cetera -- all the essentials. This is all encrypted with Blowfish (448-bit key), and runs in an 'on-the-fly' virtual drive (RAM disk) via TrueCrypt.

TrueCrypt requires mounting the virtual drive, e.g. requires admin privileges in Windows. For situations where this isn't possible, I have these programs mirrored on the same 'thumb drive' in a Remora USB Disk Guard partition, using 128-bit encryption, pfft! This runs MUCH slower than TrueCrypt, 'cause it read/writes to the 'thumb drive' instead of mem, but it's good in an 'emergency'!

So, how 'bout it? Any of you folks got a better setup and/or wanna share your 'traveling' experiences?

I'm all ears...

[lokki]

not much different, here... I have some portable and .exe utilities (EditPad Lite for example) that I use between machines. By and large, I use mine for presentations, simple transfers, and 'essentials' when travelling so I don't have to take CDs or hit my ftp site.

I currently have a couple each 4G and 2G, with the smaller ones holding portable apps and utilities.

[Vin DSL]

Aha! Another terrorist!

I could have guessed that...

If you don't use TrueCrypt, you don't know what you're missing!

[andrewlondon]

I have various OSX proggies on mine. As soon as i plug it in the system will mount an encrypted disk image that prompts me for the password. It's pretty useless on non apple systems which means most of the people i know can't use it.

I'm not a terriorist. :-) How long before the hippies try to get thumb drives banned because terriosts use them? ;-)

[Gwaihir]

Gosh; I guess I must be very suspicious person then: I do not use a seperate thumb drive, but I 'hide' () such stuff in the memory banks of my MP3 player.

[rainboy]

I do just that with my digital camera ... anything and everything you can connect to your pc nowerdays... all with memory cards, from mobile phones to pda's, photocamera's, remote controls even..

[Vin DSL]

I'm not a terrorist. :-) How long before the hippies try to get thumb drives banned because terrorists use them? ;-)

Would it be safe to say you're at least an extremist?

I've got a theorem in play here...

My contention is: terrorists use Blowfish -- extremists use AES!

BTW, you should ALWAYS use open source code when you're encrypting data. That way you can see if 'they' have put a backdoor into it. That was probably Zarqawi's downfall. I'm not swallowing the 'spiritual advisor' story...

[Spathiphyllum]

My contention is: terrorists use Blowfish -- extremists use AES!

And extreme terrorists? ROT13. Or pig latin. Well, maybe not pig latin. Anyway, they'll just dare you to decrypt the message their fanaticism runs so high.

[Ron]

Definitely not pig latin. That just wouldn't be Kosher. Or Halal.

[lokki]

nice one, Ron. You win this round

[Spathiphyllum]

C'mon, lokki. I cracked it first.


Get it? Crack? Decrypt? Pig latin? Nevermind. I get no respect.

[lokki]

sorry Spath... wasn't sure if you *meant* your pun. You're always an enigma

How goes it in Bletchley park?

[Spathiphyllum]

How goes it in Bletchley park?

First, ixnay onway ethay Etchleyblay Arkpay, aymkay?

Second, that's not a very nice thing to say about someone you barely know or who could very well be a sock puppet who signs your paycheck. Besides, there's the principle of the thing... this is a family blog.

Oh, wait. You said enigma. Oops. Nevermind again. Carry on carrying on.

[Ron]

Wow, THAT'S kinda obscure Spathy, but I got it lol

How about Zarkawi had a thumbdrive, but the CIA now has authority to use thumbscrews?

[Rudi]

Wow, THAT'S kinda obscure Spathy, but I got it lol

How about Zarkawi had a thumbdrive, but the CIA now has authority to use thumbscrews?

One can always use a "complex" pasword that one can only remember/recall when 100 percent Ok (and/or use a hidden partition). But the thumbscrews is a joke, is it? Really hope so...

Cheers!