[CS-FSLUG] How to secure a Windows machine

[David Aikema]

On 9/30/07, Yama Ploskonka <Yama at veritasacademy.net> wrote:
> I know Linux by default encrypts your stuff, but I felt unable to point
> this fellow to savyy procedures to ascertain if his stuff was safe, and
> how to make it safer if not.

Umn... who told you that Linux by default encrypts your stuff?  Unless
you've explicitly set it up that way, or are using some distribution
narrowly focused on security, it's rather unlikely that it does so.
Simply bootup something like Knoppix, mount the filesystem, and
generally you'll be able to access anything on there.

> Do you know of any such webpage, hopefully geared towards our mindset
> and needs instead of that of assorted paranoids and wannabe hooligans?

A lot of the same encryption programs that exist on Linux also exist
on Windows.   XP Pro also has built in encryption:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308989 (I'm not sure about Vista).

> BTW, as we all know, the Church is probably trailing all other segments
> of the population in adopting/creating open source, so convincing this
> friend to go Linux is a waste of time at this moment.

I can't say that's what I've experienced.

Dave