Tag: security

Revisiting screen lockers and patching a security risk

Recently, I posted about two screen lockers that I’ve used in the past (xtrlock and slock). There has been some great discussion about these lockers, and some potential security problems that come along with using them. One very prominent issue regarding using screen lockers without login managers was raised by a reader, and I want …

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Screen lockers xtrlock and slock

For many years now, I have used a very simple screen locker called xtrlock in order to stop others from accessing my systems whilst I’m away from my desk. Some time ago, I switched from using Gentoo on my Samsung NC10 netbook to using Arch. Though I prefer Gentoo, it just didn’t make much sense …

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Equifax sends passwords insecurely in plain text leading to potential identity theft

The credit bureau Equifax claims to take various precautions regarding their customers’ personal information, and attempts to combat identity theft. However, if you ever need to contact their customer service for any reason (being locked out of your account, resetting your password, et cetera), they will send you your password in plain text. You might …

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