June 2014 - Ophtek

Install TrueCrypt without the Disk Burning Requirement

Security, SoftwareBurn, Disk, Encrypt, workaroundOphtek, LLC

Jun 2014

Are you using TrueCrypt to encrypt your hard drive but your computer doesn’t have a disk burner? Here’s how you can get around this roadblock.

TrueCrypt will not allow you to encrypt your drive without burning a boot rescue disk. Burning this disk is important, but many newer computers are not equipped with CD or DVD burners. In these scenarios, it is imperative that you transfer the boot rescue image to a computer with burning capability. You must do this before encrypting your drive, as you run the risk of losing your data forever.

To launch TrueCrypt without having to burn the rescue disk, first open command prompt. Do this by clicking the Start button and by typing cmd.

Click the cmd icon displayed under Programs in the Start menu. You should see a window like this appear.

After the command prompt window opens, type C:\Program Files\TrueCrypt\TrueCrypt Format.exe /n. This will launch TrueCrypt. However, it will not task you to burn a disk to successfully encrypt your hard drive.

For more information on how to use TrueCrypt to encrypt your hard drive, please consult the following article.

For more information on this or other issues affecting your PC, consult your local IT professionals.

How To Encrypt Your Hard Drive

Security, Softwareencryption, hard drive, security, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Jun 2014

Do you ever worry about someone getting a hold of the data on your computer after stealing it from you? With disk encryption, the information on your computer is unreadable without a key.

You may use encryption to protect specific directories or the entire hard drive. The latter is referred to as full disk encryption.

While there are many applications that perform full disk encryption, we recommend True Crypt. While some may lampoon this recommendation based on an announcement from its old source page, development of TrueCrypt has continued in Switzerland by a team committed not to compromise the software with legal limitations.

After downloading TrueCrypt from the new site, launch it normally if you have a disk burner, also known as a a CD/DVD-RW drive. The disk burner will be required in later parts of the installation. If you do not have a disk burner, there is a workaround that will still allow you to proceed with encryption even though the program does not normally allow it. For more on this workaround to allow to the program to launch without the disk burning requirement, consult the following article.

After you launch the program, click the System button at the top bar and select Encrypt System Partition/Drive.

For Type of System Encryption, select Normal. Click Next.

Unless you have a RAID driver or hidden partition at the end of your drive, Yes is the best option when you are presented with the Encryption of the Host Protected Area window.

When you are asked if it is OK for TrueCrypt to make changes to the hard drive, click Yes.

TrueCrypt will then see if there are any hidden sectors at the end of the drive. Click Next when it is finished.

Click Next again after selecting whether the computer has a single- boot or multi- boot configuration. If you are running only one version of Windows and no other operating systems, you will choose Single-boot.

For the Encryption Options, AES is usually a good choice. And full disk encryption only supports the RIPEMD-160 hash algorithm. Click Next.

Choose a password for encryption. Choose a strong password of at least 20 characters. Click Next.

In the next window, make random movements with your mouse for about a minute. TrueCrypt will collect data from these movements. Click Next.

When User Account Control asks if it is OK for TrueCrypt to make changes to the hard drive, select Yes.

Click Next after TrueCrypt generates the encryption keys.

TrueCrypt will then create the ISO image of the Rescue Disk that will be needed if something happens to your boot image. The ISO image will be created in your Documents folder.

TrueCrypt will next launch the Windows Disk Image Burner to write this image to a blank CD ROM. Because you will need this disk to access your computer if your boot image becomes corrupted, TrueCrypt will not let you get to the next step until you burn and verify the disk. Choose the correct drive to burn the image to, load the blank CD ROM, and click Burn.

TrueCrypt will verify the disk after burning it. After it has been verified, click Next.

The Wipe Mode allows you to choose how to wipe all traces of previous data that was unencrypted. Typically these were files deleted before this encryption was started. If there was nothing sensitive on this computer that was deleted, click Next.

Next click Test to allow TrueCrypt to make sure everything is working.

When TrueCrypt displays instructions telling you what to do when the system fails to reboot, it is advised that you print these out for reference. Then click OK. Click Yes to reboot your computer.

After the computer restarts, you will need to enter the encryption password.

If you enter it correctly, you will be able to log into Windows. After you log in, TrueCrypt will start up automatically. Click Encrypt to start the encryption. Print the instructions showing what to do if the process is disrupted and click OK. When User Account Control asks if you want to allow TrueCrypt to make changes to the hard disk, click Yes. During the encryption, you may do other things on your computer. The encryption should take a few hours.

You may pause and defer the completion of the encryption to a later time. But until it finishes, the information on your computer will not be fully secure. When encryption is complete, click Finish.

For more information, consult your local IT professionals.

Should You Update Device Drivers?

Repairs and Upgrades, SoftwareDevice, driver, update, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Jun 2014

Any number of computer issues could be a sign that it’s time to update your device drivers. Are you unable to access your printer? Is your display giving you problems? Are you unable to connect to your router with your wireless adapter?

The problem may be with the device’s driver. Sometimes updating the driver will restore full functionality to the device.

The easiest way to update the driver is by accessing the Device Manager. You can get to the Device Manager through the Control Panel. In Windows 7 and Vista, the Control Panel can be reached by clicking the Start button and selecting Control Panel.

In Windows 8, you can select Control Panel by dragging the mouse prompt to the bottom right of the screen and allowing the charms bar to appear.

Click Settings and then click Control Panel.

If you have Windows XP, you should upgrade to a newer version of Windows. This is because XP is extremely vulnerable to viruses, as it cannot get the latest security updates. Nonetheless, you can get to Control Panel in XP by clicking the Start button and selecting Settings -> Control Panel or simply Control Panel.

In Control Panel, choose System and Security.

Next select System.

If you have a different menu in Control Panel, you may be able to select System without going through System and Security. Under the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.

Enter a password or click to confirm that you wish to enter the Device Manager.

Click a + to expand a hardware category to find the device you want to update. Double click the device when you do find it.

Click the Driver tab, and click Update Driver. Follow the instructions. If you are prompted for a password or for confirmation, provide whichever is appropriate.

Sometimes this method fails to update the device driver. In this case, you will need to go to the device manufacturer’s website to find a driver to download and install.

Of course, not all hardware problems are caused by obsolete drivers. There could be physical problems with the device, configuration errors, or something else affecting the functionality.

For more information on this or other issues affecting your PC, consult your local IT professionals.

3 Ways to Remove Malware from your PC

Security, SoftwareDetect, malware, Remove, virus, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Jun 2014

Is your PC running slower or are you getting unwanted popups and ads? You may have a malware or virus infection. Here are 3 ways to remove infections.

1. First, make sure that you have an infection.

Aside from Windows running slowly, one telltale sign of an infection is the computer running programs and processes that look completely unfamiliar.

Open Windows Task Manager. Right- click the taskbar and choose Task Manager from the menu.

Select the Processes tab and click Memory or Mem Usage to to sort the running processes by how much RAM they use.

This should display the processes in descending order of memory usage. If it is in ascending order, you can click the Memory or Mem Usage tab again to view the processes with the largest memory on top. Paying special attention to these processes, look for ones with unfamiliar looking names.

In particular, focus on high memory processes running in the task manager that have names with strange characters or symbols. Perform a google search on the peculiar looking processes to find out if they are legitimate.

If the search results on the web point toward it being a malicious process, you may be able to remove it as a startup program. Click the Start button, type msconfig in the search box, and click it when it comes up as a menu selection.

After the system configuration utility loads, click the Startup tab to display the programs the system loads when the computer starts up.

Try to find the suspect process in the list of Startup Items and uncheck the box next to it to remove it as a startup process. It will be removed when Windows restarts.

2. Run a virus scan on your system

If you haven’t already done so, run a scan of your system with an antimalware or antivirus program. Malwarebytes and Microsoft Security Essentials are highly recommended. First start with a simple scan. If this detects anything, remove the threats it detects. Next, run a full system scan.

If successive full system scans still detect malware, take note of the threats the scanner displays. Run a Google search on the threats to see if anyone has posted a successful method to remove the virus.

Detection of viruses on successive scans likely indicates that your antimalware program has been compromised. Accordingly, downloading a new malware scanner is a good idea. Barring Malwarebytes, Bitdefender, Eset Online Scanner, and House Call are excellent suggestions.

But before running a scan with any of these antimalware programs, reboot the computer into Safe Mode with Networking. To do this, restart the computer and press F8 repeatedly when the logo of the motherboard manufacturer appears on the screen.

You will next see a black screen showing Advanced Boot Options. From this list select Safe Mode with Networking.

This will boot into a simplified version of Windows that runs only necessary programs. Usually malware doesn’t load in safe mode. In safe mode, run your new malware scanner in advanced or custom mode. These modes are favored because you need to scan every directory on the computer. Be sure to perform a full scan on the entire system. This will take some time. You can probably watch a full length feature film while this occurs.

After this scan cleans up your computer, run another with a different malware program. Again, be sure to do a full system scan in Safe Mode with Networking. If the second scanner detects nothing, it is a good bet your system is purged of infections.

3. Run a live disc virus scan

If multiple scans keep detecting infections, you will need to reboot into a Linux live disc. While there are many live Linux distributions to choose from, Kaspersky Rescue Disk is highly recommended, as the interface is simple for Windows users.

For more assistance on this or other issues affecting your computer, consult your local IT professionals.

Clean Stubborn Windows Infections with Kaspersky Rescue Disk

Linux, Security, SoftwareDisk, Infections, Live, WindowsOphtek, LLC

Jun 2014

Have you used every method in Windows to remove malware but scans keep reporting infections? You may need to scan and remove malware working outside of Windows. You can do this using a Linux Live CD.

Please note that this will not require you to be familiar with Linux.

A live cd is a bootable storage device containing an operating system. This operating system functions independent of the hard drive. Therefore, it will be free of the malware affecting your Windows system.

There are many Linux live cd distributions to choose from. Kaspersky Rescue Disk is preferred because it has an interface many Windows users are comfortable with. You can download Kaspersky Rescue Disk here.

After downloading the live iso, you can create the live cd. To create the live disk in Windows 7 or 8, right click the Kaspersky Rescue Disk iso file you downloaded and select Burn disc image.

If you are running an earlier version of Windows, you will need to run a third- party program such as InfraRecorder. Here is an explanation of using Infrarecorder to burn disc images.

In the Burn Disc Image window, use the drop- down arrow to select the DVD/CD drive with the blank disc to be burned on. Check Verify disc after burning to make sure you have a usable disc after burning.

When the disc is finished burning, click the Close button to close the program.

If you do not have access to a CD or DVD burner, you may create a Kaspersky Rescue live USB. Utility to Record Rescue Disk 10 to USB devices is a tool that can perform this. You can download it here.

For your live CD to boot properly, it must be given boot preference over the hard drive in the BIOS. If the CD does not have preference or you are not sure, you must change the boot order in the BIOS. To change the boot order to allow the device with the iso to boot, please refer to the following wiki.

Insert the CD or USB with the iso, restart the computer, and allow the live media to boot. If you are using Kaspersky Rescue Disk, double click the Kaspersky Rescue Disk icon on the desktop and click the My Update Center tab. Next click Start update.

After it finishes the update, click the Objects Scan tab, check every box, and select Start Objects Scan.

The scan should take a considerable amount of time. You will likely be able to cook, watch a movie, or play a few games of chess in the time it takes.

After it finishes scanning, remove the threats the program detects. Reboot back into Kaspersky Rescue Disk again and run another scan. If it finds no threats, exit the program, remove the CD, and reboot back into Windows.

If you are running an anti-virus program that did not detect this infection, it may be a good idea to switch to a better anti-virus. We always recommend Malwarebytes Anti-Malware as it ranks highly on anti-virus benchmarks.

For more information, consult your local IT professionals.

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Monthly Archives: June 2014

1. First, make sure that you have an infection.

2. Run a virus scan on your system

3. Run a live disc virus scan