Remote outlets and hackers

Hackers are going to hack.

Hiding behind their masks like the KKK, hackers are going to virtually lynch people who refuse to conform to their arbitrary and variable morality systems.  And it isn't like there is a universal morality system for hackers, the only thing anyone can be sure of is that hackers don't care about individual privacy and will happily violate article 12 of the United Nations Human Rights Declaration to enforce their brand of morality.  Whatever justification is used the reality is the same, hackers hack people because they are bullies and enjoy hurting people.

Another thing that you can generalize, and this doesn't apply to all hackers, is that guys like me who call these anonymous lynchers what they are will be attacked by hackers.  I've been pissing these guys off for almost 20 years now and for twenty years now these self appointed guardians of arbitrarily determined morality justifications have been hacking me and virtually lynching me, because that's what they do. 

Hackers oppress basic human rights in favor of ??? what?  Some arbitrary and anonymous morality that changes as often as the face behind the mask changes.  If you are outspoken you are going to piss people off and it doesn't matter what your beliefs are, some scum bag will put on a mask, hide in the virtual night, burn a cross on your lawn and string you up in a tree.  Why?  Because you are anti-pro abortion, anti-pro gay rights, anti-pro 2nd amendment, anti-pro privacy, etc.  Truthfully there is no way to satisfy the virtual blood lust of these scumbags.  They don't really have any agenda except virtual violence, trying to hurt people because hurting others is the only way they can alleviate their own feelings of worthlessness and despair.

Now, not all hackers are like that.  Some hackers have real agendas and they target corporations, governments, they make money from these entities, reveal their secrets and basically do a lot of good.  We aren't talking about these guys, they aren't going to hack people.  People are easy compared to organizations, low hanging fruit for script kiddies.  Real hackers hack organizations.

Anonymous released a list of supporters of oppression and had some people on that list who were very vocally and politically against oppression.  That is because they, very stupidly, targeted people instead of the real evil, corporations.

Sometimes hackers falsify data the way they falsified AOL messages to destroy the career of a Florida politician and that is just as wrong as corporations stripping resources from poor nations.  There is more than enough real evil that hackers with laudable agendas can address without faking crap, violating human rights and adding to the oppression of humanity.  Corporations are not people regardless of the legal fictions used to oppress the majority.

That is the 1% though, most hackers out there are just looking for reasons to hurt people because they think they can. 

One of the first things some hackers do, because they live on GDT, is to change your time to GDT.  It is just a stupid way of saying, look at me, I need attention because I have deep seated feelings of worthlessness and insecurity!  Pretty lame, but, what do you expect from a card carrying KKK member.

In the comic books good guys wear masks.  In real life, bad guys wear masks.  Look at the people who have worn masks in reality and what they have done and look at the people who have stood up for something.

There is an iconic picture of Che Guerra wearing a mask, oh wait, no there isn't.

So, what does that rant have to do with remote outlets?  (https://smile.amazon.com/Etekcity-Wireless-Electrical-Household-Appliances/dp/B00DQ2KGNK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1490381295&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=remote+outlet&psc=1) as an example.  Feel free to buy it somewhere else, I'm not shilling for amazon.

Rant over, this blog is about basic protection against hacking, and it is weak protection indeed.  Depth.  Multiple firewalls between a hacker and you.  Those firewalls have to be reset often.  I use a series of routers and firewalls and networks that are all plugged into two different remote outlets.

One of my systems is a computer without a hard drive that actually sits on the network and sniffs traffic.  It is a live CD linux distro that doesn't do anything except log data, traceroute and identify ip addresses.  Long story, the distro is out there, or it used to be, and I didn't build it.  That is hidden and I have it plugged into its own remote outlet.

Then, I have multiple routers.  I have a modem with a cheesy firewall that is plugged into o a router that I have three other routers plugged into. I have an insecure wifi, a "secure" wifi (no such thing) and then a hard wired network router. All plugged into a power strip that is plugged into a single remote outlet.  The whole thing draws less than five amps at 110.

No, I'm not telling you where my sniffer is.  Actually, I move it around and I have been thinking about putting in a second one.  I just need to put together another ITX.  Time and money.

All fairly cheesy stuff that hackers can bypass and gain access to my systems.  The complicated nature of the network makes it more difficult though and then, when I shut it down a hacker has to start all over.

I shut my network down quite regularly.  Turn off the power so it can't be powered on over the network.  If I'm not using my computer, or watching the output from my sniffer, I probably have my network shut down.

Most people leave their networks on all the time and only reset it if there is a problem.  I don't. If I shut down my sniffer it boots right back up when I turn on the power because it runs off of a Live CD.  Everything else is EEPROM so, just push the button and it all resets.  I generally wait ten seconds to several days to turn my network back on.

Turn off your network when you aren't using it.  Just push the button, shut it down and then bring it back up when you want it.  If you have different sections of network you can control them using different remotes, leave your server up, shut your personal network down, your guest network, etc.  There are all kinds of different things you can do, except, prevent getting hacked.

If you are into electronics there are some bits and pieces you can buy on the web to do all kinds of things with relays and remotes.

Some of you are probably thinking that there are people out there who can't get hacked.  That is B.S., anyone and everyone can get hacked.  This is just a simple way to make it more difficult to hack a network, but, leave still leave it open enough for people to worm their way in.  Fewer people, but, there are those who will.

There will always be guys in masks, burning crosses and lynching people because that is what losers do, beat up on others.  They will always have their justifications and it really doesn't matter what they are, the point isn't really their justification it is that they get to hurt people.  Always has been, always will be.

In the mean time, there are a few simple things we can do without going very far out of our way to make things harder for them.  I don't suggest you build a sniffer, that is essentially a "script kiddie" way of identifying KKK members.  I don't even suggest that you run multiple routers/firewalls.

I do suggest plugging your network hardware into a remote outlet so it is easily shut down.  This reduces energy consumption and it makes it easier to reset all the bits and pieces on your network.  It also shuts off access when you don't need it.