Easily Encrypt Folders

Ecryptfs is a tool that can be used to encrypt folders, unlike other encryption methods this doesn’t require a file of a fixed size, so you can use the decrypted folder in the same way as a regular folder without worrying about space. This tutorial will explain how you can use a plugin as a […]

Bitcoin

This is a quick tour of Bitcoin and how it works. The aim is to provide a short, but reasonably comprehensive overview of Bitcoin. It is for people who are interested in how Bitcoin actually works, but don’t want to spend hours researching all the details. This essay expects some basic knowledge of the internet, […]

Sandboxed development with LXC

This tutorial allows you to easily run commands through an LXC container. When hacking on various applications it is often a requirement to install various dependencies and make other changes to your system to run these programs. I have found this often ends up creating an unstable system, and over time things start breaking. By […]

Seamless folder encryption update 4 (end of GSoC)

We have reached the end of GSoC, and while the project is not quite ready for merging, I am pleased with the progress made over the past few weeks. I will, of course, continue working on this project after GSoC. There are some small bits and pieces to complete in the short-term, before the first […]

Seamless folder encryption update 3

Just a short update on my progress as we come to the end of GSoC. I have implemented the ability to create new encrypted directories, and have detecting and mounting existing encryptions working. To be fully functioning, I just need to implement keyring integration now. Finally, a screenshot of what it looks like when you […]

Seamless folder encryption update 2

After a great GUADEC, we are moving forward. Though, there has been a problem with getting auto-mount working. The best solution we found was a patch available for encfs, this patch adds an option to delay the mount until something is accessed. This solution would work perfectly, because it would continue to work even when […]

Seamless folder encryption update 1

This is a rather late first update on my project, unfortunately it’s been a bit of a rough start. First, if you don’t know what it is, the project is to integrate folder encryption into GNOME in a seamless manner. The goal is to provide encryption without interfering with the user experience. This will be […]

Phone app lock

This is a proposal to the Ubuntu phone developers about phone app locking. Why? Having to unlock your phone every time you turn it on can be too much hassle. Many users, including myself, disable the lock because of this, leaving a phone with absolutely no security. What’s the point of security features if they’re […]

Security design

This is a proposal for designing security on the desktop. This is in response to GNOME‘s privacy fundraiser, and will hopefully provide some ideas for how parts of this can be accomplished without breaking the user experience. For a single-user system, having a login screen just presents a barrier and time delay, this is not […]

The Internet

This is a quick tour of the internet and how it works. The aim is to provide a short, but reasonably comprehensive overview of the internet. It is for people who are interested in how the internet works, but don’t want to spend hours researching all the details.