In a not so distant past, I was a highly competitive endurance sports athlete.  I'm still very involved in endurance sports but not at that level because eventually you have to grow up and go back to work.  But during that time, I was highly obsessed with every aspect of endurance sports.  That is my nature though.  I become passionate and I obsess to become the absolute best I can be.  

I've been into technology since I was a kid and it is the single constant in my life.  Obsessions come and go but tech has always been there.  Maybe not to the level of that first contact -- it ebbs and flows.  When I discovered information security, that stoked the fire once more and my obsession rages on.  With the exception of endurance sports which play a large role in my life, the only free space in my life is consumed by infosec.  

Don't hide passwords in Excel.  If you hide passwords in Excel, they can be found.  If you password protect Excel documents, they can be cracked.  Now that I've given my public service announcement, if you have to hide passwords in Excel or you have data that you don't necessarily want visible at all times, I have a quick fix for you.   I was sort of hoping for something a little more elegant but when I came across this solution, it solved my immediate problem and I'm not really all that interested in spending more time for a slightly better solution.

Below, we have a typical Excel document with a column for the username and another column for the password:

I've been asked to give a talk on basic OpSec and I started compiling a small list of the essentials.  Some of the items on my list have already been written and exist somewhere on this site while others are yet to be written.  One of the questions that came up during the request for the OpSec talk involved public WiFi, the dangers, and how to protect yourself.  

First, we have to understand how WiFi connections work at a basic level.  The real danger comes from WiFi connections that are not secure, like those we find in an airport, a cafe, etc.  When you turn on your device, the device will go through it's list of saved connections and it will toss out a request.  Starbucks, you here?  Oakland Airport, are you here?