Using the Extraction Agent in 2026: Compatibility, Signing, Firewall, and Extraction Tips
May 11th, 2026 by Oleg Afonin
Over the years, we have published several articles about the extraction agent. However, the underlying technology changes quickly, and incremental changes often have significant cumulative effects. As a result, many of our older posts are no longer relevant and can be misleading if followed to the letter today. While last year’s recap, Installing and Troubleshooting the Extraction Agent (2025), remains a solid foundation for general setup, it does not account for the most recent hardware and software developments. This article serves as the definitive point of reference, providing an up-to-date recap of everything you need to know about the extraction agent as of May 2026.
Laptop security – myths and mistakes
May 13th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
Today’s businesses are very mobile. Sometimes you don’t even need to have a conventional office, it becomes virtual, it is always with you in your mobile phones, netbooks and laptops. Such mobile mini-offices stuffed with corporate documents and reports, partners’ data, confidencial correspondence, access passwords are in danger of being stolen, both virtually and physically. You can try to protect your laptop using laptop security cable locks but what if it was stolen? Let all your information go into adversary’s hands? Do you _really_ think that your Windows logon password is an impenetrable barrier for the adversary? Have you heard of Elcomsoft System Recovery? You still think your laptop is secure because you have BIOS password and/or partial drive encryption? Read an article by Kevin Beaver ‘Securing corporate data on your laptops’ , take off rose-colored glasses and revise your laptop security as suggested in Kevin’s step-by-step outline.
NIST drafts new enterprise password management (open to publication, distribution and adaptation!)
May 13th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
Probably you’ve already heard about this vicious circle thousand times:
More on SLI
May 13th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
If you are going to purchase a new computer (or make it yourself), you should definitely think about graphics — for CAD/CAM, gaming, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence at home or password cracking. Of course, thinking of budget, too. I hope you’re already aware of NVIDIA SLI which allows to use multiple video cards, but how a single dual-GPU compares to two single-GPU ones? Read GeForce GTX 295 Vs. GTX 275 SLI: When Two Are Better Than One.
Password-related news
May 12th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
There is a few, so I’ll put ’em all into a single blog post 🙂
Hard disk recovery
May 12th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
Highly recommended: Burned, Dropped, Drowned: HDD Recovery In Pictures. I hope that you will not encounter into such situations, though :).
DC4420
May 12th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
Apart from official IT Security events, London ethical hackers like to organize monthly meetings such as DC4420 in clubs, sometimes changing their location. In an informal manner they exchange their experience, represent new ideas and technologies.
Green password policy? No re-use!
May 10th, 2009 by Olga Koksharova
Do you still reuse passwords? The recent study from University of California shows again that such a bad habit continues to exist. The worst thing about reusing passwords is that it doesn’t require being a technically skilled hacker to guess your password for this or that document.
What does “The only way to break into PGP” mean?
April 30th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
Note to PGP legal dept: I’m not going to put the ® sign every time when I mention PGP. I’m just tired; we already did that in our press release and on our web site, and I think it’s enough. No, really? Well, I’ll repeat one more time: all names like PGP are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners in the UK, USA, Russia and probably somewhere else – e.g. in Albania. There are too many countries to mention, sorry :). Why should I care about (R)? Keep reading, and you’ll see the reason.
On the Infosec once again
April 30th, 2009 by Andrey Belenko
There is a lot of speculation about what has happened between Elcomsoft and PGP here on Infosecurity Europe 2009 in London, so I would like to share my own point of view which may or may not coincide with Elcomsoft’s.
From InfoSecurity, “the number One in Europe”
April 28th, 2009 by Vladimir Katalov
We never thought that our participation would bring such kind of trouble (or at least a disappointment).
