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Happy Holidays and Peace for all throughout the world!
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Protecting Your Privacy
In The Age Of Trump
nbcnews.com by Dylan Love
He starts petty fights on Twitter, he's cool with
Vladimir Putin, and when he takes the oath of office on January 20, President
Donald J. Trump will assume control of the most advanced internet surveillance
system the world knows about.
The relationship between politics and technology is
increasingly volatile, dynamic, and important. President-Elect Trump's
perspectives betray severe misunderstandings of that relationship. In calling for
an Apple boycott while the company resisted FBI efforts to break
encryption on a phone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters, Trump
outed himself as an enemy of the fundamental technology that makes it possible
to securely transmit information online. From a 2015 debate stage, he suggested
"closing
the internet up" as a means to fight radical Islam, which is as
impractical as it is impossible and hyperbolic.
Far from outlining specific technology directives beyond
a soundbyte, or offering any other
consistent policy, the Trump administration-to-come should raise
anxious question marks about one's personal information security. In 2013,
notorious NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden acted through a series of
journalists to expose secretive government programs with names like PRISM
and XKeyscore, making it plain
to the world that the U.S. government had significant means to spy on its
citizens' internet and phone activity. Snowden's politics-rattling revelations
helped elevate conversations about formerly niche tech topics like encryption,
but according to one tech professional, there's still work to be done to make
the masses care.
"Security is not an app you can download," says
Dan Guido, CEO of New York-based cybersecurity research firm Trail of Bits, whose client list runs from
Facebook to DARPA. "Keeping yourself safe on the internet means thinking
about what you're keeping yourself safe from." Guido's cheeky suggestion
to those seeking to make their online activity completely invisible to third
parties: Give up the internet altogether.
"It's hardest to steal data that does not
exist," he says. "If you can't tolerate having it stolen or snooped
on, then don't use a computer or phone to send it."
NSA surveillance protesters, organized
by the "Stop Watching Us" coalition, march from Union Station to the
U.S. Capitol on Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, to voice opposition to government's
surveillance of online activity and phone calls. Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call,Inc.
There are still seats to fill in Trump's cabinet, and
several high-profile
names are rumored for Director of National Intelligence, including
former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani and CNN national security commentator Mike
Rogers. One of the strongest candidates might be a different Mike Rogers, the
Navy admiral and current director of the National Security Agency — the same
federal arm Snowden shook up by exposing its domestic spying program.
Depending on your political attitudes, you may not be
agreeable to the notion of your internet activity being easily monitored,
whether it's by a garden variety hacker in search of credit card numbers, or
your own government seeking information to foil a terrorist plot. For as long
as there has been an internet, there have been people violating others' privacy
— it's just that now, there are greater ramifications.
Whether your motivations are political or protective, it
requires nothing less than the adoption of a new mindset if you want to
meaningfully push back against those seeking to follow your internet
footprints. We asked the experts for instruction on how to significantly close
the security gap for John and Jane Internet-User. Here are their guidelines.
Use Messaging Apps Built on Strong
Encryption
A variety of chat apps offer high-powered security
features, like the Snowden-approved Signal
and the government-riling Telegram.
Founded in 2013 by Russian entrepreneur Pavel Durov,
Telegram has its roots in a project designed specifically to avoid government
surveillance. When Durov's former business VKontakte ruffled the Kremlin's
feathers in a
significant way, he and his brother designed a system for
undetectable communication.
"We developed Telegram as an encrypted
communications tool in order to avoid eavesdropping by Russian security
agencies while we were running the largest social networking service in
Russia," Durov says. "When we left Russia, we realized the problem of
eavesdropping was global," so they formalized the project and released it
as a free app presently used around the world.
Use a Password Manager
Software like LastPass
and 1Password can run as an extension in your
web browser, automatically generating complex, symbol-filled keys sure to pass
any security requirements. These solutions remember your passwords for you,
then automatically fill them out and log you in when you visit the appropriate
page later.
With one login into the manager, you never need to type
another password. And as your password keystrokes are never actually generated
by the user, they effectively don't exist and are therefore incredibly
difficult to steal. "I use 1Password," Guido says, "but any
reputable service will do as long as you use it consistently." Space At
Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Library"
Use Two-Factor Authentication When
Available
Google and other major platforms now make use of your
cellphone number to enable an additional layer of security on your accounts.
When Google texts you a security code after you log in on your computer, it's
confirming that you have both the password and the phone associated with the
account.
A strong password is its own strong defense, but
two-factor authentication makes your digital security barrier more physical.
Consider the example of Wall Street Journal reporter Christopher Mims, who publicly
shared his Twitter password a couple years ago. He emerged unscathed
from the infosec stunt and retained control of his account, with his only
saving grace being that he still possessed his smartphone.
"Two-factor authentication will keep your data safe
even if you lose your password," Guido says.
Decline Often
Location Services wants to know where you are. A webpage
would like to initiate an unprompted download. These external requests execute
locally on our devices because we grant them permission, so train yourself to
be skeptical in going along with the dialogs that pop up on our devices and ask
permission to carry out a process. Short of knowing exactly what that process
is or asking for it yourself, the better answer is often no.
Durov suggests you "tap 'Decline' every time your
mobile OS suggests you to opt in to something that is not 100 percent
necessary."
Have a Plan
How well-prepared are you if someone gains access to your
bank account? Your email address? Your smart home? Skilled cyberthieves can
steal your frequent
flier miles, your health insurance,
or open credit cards in your name. As more and more of the infrastructure we
rely on to manage our daily lives moves to the internet, security compromises
can have significant real-world impacts. The nature of what it means to
"get hacked" is beginning to change.
"For most people, getting hacked means resetting a
password, getting mailed a new credit card, or another minor
inconvenience," Guido says. "I think people will care more when
getting their information stolen or abused causes more harm. Consumer attitudes
about security will likely shift as we see more inventive methods of abusing
data."
Keep Calm and Carry On
We won't know what Trump's technology policies are like
until we're living under his administration. Will things proceed as they always
have? Or in an emotional rage, will he block Twitter, just as Russia
blacklisted LinkedIn from its own internet earlier this month?
While it remains impossible for any single person to dismantle the
internet or seriously change how it works, an exception is perhaps
possible if that person is President of the United States.
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Good Netiquette And A Green Internet To All!
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In addition to this blog, Netiquette IQ
has a website with great
assets which are being added to on a regular basis. I have authored the
premiere book on Netiquette, “Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to
Improve,
Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". My new book, “You’re Hired! Super
Charge
Your Email Skills in 60 Minutes. . . And Get That Job!” has just been
published and will be followed by a trilogy of books on Netiquette for
young people. You can view my
profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:
www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.
In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and Yahoo. I am also a
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Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman
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contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
Additionally, I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems,
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services. Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.
