How Will We Protect Ourselves Virtually In The Future?

When I say virtually, I mean through technology.  When I say protect ourselves, I mean protect our identities, our data, our computers, our WIFI networks and our work environments.  The future is different the way you look at it. 

For some the future looks bright.  While the “bad” people out there keep getting smarter and find ways to make our technological lives miserable at times the “good” people are getting even smarter.  In the past being bad was easy.  All you had to do was be able to outsmart the anti-virus and spam programs.  You could prey on people who didn’t know how to protect themselves and do some pretty good damage without much risk of getting into trouble.  The governments of the world are looking into stiffening laws against these criminals which will give us the peace of mind that there is a penalty against them for what they do.  Right now we know that for someone to get arrested for hacking or spamming or the like they have to do a lot of damage before getting caught.  If the governments make their rules more stern we wouldn’t have to wait that long to see them pay.  Also the beautiful minds of the world are coming up with more protection for us.  There are numerous free software of the web to help protect our computers such as the following, just to name a few. 

Microsoft Security Essentials at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/products/security-essentials
Spybot Search & Destroy at http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/index.html
Ad-Aware at http://www.lavasoft.com/products/ad_aware_free.php
& AVG Anti-Virus at http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage

In the past it seemed Sematic and McAffee were the only ones with protection and they were pricey and to avoid the cost people would just risk not having one.  This helps everyone to get into the game and protect themselves.

 

There is also a greater awareness of front line security such as passwords.  People are learning that simple passwords are not good enough and they need to choose stronger ones.  If they are not told directly through a friend or other resource they are being told indirectly.  When they sign up for a new service on the web for most instances they are not allowed to choose a simple password, they are being told they need to add numbers and extra characters to it.  For example, HSBC Bank, they have an online banking system.  For online banking we would want to make sure we are safe right?  We wouldn’t want anyone to see how much money we have (or how little most of us have) and who and how much we are paying out.  So HSBC takes that very serious and have put a lot of measures in place to protect us, the consumer.  See the page below and how HSBC protects their customers and the measures they take and how they, at the same time, try to educate on how the users can protect themselves, not just on HSBC’s site, but on all sites.
http://www.hsbc.co.in/1/2/personal/internet-and-self-service-banking/online-security

Then there is also better and cheaper technology coming for the “futuristic” security.  The stuff we’ve only seen in movies before.  The fingerprint and iris recognition type of stuff.  Some laptops already come with a fingerprint pad and software to only allow certain people to use your laptop.  Without this technology what do we have to separate us from all the other John Smith’s out there? Our Social Security Number.  And we all know how risky that is to share that information.  Iris’s and fingerprints are also unique to a person.  So the more this biometric technology is used the less we will have to share our SSN which is definitely a good thing.  See this video for example.  India is using Iris and fingerprint technology to create a biometric database to give all of their citizens an identity. 

All of this will make our virtual lives a little more easy to bear.  We will all be able to be more comfortable using our laptops, cell phones, desktops and other devices.  We should be safer but we all should know that we have to keep educated and use preventative measures to protect ourselves.

I’ve talked about the technology and how the future should look bright for most people but there are others out there who will think that the future is bleak.  They will think that there is no way to fully protect ourselves.  That the “bad” people of the world will always find a way to beat the system and hack us.  They are probably right, but if you look at cyber warfare this way you will never get to fully enjoy the technology available to us. 

Coming from the age where I lived through the world of going to the video store to rent a VHS movie and having to make the decision if I wanted to switch to the Beta tapes which were the movie source of the future I can see where technology has come in a short amount of time.  For a little over 10 bucks a month I can get access to Netflix and watch Movies and TV shows for free streamed to my TV.  For 8 bucks a month I can get access to Hulu to watch more recent TV shows than Netflix.  I don’t even need to go to the video store any more.  This is one example of how technology has improved.  So as technology improves so must the security that protects that technology.  I feel safe in the fact that companies like Microsoft dedicate teams to preventing security breaches before it happens.  That websites like Google and Bing make searching a for virus definitions and preventions so easy.  That websites like Download.com can give me free software to protect myself.  The future is bright, no matter what the naysayers say.  We just have to know how to protect ourselves and keep the light on.

Over the course of this semester I've written in this blog to complete the course.  What will I do with it after the course has completed.  To be quite honest I most likely will not continue writing in the blog.  To me life is too busy to do things such as this.  It’s the same reason I do not use Facebook, play video games, or use blogging sites.  With so much information and technology available you really do have to choose what you want to spend your time on.  Things like these I choose not to.  I do see advantages of the blog but not enough to where I could use it to further myself.  I could not use it in a portfolio because the meaning of a blog to me is to use opinion and a opinion is like a coin.  Some people agree with heads and some people agree with tails but how do you know that the potential employer you are sharing your blog with agrees with you?  Same as the controversy of employers looking at employee Facebook sites.  Outside of the blog I have learned a lot in this course.  Enough that I can say I’m walking away a smarter, more aware person.

Forget Cyber Monday - Lets Look At Cyberwatch Daily!!!

Our final project in the Computer Security class is to team up with a “virtual” classmate and basically create a Public Service Announcement (PSA) about computer security.  It seems easy enough.  Do the research and compile a PSA.  The fun part will be to make it interesting and memorable.  Most PSA’s are boring.  When I hear them they don’t make me want to change anything I do and in about a minute after hear them I forget them.  Defeats the purpose but that is how I react to them personally.  So the challenge to me is, not to just make one with facts but to do it in a way that the listener/viewer will remember what they heard/saw and eventually change their ways or at least remember to do a little research later on the subject. 

Cyberwatch, who sponsor’s the contest is a pretty neat organization.  They are dedicated to protecting all of us common folks online.  With very little protection from the long arm of the law we have to rely on organizations like Cyberwatch to Cyberwatch out backs.  Looking at their site they do a lot.  They do so much they may have already protected all of us in some capacity but we would never have known it.  I’m sure that’s the way they like it.  To protect the internet.

My partner and I chose passwords for our topic.  With so many portals that need a username and password it is nearly impossible to keep track.  So what do most of us do?  We try to use the same one.  I personally have Excel file that I keep all of mine written down on.  I have 57 password links.  For more than half I use the same one.  Just because it’s easy.  Doing the research I first found that using a strong password is important.  Look at this site, http://www.theinternetprivacyguide.com/the-basics-of-creating-strong-internet-passwords.  They tell you that if you get a lot of spam and junk mail daily you may have a weak password.  That makes sense.  If you, for example, use password as your password the people who send junk mail can easily figure out your password.   Look at the below video.  This person is showing us how a simple program can be download and installed to figure out a password.  The first time he runs it, it picks his password right away, within seconds.  Wow.  

 

I also found that there are numerous techniques that can be used to create very strong and easy to remember passwords.  Check out this site from Microsoft.  http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx.  They’re suggestion is to take a sentence and pick the first letters from each word as a basis, then change it until you have a strong password.  Now you can just add a little to your password to customize it for each site so you can remember.  All you really need to remember is your base password really.  It’s better than making 57 unique passwords in my case. 

This video shows another persons take on it.  It’s really smart but me personally, I’d have to get used to it.  I’ll let you watch the video but it is something that I would have never thought of. 

Our class is all about keeping yourself safe when using technology and to avoid disaster.  We learned how the predators come after us and how to protect ourselves.  When we talk about computers, laptops, handhelds and phones, your first line of defense is your password.  That is why this subject is so important.

What I hope to take out of this project is a little more knowledge about passwords and to become a subject matter expert about it so I can help my friends, co-workers, and others a little smarter about what to do when they click on the link to “Create a New Account”.

P2P File Sharing Is Never Free

Wi-Fi, P2P and copyright infringement.  Some terrifying subjects.  WIFI is a very nice convenience.  You get the internet in your house, you buy a WIFI router, put a password on the access and boom, everything that can connect to the internet can connect wherever you happen to be.  The desktop computers, the laptops with the WIFI cards, the Wii, the Xbox, the iPhone, the iPad.  Everything that you used to have to pay separate for is now covered under that one internet fee (at least while you in the range of your router).  But it’s nice.  A week ago I thought that if I had a password on my WIFI I was protected.  I did not know that there was a layer of security below that that actually protected me.  I checked my setting.  My router uses WPA, not WEP, thankfully.  So I am secure.  I did give my password to my neighbor so they could piggy back on my internet to save them a couple of bucks.  But who knows if she didn’t give that out to a friend who was staying over and that person gave it to someone else.  Sort of defeats the purpose of my security.   So as a result of this new knowledge I have changed my password, outside of that, I think I’m safe.

As far as P2P and the copyright infringement that goes along with that I’m under control on that front.  I don’t do it.  I will definitely not say that I never did but I no longer do it so I have nothing to change.  Why did I stop may be a good question?  I did not stop because my conscious told me to because I was basically stealing.  I stopped because it was a hassle.   I’m 40 years old so when I was doing the downloading it was a while ago, it was soon after Napster got busted and Kazaa and Bearshare was the popular engines.  Internet wasn’t superfast then and 128MB of RAM was high performance.  You were also lucky to have Windows 98 still and not have bought a unit with Windows ME on it too.  I would download music and movies.  Music wasn’t so bad but the quality of the songs were not always great so you’d have to re-download until you got a good one.  The movies were disgraceful.  You’d click on a movie to download and 5 hours later it would be complete.  You open the movie to watch it when you find out you just downloaded a black and white Fred Astaire movie and not the one you intended.  Very frustrating.  Wasn’t worth the time for either.  Then the virus attacks and the malware.  Kazaa told you it was installing stuff which you accepted but some of the downloads had malicious programs attached and the anti-virus could not keep up with the black hatters who did this.  So I gave up.  I didn’t want to waste the time downloading garbage and I didn’t want to waste the time fixing my computer once a week to get it moving over 10 mph again.  To conclude, I don’t use P2P and I really don’t have the intention too.  I’m too cheap to spend money at iTunes.  The reason is with the iPhone there are apps where I can listen to music that I want, and with uTube there are outlets for video entertainment.  I use Netflix for my movies.  I’m satisfied with paying what I pay for the digital entertainment I can get.

Here is a copy of my router settings.  As you can see my router uses  WPA and has a password.  The name of the router is Bubba, has nothing to do with me, my family, or anything else that a passerby could relate to me.

Having done the research on my router I was interested what the local businesses are using for theirs.  So I installed some Wardrive software on my laptop, called inSSIDer and parked my car in front of Panera bread which is in a plaza with Home Depot.  As you can see from the screenshot Panera is a totally open, free, hotspot, network.  Same as a couple of the Home Depot ones.  But outside of their open one’s Home Depot uses WPA also. 

For the purposes of our class at NCCC I’m adding something to this blog that is very interesting with the P2P.  In 2002 Kazaa was pretty much the most popular engine to get freebies.  This article explains something that most of us were not aware about.  http://www.niagaracc.suny.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6626574&site=ehost-live.  While we all knew they installed stuff we were all so excited to get free music and other stuff we flew by the EULA (End User License Agreement) and just hit accept.  This article tells us that there was something hidden in that EULA.  We were giving permission to Kazaa and its affiliate, Brilliant Digital to not only put a shared folder on our hard drive but to use our computers resources for their benefit.  They didn’t care if your computer was connect to Time Warner or your colleges server, you gave them access to use those resources.  This could partly explain why our computers were so slow back them!  But looking at the article it seems it didn’t take long for the active community to put a stop to it, or at least slow them down.  This is just another example of how nothing in life is truly free.  If you are getting something for free there is usually a cost, it just may not be of the color green.