Category: Security Now

PRISM and Edward Snowden scandal!

Paul

Prism Reflections 1877

Prism Scandal?

Some of you would wonder if the Surveillance scandal of 2013 will be remember in 2050?  I really can’t say for sure in the past few hours the US Government has issued an arrest for Edward Snowden.  It really looks quite suspicious that the government uses this tactic.   It seems almost like they want to blame someone who wanted to let the world and the his fellow US citzen the right to know what they are doing.   This is getting quite scary as some of you would like.   With Obama on his last term as president, we have to wonder what will happen for the next 3 years.   Will he make our privacy just as bad as China?

Tech Giants are the ROOT to this!

Most Tech giants are afraid of the government and what will happen to their reputation if they were to be truthful.   I really doubt the government would do anything but slap them for saying no.  They afford so much of this blame that seems to be going around and around in circles.   One company blames another company and it is an endless blame.   Just like the US government is blaming Snowden for leaking this information, you wonder why all the fuss about leak.   He didn’t leak any personal information such as people and social security numbers.

Tempora program and The British Secret Service!

While we are on the subject of PRISM, we have to at least show that it has been going on in other governments around the world and good old James Bond likes his Tempora Program “Shaken, Not stirred”.  We’ve see that the US isn’t the only one doing the serviceable of their people.   Quite scarey isn’t it?   The Tempora program is a co-operation between the NSA and Britain exchanging information about what people do.

What can I do?

If you wondering about cloud backup, you can try Malwarebytes Secure Backup Pro and that will at least encrypt all your data before it is stored in the cloud.   I won’t say that is the only thing you can do.   You can also use a VPN Service such as VPN4ALL The Best Protection Online AES-256 RSA 2096bit (Military Grade) Encryption for all your internet traffic. Unlimited and Metered VPN Plans starting 9.95 / month which is what I am using now so It will help keep your privacy a little more safe. There are no guarantees that government has keys but at least it is one more step to privacy that shows them that you want to be “Do Not Tracked”.   One last way to help keep your information a little more private is Secured Texted on the Android phones.   Looks nice and it is opened source so you have little worry about who has access to your text messages.   In the last 30 days, this app has been getting popular.  

 

NSA wiretaps the internet, and what you should do about it!

Paul

NSA wiretaps your Internet!

The National Security Agency has been in the past a thorn in most people’s sides. As of late though their new Prism program has raised some very interesting questions. It isn’t like they have anything to hide, after all if you haven’t done anything wrong than you neeed not worry! That logic just elludes me, we have seen this is history. People who haven’t done anything wrong who are prosecuted for their believes and actions. They will make everyone evil some how. See how they did with Edward Snowden, NSA and other’s are saying he was wrong to do this but it was the public right to know. While whistle blowing is a necessary for the public to know about it, the NSA thinks we should always be kept in the dark over some of this. I personally believe we should not only be told but also have a public forum over stuff like this. Now let’s not forget that we are trying to fight terrorism, but this is what they wanted us to do in the first place. Fear brings down our civil liberties by making it harder for us to be free, hince we now have to worry about the NSA!

The Pipe

If you haven’t figure out how they National Security Agency is doing this than, one you didn’t watch that video or two it just didn’t click. I am going to try to dumb it down a little more and make it easier to understand. Let’s say you have an apple, the apple in this case represents your data or metadata as some would call it. You have two people who want the apple, so you would basically cut it in an equal half. Now that doesn’t mean both people have different information they have the same information but it is simply just been cloned, or copied. Another way to look at is this: You have a piece of paper with your information on it. You send it Google, Bing, Yahoo, ETC and just before it is delivered there, someone graps your paper puts it on a copy and makes a copy for themselves, and send the document along it’s way as if nothing happened. You wouldn’t know, the place you sent it to would not know and somewhere there is a piece of paper with your data and no one is the wiser. Kinda of snicky isn’t it!

Fighting the NSA!

You can always fight the National Security Agency, with a few good steps you can make them worry and wonder where you are actually coming from. This won’t stop them but it will at least keep yourself private and less likely the NSA will get this personal information of yours. I am hoping this helps people find out how to fight this injustice.

  • VPN4ALL — this is a vpn service that I have started using to help keep my information safe. They use a 256 encryptions algorithm and it means no one can see where you go when you don’t want them to know. Works with Android, IOS, and most Mobile Devices also…
  • DNSCrypt — Making sure no one knows where you go to on the internet is made a little easier with DNScrypt. It works really nicely but nothing yet for android. Hopefully soon, someone has something.
  • Encrypting your Email — Although this seems kind of hard it is actually quiet easy. Any emails your send get’s transmitted and that means the NSA can get them. If you encrypt them they can read them. So this is always a good idea to do, because you never know.

So you can see there are a few ways to encrypt your information so no prying eyes can see it. Although it won’t stop them from seeing what you done later on the in future but it will stop them for right now. As technology advances so does un-encryption, so hopefully by the time they see where you went and what you did, you will be long gone dead. I do hope this helps those of you who are worried and want to protect your sensitive information. This won’t help all over but it will help the average person surf the internet a little more securely and hopefully shows the NSA we mean business!

Securing your Windows Machines

Paul

After a Long day at work, you sometimes feel like there isn’t much you want to talk about. Then this idea comes to me? Why do people blog and why do people talk about security?

I’ve come to realize something, I’m not one who was grew up understanding bits from bytes. I grew up as any family does fighting with my siblings.

Having been blogging the past few years, it seems like only yesterday that I started blogging. Cliche I know but still very much true. Most blogs do what they know, I aim to learn and teach each day I blog. Like days like this when the world is pretty much quite and the [intlink id=”3214″ type=”post”]remnants of the conficker[/intlink] worm dies to a rumble.

[ad#cricket-right-ez]So how do you secure your Windows Machine?

After a day long battle with  my wife’s system, I grow to wonder if there is something I should do differently with how to prevent Viruses and Worms on her system.  So I’ve groomed my Knowledge base and come up with 5 good points when it comes to locking down your Windows Machines:

  • [intlink id=”994″ type=”post”]Lock down your Router/Modem[/intlink]  — Some people don’t know that having an insecure router with weak passwords is a way to get on another system.   This can easily be prevented if the users takes some steps to prevent. it.  Although if a hacker wants to break your encryption and find your Signal there is really nothing you can do but try to prevent that.

  • [intlink id=”2205″ type=”page”]Firewall and Anti-virus[/intlink] —  Although I know people think I am a broken record this will always be something I encourage for everyone who reads my blogs.  I will never stop beating people over the head with this.   Seeing the [intlink id=”3272″ type=”post”]Conficker map[/intlink] tells me there are quite a few without an Anti-virus or a Firewall, which might of given someone a heads up find out if they do or not!!

  • [intlink id=”2984″ type=”post”]Disabling AutoRun[/intlink] —  This can prevent a USB stick from installing software it shouldn’t.  Remember Microsoft has issued an statement on how to disable it for sure.  Although I must say The Security Now episode 187 seems to talk about this really well and how to make sure you do disable it the right way.

  • Make sure it is a Limited user account —  Most people always run as administrator when in fact that sometimes makes you more vulnerable to viruses, worms, and trojans.   Any software you install as an administrator will automatically be given Administrator rights.  That can be very bad when it comes to virus and such.

  • [intlink id=”2883″ type=”post”]Keep your System up to date[/intlink] — This is essental for people who to prevent exploits to be used against you.  Although  if your like me and you want to make sure your software is up to date some of that can be done with [intlink id=”553″ type=”post”]APPSNAP[/intlink].

With These tips, your system can be a little more safer.  Just remember there is no perfect way to protect your systems 100% only some of the time.  The rest depends on you, because your the last layer of defense.  Also it isn’t a bad idea to [intlink id=”2407″ type=”post”]back up your system from time to time[/intlink].