Get Your Guard Up! We're in the Data Surveillance Age

Get Your Guard Up! We're in the Data Surveillance Age

Remember back in the day when we were worried about Big Brother government's intrusiveness into our personal affairs? Well nothing's changed. We know this, thanks in part to Edward Snowden's heroic disclosures. It's just been made much easier to tap us because of our online lifestyles.   

In my opinion, though, as for spying and privacy violations, the average citizen has more to worry from the private sector. (Unless of course you're Muslim, affiliated with one of our enemies du jour, or cross swords with government policies.) 

Your browsing habits are now for sale
Case in point: If you've been following the news, President Trump signed a bill in April that permits ISPs (Internet service providers), like Oceanic Time Warner and Hawaiian Telcom, to sell your browsing habits to marketers. This is akin to your phone service provider listening to your phone conversations, then selling those transcriptions to telemarketers. 

Here are some tips to protect your privacy in this age of exploitation and plunder of personal data.

Use a VPN
If you don't want ISPs or others (like governments or hackers) to examine the details of your Internet usage, you can surf anonymously by using a VPN (Virtual Private Network) service. Of course, you have to trust the VPN provider. Here's one site that recently reviewed VPN services: https://goo.gl/jVqcrB. (I'm currently test-driving a VPN service called NordVPN.) 
Here 10 reasons to hide your IP with a VPN: https://goo.gl/n39uE9

Use HTTPS Everywhere
This browser extension is provided freely by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. When installed, it forces encrypted connections to https (encrypted) websites you visit, and when fully enabled, will block all unencrypted requests. You can read about this tool and get it here: https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere

Disable Third-party cookies
Be aware cookies are little pieces of data sent by a website and stored in your browser. Third-party cookies are cookies placed in your browser by a website other than the one you're visiting. This occurs when you visit a website and their advertiser(s) set a cookie, which allows that advertiser to track your visits to other websites. Here's a link explaining how to block third-party cookies. https://goo.gl/PnAXt3 

Read provider privacy and data use policies
Do this for any service you use, including Google, Facebook, travel booking services, your ISP, etc. They all BADLY want to know as much about you as possible so they and/or their partners can get you to open your wallet and spend, spend, spend! As an example, here's what Google does with their users' data: https://goo.gl/LPEHv2

Of course whatever measures we take to shield our privacy will be met with countermeasures. There's too much money at stake to expect otherwise. So if data privacy is important to you, you've got to stay current with protection measures.  

Wishing you an inconspicuous day in cyberspace!

Thanks for reading.

Sam

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Ransomware is Infecting the Aloha State too

Ransomware is Infecting the Aloha State too

Ransomware attacks are escalating, as indicated in various recent news reports. 

But this is not just happening "out there", somewhere else, like on the mainland or overseas. One of my small business clients on Hawaii Island was hit last week by a ransomware attack. 

Email link from Hell 

My client had clicked on a bogus email link*, then his computer was infected. The infection encrypted his files, effectively locking them up. 

He got a note from the criminals promising to unlock his files if he paid the equivalent of $450 in bitcoin. He consulted with me and we decided to not pay. 

His rationale? He had all his files backed up online. Plus he wanted to set up a new computer anyways, so he proceeded to download all his backed up files to the new laptop. 

Later we'll wipe his infected hard drive and reload his operating system, Windows. This should clean out the infection. 

Online backup salvation 

He was lucky. He was using an online backup service, which I can't recommend highly enough for all my clients, especially businesses. I recommend Mozy.com. 

Test your backups 

Be sure to test your online backup at least monthly by restoring one or more of the backed up files. 

You can read more about ransomware on my blog post here: 

https://cybersecurity808.blogspot.com/2015/06/watch-out-for-ransomware-attacks-theyre.html

And here's a recent article on a ransomware attack in Indiana:

http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/11/indiana-county-government-shut-down-by-ransomware-to-pay-up/

Thanks for reading.

Sam

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*93% of all phishing emails contain encryption ransomware, per PhishMe, Q1 2016 Malware Review, June 2016.

Add-ons for Firefox

In this post I recommend three add-ons to my favorite web browser, Mozilla Firefox. (Why my favorite? It's produced by a non-profit company; it's open source; and it's mostly secure, fast, and very customizable.) 

So, what's an add-on? It's a mini program, also called an extension, that you download and "add-on" to Firefox for more functionality. (Before you try any of the add-ons suggested below, be sure to update Firefox first, getting the latest version.  If you don't have Firefox, you can get it here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US) 

Here are three add-ons to try: 

1. uBlock Origin. Are you tired of obnoxious pop-up ads interfering with your web browsing experience? Then try this add-on. There are plenty of customizations available with this extension, but installed as is, it should provide a more streamlined browsing experience. After installing it, watch the icon in the browser bar at upper right as uBlock Origin counts the ads it blocks.  This add-on was created by Raymond Hill.  

Here's one good reason to install an ad pop-up blocker: some ad networks have been (inadvertently) serving malware. This means if you visit a page that displays an infected ad, your computer may become infected too, without your having to click or download anything. Sadly, that's the state of our Internet.  

2. Privacy Badger. This add-on is produced by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), of which I'm a member. Privacy Badger automatically blocks spying ads and invisible trackers as you browse the web. It's there to ensure that companies can't track your browsing without your consent. 

After you install Privacy Badger you can click the icon for this add-on at the upper right of your browser bar. Then you will see one of three states for each tracker: Red means block the tracker; Yellow means Privacy Badger won't send cookies or referrers to the tracker; Green means unblocked. You can click on this same Privacy Badger icon if you'd like to override the automatic blocking settings. 

3. HTTPS Everywhere. HTTPS is an abbreviation for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure. It's the Internet standard for encrypting data transfer on websites, such as banking and e-commerce sites, and increasingly a variety of sites that want to honor user privacy and security. (Another Internet-wide movement in the wake of Edward Snowden's government spying revelations.) 

Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site. The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by rewriting all requests to these sites to HTTPS. This add-on is also produced by the EFF.  

To find these three or other Firefox add-ons, please visit this website: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox. At upper right on this page you'll find a search box. Type in the name of the add-on you'd like to try, find it, then install it. 

Wishing you safe and secure computing. 

If you haven't already, you can subscribe to our email tips by visiting www.kokuadigital.com and entering your name, email, and "add to email list" in the request form, then click Send. 

Sam

Watch Out for Ransomware Attacks - They're Nasty!

I'll start out bluntly with a reminder: Please don’t click on any emails or attachments you don't recognize, and avoid suspicious websites altogether.

This is an especially important practice because there is a type of widespread cyber attack using ransomware schemes to bilk uses out of money once their computers are hijacked and locked by the hacker. 

The problem begins when the victim clicks on an infected advertisement, email, or attachment, or visits an infected website. Once the victim’s device is infected with the ransomware, the victim’s files become encrypted. In most cases, once the victim pays a ransom fee, he or she regains access to the files that were encrypted. 

The financial impact to victims goes beyond the ransom fee itself, which is typically between $200 and $10,000. Many victims incur additional costs associated with network mitigation, network countermeasures, loss of productivity, legal fees, IT services, and/or the purchase of credit monitoring services for employees or customers. 

Again, be very, very careful these days especially about emails, websites, or phone calls offering computer tech support, no matter how official the offer sounds. 

You can read the full article, which I summarized above, here: 

http://www.ic3.gov/media/2015/150623.aspx

If you suspect your computer is infected by ANY malicious sfotware, unplug if from the Internet immediately and request trusted LOCAL tech support.

Thanks for reading. Your feedback is appreciated!

Aloha, Sam

You can subscribe to email tips by visiting www.kokuadigital.com and entering your name, email, and "add to email list" in the request form, then click Send. 

Be Careful Which Data You Store on the Internet

Be Careful Which Data You Store on the Internet

What's the issue?
Photos, videos, emails, documents, spreadsheets, etc. - all the stuff you create on your digital devices and post or store on the Internet - are accessible to other people, and not just people you've shared them with. 

The internet is a public network and as such is a tempting target for hackers. Whether it's called the Web, the Net, or the Cloud, all services are running on a public platform.  

Cloud storage companies that host your email, your personal or company files, your precious pictures of family, etc. are usually doing their best to limit access to authorized users only, i.e. those users having passwords or other means of authentication. 

But the potential to score some valuable confidential data is very tempting. So cyberthieves are thriving by exploiting weak points in software all across the internet. 

Why is software so vulnerable?
Software - whether a web browser, PDF reader, email program, cloud application, etc. - is inherently insecure the moment it's released, whether it's a free or paid version. 

Computer code is too complicated to be perfectly debugged. That's why all software companies and programmers issue fixes, patches, updates, etc. for their programs. There's no way around it. 

Given this fact, and the growing opportunity and enthusiasm for cybercrime, we users must be suspicious from the outset whenever we do anything online, especially posting, storing, and sharing our data.  

How to improve protection of your data?
First decide what's confidential. Usually this includes anything you don't want others to see besides yourself or trusted people. Confidential data can range from the obvious - a bank account number - to the seemingly innocuous, such as a carefree photo taken of you at the beach. Data is like a gun; its potential for good or ill depends on the intent of the person wielding it.

If you are running a business and need to store confidential data online for staff access make sure there is strong encryption during the transmission and storage of the data. (I will write more about encryption in a subsequent article.)

When should you take action?
As soon as possible, take stock of the data you store online. 

After you determine which files you consider confidential, decide your risk tolerance for storing those files online. Translation: If the site storing the files got hacked, how vulnerable would you feel? 

And this begs the question: Why are you storing any confidential data online? (There are secure ways of storing passwords, data, account info, etc. using websites like lastpass.com)

Where can you find more info on this topic?
Here's an article posted on a Boston University page outlining the concerns of storing data in the cloud and which addresses the importance of encryption. 

Who can help?
If this all seems too technical but you are concerned and want to be better protected, you may want to hire an IT consultant. This is an especially good investment if you are responsible for data security in an office environment. 

In Sum
We don't leave our car doors unlocked or windows rolled down in public parking lots. We don't leave our home doors and windows unsecured when we're on vacation. We have some common sense in these areas. In this new digital age, we need to develop common sense concerning our private data. Not doing so can be very damaging to our finances, our identity, and our reputation. 

Thanks for reading.
-Sam

Be Careful When Using Wi-Fi

Be Careful When Using Wi-Fi

What's the issue?
Whether you are connecting to Wi-Fi (wireless networking) with your laptop, tablet, or smartphone... whether at home, at work, or in public... be aware that your privacy and security are vulnerable to hackers.

To clarify, Wi-Fi is not used when connecting to your cell provider's data network. It is accessed most commonly from a wireless router at home, work, or in a public setting.

Why care?
Wi-Fi is not a secure transmission medium, even when encrypted. This means information you exchange across the wireless network is not secure--your confidential information. This includes casual websurfing, email use, and e-commerce.

To illustrate, when connecting to Wi-Fi at Starbucks (via the Google network there), you are presented with this snippet from their terms of use: "You understand that This Wi-Fi... is not inherently secure and that wireless communications may not remain private or free of interception or access by others. We will not be liable to you or any other party for any lack of security that may result from your use of This Wi-Fi..."

Google is making it crystal clear that Wi-Fi is not inherently secure and that you are responsible for your own security. This applies anywhere you are using Wi-Fi, especially outside of your home or business network, which hopefully you have already secured--that is, reduced, not eliminated, the risk of hacking by using the best encryption available. 

How to best protect yourself when using Wi-Fi?
Without getting too technical, a best practice is to only use Wi-Fi when connected via a VPN (Virtual Private Network). One program providing this type of protection is Hotspot Shield by AnchorFree. They offer free and paid versions. 

After you install their program, whenever you connect to Wi-Fi, you can run the shield to access the Internet via a secure, encrypted tunnel (VPN). 
You can obtain the Hotspot Shield software here. 

When should you do it?
Any time you connect to Wi-Fi do so via VPN. If you can't, be very careful about what you do online. For example, avoid banking, shopping, and any sites that require password login. 

Where can you learn more on this topic?
You now know what to do as a user of Wi-Fi. In addition, here are some best practices for setting up Wi-Fi at your home or office.

Who can help?
If this all seems too technical but you are concerned and want to be better protected, you may want to hire an IT consultant. This is an especially good investment if you are responsible for data security in an office environment. 

In Sum
Wi-Fi is wonderful technology. It gives us access to online resources in diverse locations worldwide. However, we must reduce the security risks when using it so we don't get taken advantage of, which is increasingly common.  

Thanks for reading. You're feedback is appreciated!

Aloha, Sam

You can subscribe to email tips by visiting www.kokuadigital.com and entering your name, email, and "add to email" in the request form.