The TV That Observes You

Imagine that you can talk to your TV and it response to your commands. The technology has finally arrived at a store near you. Samsung's SmartTV uses voice recognition technology to enable voice commands.  No more hand remote! Amazing!

Not so amazing is the caveat that comes with the technology.  It is better described as disturbing.  Buried in Samsung's privacy policy, is a disclosure that reads, "if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be captured and transmitted to a third party."  Notice the phrasing is NOT "could be" or "accidentally".  Rather it clearly states "will be captured and transmitted". 

Just when you finished covering your webcam to protect your privacy from hackers accessing your laptop camera, now you need to deal with your TV snooping on you as well.  At least someone has to hack into your laptop.  Not so with the Samsung SmartTV.  The spyware is already embedded and will be capturing and transmitting your spoken words to a "third party".

Expect more of the same to come with the "Internet of Things".

Antivirus Is Dead, What Do I Do Now?

Brian Dye, senior vice-president for information security at Symantec, has declared antivirus as “dead”. With a detection rate of only 45%, you can’t rely on antivirus to protect your computer from malware infections. Now what?

Being careful with opening email attachments and what websites you visit is important but doesn’t mean you will never be fooled. If you have ever watched a magician perform a trick and couldn’t figure out immediately how that trick was performed, then you are capable of being fooled. Experienced cyber criminals are experts at scamming and the art of illusion. Besides, most people use Facebook and other social media sites which have become a popular attack approach. Cyber criminals have enjoyed a 70% success rate with malware spread through social media.

If you assume your computer will crash or will suddenly experience performance issues, and that is how you will know you’ve been hacked, think again. Cyber criminals will NOT crash your computer. That would defeat their purpose. Their aim is to infiltrate your computer to pilfer data. After their done they will use your computer to cover their tracks so their attacks on other computers will appear to originate from your computer. Besides, even if your computer performance takes a dump, how are you going to remove the infection if the antivirus or similar detection tool can’t find the source of the infection?

Obviously, a new approach to computer protection is required. First, would be an operating environment that is impervious to infections. One approach would be to change you operating system to Linux. Millions of malware infections are roaming around on the Internet designed for Windows. There are fewer malware infections designed for a Mac. Still the number of malware designed for a Mac is close to one million. Linux on the other hand has had less than 100 malware designed to attack it. Part of the reason is due to Linux lack of use along and the numerous different versions. Linux has had a reputation of being difficult to learn and use. However, there is a new version that has been designed for Windows users called Zorin. Even so, you may still find learning a new operating system to much of a challenge.

A new technology known as virtualization may provide an approach that has promise. The technology isolates an application from the rest of the operating system. It can also isolate and entire operating system environment. The benefit is that whatever happens in that isolated environment stays in that environment and won’t affect the rest of your computer. An example of software that uses application virtualization is Sandboxie. If you open your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc) within Sandboxie, and if you go to a website that has malware, the malware will be isolated in the Sandboxie environment and will not infect your computer. Sandboxie can be configured to erase all activity in a session so that you can start with a clean slate each time you open a program. That means any malware will not only be isolated, but at the end of the session will be erased. This technology is still relatively new and still needs some work in the area of usability for the average user. But, power users should have no problem installing it and using it.

I will have more suggestions in future blogs, so stay tuned.

Check out…

Sandboxie

http://www.sandboxie.com/

Zorin 

http://zorin-os.com/

If Antivirus Is Dead, How Do I Know If I've Been Hacked

Antivirus “is dead”, declared Brian Dye senior vice-president of information security at Symantec. Industry experts agree that antivirus protection is only 45% effective in detecting malware. If you have been relying on antivirus protection as your only approach to protecting your computer from intruders, then you might sleep less comfortably at night.

So, if you go to a website, open an email attachment, or download a file where there is malware present, there is a 55% chance your computer will become infected without you knowing about it. If you can’t rely on antivirus protection to detect an infection, how will you know if you’ve been hacked?

Chances are you won’t know you’ve been hacked. Most people assume that their computer will crash or will suddenly experience performance issues. That assumption is a myth. Cyber criminals will NOT crash your computer. That would defeat their purpose. Their aim is to infiltrate your computer to pilfer data. After their done they will use your computer to cover their tracks so their attacks on other computers will appear to originate from your computer. They may also add your computer to their network on infected computers. That network is referred to as a “botnet” and your computer is referred to a “zombie”. With a network of hundreds of thousands and even millions of computers, hackers have the power to launch attacks on networks and websites that can render them inoperable. There is absolutely ZERO benefit to the cyber criminal in crashing your computer.

If you think that being careful with opening email attachments and what websites you visit will protect you, think again. Most people use Facebook and other social media sites. According to industry experts the use of social media to spread malware has become ubiquitous. Cyber criminals have enjoyed a 70% success rate with malware spread through social media.

What can you do besides throw your arms in the air in frustration yelling “why little ol’ me!”. Or, resigning yourself to constant surveillance and saying to yourself “I have nothing to hide” in order to feel less uncomfortable. Obviously, a new approach to securing your computer is sorely needed. There are solutions that I will cover in future blogs. So, stay tuned.