Don’t Take Away My Netflix and Hulu! Why “Net Neutrality” Means Consumer Choice and Freedom of Expression

Without Net Neutrality sites like You Tube, Netflix, Hulu and Spotify may not even exist today. Cable companies like Comcast would prefer to choose what websites you could access by implementing censorship or slowing down the access to the point you would never visit the website. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon and other Internet Providers want to dismantle “Net Neutrality” so they can play middleman in order to make more money. They will find ways to charge you more for getting the same Internet service that you get right now.

• According to Fight For The Future…Cable and phone companies like Comcast would be able to: 
• Slow video streaming sites, causing your videos start and stop unexpectedly. 
• Add new fees to your Internet bill. Imagine paying extra for YouTube! 
• Censor videos or content they don’t agree with, like political blogs. 
• Throttle any new sites or apps they don’t own or invest in. 
• Make your connection painfully slow, and charge you more to make it work again. 
• Force streaming sites like Spotify, Netflix, or Hulu into a slow lane, causing them to buffer constantly. 
• Slow online gaming. Call of Duty would lag and glitch without paying more to your ISP. 
• Charge big sites special “prioritization fees” and slow down everyone else. 
• Take you out of the driver’s seat, and control what you see and hear online. Make the Internet look a lot more like cable TV. 
• And, worst of all, become the first gatekeepers of the Internet in US history. 

Net neutrality says we get the *entire* web without interference – no gatekeepers, no tollbooths, no slowlanes. This is why it is considered the First Amendment of the Internet. It protects our free speech in the digital age.

Let the Federal Communications Commission know that you support Net Neutrality. Visit the website gofccyourself.org and submit a comment in favor of Net Neutrality.

How Easy is it to crack an iPhone password?

Our smartphones increasingly contain a wealth of information about us. We make phone calls, send emails, visit websites, send texts, take photos, connect with Facebook friends, and share files. They have become mini-computers. Our smartphones go where ever we go, unlike our desktop computer that rests on a table top safely in our home. That means access to the phone is just a moment of physical theft or loss away.

How safe are the contents of your smartphone anyway? Take the iPhone, which has been in the news lately, with FBI wanting Apple's help to access the contents of an iPhone. Apparently, the FBI is having some difficulty getting into that iPhone. Does that mean that the iPhone is impenetrable? Not exactly. The answer is that it depends.

First of all you need to password protect the phone. With iOS 9 Apple has created some impressive security to prevent repeated guesses of the password. After five wrong guesses, the phone's software makes the hacker wait one minute before guessing again. After nine wrong guesses, one will have to wait an hour. And depending on how the phone was set up, it might delete all its data after ten wrong tries. Even if the aforementioned security measures were disabled, Apple has another security feature that makes automated password guessing difficult. When you enter a passcode into your iPhone, the processor makes a calculation to check if your code is correct. What Apple has done is make the math so complicated that it takes about 1/12 of a second for the phone to crunch the numbers. That may not seem like a long time to humans, but to a computer it is an exceedingly long wait. “This means it would take more than 5 ½ years to try all combinations of a six-character alphanumeric passcode with lowercase letters and numbers,” according to Apple security guide.

The iPhone security is impressive, but can be rendered useless if you choose a weak password. Six lowercase letters and numerical digits can be arranged in 2.17 billion combinations. A six digit alpha and numeric password at about 12 attempts a second, will take an encryption cracking tool five and a half years to go through all combinations. Compare this to a six digit, numbers only, password. Six numerical digits can be arranged in only one million ways. Such a simple six-number passcode can be cracked within just 22 hours.

The lesson here is that complexity of a password is essential. Secondly, the longer the password the harder it is to crack. On iPhones with only a four-digit numeric passcode, there are only 10,000 combinations. It would only take 13 minutes for the FBI to try all the different possible passwords. Compare that to a six character passcode where you mixed in capital letters in addition to lowercase letters, and numerical digits. Then there would be 56.8 billion possibilities, instead of 2.1 billion. Instead of 5.5 years, it would now take 144 years to crack such a passcode!

The Easiest Way To Avoid Being Hacked

For decades we have been told by security professionals that the best way to stop from being hacked is to be careful when opening e-mail attachments, to install anti-virus software, and use a firewall. That has been the security mantra since the 1990s. If you’ll notice, we are not in the 1990s anymore. Hackers have had over 20 years to poke holes in those defenses, and have largely been successful. It is time for a new approach.

At a recent security conference, Avecto, a security product manufacturer, conducted an analysis of Microsoft Security Bulletins from 2015, focusing only on the security vulnerabilities labeled “Critical”. What they discovered is that 85% of the vulnerabilities exploited to hack a computer, can be mitigated by removing administrator privileges from the current user. In other words, if you use a "standard" user account as opposed to an "administrator" user account, malware could be stopped from being installed on your computer 85% of the time. What is the difference between "standard" and "administrator" user accounts? A "standard" user account cannot install software or make configuration changes to your computer. Only an "administrator" account can do that.

When you create your user account in Windows, you have a choice whether to create a "standard" or "administrator" user. You can also change the account type by going to Control Panel > User Accounts > Change Your Account Type. There has to be at least one “administrator” user on a computer. That means you will need to create two user accounts; one “standard” and one “administrator”. You use the “standard” one for your everyday activities and the “administrator” account just for making changes or installing software.

So, why don't most people use standard user accounts? The answer is convenience. They want the immediate gratification of installing software or making changes on the fly. Most users are not aware that Microsoft has already made it more convenient to user a standard user account. Since, Windows 7 you can now operate in your standard user account and install software by right clicking on the installation file and selecting from the menu "Run as Administrator". You will then be prompted to enter your administrator username and password. That means you can still stay logged in your standard user account, but invoke the administrator account when you need to without logging off and switching accounts.

Working in a standard user account is essential for keeping the hackers from invading your computer. Consider these other findings:

● Of the 251 vulnerabilities in 2015 with a Critical rating, 85% were concluded to be mitigated by removing administrator rights ● 86% of Critical vulnerabilities affecting Windows, can be mitigated by removing administrator rights ● 99.5% of all vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, can be mitigated by removing administrator rights ● 82% of vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Office, can be mitigated by removing administrator rights ● 85% of Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities, can be mitigated by removing administrator rights ● 82% Critical vulnerabilities affecting Windows 10, can be mitigated by removing administrator rights ● 63% of all Microsoft vulnerabilities reported in 2015, can be mitigated by removing administrator rights.

Best Privacy Policy Statement Ever

Being a privacy advocate, I am one of the few people who actually read the privacy policy of a website.  Most privacy policies are so convoluted with legalese that the average person can't make any sense of it.  I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a privacy policy statement that was simple, easy to understand, and clearly states the privacy protection principles of the business. The privacy policy statement below belongs to www.gongs-unlimited.com.  (Why I was looking for a gong is a whole other story, which may be an entertaining story, yet irrelevant to discussing privacy policies. So, I will do the reader a favor and not digress.) Like all good privacy policies this one states what information the company collects and if they share that information with a third party.  What makes this one stand apart is the personable language that plainly states why they believe in protecting their client's privacy. Admittedly, I also like the emphatic and irreverent tone spiced with just the right amount of humor.  Read it below for yourself....

THE GONGS UNLIMITED PRIVACY POLICY

Everyone at Gongs Unlimited treasures their privacy and we trust that our customers treasure their privacy as well.  If you are anything like the 15 year old daughter of the Head Mallethead here, you really really treasure your privacy.  Because we are just a retail store. You come in and buy a gong. That's all we want to know.

We will never give your email address or any other information you used to purchase a gong to any third party. And not any fourth or fifth parties either.  Screw them! If you wanted Spam, you'd go to Hawaii and order some with eggs!

If you bought a gong at a local mall, you wouldn’t expect to be hounded by salespeople from other stores chasing you to your car, calling you and yelling into your phone, or filling your mailbox with garbage. We believe that you shouldn’t have to experience that in your computer when you buy a Gong either.

Data Breach: Vacaville Housing Authority

When and Who

Organization Name: Vacaville Housing Authority (VHS)

Date(s) of Breach (if known): Monday, August 24, 2015

Date(s) of Discovery of Breach: Tuesday, August 25, 2015

What Happened

This data breach is an example how one innocent mistake can expose personal identifying information.  A VHS employee sent an email with a file attachment, that included Social Security Number information, accidentally to the wrong recipient.  Fortunately, when the recipient viewed the email she notified VHS and deleted it from her inbox.  As required VHS did report the incident to the local police, California's Attorney General's Office and to HUD.  The local police did confirm that the recipient deleted the email. 

One lesson that can be drawn from this incident is to be careful to review who you are sending an email to in order to avoid this kind of mistake.  After all, not all recipients may be as conscientious as the recipient in this data breach.  In all fairness, mistakes do happen, and it is better to have a process in place that takes into account potential mistakes.  For example, using file encryption that requires the recipient to enter a password to view the file could have prevented this incident.   

What Kind of Data Was Breached 

Social Security Numbers

Who Is Affected

Number of those affected were not mentioned in notification of breach by the organization to those affected. 

More People Believe Privacy Has Been Lost

A recent CBS News/New York Times Poll indicated that most Americans believe that the right to privacy in general has been compromised. 52% think the right to privacy is under serious threat, and another 30% think it has already been lost. Only 16% think it is still safe.

According to a Pew Research poll, 91% of adults think that consumers have lost control over their personal information used by companies.  Given the perception of lost privacy, the majority of Americans express negative views about companies collecting personal information about individuals, including what they buy, their credit histories, and income information. When presented with the reasons for or against such practices, only 13% think it is mostly good because it allows companies to better serve their customers and process financial transactions quickly, whereas 83% say that it is mostly a bad thing because it makes it easier for the information to be shared inappropriately. 


Americans clearly think the government ought to be doing more to protect their information; 68% think the federal government is not doing enough to regulate the personal information that can be collected about people. 14% think it is doing enough, and 11% think it ought to be doing less. Even so, the political gridlock in Washington DC makes the passage of stronger privacy legislation a remote possibility any time soon. 

A Pew Research Poll indicated that 61% say they "would like to do more" to protect their privacy.  Given the dearth of online privacy options and software, many are left without information about the choices to protect their privacy.  A recent survey conducted by GlobalWebIndex showed that only 28% of the online population using tools to disguise their identity or location.  Clearly, there is a gap between the desire to protect privacy and knowledge of how to do so.

How Fast Can a Hacker Snag Your Data?

You have one minute and 22 seconds to stop all communications with the Internet from you computer once you open that malicious attachment in your email. Otherwise, attackers will start exfiltrating the data from your computer.  This is according to an annual report conducted by Verizon that analysed data involving nearly 80,000 breaches contributed by 70 different organizations including law enforcement agencies as well as government and industry computer incident response teams worldwide.

Everyone thinks that they will never be fooled into opening that suspicious attachment. We feel confident that we can spot those emails from Nigera offering to transfer millions to our bank account. Sorry to burst your bubble of email bliss.  Verizon noted that 23 percent of recipients open nefarious messages containing malicious attachments or links. Even so, simply opening an email won’t necessarily install malware on your computer. Ever more dangerous are the 11 percent of recipients who go so far as to click on malicious attachments. Attackers have become experts at creating convincing emails that appear to be from a trusted source. There are malicious emails concocted for mass distribution and those that are cleverly targeted and thereby appear trustworthy. In security professional terminology the difference is between "phishing" emails and "spear-phishing" emails. 

"Spear-phishing is a more targeted form of phishing", according to Kim Zetter in her article "Hacker Lexicon: What Are Phishing and Spear Phishing?" published in Wired Magazine. "Whereas ordinary phishing involves malicious emails sent to any random email account, spear-phishing emails are designed to appear to come from someone the recipient knows and trusts—such as a colleague, business manager or human resources department—and can include a subject line or content that is specifically tailored to the victim’s known interests or industry. For really valuable victims, attackers may study their FaceBook, LinkedIn and other social networking accounts to gain intelligence about a victim and choose the names of trusted people in their circle to impersonate or a topic of interest to lure the victim and gain their trust."

And, it's not just email we need to worry about.  The same techniques can be used by hackers using social media sites like FaceBook, Instagram, SnapChat, and so forth. The attacker just needs you to open a file, photo, music recording, or video.  If you have a one in ten chance of getting fooled in opening a malicious file and your anti-virus only has a 55% chance to detecting the malware, eventually some hacker is going to gain access to your computer. Clearly, the security methods and tactics that worked in the past are simply not as effective today. It's time for products to be redesigned with added security and we need to move away from putting all our digital goodies in one basket.