Somebody Call the SPCA

In the most recent weather horror, people were leaving their pets home while they escaped, in North Carolina. Why is this ok?  Leave the kids tethered in the back yard and take the pets. It will certainly be a more pleasant experience.



Browser Settings
if you don't use a browser, please ignore this.

Reminder to spend a few moments configuring any browser you install on your computer, tablet, or phone. I keep several browsers installed for different purposes: one locked down, one wide open, one encrypted, and the one everybody has but doesn't admit it (for the thing that everyone does but doesn't admit it).

The default browser settings are an absolute nightmare. I know, I know.. you have nothing to hide and you don't care. I do.  Yesterday I installed Opera. I'm a bit leery about this, as it's owned by a Chinese company, so it's probably going to be uninstalled. Every other setting needed to be changed. It's the worst I've seen yet. 

Stop the saving passwords first. This means anybody who is using your phone or computer or tablet has your permission to log into anything you do. Also stop offering to save logins or actually saving logins. This is about security. 

Don't use a prediction service: this is the same as going to Google or somewhere else. Don't use Do Not Track: nobody honors it and it allows sites to know you exist for tracking. Protect from malicious sites also goes out and gets a list. I'd also uncheck anything about sending data to the browser's company. 

Other protection - Extensions: help yourself out a lot by installing some extensions. Start with an ad blocker. I like uBlock Origin. Opera has a native ad blocker I'm checking out. History Eraser gets rid of everything when you close the browser. HTTPS Everywhere makes every place you visit secure, if possible. Do not accept Google as your default search engine: use Duckduckgo or something else of your choosing. Google needs no additional information of yours. Install a VPN if you like. This makes it insanely difficult to track your location (but still allows fingerprinting of your browser). Kill any personal news or recommendations on your home page: more profiling. Put your own bookmarks there if you want. 

NoScript is my favorite extension. It turns off javascript. This might break websites, but I only let javascript run where I'm sure it won't try to damage my browser. It saves the settings on a per-site basis. Another favorite is Cookie Monster, or similar, which does the same thing for cookies. It's a sport and privacy matter with me.. your mileage may vary.

Save yourself some space and allow searches in the URL spot. This gets rid of the separate search blob. A great time and effort saver is mouse gestures and rocker gestures (having nothing to do with your choice in music). It's very handy to have a shortcut to go back or forward a page with just your mouse. You don't need to set up users/profiles unless someone else uses the browser and wants it set up differently. 

• there is a new UK movement called Go Sober for October. It took an entire week to film the commercial because the actors kept breaking out in laughter.

I am so tired of the endless calls for diversity in the tech industry.
What we need is diversity of thought, not of gender. It's not the industry's job to 'teach' society anything. It's their job to get the best and brightest, regardless of anything but ability. If employees are chosen on the basis of race, gender, or size of their nostrils, it is sexism, racism, and nostrilism. Hire for brains, not breasts. Or other stupid slogans.

• A security professional noticed an access point on the corporate network that didn't belong there. She tracked it down to a water heater that had a wireless access point on it. Because water heaters need wireless access points in order to heat water. Smart = Stupid. Stupid = Smart.

"People are almost universally recognised as being the weak link in the cyber defence" 

You're kidding me!
Companies who care about security spend a lot of time and money securing and monitoring their systems. It only takes one well-educated employee to click on a phishing link and POW, the network is infected.

• The US Government Payment Service just exposed 14 million records. This is the government: the people who are going to keep us 'safe' and issue standards for cybersecurity. Eat your own dog food, boys.

ThermionicEmissions Detective Agency
Help solve this Important Security Matter...
I will provide the facts and you make a deduction.

There was a security analysis of cyber-attacks against universities and colleges in the UK

• attacks increased from 8 or 9am and then tailed off in the early afternoon
• There was a very sharp decline in attacks in the Christmas, Easter and summer breaks and during half-terms - with attacks rising again sharply when terms resumed.

Take a guess.....

• Have you ever had this happen to you?  You're minding your own business, walking into the bathroom, when you trip over the hedge clipper?

My parents have adjusted to cell phones better than I thought. Dad even manages to text. Mom manages to text, but she doesn't understand there's a limit on characters. She fires up SiriGoogleFrank and dictates texts, so they total about three or four on average. Their limits on text knowledge showed today, when Wife replied to a group text. She immediately got a call from Dad, who didn't understand what she said. She explained group texts but he wouldn't understand. He said she had to come over This Instant to explain it... Mom's all upset.

My parents really need a hobby. One that isn't us.

• Here's a bit of self-knowledge I recently discovered: after being exposed to people, I need a few weeks to recharge before I see people again.
• Whether this is a consequence of voluntary agoraphobia or the cause of it, I don't care.

In case you were considering it, you are not allowed to bribe your spouse's doctor to tell them that frequent sex will make them feel better. This is because of some nonsense called professional ethics. Or so I hear...

I just got this app for my phone where you put in your zip code and it lists items for sale in a radius around you. I don't get excited about new apps unless it's revolutionary or sends supermodels to my house, and that has never come along. This one, however, was interesting.. I searched for 'left handed' (strange, I know). What I got was pages of left handed golf clubs, a left handed bow (there's a left handed bow?), two left handed baseball gloves (one of which was right handed), a bunch of left handed guitars (one of which was right handed), and the piece duh resistance... it's almost like the app was written just for me... a breast pump.

I'm not going to tell Wife about this... no, not because of the breast pump; because of the Shoe category. In Electronics, I located a hair dryer, all sorts of things with apples on them, a black and red and black metal tool, a black and red digital device, air hoses, a computer set, and a Toshiba 4gig screen (laptop). Any ancient dusty speakers in your basement are 'vintage'.

The pictures were all taken by the same drunk child. Some people were far away, most were in the dark, one lady was selling rings who had HUGE hands, so the rings were dwarfed, only the backs of phones, and a flat screen tv side shot.

Congress, ISPs, and Your Privacy

I'll be honest.. I haven't really studied the terms of the legislation allowing Internet Service Providers to collect your browsing data and sell it. I suspect the main thrust of the law is not data collection but I have other stuff to do, like type shit for this blog.

IF your ISP is allowed to keep and sell your data, rest assured it will. First suggested step is to call and ask them. Also tell them you don't want it done - perhaps there's an opt-out. At least you've registered your view. Call Congress and tell them no, this is not acceptable.

The fun part comes right after the above. If your response to data collection is "I've got nothing to hide - let them steal my data," you should probably read a different blog. Privacy aside, your provider is making money selling YOUR history. Then there's privacy.. no one really needs to know where you go and what you do, regardless of whether it's private, embarrassing, or not. If you don't do something, data collection will become the norm (almost like it is now, except it's not the providers collecting it).

There are three things we'll discuss to help keep your privacy: HTTPS, Tor, and VPN.

HTTPS is a secure internet connection. It shows up as a lock or something similar in the browser, by the address (URL) up top. Banks and credit card and retail sites use this by default. You should also use this by default. There are many browser add-ons/extensions that will make HTTPS your default. HTTPS Everywhere is very popular and available for most, if not all browsers. Best of all, it's completely free. Some browsers also default to HTTPS.

TOR is a network through which you can travel anonymously. It is also the gateway to The Dark Net, where you can buy stuff that is illegal and/or immoral, which I strongly recommend against. You can go through TOR to get to somewhere else, anonymizing your traffic. The TOR browser runs on all operating systems, including phones. It is based upon Firefox, so it will look familiar. Nothing appears different, although there will be a speed penalty. I would not watch video through it.

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It can be a free or paid service, generally paid. You install the software or settings, which magically allows you to browse through a machine that isn't yours, keeping your data free from prying eyes.


HOW DOES IT WORK?

Glad you asked.
We're not going to get too technical, as a service to you and to me, so I can type less.

With HTTP, your ISP (or pretty much anyone) can see where you're going and what you're doing. This is because the data is unencrypted.

HTTPS encrypts the connection, so your ISP can see where you're going but not what you're doing.

With TOR, your ISP will see you're going to an IP address called a TOR entrance node. The connection is encrypted so it can't see the data. Once in TOR, it cannot be traced. **When I say it cannot be traced, I mean nothing is perfect and it is fine to use it for general anonymity. The FBI has already developed attacks for TOR and has arrested Dark Web marketeers. There is also a fair probability the government owns some TOR entrance and exit nodes. Stay paranoid - it's your best weapon.

For privacy, the best thing going would be a VPN. All your traffic goes to the VPN site, through which you browse. The only thing the ISP can see is that you're going to the VPN site. They cannot see what you're doing and that's the last thing they can see. All browsing runs on the VPN server, so it's encrypted and cannot be traced (by your ISP).  **When I say cannot be traced, there are a few ways it can be traced, by law enforcement, after the fact. All VPNs will tell you they're 100% anonymous, including allowing you to pay by Bitcoin to protect anonymity. If you pay by credit card, you're already outed. Some VPNs maintain logs of all traffic. These logs can be subpoenaed and you're outed. Some VPNs don't keep logs - look for these. Also use a VPN that has a presence in a different country, especially if you're in the US. US VPNs are subject to US laws and you're outed. To your destination, you'll appear to be coming from a different country.

The decision is up to you.
Avoid HTTP - always use HTTPS.
TOR will let you surf anonymously at no cost.
A VPN is the least leaky solution and the preferred solution. There are articles with comparisons of VPNs, privacy-wise. Look them up. There are also browser extensions or add-ins that will make you appear to be coming from another country. These are fine for casual browsing but do drop hints as to where you are. They're better than nothing.

I hope this clarifies things. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. It is imperative that we maintain our privacy, regardless of content.

Attention Chrome Users

I sometimes repeat myself but I want to make sure we're all listening.  My stats indicate there are a lot of people visiting this blog via Chrome.

Dump Chrome.

If you're really enjoying Chrome, download Iron.  Iron is the same browser, same code, but it doesn't Phone Home to Google with your information.  I am not making this up.

Iron is available for Windows, Mac, and linux [I use it].  It uses all of the same extensions, if you want to use them.  The only difference is that it protects your privacy a lot better.  Of course if you don't set it correctly, you'll still leak all over the place but that's a conversation for a different time.

Try Iron.  Ask questions.  Protect your privacy.