What we can do to protect ourselveson the internet.

Well – maybe.

Safety in the Cloud

There Are Things We Can Do -But There Are No Guarantees

“In the space of one hour, my entire digital life was destroyed. First my Google account was taken over, then deleted. Next my Twitter account was compromised, and used as a platform to broadcast racist and homophobic messages. And worst of all, my AppleID account was broken into, and my hackers used it to remotely erase all of the data on my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook.”

In 2012 Mat Honan, a correspondent for Wired Magazine, described his hacking experience in a now famous posting:

http://www.wired.com/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/

http://www.wired.com/2012/08/mat-honan-data-recovery/all/

Honan is a highly competent technologist, who didn't do anything too terribly wrong. But he was badly hacked and his story, along with how he got most of his data back, is interesting reading.

Basic Principles

● Keep your software current

● Don't block your firewall

● Use a virus protection program

● Use strong passwordswith a password safe (or vault)

● Ensure you are on a secure site beforeentering sensitive information

● Backup your good stuff

● Be careful what files you open -- especially email attachmentsand links in unfamiliar websites (Gmail has a built-in antivirus scanner which is supposed to be good, but … )

● Consider encryption of really sensitive information

A list of things to keep in mind when visiting the cloud!

Make Sure Your Firewall Is On

In Windows and Macs the firewall should be On by default. You can

check this by Searching your

system for 'firewall'.

Clicking on “Change notification settings” above shows more

firewall information.

Other Useful Windows Pages

Windows has a number of other services/settings to considerbut they are often hard to find.

Try: Control Panel->System Security

Or: Perform Windows Help/Search:

● action center:This has a lot of information about your system security and maintenance and system updates.

● restore point: Restore points are used to return your system to a prior stable condition. These are created periodically but its a good idea to manually create one if adding a new program or making a big change.

Other Programs and Apps

There are many, many programs and apps available for both your computer and your phone to help protect your privacy and data.

Google can be your best friend: https://www.google.com/ – just be wary.

Apple has many programs and apps but I have no experience with them.

I have used or experimented with all of the Windows programs that I mention in this talk. However, some comments are in order:

● Almost everything that I mention has both free and paid (or premium) versions. I use the free versions but sometimes make donations.

● If using free software, you will probably have to put up with ads and requests to Upgrade. Incidentally, you should probably install Updates when notified but realize that Updates are different from Upgrades -- although some programs can be tricky about this.

● A major frustration is that many download installations will also install other stuff that you do not want. Read and look at every checkbox when you are downloading a program.

Antivirus Software

The first thing I do when I get a new computer is make sure that an antivirus program is up and running.

Apple devices generally have tighter controls on downloading programs and apps and is less susceptible to viruses and malware. Sticking with Apple-based products is probably a good idea.

Most Windows computers generally come with an antivirus program installed, for example, McAfee – a paid service that normally expires in a year.

Windows 8 has something called Windows Defender but I have not used it.

There are scores of premium antivirus programs available: Bitdefender, Norton, McAfee, AVG, Avast Pro, etc. with prices ranging from $30 to $60 a year. Other than McAfee, which I find very irritating, I have not tried any of them

Being somewhat of a cheapskate, I typically use free antivirus packages, and I have experimented with several. My current favorite is the free version of Avast! Avast also has a version for Android phones – but I haven't tried it.

https://www.avast.com/en-us/index

Avast User Interface

The Avast Free Antivirus program offers good protection at a good price ($0).Its premium versions have a lot more goodies – which may be worth it.

* Remember my earlier comments on free software.

Antivirus programs must

frequently update their database

and occasionally their code. These Updates are NOT the same as an

Upgrade.

Avast Settings

Avast has a lot of features/options and you should check them out.

On the Main page, click on the Settings

link to open the Settings Menu.

The General tab shows a lot of

available options.

Click on the Active Protection tab to ensure that you email shields

are ON

Everyone Should Have a Password Safe

If you are not Sheldon Cooper, you should use a password safe program!

A password safe (or password vault) provides encrypted storage information for all of your sites: such as Username, Password, URL, Notes, etc.

It can also store other information that you want to keep secure, such as credit card numbers or business account numbers that you want to keep private.

To open the encrypted file with all of your information, you will need to remember a single password – which of course should be a good strong password.

However, if you forget this password and cannot recover it, you will never be able to open the file, and the information will be lost to you forever!

Some Useful Password Safe Programs

http://keepass.info/download.html

There are several good programs for Windows, e.g. PasswordSafe

http://sourceforge.net/projects/passwordsafe/

Some Mac candidates are: iCloud Keychain (built-in?), 1Password ($50), LastPass (free), oneSafe ($10), pwSafe-compatible with PasswordSafe($15), Gorilla (free).

Things I like about KeePass 2: It's free. Its encryption algorithm is spelled out. It has a familiar appearance. It has a very good Search capability. The are several apps such as Keepass2Android for Android phones.

(Professional Edition)(Available on Macs with Mono)

In preparing for this talk, I discovered KeePass 2 and I now use it exclusively

Illustration of Main KeePass Screen

● Convenient directory structure● Icons to browse to site and copy Username & Password to clipboard● Very helpful Search capability

Passwords and Two-Factor Authentication

Strong passwords are necessary but may not be sufficient.

Many of you may have already experienced what is called 2-factor or 2-step authentication. If not, you almost certainly will in the future.

Logging on to some sites will require two distinct things: (a) something you know – a password and (b) something you have – a cell phone, email address, etc.

After entering your password, you must then enter acode sequence sent to your cell phone or email address.

At times this can be a real pain, but for critical accounts, such as banking and investments, we will just have to get accustomed to it. It works faster than you would think.

Under some circumstances, you may not be askedto provide the code for the second step.

Also there may also be a special code or backupmethod in the event the second step can't be completed.This varies a lot with the company. Sometimes all you can do is call the company's customer support.

Backup Your Good Stuff

Everyone knows we are supposed to keep our computers backed up.

Most operating systems probably have some sort of automatic backup programs, and there are a lot of commercial and free backup programs available as well.

For one reason or another I have never been very happy with them and have sort of given up on automatic backups. I manually backup things like photographs and other big files to external hard drives and to DVDs.

I store important work-related code and files on my company's version control system.

For really important personal files, I use the Cloud. Several important cloud services:

● DropBox: https://www.dropbox.com/ 2 GB free with nice sharing and local machine syncing

● OneDrive: https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/ 15 GB free, already installed on Windows 8.1

● Google Drive: https://www.google.com/drive/15 GB free across Drive Gmail Google+ Photos

All of these services allow you to purchase more memory.

Making Purchases Online

When you purchase something online, say with a credit card, you should be at least as careful as you are anytime you use your card.

● Try to stick with reputable companies.

● Monitor your credit card statements, checking for unexpected transactions.

● There may be some advantage in having one credit card that you never use for online purchases – for use if your online card is compromised.

● Consider opening an account with PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/signup/account.Many sites do not accept PayPal, but a lot of smaller ones do. The advantage here is that you only share your credit card and/or bank information with PayPal. The site gets its payments from PayPal, not directly from you.

● Whenever you enter credit card numbers or any other sensitive information, make sure that the site you are using a site with a secure connection – i.e., it has an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) Certificate. Your browser will indicate this with the 's' in 'https' and with the padlock. – See the next chart.

Check for Secure Connection Sites

NEVER provide sensitive information over a site without a secure connection.Always look for the “s” and the padlock.

Notice the 's' in https and notice the padlock. These indicate a site with a secure connection.

Chrome Browser URLs

Notice the 's' in https and notice the padlock. These indicate a site with a secure connection.

Internet Explorer URLs

Note: Clicking on the padlock and exploring the different links and tabs will tell you more than you want to know about the data transfer encryption being used.

A Very Simple Example of EncryptionA Very Simple Example of Encryption

Everything on your computer and on the Internet consists of strings of binary digits.

I want to send you the secret message “Hi!”, and we have previously agreed to use theEncryption key below. I encrypt the message with the Key (with the Exclusive-OR operation) which produces the coded message “Bye”, which I send to you.

When you receive the message, you use the same Key and decrypt it (again with an Exclusive-OR operation) and obtain the real message, “Hi!”.

Communicating with secure sites involves a much more sophisticated procedure based on the same basic idea. The really neat stuff is how the site server and your browser can agree on the Encryption key. This utilizes even more complicated techniques using Public and Private keys and several back and forth communications.

For the Seriously Concerned

Even paranoids have enemies. Golda Meir to Henry Kissinger in 1973 when he accused her of being paranoid. (apocryphal)

You don't have to be paranoid to want to protect your privacy. Here are a few programs that you might want to consider:

● 7-zip: File archiver/compression utility with strong encryption: http://sourceforge.net/projects/sevenzip/

● CCleaner: Nice optimization program with drive wipe: https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

● Malwarebytes: Anti-malware program: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mwb-download/v2-new/

● AxCrypt: Small, simple file encryption program: http://sourceforge.net/projects/axcrypt/

● Eraser: Tool to remove sensitive data from computer: http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/

● VeraCrypt: Heavy duty encryption program: http://sourceforge.net/projects/veracrypt/

● File Vault 2 (Mac): For references on encrypting a Mac, Google: FileVault 2

● Folder Encryption Procedure on Macs: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/encrypt-mac-folder/

Be Careful with Your Smart Phone

● Consider setting a screen lock – a PIN, password, or other

● Apple Pay, Google Wallet and other purchasing options will become more common and probably use biometrics - finger prints, facial and/or voice recognition

● Some apps may be sending you GPS location data to different places. I keep GPS off unless I need it.

● Most reasonably new IPhones and Android phones allow for full encryption of the data on your phone.

– Apple plans to set this as Default on new units.

– Google backed off this approach after complaints from FBI director Comey.

Your smart phone is a computer – use it accordingly.

Social Media

Common sense things to consider:

● Be careful with names, addresses, phone numbers and other personal information about yourself and others.

● Be selective in who you allow to view your information.

● Don't advertise to the world that you are going to the Bahamas on Monday and that your house will be vacant for the next two weeks.

● Realize that posted photographs may include meta data about where and when photos were taken.

● Be sensitive of other's desire for privacy. It is inappropriate to post photos and information about other people without their permission.

● Anything you post may be difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of.

Social media can be wonderful additions to people's lives and may well be among the most popular services available on the Internet.

The Bottom Line

The internet and the capabilities it offers are absolutely amazing. We can do incredible things now that were unimaginable just a very few years ago.

”With great power comes great responsibility.” Spiderman's Uncle Ben

The web can be dangerous and as adults we should take steps to protect ourselves:

● At least use strong passwords (with a password safe) and consider using an antivirus program.

● Be cautious when downloading programs/apps and don't just automatically click on links and open email attachments.

● Before hitting the Enter key, take a few seconds and THINK!