Tag: privacy

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Burying the survivors

A flight leaves Heathrow at 13:00 on route to Paris, on the way it experiences fatal engine failure and crashes in the Channel. The flight carries 120 passengers 20 in first class.

How many survivors will be buried on the French side and how many in the English side?

 Question the question

It’s interesting to observe how people communicate differently on personal matters depending on the device and method.  There are so many factors that impact the sender’s mental state and tone of the message (personal or work device, signed or unsigned, the speed of transport (instant or slow), public or perceived private.

Formal and personal – hard copy letter.  Shows the sender put in some thought and invested some resources (print, paper, envelope, postage and time costs) before sending and serves as hardcore historical evidence.

Formal and less personal –

email unsigned from a personal mobile device

email unsigned from work or business device

Email digitally signed on mobile device

Email from workstation

Email from laptop

Email from browsers

Many end-users actually see this as cold and heartless as “no one” emails about personal stuff anymore.

Informal and very personal

Instant messaging

WhatsApp

iMessage

VOIP phone calls

The method of choice for a vast amount of people. The user tends to speak from the heart whether angry, sad or happy.  Data is sent with no regard of security levels and assumptive privacy.

Consequences can be catastrophic or a euphoric high.

  • I Love you by email = Low euphoria
  • I Love you by Instant messaging = High euphoria
  • I Love you by letter = High euphoria

Choose your method wisely

 

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f0rbiDd@n Scientist

I always wanted to mess with chemicals, a scientist spending my day experimenting and hunting for clues.  I was terrible at school though, never paid attention to the teacher and missed out on any opportunity to spend time in the laboratory.  I was “informally” excluded at 16 and that was that.

Now that I’m old and ugly enough nothing can stop me.

Here’s one of the lab kits I really wanted at school over 37 years ago…where would I be now?

Finding hidden figure prints
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Beefing up privacy and controls

The mandatory system update 5.0 for PS4 rolled out a number of new features included better user control over child accounts. It seems much easier to monitor your child’s gaming activity now.

In the meantime, Uber announce “more information about how you can control what we collect and how we use your data, including location information .”

These are all common sense issues that are now only being implemented because of mass dissatisfaction from user groups, a bit like 2-factor authentication being deployed after a breach.

It’s about time

the meantime, I added two new titles to my Games Library. The award-winning Metal Gear Solid V and a horror set named Amnesia: Collection, which contains both The Dark Descent and A Machine for Pigs. Both titles are free to PlayStation Plus subscribers and make the membership fee actually financially viable for the year.

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN

I have followed many multiplayer sessions of Metal Gear Solid over the past 24 months but actually playing it was epic and jaw-dropping. Amnesia had a weird notice at the being of the game.

“Do not play this game to Win”

Amnesia Collection – Scary Stuff

What the bleep bleep?

Anyhow, the two titles will get moderate attention from me after the Star Wars Beta session this weekend.

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So you think you’ve been hacked

As an individual, where do you turn if you think you’ve been breached and your antivirus software tells you nothing?

Your Internet Service providers? Your bank?
Your email provider?
The techie friend of a friend who can find a job in the industry?
Your insurance company?
Your IT department at work?

…or your friendly neighbourhood CISSP® – Certified Information Systems Security Professional.

Generally, though, it’s down to you and Google to figure it out.

Take your life offline if you get hacked.

In the meantime, you stumble around telling friends you’ve been hacked or that your tech is crap.

Naturally, social media is a massive help to find out if someone else has the same problem.  In my experience, the emotional pressure is one of the biggest issues.  Feelings of WTF and “why are they doing this to me” cloud your judgement and objectivity.

Don’t be a victim, be a warrior. Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
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Brutal CIA problems

Trying to get the right balance of Data Confidently, Integrity and Availability is really tough and ever changing.

Any taxi app will need your GPS data to locate you but does that app need to know your ever move ALL the time?

That taxi app now knows when you wake up, go to bed and how often you go to the bottom of your garden. You give this data away for free.  Apps like Uber give the end-user an all or nothing solution knowing very well that users cannot be bother to turn off location services or throw on a VPN when they don’t need a taxi.

Data CIA status is like catching butterflies, it can be done but it’s bloody difficult and requires resilience, tactics and skill.

Your taxi watches you globally
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Mr. Do! Walking away from the Internet, Intranet, Extranet, Deep Web and DarkWeb

One of my heart’s desires is to walk away from internet connected technologies.

Every day after school in the 80’s

Sounds like career suicide for an Information Security Professional and a little hard to see how I could ever untangle my encrypted connections. My thoughts go back to my first glimpse into tech, as a kid, into Mr. Do! , one day after leaving Bakers Arms, Leyton, East London and heading to E10 7LS.

Arcade folk who didn’t even know my name would eventually call me Mr. Do! because I was always hitting high scores. I had worked out the routines and backdoors.

Who knew my backdoor talents would bury itself so deep into my Digital DNA.

Anyhow the irony of posting something like this on a blog is evident so don’t go there, Sherlock.

I’ve had a touch of the off-line life and I know I can thrive there, especially using a different part of my brain but for now, I’m on it 15-18 hours a day Work, Family, Love and Play.