Security, Privacy: Knowing the Risks and Having a Healy Skepticism is Your Best Protection

Security, Privacy: Knowing the Risks and Having a Healthy Skepticism is Your Best Protection posted: 12/06/2016

by Andy Marken

Lieutenant Dan got me invested in some kind of fruit company [Apple computer]. So then I got a call from him, saying we don't have to worry about money no more. And I said, that's good! One less thing.

The biggest problems of today's technology privacy, security - communications, understanding.

Or to say it a little differently privacy and security are an illusion in today's world!

But then, I've learned how to protect myself.

Protection - Government bodies and agencies around the globe rush to reassure you that they want to provide citizens with the best cybersecurity possible and protect their privacy. But the best protection is using proven tools, a healthy skepticism and commonsense regarding your online movements and activities.

No it doesn't do any good.

But it makes you feel good as long as you don't think about it too much.

Computers - then tablets and mobile phones - were initially designed without thinking they would communicate.

Communications were designed without thinking there would be rogue users.

Then Vint Cerf and the crew developed the Internet back in the 60s to provide robust, fault-tolerant communication via computer networks between scientists and engineers.

At the outset, it was built to be free, open, and democratic. Not air tight and controlled.

Open Flow - When the Internet and Web were developed, they were designed for fast, open communications for engineers and scientists to exchange information and ideas. It wasn't meant to be a secure and private place for your cat videos or selfies.

Then, in 1989, Tim Bernes-Lee developed the World Wide Web (WWW) and a year later, came up with a cool thing called the web browser.

In the mid- 90s, the National Science Foundation gave ARPANET (Advance Research Project Network) to the world - holes and all.

Vint (or someone) decided ARPANET wasn't a sexy enough name so it was changed to the Internet; but plugging holes and propping things up wasn't a high priority.

In other words, the Internet and Web are merely extensions of us as humans - good, bad and everything in between.

Businesses and governments don't really respect privacy because if they did, Big Data wouldn't be such a big business.

Sure, there are a lot of businesses who do respect your privacy and do not sell, loan, swap your information for someone else's information; but are the global free services, free apps, free storage and other, free stuff you use really yours?

Government officials do pontificate about personal security and hail the passage of their laws that guarantee your privacy but

Defies Logic - Software developers work very hard to develop a solution/application that does what it is supposed to do as efficiently and effectively as possible. Designing in a ready access by authorized officials also makes this access available to anyone who is nosey or has other intentions in mind.

Yes, except when government agencies around the globe want access to what's going on in the digital, virtual world and the more they have, the more they want.

We recently read that the UK's three major spy agencies have been covertly collecting personal data about British citizens en masse since the 1990s.

And do you think your government's agencies are any different?

Wanna' buy a bridge?

The Internet architecture has holes in it; and organizations and others constantly take advantage of those holes.

Just ask Sony Pictures, Target, Morgan Stanley, your bank and thousands of businesses large and small that deal with and often don't report cyber break-ins (it's bad for business).

Good vs. Evil - Program developers and IT specialists are always one step behind cyber thieves and hackers because it is almost impossible to anticipate the creative ways people devise to steal information or the greed and gullibility of the person sitting in front of the keyboard/device.

Or, think about your country's and local government systems that were built based on the lowest bid 15-20 years ago!

In addition, the Cyber infrastructure wasn't initially designed to handle chit-chat, business or the funny business of over 3B people who are connected today and it constantly teeters on the edge of collapse.

A complete redesign of computer and communication architectures could possibly lead to better security but that would require a mind-boggling investment of time, money and talent which will probably never happen because we want it now we want it free!

To partially solve the issue for customers, folks like Apple, Microsoft and others are offering encrypted services/products.

People like WhatApps, Viber and others are offering end-to-end encryption.

The elegant beauty of end-to-end encryption is that it's a remarkably powerful tool.

For example, if your company installs it for the firm and employees, not even IT administrators can see what is being passed between users as long as the software is kept current.

Cool!

All of that is being done to the total consternation of aged lawmakers and agency heads who eloquently propose personal privacy as long as they can access your stuff just in case.

Cryptography and cracking it continue to get more sophisticated.

Country spy agencies will do what they were set up to do--spy on the other guy, watch their backsides and maybe every now and then grab some of your data. It was an honest mistake, something called collateral damage.

Profitable Activity - Cyber attacks between nation states and by individuals have grown as the flow of data increases around the world. People put their business and lives online and available to people to mine. The chances of getting caught and the p

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