Helpful article on journalist protection is relevant for us all
November 10, 2016 Comments Off on Helpful article on journalist protection is relevant for us all
In the aftermath of this week’s US election, it’s worthwhile to – once again – revisit techniques to protect private information from those that have no business seeing it. Here’s a link to a very useful article from The Atlantic that might give you some ideas about how to safeguard your data. If you’re curious about other security and privacy topics that I’ve written about, here’s a shortcut to them.
Excellent article about FBI’s iPhone crack
March 30, 2016 Comments Off on Excellent article about FBI’s iPhone crack
Bruce Schneier has long been one of my favorite technology authors and bloggers. He manages to write about extremely complex topics in a very accessible way – a notably rare and highly admirable skill. His latest article explains why the secretive approach that the FBI is employing to unlock iPhones will eventually harm innocent users unless Apple is notified of the device’s vulnerability.
The problem with computer vulnerabilities is that they’re general. There’s no such thing as a vulnerability that affects only one device. If it affects one copy of an application, operating system or piece of hardware, then it affects all identical copies. A vulnerability in Windows 10, for example, affects all of us who use Windows 10. And it can be used by anyone who knows it, be they the FBI, a gang of cyber criminals, the intelligence agency of another country … anyone.
This is precisely why Apple needs to understand what’s happened. Otherwise, the next entity to break into iPhones may not be doing so in the legitimate and honorable interest of solving crime.
I read Bruce’s blog regularly, and recommend it to anyone interested in security and information protection.
Helpful, easy-to-follow instructions to assess and correct your browser’s SSL vulnerability
October 16, 2015 Comments Off on Helpful, easy-to-follow instructions to assess and correct your browser’s SSL vulnerability
SSL has long been the primary method for encrypting the communications between your browser and the websites you visit. However, for years there have been reports about potential ways for unauthorized parties to exploit SSL weaknesses and thus gain access to your ostensibly secure interactions.
The latest news is that the Diffie-Hellman key exchange algorithm (using 1024-bit primes) has been compromised. This has serious implications for the privacy of your sensitive communications, including banking, shopping, and email, to name just a few.
Fortunately, there’s a very helpful online tool that will evaluate your risk. You can find it at https://www.howsmyssl.com/
You should run this tool for each browser that you use, and take action based on what it tells you. More about that later in this post.
Here’s what I learned when I ran it on my system:
Opera (I haven’t updated this for a while, so it’s no surprise that it’s vulnerable):
Safari (Based on these results, Safari is now a no-go until I get it corrected)
Firefox (I applied the fix from the article that I’ll describe below. The results are good)
Finally, here’s Chrome. Once again, I configured this browser using the information from the article below.
So what should you do if you get a ‘Bad’ message from the How’s My SSL tool? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has published an excellent, easy-to-understand article with step-by-step instructions about how to tighten your browser security.
You’ll find it here.
Excellent article on laptop encryption
April 28, 2015 Comments Off on Excellent article on laptop encryption
Did you know that you have very few privacy rights when you cross a border (into the US or anywhere else in the world, for that matter)? I blogged about the dangers of bringing a laptop through customs a while back. Naturally, it’s a good idea to remove any sensitive information from your laptop, especially when you’re traveling. For those situations that require you to keep important data on a computer that’s at risk of being inspected (or stolen), full-disk encryption can be a lifesaver.
Operating system vendors have been doing a great job at strengthening their products, so there’s really no excuse not to take advantage of encryption. Here’s a link to an excellent article from Micah Lee on The Intercept that explains how to do this on Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
With step-by-step instructions, it’s one of the best written tutorials I’ve seen about this topic. It’s well worth your time to make the effort, but remember: don’t lose your password!
rdschneider 
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