Every day, you hear about security flaws, viruses, and evil hacker gangs that could leave you destitute — or, worse, bring your country to its knees. But what’s the truth about these digital dangers? We asked computer security experts to separate the myths from the facts. Here’s what they said.
READ MORE: 9 Facts About Computer Security That Experts Wish You Knew | Gizmodo
The Cybersecurity Lab is a game designed to teach people how to keep their digital lives safe, spot cyber scams, learn the basics of coding, and defend against cyber attacks. Players assume the role of the chief technology officer of a start-up social network company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. In the game, players must complete challenges to strengthen their cyber defenses and thwart their attackers. The Lab also features stories of real-world cyber attacks, a glossary of cyber terms, and short animated videos that explain the need for cybersecurity, privacy versus security, cryptography (cyber codes), and what exactly hackers are. MORE: Cybersecurity | NOVA Labs | PBS.
[T]he Electronic Frontier Foundation EFF and Fight for the Future—offers instructions on how we can all avoid mass surveillance. But it also offers a “Privacy Pack” for the average user. Its simply a bundle of free software to help you encrypt your data and communications. You should download it right now.
Encryption doesnt require coding knowledge or math skills, but it does demand some attention and care. The Privacy Pack is a great starting point, but if you want to cover all of your bases, there are few more things you need to do. Weve put together a little guide that includes details on the software in the Privacy Pack and a little bit extra. In case youre not quite sure what encryption is or how it works, EFFs Surveillance Self-Defense site is a great place to start.
READ MORE How to Encrypt Everything | Gizmodo [Phone, Email, Browser, Everything Else]
Canadians concerned about their online privacy have a new way to find out whether their telecom provider is collecting information about them — and sharing it with third parties like government entities.
The new tool, developed by some of the countrys top privacy experts, makes it easier for Canadians to force their provider to disclose their practices.
“What were trying to do as researchers is identify what kind of data telecommunications companies in Canada collect, obtain, and process, and disclose to third parties,” said Dr. Christopher Parsons, a fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs Citizen Lab.
“But we also wanted to make it easier for Canadians individually to engage in the same sort of action.”
Known as “Access My Info,” the web tool helps create a formal letter which, under Canadian privacy law, telecom companies are legally obliged to respond to within 30 days, the website offering the tool says.
Canadians requesting the information fill out a few basic details about themselves and their telecom provider, and can do so confidentially, the website says.
Read More: Access My Info Tool Lets Telecom Subscribers Know If Theyve Been Spied On | HuffPo
Those who worry that Gmail or the National Security Agency may be rifling through their emails now have a new alternative: ProtonMail, a super-secure email service created by students from Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“It was the Snowden leaks that got us started,” ProtonMail founder and front-end developer Jason Stockman told The Huffington Post. “A lot of us at the time were working at CERN, the nuclear research facility in Switzerland, and we started hearing about all this and we really freaked out. We ended up posting on Facebook about privacy issues, and it just grew from there.”
ProtonMail’s open beta launched [Saturday May 17th], and its security measures are intense: end-to-end encryption and user authentication protocols so rigorous even the creators can’t read user emails.
Read More: These Harvard And MIT Kids Say They’ve Made NSA-Proof Email | HuffPo
Amanda Lenhart presented nine major themes from the Project’s five-report series on Teens and Online Privacy. In a talk delivered to the Family Online Safety Institute’s annual conference on November 7th, Amanda examined youth’s social media diversification and sharing practices, privacy choices, and the ways that youth concepts of privacy differ from adults.
The anonymity software has sparked controversy but who built it, what is it used for, what browser does it use – and why is the NSA so worried by it?
Read: What is Tor? A beginner’s guide to the privacy tool | Technology | theguardian.com.
The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares details of recent and ongoing research — including a project that shows how easy it is to match a photograph of a stranger with their sensitive personal information.What motivates you to share your personal information online? Alessandro Acquisti studies the behavioral economics of privacy and information security in social networks.
via Alessandro Acquisti: Why privacy matters | Video on TED.com.
Facebook is giving its teenage users a public voice on the platform. For the first time, beginning Wednesday, users between the ages of 13 and 17 will be able to post publicly and obtain followers of their profiles.
Previously, teens using Facebook were only able to share content with friends, friends of friends and custom groups like “family.” Now, they can choose to share posts to anyone on Facebook, just like users 18 and older.
via Facebook Lowers Age Rule to Allow Teens to Post Publicly | Mashable.
Privacy is on everyones’ minds in the U.S. since revelations about the NSA exploded. You can’t talk on the phone about some casual pot smoking anymore without your friend making the, “Hi NSA!” joke. And apparently for good reason.
So Backgroundchecks.org pulled together a bunch of sources to make a global privacy scoreboard and rank the top five best and top five worst countries in terms of government surveillance. It
‘s interesting to see how governments go about monitoring different media and why. Better luck next time Bahrain and Nigeria, but nicely done Spain.
via Which Governments Prioritize Privacy and Which Lay On the Spying?.
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