Encryption

I found some really fun articles (when browsing through PC World) about how to encrypt your data and protect your laptop. They recommend passwords, but passwords can be easily broken, so even that shouldn't be your only protection. It's a basic protection procedure, much like locking your door in your home; it's not perfect, but it's a good first step.

There are some really great backup software possibilities out there, too! They mentioned Dropbox, and that is a great way to keep some documents safe. Again, though, that's typically protected by only passwords. Some other great backup software is Carbonite and Acronis. They're both going to cloud storage data, and I have heard amazing reviews for Carbonite. Check 'em out if you're looking for backup options!

My favorite back-up plan: I have an external 2TB hard drive that I use only for my backups of all my data. Only problem is when I forget to update it, which is when the cloud backups like Carbonite and Acronis come in handy.

Anyway, I hope that you guys have fun, and you should check out these articles!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025462/how-to-encrypt-almost-anything.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025897/a-road-warriors-guide-to-locking-down-your-laptop.html

Zombies

Yes, zombies. We all love them (and if you don't, you still know the hype). But there's a different type of zombie - that a really great article pointed out to me - that we should all be aware of. These are "Zombie Accounts". This article pointed out how many of use create accounts, or link websites/applications, that has access to a lot of personal information. We all try to be safe, but I think we tend to forget about these accounts and that they exist. The author of the article used MySpace as an example, and how he doesn't use it anymore but it still has a lot of information about him stored in it.

I love these types of articles where it's reminding us of different ways we can improve on securing our information. There are a lot of obvious ways that most of us don't seem to realize, and it's good to keep up on how to protect yourself. This particular article is an easy and great read, and the comments after the article are also worth reading. As one comment mentioned, all we need now is a program to help us find all of our lost and zombified accounts!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2026090/how-to-prevent-zombie-accounts-from-haunting-your-digital-identity.html

The Java Problem

It's been a little while since the zero-day exploit, but I decided to look up some articles about it now that Oracle has released an update. There were two vulnerabilities that created the opportunity for the exploitation, and Oracle released an update fixing only one of them. If attackers can find another vulnerability  then we are right back where we started. There is always the opportunity for more threats, so while it should be safe for users to have an updated Java (Java 7 Update 11), I have continued to leave my Java browser plug-ins disabled on my computer. I'd prefer to be a safe than sorry.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2025797/oracles-java-patch-contains-new-holes-researchers-warn.html

Chips for Students

A school kicked out a student because she refused to wear a lanyard with an RFID-chip student ID. Her reasons for it aren't really what caught my attention. What struck me curious is that these chips are associated with their Social Security number, and it monitors the students' movements all across campus. While I'm all for incorporating technology into our lives, this seems very "Big Brother"-esque. It also seems that the more personal information you have linked to the chip, the more chance there is that it could be compromised. I understand why the schools want to track the movements of the students - to get funding for the school - but it's also very invasive, in my opinion. I like my privacy, and I wouldn't want my movements being tracked everywhere.

So in hopes that someone else besides me notices how invasive this has the potential of being, I will hope for The Doctor to come and stop this (we have a Whovian over here!).

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/01/school-kicks-out-sophomore-in-rfid-student-id-flap/
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/11/student-suspension/

Facebook & Twitter!

Fun news! There are some filter-type software and monitoring programs for Facebook and Twitter! They will monitor and alert you to any malicious activity, such as when your friends' updates are spam and scams and what-not. There's also programs now to help monitor your child's Facebook and Twitter accounts to make sure that they are posting appropriate content (if you are a parent).

These seemed to point out to me that the attacks really can originate from anywhere, including your social networking sites. It's also a good reminder that you shouldn't put all of your information ("overshare" was the term they used in the article) up on your profiles, as some of it may be critical and can open your accounts to a higher chance of being compromised. One of those friendly articles that reminds you of how dangerous the internet really can be, and yet how wonderful and useful it is, too.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2010916/lock-down-your-social-media-with-essential-security-add-ons.html

The FBI should have hackers?

I was reading through wired.com today, originally I was working on another assignment for a different class, and I saw the article "The FBI Needs Hackers, Not Backdoors". It caught my attention, so I decided to read through it.

The FBI is saying that there should be "mandatory wiretap backdoors" in all of our new technological devices such as smart phones, tablets, etc. According to the article, "For the last few years, the FBI’s been warning that its surveillance capabilities are "going dark," because internet communications technologies — including devices that connect to the internet — are getting too difficult to intercept with current law enforcement tools". However, what the authors' of the article suggested is that the FBI should use the vulnerabilities that are in place already instead of creating new vulnerabilities with a mandatory backdoor. AKA the FBI should get better at hacking - or they should hire hackers - to solve their problem. There's a lot more information contained within the article regarding it, and you can find it here: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/01/wiretap-backdoors/

Happy reading!

Security of IS and What It Means to Me...

I needed to start a journal for my Security of Business Information Systems class, so I decided a blog would be appropriate for me. Now that I've attended class, here's some clips of what I thought about the subject during the first day, near the beginning, during, and after it finished (bottom to top):

Then I got my textbook, I read through the chapters, and I absolutely love it. I even took a picture of my "textbook" (it doesn't feel like a textbook to me) the day that I started reading it:

I love this subject, and I'm so excited to learn more. It's taken me a little bit to get this journal/blog up and going, but I'm aiming to post on Tuesdays and Thursdays about security and news articles and any of my thoughts regarding it. I loved learning about the different types of attacks (malware and everything else) that can happen to a computer, and I am looking forward to learning how to protect it better. I haven't felt this excited about a subject in a long time... and I think that this may be the start of something really good. Maybe the start of what I want to focus on, even, during my career. We'll see how the semester goes, but - as it is - I am so excited/passionate about this class, and I want to learn as much as I can during it. So until my next awesome post... have a great day!