What Good is Security if You Almost Give Away the Info?

I just finished a rather unsettling TED talk (00:12:00) about Stalkerware.  What is that you say?  Well it’s programs that allow someone to view everything on a device of another person.  Scary?

Well, there’s more to it and it’s just about as bad.  Watch: Stalkerware   The stalker does need to, physically, get to the device, but that’s not as hard as you think.  Watch it, I am going to continue.

One of the first things she talks about is passwords.  I have written about this before, but it bears going through again.  Even I have learned things on this very subject.

1. Use Very strong passwords for each account.
2. Use a Unique password for each account.
3. Use Secondary measures (like phones calls before allowing entry) for passwords.
4. Keep passwords Safe.

Okay, 4 steps. Number 4 should be obvious.  If you write your passwords down, hide it well.  Don’t keep a list or even type a list on your computer. This is one time when pencil and paper win.

If you type something on your computer and erase it, people can still get it back in most cases.

Now, there are 2 things I hear over and over about passwords:  1.  People use the same password on multiple accounts.  2. People don’t want to take the time or energy to make unique strong passwords.  There is also the matter of changing your passwords every 30 days.  At least, make sure you change them several times a year and that they are strong each time.

Now, making a strong password is time consuming and hard work – I think that getting all of your information stolen and your accounts broken into will make MORE work!

A strong password:

1. 12 or more characters
2. Don’t repeat a password – EVER!
3. Don’t pick something simple.  Somewhere they did a study and found that a big percentage of system Admins had the password God1234 as their password!
4. Don’t follow a pattern that is easily figured out.  test1234TEST is 12 non=-repeating characters, bad choice!
5. Make certain to use  at least 1 Capital Letter, 1 Lower-case Letter, 1 Number, 1 special symbol (like (,),!,#,$,%,,<,>).
6. Dont’ use names, dates, or words for passwords unless you really mix it up (see below).
7. Remember this:  NO password or device is entirely unbreakable.  If they want to get in, they can.  Your job is too make it difficult enough that they don’t want to bother.

So, an example:

Take the words and page number from a book.     “Sally and Henry talked all night.”  page 175

Now, use every other letter and number.    “SlynHnyakdlngt7”

Now, change some letters to Numbers “51nHnyakd1ngt7”

Now, alternate Capitals / Lower-cases.  “51nHnYkD1nGt7”

Change 1 number and 1 letter to 2 specials.   “5#nHnYkD1*Gt7”

Now, take odds and evens and write them separately.   “5nnk1G7” and “#HYD*t”

Last step, write them both backwards and put together:    “7G1knn5” and “t*DYH#”  —>  7G1knn5t*DYH#

That is a good strong Password!

Thanks for your time.  I hope I helped.  I know it is hard.  I have approximately 37 accounts and each has a password this difficult or better.

A word on secondary securities.  Anyone may be able to guess security answers if you use ones a lot of people (say, Facebook) know.

So, I get around this as follows:  Example.  “Name of City You were born in?”  Answer: 137

Don’t use the real answer or anything close to it.  “School you graduated from”  Elvis Presley

Get the idea? Thought you would.  I, actually, set one up on a site with some help from the “security” person.

“The Name of your Sister”   Answer I gave (example):  Indianapolis

Her response was: “well, that’s not a correct answer!”    Duh?

Just think of what any account could do to you or cost you.  Definitely worth the time and trouble.

Namaste,

Scott

Remake the Internet – A Good Thing for Everyone!

If anything needs to go viral this year, it is the buildup and last 1/2 of this talk!!!

I Didn’t Know!

Mark Twain stated, “I was glad to answer the man quickly.  I said, ‘I do not know.'”  I will claim ignorance here, but I should not be able to.  To say, “I didn’t know” is to admit some stupidity concerning an issue that all my training, all my studies should have led me to, at least, know exist.

What the heck am I talking about?  I was doing some casual research on the net.  Just bumming around, looking at stuff and I decided to check out something that I was tagged in on Facebook.  It was a short clip on “Anarchy” and what it really means.  Well, that led to this and to that.  Then, after about an hour and a half, I found a 2 hour clip on Aaron Swartz.  I had heard the name, but I honestly did not know who he was or why I should know.  Do you?  Well, if you don’t, here’s your chance.  If you do and haven’t see this 2 hour clip, here’s your chance.  I was pretty much spellbound.  I was watching it thinking one thing and then it took off somewhere dark and I thought, “Wow!  What is this?”  Glad I watched.  Here’s to the rest of you.  Don’t care?  Fine, your loss.  Don’t watch.

Last chance…

Namaste,

Scott

A Chance to Watch … the best?

Source: Google Image search with license for reuse. Click on pic for page.

I love moving around the Internet finding all kinds of things most people miss.  Once in awhile, I even find something a lot of people will probably like, but may not get to see.  I found this one, which is 25 short Internet films you can watch.

25 Great Online Films

Now, I have only watched the 1st one, so I will only vouch for it.   Here is a quote about it:

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“A tale like no other and a film like no other. As odd as it first appears to be of director and animator Wladyslaw Starewicz using real dead insects as his puppets to be filmed stop motion style it is actually a brilliant idea and do not know why it has not been repeated. The effect is marvelous and very life like.
Read more at http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2014/25-of-the-best-short-films-you-can-watch-online/#B3ZBjqmklzUCRUBe.99 “

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“The Revenge of the Cameraman” ca 1912.  The bolding above is mine.  At least, watch this one.  It’s not a complete waste of 14 minutes of your life.  It is fascinating to think of it being made with real insects and that long ago!

If you watch any of the others, please comment below so we all can benefit.  I intend to watch them all eventually.

Namaste,

Scott

We have Come How Far in How Long?

The article below is referenced so that I didn’t use an unlicensed picture.  You don’t need to read it all, but do look at the picture near the end of the article.

Social Media history – histograph included.

I was 11 years old in 1969 when computer communication, basically, started.  That means I was alive and old enough to understand all of what has happened in the last 44 years to now.  Just think!  In less than 50 years, we have gone from specific communication between a few college and military computers to what we have now.  Also, in 1969 it was all text, no pictures.  I remember that when you wanted to see a picture, you had to download the binary code (all 1s and 0s), pages of it, then run a program to turn those numbers into a picture.  It also could take 15 minutes or longer for one picture!  The worst part, in my opinion, was that, often, you would lose the connection for a second and had to start all over (no recovery).  Also, a picture back then was around 200k as opposed to 2-3MB now.  So, the pictures you can get now in just a few seconds are about 10 times more pixels than the ones that took 15 minutes or longer then.

Then look!  The World Wide Web (the basic Internet for the longest time) was public in 1991.  That’s only 22 years ago!

The Internet had 2.6 million users in 1990 and 70 million users in only 9 more years!  We have exploded in the world of computer technology and communication.  As of last year, there were 2 Billion users on computers and 6 Billion mobile subscriptions.  Let’s not even get into how the phone has changed:  party lines when I was a kid to cell phones everywhere with cameras and GPS.

Anyone who doesn’t believe in miracles, isn’t looking very hard.  We have gone from pre-school to post Doctorate in computer communication.  It is a lot of fun and games now.  It was fairly serious back then.  Games were all text-based and were written by college people and professors and such.  The idea that kids would be programming mods on video games was unheard of; in fact, the idea of an actual video game was kind of weird then, too.

So, when someone over 45 asks how you “youngsters” keep up the pace – stop responding with “what pace?”  To us, there is a definite pace.

How do you feel about the speed of evolution in technology and communication?

Other posts to reference:

Formatting Our Lives

Severed From Everything

Being on Speed

Namaste,

Scott