In search of online privacy

[G M]

Due to the growing assaults on privacy, I am working on techniques and methods for the average user to implement that will improve your degree of privacy. KEEP IN MIND THAT NOTHING ONLINE IS SECURE.

[G M]

Brave.com

So far, I really like this browser for many reasons, the privacy element being one of them.

[Crafty_Dog]

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but I don't know where else to put it:

 Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy carried bags of evidence from the home of the suspect in the Golden State Killer case on Thursday.CreditJim Wilson/The New York Times

By Thomas Fuller
April 26, 2018

SACRAMENTO — The Golden State Killer raped and murdered victims all across the state of California in an era before Google searches and social media, a time when the police relied on shoe leather, not cellphone records or big data.

But it was technology that got him. The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by the police on Tuesday. Investigators accuse him of committing more than 50 rapes and 12 murders.

Investigators used DNA from crime scenes that had been stored all these years and plugged the genetic profile of the suspected assailant into an online genealogy database. They found distant relatives of Mr. DeAngelo’s and, despite his years of eluding the authorities, traced their DNA to to his front door.

“We found a person that was the right age and lived in this area — and that was Mr. DeAngelo,” said Steve Grippi, the assistant chief in the Sacramento district attorney’s office.



Investigators then obtained what Anne Marie Schubert, the Sacramento district attorney, called “abandoned” DNA samples from Mr. DeAngelo. “You leave your DNA in a place that is a public domain,” she said.

The test result confirmed the match to more than 10 murders in California. Ms. Schubert’s office then obtained a second sample and came back with the same positive result, matching the full DNA profile.


Those who had investigated the case for years in vain were ecstatic by the sudden breakthrough. “He was totally off the radar till just a week ago, and it was a lead they got, somehow they got information and through checking family or descendants — it was pretty complicated the way they did it — they were able to get him on the radar,” said Ray Biondi, 81, who was the lieutenant in charge of the homicide bureau of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department during the crime spree.

Representatives at 23andMe and some other gene testing services denied on Thursday that they had been involved in identifying the killer.

The big players in commercial DNA testing — including 23andMe and AncestryDNA — extract genetic profiles from the saliva that customers send to the company in a tube by mail. It would not be easy for law enforcement to upload a profile to one of those sites. Over the past few years, numerous smaller genealogical websites have emerged, however, giving customers more avenues to upload a DNA profile and search for relatives.


If law enforcement located the suspect through a genealogy site, it could raise ethical issues, particularly if individuals did not consent to having their genetic profiles searched against crime scene evidence.

The Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist, tormented his victims with sadistic rituals. Some he shot and killed with a firearm. Others were bludgeoned to death with whatever he could find — in one case a piece of firewood. He had many trademarks: He wore a mask, he bound his victims’ hands. He started by raping single women and then went on to raping married women with their husbands present, before killing them both.

Among the numerous serial killers who stalked America in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — the Zodiac Killer, the Son of Sam, to name two — the Golden State Killer was among the most notorious.

[Read our full story about the Golden State Killer.]

Ms. Schubert has been central to the efforts to find the killer. Her childhood in the Sacramento suburb of Arden-Arcade, just miles from where the suspect prowled through houses and raped women, was marked by the terror of wondering if she or people she knew might be next.


‘A Needle in a Haystack’

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested at a home in Citrus Heights, Calif. The so-called Golden State Killer is thought to have killed 12 people, raped at least 45 people and burglarized more than 120 homes in the 1970s and ’80s.Published OnApril 25, 2018CreditImage by Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

“It wasn’t a matter of if he was coming, it was when,” Ms. Schubert said. Her parents were “not gun people,” she said, but her father bought a firearm. Her mother kept an ice pick under her pillow when she slept.

Monica Miller, who was in charge of the Sacramento F.B.I. field office from 2013 to 2017, said that when she retired, the case of the Golden State Killer was cold. She said that Ms. Schubert, “was central in leading this, convincing people this was worth pursuing.” For the people of Sacramento, she added, “it was almost an open wound. People would still talk about it. He was a phantom or a ghost in people’s minds.”

In her career as a district attorney, Ms. Schubert championed DNA technology and taught courses about cold cases, creating a unit in the Sacramento district attorney’s office to pursue them. Eighteen years ago she reached out to an investigator from Contra Costa County who specialized in the East Area Rapist, beginning a collaboration to re-energize the case.


Two years ago she convened a task force on the 40th anniversary of the attacks in the Sacramento suburbs. It was the work of that group — a collaboration with counties in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and the F.B.I. — that helped solve the case, Ms. Schubert said.

Many questions remain about the suspect. Did his family or his former colleagues have hints about his grisly past? Why did he appear to stop his spree of rapes and murders in 1986? Did he leverage his job as a police officer to elude detection?

All of these questions swirled in conversations among residents of Citrus Heights, Mr. DeAngelo’s neighborhood. They awoke on Wednesday shocked to find that their neighbor, a man who liked to tinker with his motorcycle in front of his neat beige stucco house, had been accused of being one of America’s most notorious serial rapists.

“It’s crazy — they were looking for this guy for 40 years and he was right here under our noses,” said Ashley Piorun, who lives five houses down from Mr. DeAngelo. “We were shellshocked to find out.”

This suburban neighborhood of well-kept homes, northeast of Sacramento, is a classic California housing tract of looping cul-de-sacs and towering palm trees. Ms. Piorun calls it a “quiet, sweet, boring neighborhood.”

Paul Sanchietti, another neighbor, said he had taken an interest in the case six months ago and combed through the Wikipedia entry that listed all of the grisly and sadistic crimes the Golden State Killer was accused of committing.

“Here I was looking up the guy on Wikipedia and he was five doors down,” Mr. Sanchietti said of Mr. DeAngelo.

Advertisement

From the outside, the house seemed meticulously maintained. The roof is new, the garden hose is perfectly coiled, the landscaping of sod, wood chips and decorative rocks is neat.

Mr. Sanchietti said he had nothing more than polite interactions with Mr. DeAngelo over the past two decades, but like other neighbors, he remembered Mr. DeAngelo as having a temper.

“He would get volatile,” Mr. Sanchietti said. “He would be out here tending to his car and he would get very angry. There were a lot of four letter words.”

“Every neighborhood has some strange little dude,” Mr. Sanchietti said. “But for him to be a serial murderer and rapist — that never crossed my mind.”

Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Heather Murphy contributed reporting from New York, and Adam Goldman from Washington.

[G M]

Well, I was hoping to cover vulnerabilities with viable solutions. As far as below, aside from not having relatives, there aren't many countermeasures... 

 

Not sure if this is the right thread for this, but I don't know where else to put it:

 Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy carried bags of evidence from the home of the suspect in the Golden State Killer case on Thursday.CreditJim Wilson/The New York Times

By Thomas Fuller
April 26, 2018

SACRAMENTO — The Golden State Killer raped and murdered victims all across the state of California in an era before Google searches and social media, a time when the police relied on shoe leather, not cellphone records or big data.

But it was technology that got him. The suspect, Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested by the police on Tuesday. Investigators accuse him of committing more than 50 rapes and 12 murders.

Investigators used DNA from crime scenes that had been stored all these years and plugged the genetic profile of the suspected assailant into an online genealogy database. They found distant relatives of Mr. DeAngelo’s and, despite his years of eluding the authorities, traced their DNA to to his front door.

“We found a person that was the right age and lived in this area — and that was Mr. DeAngelo,” said Steve Grippi, the assistant chief in the Sacramento district attorney’s office.



Investigators then obtained what Anne Marie Schubert, the Sacramento district attorney, called “abandoned” DNA samples from Mr. DeAngelo. “You leave your DNA in a place that is a public domain,” she said.

The test result confirmed the match to more than 10 murders in California. Ms. Schubert’s office then obtained a second sample and came back with the same positive result, matching the full DNA profile.


Those who had investigated the case for years in vain were ecstatic by the sudden breakthrough. “He was totally off the radar till just a week ago, and it was a lead they got, somehow they got information and through checking family or descendants — it was pretty complicated the way they did it — they were able to get him on the radar,” said Ray Biondi, 81, who was the lieutenant in charge of the homicide bureau of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department during the crime spree.

Representatives at 23andMe and some other gene testing services denied on Thursday that they had been involved in identifying the killer.

The big players in commercial DNA testing — including 23andMe and AncestryDNA — extract genetic profiles from the saliva that customers send to the company in a tube by mail. It would not be easy for law enforcement to upload a profile to one of those sites. Over the past few years, numerous smaller genealogical websites have emerged, however, giving customers more avenues to upload a DNA profile and search for relatives.


If law enforcement located the suspect through a genealogy site, it could raise ethical issues, particularly if individuals did not consent to having their genetic profiles searched against crime scene evidence.

The Golden State Killer, also known as the East Area Rapist, tormented his victims with sadistic rituals. Some he shot and killed with a firearm. Others were bludgeoned to death with whatever he could find — in one case a piece of firewood. He had many trademarks: He wore a mask, he bound his victims’ hands. He started by raping single women and then went on to raping married women with their husbands present, before killing them both.

Among the numerous serial killers who stalked America in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — the Zodiac Killer, the Son of Sam, to name two — the Golden State Killer was among the most notorious.

[Read our full story about the Golden State Killer.]

Ms. Schubert has been central to the efforts to find the killer. Her childhood in the Sacramento suburb of Arden-Arcade, just miles from where the suspect prowled through houses and raped women, was marked by the terror of wondering if she or people she knew might be next.


‘A Needle in a Haystack’

Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, was arrested at a home in Citrus Heights, Calif. The so-called Golden State Killer is thought to have killed 12 people, raped at least 45 people and burglarized more than 120 homes in the 1970s and ’80s.Published OnApril 25, 2018CreditImage by Rich Pedroncelli/Associated Press

“It wasn’t a matter of if he was coming, it was when,” Ms. Schubert said. Her parents were “not gun people,” she said, but her father bought a firearm. Her mother kept an ice pick under her pillow when she slept.

Monica Miller, who was in charge of the Sacramento F.B.I. field office from 2013 to 2017, said that when she retired, the case of the Golden State Killer was cold. She said that Ms. Schubert, “was central in leading this, convincing people this was worth pursuing.” For the people of Sacramento, she added, “it was almost an open wound. People would still talk about it. He was a phantom or a ghost in people’s minds.”

In her career as a district attorney, Ms. Schubert championed DNA technology and taught courses about cold cases, creating a unit in the Sacramento district attorney’s office to pursue them. Eighteen years ago she reached out to an investigator from Contra Costa County who specialized in the East Area Rapist, beginning a collaboration to re-energize the case.


Two years ago she convened a task force on the 40th anniversary of the attacks in the Sacramento suburbs. It was the work of that group — a collaboration with counties in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and the F.B.I. — that helped solve the case, Ms. Schubert said.

Many questions remain about the suspect. Did his family or his former colleagues have hints about his grisly past? Why did he appear to stop his spree of rapes and murders in 1986? Did he leverage his job as a police officer to elude detection?

All of these questions swirled in conversations among residents of Citrus Heights, Mr. DeAngelo’s neighborhood. They awoke on Wednesday shocked to find that their neighbor, a man who liked to tinker with his motorcycle in front of his neat beige stucco house, had been accused of being one of America’s most notorious serial rapists.

“It’s crazy — they were looking for this guy for 40 years and he was right here under our noses,” said Ashley Piorun, who lives five houses down from Mr. DeAngelo. “We were shellshocked to find out.”

This suburban neighborhood of well-kept homes, northeast of Sacramento, is a classic California housing tract of looping cul-de-sacs and towering palm trees. Ms. Piorun calls it a “quiet, sweet, boring neighborhood.”

Paul Sanchietti, another neighbor, said he had taken an interest in the case six months ago and combed through the Wikipedia entry that listed all of the grisly and sadistic crimes the Golden State Killer was accused of committing.

“Here I was looking up the guy on Wikipedia and he was five doors down,” Mr. Sanchietti said of Mr. DeAngelo.

Advertisement

From the outside, the house seemed meticulously maintained. The roof is new, the garden hose is perfectly coiled, the landscaping of sod, wood chips and decorative rocks is neat.

Mr. Sanchietti said he had nothing more than polite interactions with Mr. DeAngelo over the past two decades, but like other neighbors, he remembered Mr. DeAngelo as having a temper.

“He would get volatile,” Mr. Sanchietti said. “He would be out here tending to his car and he would get very angry. There were a lot of four letter words.”

“Every neighborhood has some strange little dude,” Mr. Sanchietti said. “But for him to be a serial murderer and rapist — that never crossed my mind.”

Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Heather Murphy contributed reporting from New York, and Adam Goldman from Washington.

[G M]

If so, WTF were you thinking?

https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/25/amazon-fixed-exploit-alexa-listen/

Amazon's Alexa is good at listening, since it has to be ready when you say its wake word, like "Alexa," "Echo" or "Computer." That very same feature, though, has people worried about their own privacy. Researchers from security firm Checkmarx have found a way to get Alexa to listen in and send a transcript of any conversations that it records while eavesdropping.

The researchers were able to create a harmless-seeming Alexa Skill that would actively record long after most Skills shut down to preserve people's privacy. Checkmarx's Amit Ashbel told CNET that it could just keep recording. "As far as we could tell, there was no limit," he said. "As long as you [didn't] tell it to stop, it wouldn't."

Checkmarx says that it notified Amazon of this exploit at the beginning of April; Amazon confirmed to CNET that it has since fixed the issue. "Customer trust is important to us and we take security and privacy seriously," a spokesperson said in a statement. "We have put mitigations in place for detecting this type of skill behavior and reject or suppress those skills when we do."

[Crafty_Dog]

Woof GM:

Where do you see the border between this thread and the Privacy/4th Amendment thread on the SC&H forum?

[G M]

Woof GM:

Where do you see the border between this thread and the Privacy/4th Amendment thread on the SC&H forum?

My idea is that I will provide a practical way to mitigate privacy threats here, rather than discuss the larger ideas that may not have immediate solutions.

[G M]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3198369/privacy/best-vpn-services-apps-reviews-buying-advice.html

[G M]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3198369/privacy/best-vpn-services-apps-reviews-buying-advice.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/08/17/543716811/turning-to-vpns-for-online-privacy-you-might-be-putting-your-data-at-risk

Although filled with the usual leftist idiocy, this article raises good points.

[Crafty_Dog]

"My idea is that I will provide a practical way to mitigate privacy threats here, rather than discuss the larger ideas that may not have immediate solutions."

This makes sense.  Good idea.

[G M]

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/what-is-remote-access-trojan

What is Remote Access Trojan? Prevention, Detection & Removal discussed

RECOMMENDED: Click here to repair Windows problems & optimize system performance
Remote Access Trojans (RAT) have always proved to be a big risk to this world when it comes to hijacking a computer or just playing a prank with a friend. A RAT is a malicious software that lets the operator attack a computer and gain unauthorized remote access to it. RATs have been here for years, and they persist as finding some RATs is a difficult task even for the modern Antivirus software out there.

In this post, we will see what is Remote Access Trojan and talks about detection & removal techniques available. It also explains, in short, some of the common RATs like CyberGate, DarkComet, Optix, Shark, Havex, ComRat, VorteX Rat, Sakula and KjW0rm.

Remote Access Trojans
Remote Access Trojan

Most of the Remote Access Trojan are downloaded in malicious emails, unauthorized programs and web links that take you nowhere. RATs are not simple like Keylogger programs – they provide the attacker with a lot of capabilities such as:

Keylogging: Your keystrokes could be monitored, and usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information could be recovered from it.
Screen Capture: Screenshots can be obtained to see what is going on your computer.
Hardware Media Capture: RATs can take access to your webcam and mic to record you and your surroundings completely violating privacy.
Administration Rights: The attacker may change any settings, modify registry values and do a lot more to your computer without your permission. RAT can provide an administrator level privileges to the attacker.
Overclocking: The attacker may increase processor speeds, overclocking the system can harm the hardware components and eventually burn them to ashes.
Other system-specific capabilities: Attacker can have access to anything on your computer, your files, passwords, chats and just anything.
How do Remote Access Trojans work
Remote Access Trojans come in a server-client configuration where the server is covertly installed on the victim PC, and the client can be used to access the victim PC through a GUI or a command interface. A link between server and client is opened on a specific port, and encrypted or plain communication can happen between the server and the client. If the network and packets sent/received are monitored properly, RATs can be identified and removed.

RAT attack Prevention
RATs make their way to computers from spam emails, maliciously programmed software or they come packed as a part of some other software or application. You must always have a good antivirus program installed on your computer that can detect and eliminate RATs. Detecting RATs is quite a difficult task as they are installed under a random name that may seem like any other common application, and so you need to have a really good Antivirus program for that.

Monitoring your network can also be a good way to detect any Trojan sending your personal data over the internet.

If you don’t use Remote Administration Tools, disable Remote Assistance connections to your computer. You will get the setting in SystemProperties > Remote tab > Uncheck Allow Remote Assistance connections to this computer option.

Keep your operating system, installed software and particularly security programs updated at all times. Also, try not to click on emails that you don’t trust and are from an unknown source. Do not download any software from sources other than its official website or mirror.

After the RAT attack
Once you know you’ve been attacked, the first step is to disconnect your system from the Internet and the Network if you are connected. Change all your passwords and other sensitive information and check if any of your accounts has been compromised using another clean computer. Check your bank accounts for any fraudulent transactions and immediately inform your bank about the Trojan in your computer. Then scan the computer for issues and seek professional help for removing the RAT. Consider closing Port 80. Use a Firewall Port Scanner to check all your Ports.

You can even try to back-track and know who was behind the attack, but you’ll need professional help for that. RATs can usually be removed once they are detected, or you can have a fresh installation of Windows to complete remove it off.

Common Remote Access Trojans
Many Remote Access Trojans are currently active now and infecting millions of devices. The most notorious ones are discussed here in this article:

Sub7: ‘Sub7’ derived by spelling NetBus (an older RAT) backward is a free remote administration tool that lets you have control over the host PC. The tool has been categorized into Trojans by security experts, and it can be potentially risky to have it on your computer.
Back Orifice: Back Orifice and its successor Back Orifice 2000 is a free tool that was originally meant for remote administration – but it didn’t take time that the tool got converted into a Remote Access Trojan. There has been a controversy that this tool is a Trojan, but developers stand upon the fact that it is a legitimate tool that provides remote administration access. The program is now identified as malware by most of the antivirus programs.
DarkComet: It is a very extensible remote administration tool with a lot of features that could be potentially used for spying. The tool also has its links with the Syrian Civil War where it is reported that the Government used this tool to spy on civilians. The tool has already been misused a lot, and the developers have stopped its further development.
sharK: It is an advanced remote administration tool. Not meant for beginners and amateur hackers. It is said to be a tool for security professionals and advanced users.
Havex: This trojan that has been extensively used against the industrial sector. It collects information including the presence of any Industrial Control System and then passes on the same information to remote websites.
Sakula: A remote access Trojan that comes in an installer of your choice. It will depict that it is installing some tool on your computer but will install the malware along with it.
KjW0rm: This Trojan comes packed with a lot of capabilities but already marked as a threat by many Antivirus tools.
These Remote Access Trojan have helped many hackers compromise millions of computers. Having protection against these tools is a must, and a good security program with an alert user is all it takes to prevent these Trojans from compromising your computer.

This post was meant to be an informative article about RATs and does not in any way promote their usage. There may be some legal laws about the usage of such tools in your country, in any case.

Read more about Remote Administration Tools here.

RECOMMENDED: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
Related Posts:

Remote Administration Tools – Emerging Threats
Enable, Disable Remote Desktop Connection in Windows 10/8.1
Remote Credential Guard protects Remote Desktop credentials in Windows 10
Trojan Attacks are on the rise! How do Trojans work?
Set up & use Windows Remote Assistance in Windows 10/8.1

Posted by AnandK@TWC on February 6, 2017 , in Category Security with Tags Malware, Remote
Anand Khanse is the Admin of TheWindowsClub.com, a 10-year Microsoft MVP Awardee in Windows (2006-16) & a Windows Insider MVP. Please read the entire post & the comments first, create a System Restore Point before making any changes to your system & be careful about any 3rd-party offers while installing freeware.

[DougMacG]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3198369/privacy/best-vpn-services-apps-reviews-buying-advice.html

It looks to me like you can use their no. 1 pick for internet privacy for 18 cents per day.  Fair enough.  You can even mail them cash, in Sweden.
https://www.mullvad.net/en/account/bitcoin/

Keep going with this thread.  Best replacement for gmail?

I am horribly addicted to and violated by google.  I like the free features and I do NOT like that I have given them and they are tracking - everything.

New announcement from Facebook about (pretend) privacy today.  Click on clear history?  I would like to clear my google history, otherwise the privacy of my new browsing, movements and communications is not very important.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/01/technology/facebook-f8-2018-zuckerberg-keynote/index.html

[G M]

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3198369/privacy/best-vpn-services-apps-reviews-buying-advice.html

It looks to me like you can use their no. 1 pick for internet privacy for 18 cents per day.  Fair enough.  You can even mail them cash, in Sweden.
https://www.mullvad.net/en/account/bitcoin/

Keep going with this thread.  Best replacement for gmail?

I am horribly addicted to and violated by google.  I like the free features and I do NOT like that I have given them and they are tracking - everything.

New announcement from Facebook about (pretend) privacy today.  Click on clear history?  I would like to clear my google history, otherwise the privacy of my new browsing, movements and communications is not very important.
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/01/technology/facebook-f8-2018-zuckerberg-keynote/index.html

At this time, I am recommending Proton Mail.

https://protonmail.com/

[G M]

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/nsa-post/

On the Goolag.

I haven't had time to really examine the techniques in the link above.

[G M]

https://spreadprivacy.com/delete-google-search-history/

If not now, when?

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.popsci.com/erase-browsing-history?CMPID=ene091318

[Crafty_Dog]

https://medium.com/@lopp/a-modest-privacy-protection-proposal-5b47631d7f4c

[Crafty_Dog]

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=998565##

[Crafty_Dog]

Report: Hizballah Hacked into Mobile Devices Worldwide
by IPT News  •  Oct 11, 2018 at 10:30 am
https://www.investigativeproject.org/7649/report-hizballah-hacked-into-mobile-devices
 Print
 Send
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Share:   

  Be the first of your friends to like this.
 
Hizballah hackers used 'catfishing' techniques on social media to infiltrate mobile devices worldwide, according to a Monday release from the Czech Security Intelligence Service (BIS), as reported by Radio Praha (Prague).

[G M]

https://www.bleachbit.org/

[Crafty_Dog]

 

[G M]

Go to frys.com

Nord VPN

Ten dollars off using the code below:

3401556

[G M]

https://www.fastcompany.com/90282668/the-one-thing-you-should-do-to-protect-your-privacy-in-2019

"Free VPN providers don’t pay for servers and bandwidth out of the goodness of their heart. Case in point: Facebook offers a “free” VPN service called Onavo–but it’s not really free. You pay for it with your browsing history. People who use Onavo send all their web traffic through Facebook’s servers, which the company then mines for data."

That is a very special kind of stupid!

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.popsci.com/erase-browsing-history?cmpid=ene20190113&utm_source=internal&utm_medium=email&cid=46517&mid=400826150

[G M]

www.privacytools.io - encryption against global mass surveillance

Take steps now to improve your privacy.

[G M]

https://mic-lock.com/

[G M]

https://www.lifewire.com/best-prepaid-cell-phone-plans-4159386

Pseudo-burner phone- A prepaid wireless phone purchased with CASH and always has additional minutes purchased with CASH and is not used in any way that would allow the owner's identity to be directly linked to the phone.

What separates a pseudo-burner from a true burner phone? Complex tradecraft, including the use of Faraday Cage type containers.

https://qz.com/736224/heres-how-to-make-a-signal-blocking-cell-phone-pouch-like-the-ones-protesters-are-using-at-the-republican-national-convention/

https://www.cnet.com/pictures/silent-pocket-faraday-phone-cases/

[G M]

“Burner phones” – George Clooney recognizes their value.

Pay-as-you-go phones (aka “burner phones”) can be purchased without the need to set up an account, so the phone will not be tied to your identity.  When someone has concerns that their smart phone may have been hacked or compromised, a good option is to pick up a burner phone to use for those phone calls that need to be kept private and confidential.  The less expensive models that are not “smart phones” will not support apps that may contain spyware. It is much cheaper and quicker than having a smart phone analyzed electronically for spyware.

George Clooney and his new wife recognized burner phones as a way to help control some of the privacy of their recent wedding.

TMZ reported the rules for wedding guests:

— Leave your cellphone in your hotel room
— If you think you may need your phone, then bring it … but leave it at a kiosk near the entrance
— All guests will be provided a burner phone with a code, which serves as a ticket to enter
— All guests will also receive a camera to take pics as they please
— HERE’S THE CATCH … The camera has a code that allows George’s people to access the photos.  So if Amal’s 3rd cousin were to give TMZ a pic of the nuptials, George could find the matching phone pic and skewer the cuz.



 

From The Register:
George Clooney, WikiLeaks’ lawyer wife hand out burner phones to wedding guests

George Clooney and his new wife – a human rights lawyer who has represented six-fingered embassy dweller Julian AssangeTM – went to extreme lengths to safeguard the privacy of their wedding, even issuing guests with “burner phones” under their control.

Guests at last weekend’s nuptials between George Clooney and top lawyer Amal Alamuddin in Venice, Italy, were reportedly given strict instructions on how to help keep images and details of the wedding festivities beyond the reach of tabloid journalists and hackers.

Clooney – who is due to direct a film about the News of the World celebrity voicemail hacking scandal – reportedly ordered wedding guests to leave their personal smartphones and tablets in their hotel rooms.
Clooney’s burner phones (brand unknown) served as a ticket for the event, celebrity gossip site TMZ reports. Guests were also given instructions on smartphone security protocols for the event, Business Insider adds.

Team Clooney were apparently nervous about photographs and other information leaking out from the poorly protected accounts of celebrity guests, a concern heightened by the iCloud celeb nudie hacking scandal.

Security veteran Graham Cluley commented: “How were George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin to know if the celebrities they had invited to their three-day wedding party hadn’t already had their accounts compromised, and might be unwittingly leaking information and snaps? But the precaution taken by the newlyweds wasn’t taken purely because of hackers, but because the couple are said to have sold the rights to the wedding photographs to a magazine

[American Vogue], in return for a charitable donation.”

[G M]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/2/17527972/gmail-app-developers-full-email-access

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-is-using-your-gmail-account-to-track-your-purchases/

A better option:

https://protonmail.com/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2018/10/31/why-i-am-switching-to-secure-protonmail-from-insecure-google-gmail/

[G M]

Kent Moyer’s Top 10 Security Recommendations for Celebrity Clients:

DO NOT hire bodyguards or “Buddyguards.” (There is a difference from Bodyguards and Executive Protection)
DO USE Encrypted e-mail with your family & C-Suite level Employees or Executives. (Protonmail.com)
DO USE vetted American Executive Protection Agents & Drivers, during international travel.
DO NOT tweet where you are going. It alerts potential bad guys of your location!
DO NOT post pictures on social media of:
Your family,
Where you live,
Where your office is, or
Locations you often frequent in.
DO NOT get any mail at your home & DO make sure no one knows where you live. (Put your home into a corporation name.)
DO have a professional security consultant perform a risk/vulnerability assessment of:
Your home,
Your office, and
Your children’s school.
DO get your personal information off of the Internet.
DO spend one hour putting together a security plan for every trip you go on.
DO create security alertness in your daily life. If you receive any threats, stalkers or inappropriate mail, get it to security professional. Have a professional security investigator resource you can go to for you and your family.

This article is first published in the April 2017 Issue of Los Angeles Confidential Magazine p. 119

[G M]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/06/22/why-has-mark-zuckerberg-taped-over-the-webcam-and-microphone-on/

[Crafty_Dog]

https://www.cnet.com/news/urme-anti-surveillance-mask-lets-you-pass-as-someone-else/?fbclid=IwAR1OmOWN_evebG1Ef9Zl79PeRKFR5PcMH_NQWM4Sv6AfuHtDcNdvCIh87jU

[G M]

https://www.cnet.com/news/urme-anti-surveillance-mask-lets-you-pass-as-someone-else/?fbclid=IwAR1OmOWN_evebG1Ef9Zl79PeRKFR5PcMH_NQWM4Sv6AfuHtDcNdvCIh87jU

I like the idea.

[G M]

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-state-sponsored-hackers-intercept-text-messages-worldwide-cyber-report_3135052.html

Solution: https://signal.org/

[Crafty_Dog]

For the tech troglodytes amongst us, what is "signal"?

[G M]

For the tech troglodytes amongst us, what is "signal"?

It's an app you should be able to get from the Apple or Android app store on your smart phone.

Look for Signal-private messenger

[Crafty_Dog]

Ah.

Does the other person need to have it as well?

[G M]

Ah.

Does the other person need to have it as well?

Only if you want the communication secured.

Actually, just tested it and I can't seem to connect to a non-Signal number. Interesting.


https://medium.com/@mshelton/signal-for-beginners-c6b44f76a1f0

[G M]

https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/security/a29789903/what-is-sms/

[Crafty_Dog]

Does the other person need to have an Iphone to use WhatsApp?

[G M]

Does the other person need to have an Iphone to use WhatsApp?

Don't use WhatsApp, use Signal. For the comms to be encrypted, both parties must use the app.

[Crafty_Dog]

"Actually, just tested it and I can't seem to connect to a non-Signal number. Interesting."

Confused , , ,

[G M]

"Actually, just tested it and I can't seem to connect to a non-Signal number. Interesting."

Confused , , ,

Signal appears to only work with other Signal users.

[G M]

https://www.zdnet.com/article/officials-warn-about-the-dangers-of-using-public-usb-charging-stations/

[Crafty_Dog]

Forwarding this to Cindy.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://ssd.eff.org/en#index

[Crafty_Dog]

second post

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/19/opinion/location-tracking-cell-phone.html?te=1&nl=the-privacy%20project&emc=edit_priv_20191219?campaign_id=122&instance_id=14661&segment_id=19721&user_id=52f016547a40edbdd6de69b8a7728bbf&regi_id=4964119320191219

[Crafty_Dog]

https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?uri=nyt://newsletter/dd461c74-4591-4333-a2f8-e142073a5134&te=1&nl=california-today&emc=edit_ca_20200103?campaign_id=49&instance_id=14938&segment_id=20022&user_id=52f016547a40edbdd6de69b8a7728bbf&regi_id=49641193_ca_20200103

[G M]

https://www.reflectacles.com/#home

I will be buying some.

[Crafty_Dog]

https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/01/14/the-fbi-has-the-tools-it-needs-to-break-into-the-iphone-and-shouldnt-ask-for-backdoors

=================================

The Case of Bill Barr vs. Apple
The AG is ignoring the important benefits to society of encryption.
By The Editorial Board
Jan. 14, 2020 7:20 pm ET

The advance of digital technology is creating new ethical challenges across society, and here we go again in the battle between law enforcement and the privacy of encrypted cell phones in a democracy.

Attorney General William Barr demanded Monday that Apple help the U.S. government unlock two iPhones in its terror investigation of the Saudi air cadet who last month killed three sailors at a Navy training base in Pensacola, Florida. “This situation perfectly illustrates why it is critical that the public be able to get access to digital evidence,” Mr. Barr said.


The AG’s implication is that Apple is withholding information critical to a government terror investigation. But then the FBI also boasted on Monday that it has been able to obtain many leads from other sources including social media, interviews and 42 terabytes of digital media. That includes a social media post by the shooter on 9/11 last year that “the countdown has started.”

Apple says it responded within hours to the FBI’s first request for data on Dec. 6, the day of the attack. It says it responded to six subsequent requests by providing information stored on its cloud servers, account information and transactional data for multiple accounts. The company says it didn't learn until Jan. 6 of a second iPhone associated with the probe, and two days after that it received a subpoena.

Apple continues to cooperate, but what it won’t do is create special software to break into an iPhone so the FBI can obtain information stored on the device. Nor will it devise a “backdoor” for law enforcement. Mr. Barr says this refusal means that Apple and other American tech companies are subordinating national security to commercial interests by refusing to assist law enforcement.

Apple is no doubt looking out for its commercial interests, and privacy is one of its selling points. But its encryption and security protections also have significant social and public benefits. Encryption has become more important as individuals store and transmit more personal information on their phones—including bank accounts and health records—amid increasing cyber-espionage.

Criminals communicate over encrypted platforms, but encryption protects all users including business executives, journalists, politicians, and dissenters in non-democratic societies. Any special key that Apple created for the U.S. government to unlock iPhones would also be exploitable by bad actors.

If American tech companies offer backdoors for U.S. law enforcement, criminals would surely switch to foreign providers. This would make it harder to obtain data stored on cloud servers. Apple says it has responded to more than 127,000 requests from U.S. law enforcement agencies over the past seven years. We doubt Huawei would be as cooperative.

Apple’s security features also make its phones more attractive to foreign customers. Requiring Apple to build vulnerabilities into its phones would make it less competitive and aid Chinese competitors like Huawei and ZTE, which the Justice Department has charged with violating U.S. sanctions.

***
In any case the FBI has apparently found a work-around to unlock encrypted phones. Four years ago the Obama Justice Department sought a court order to force Apple to unlock an iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorists. A private company eventually helped the government break in. The FBI has since paid more than $1 million to a private company to extract data from encrypted phones.

The Israeli forensics firm Cellebrite last year trumpeted a new product that would allow it to unlock and extract data from all Apple and high-end Android devices. Competition among forensic firms is making it cheaper and easier to unlock phones. The National Security Agency last year expressed concern that encryption may not be strong enough to withstand advances in quantum computing. Politicians also keep howling that tech companies don’t do enough to protect user privacy.

Mr. Barr’s job includes protecting Americans from terror attacks and criminal networks, and we sympathize with his concern that encryption could slow an investigation when minutes matter. But the answer is for Congress to work with him to forge a compromise that balances private and government interests. That’s what happened in 2018 when Congress created a process for law enforcement to obtain data stored on servers overseas.

In the meantime, Apple doesn’t deserve to be treated like a public enemy.