Google Privacy Changes—good, bad, or ho hum?

Notes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Material also featured in WBTV's segment Protecting Your Cyberturf, featuring Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton.

 

Google’s new privacy rules means my data is more private, right?

Google announced recently that they were making it easier for you to understand their privacy policies.  But is it easier to understand and do we have more or less privacy?  Many of you are not sure what to think about how Google treats your information.   

Google has not rolled the new changes in yet but will do so on March 1st.  They said they are eliminating 70 different privacy documents and creating one document across all of their services.   Sounds great, doesn’t it?  How many of you read all 70 documents?  Theresa Payton talks about what she likes about the changes and where she has some concerns.

Why this is a concern.  
1.  There is no obvious “opt out” feature
2.  Cybercriminals will have a new target - trying to tap into the aggregated data
3.  Privacy experts warn that the more they know about you could play into the online offers you receive or don’t receive which would be discrimination

8 TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF:
1.  Don’t use Google for everything.  Try out different search engines, browsers, and services.
2.  You can opt out of services like personalized ads by going to your main Google account.
3.  Check your web browser to see if you can block ad cookies and plug ins.  Chrome and the newest version of Firefox help you do this.
4.  If Google Streetview really gives you the creeps, go to their website at http://maps.google.com/intl/en_us/help/maps/streetview/privacy.html and asked for the picture to be blurred through their “Report a Problem” option.
5.  Google allows you to decide what it tracks using its feature called Web History Controls at https://www.google.com/history/?hl=en
6.  You can prevent chat sessions from being logged by Google by choosing their “off the record” options.  Tips on how to do this are at http://support.google.com/talk/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=29291
7.  Choose one browser to open your Google products and a different browser with private browsing turned on for your other products.  This will limit some, but not all, of the tracking.
8.  Go to Google’s dashboard to get a complete view of who Google thinks you are by your internet habits when you use their products at https://www.google.com/dashboard


WORD OF THE WEEK:   Kelihos
The Kelihos botnet was temporarily shut down by companies, Microsoft and Kaspersky, but it’s back on the prowl looking for new targets.  At it’s hey day, it was sending 4 billion spam messages a day luring in computer users with pornography, stock tips, and cheap prescription drugs.  



WEB RESOURCES:
To learn more about the new policy, Google has posted information that you can reference at
www.google.com/privacy_center

Shed Pounds Without Adding Unwanted Spam

Notes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Material also featured in WBTV's segment Protecting Your Cyberturf, featuring Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton.

Most Americans want to be fit and healthy and some of you are watching your weight.  So, when  your friend posts a note about a diet that is working for them on Facebook, of course you are going to cheer them on and you might even want to know what’s their secret.  But there’s a catch, it is possible that your friend did not post that note at all.   

Be careful out there, lots of scams floating around.  Some offer free airline tickets.  Some are pretty obvious.  This one might not be as obvious. Theresa Payton explains what to look for in this tricky adds that might help you shed pounds but you’ll pack on the spam.

Tips:
1.  Antivirus:  Keep your antivirus up to date.  
2.  Browser:  Check your browser settings to see if you can turn on an alert function for websites that might be considered questionable or dangerous to visit.
4.  Don’t click!:  Resist the temptation to click on links in Facebook -  message your friend first to ask more or do research on your own without clicking that link
5.  Alert:  If you see something that looks like a scam, do everyone a favor, and post a message on that person’s wall so they can remove it and others can be spared the hassle of getting infected
6.  Be Aware:  There are some great Facebook pages that keep up with the latest scams.  Two favorites are Facecrooks and Sophos.  Scan these regularly or when you see a tempting link.

WORD OF THE WEEK:
Digerati:  Chances are you might be one of these or want to be.  The term is a mashup of literati and digital.   It refers to the hip, cool, in the know people in the digital world.


WEB RESOURCES:
To keep up on the latest Facebook scams, check out Facecrooks at https://www.facebook.com/Facecrooks or Sophos at  https://www.facebook.com/SophosSecurity .

Facebook also has a safety page at: https://www.facebook.com/help/safety and a security page at:  https://www.facebook.com/security that also offers tips to spot and avoid scams.

Theresa Payton Named One of Charlotte Business Leader's 2012 Top 50 Entrepreneurs

Congratulations to Fortalice founder, Theresa Payton, for being  selected for Business Leader’s 2012 Top 50 Entrepreneur Award!  Her profile will be included in the February issue of Business Leader magazine among all the Top 50 Entrepreneurs winners.  She will also will be honored at an award ceremony held on Tuesday February 21, 2012. More details to come!

Ashton Kutcher Fights Back After His Social Media Account Is Hacked…But Should You?

Ashton Kutcher’s Foursquare and Twitter accounts hacked.  Learn what not to do if this happens to you.

It would be tempting wouldn’t it?  If someone took over your social media accounts, tweeted embarassing posts and when you finally get your accounts back from them you threaten them on the very accounts they just hacked.   

We all have friends who get their accounts hacked, have to get their passwords reset, and hope that nobody clicks on the crazy links sent by the hackers.  This gets even crazier when big names, like Ashton Kutcher, have their accounts hacked into.  Ashton has roughly 9 million followers that are bound to click on the bad links.  But taking matters into your own hands and fighting back on your own account might sound like sweet revenge but Cyber Expert Theresa Payton thinks that’s not such a good idea...

THE BIZARRE POSTS:
The hackers posted tweets about a sleepover that Ashton had with his new girlfriend and included links to her house.  The problem is, it wasn’t Ashton, it was the hacker going through Ashton’s Foursquare account to Twitter.

Kutcher then posts to Twitter that he knows the account was hacked and that he knows their address!

Kutcher has since deleted the posts including one that said, “I’m coming for you my friend” and posts a location

TIPS:
1.  Don’t do this.  You will antagonize the hacker.  Remember, if you do check ins or tweets with location turned on, the hacker knows where you’ve been and can probably predict where you will be.
2.  Report it immediately to your social networking site.  Change every password you have and make them all different across your accounts.
3.  Send out a notice to all your followers, friends, and family that your account was recently taken over and to be wary of links on posts.  

WORD OF THE WEEK:
DOODLE:  This is cool little scheduling app.  There is a free service and a paid service.  Having a tough time scheduling that carpool?  Trying to get a lunch pulled together?  This allows you to send a targeted email, suggested times, and people pick and choose what works.  You get one view of what works best for everyone. No more emails back and forth.  Again, be careful how much you share.  Confidential meetings should be handled the old fashioned way - phone calls!



WEB RESOURCES:

Our word of the week, Doodle, can be found at:  http://doodle.com/

If your Twitter account is hacked, Twitter has helpful resources at:

http://support.twitter.com/articles/31796

For some pictures of the Tweets (you can’t find them on Twitter because they were deleted!) go to Graham Cluley’s webpage at Sophos:
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/01/16/ashton-kutcher-foursquare-twitter-hack/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+nakedsecurity+(Naked+Security+-+Sophos)&utm_content=Google+Reader

What is SOPA and why should we be concerned?

Websites went dark on the internet. So many, that you might have been wondering if there was a widespread outage.  But it was on purpose.  Web sites around the globe took themselves offline for 24 hours to protest two U.S. bills being proposed on Capitol Hill.  These bills are designed to stop piracy which sounds like a great idea.  So, what are these websites upset about and why should you be concerned?  

SOPA and PIPA might sound like cute characters from a cartoon but they are actually the acronyms for the laws being proposed in DC.  SOPA - STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT and PIPA Protect IP Act.  These bills are so controversial that Wikipedia, WordPress, Google and many others either took themselves offline or changed their sites to show their protests of the bill.  They say these bills are too far reaching and would actually take the legitimate sites that you know and love offline.  Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains what the fuss is all about.

WHAT ARE THESE BILLS MEANT TO DO?
1.  Media companies, music companies, anyone who develops products want a better way to fight piracy.  Today, they sue individual users or work with the U.S. government officials to try to shut down domains.  This gets almost impossible to do with the internet pirates are overseas.

2.  SOPA which is the House Bill and PIPA which is the Senate bill are aimed mainly at foreign web sites that have printed copyrighted or counterfeited materials or goods illegally.

An example of a site considered an online treasure for pirated information is “The Pirate Bay” .

SOME HAVE VOICED CONCERNS:
1.  Shut down without a voice:  there is no appeal process before the site is shut down.  So, if sites are shut down but it was “mistaken identity” and actually a legitimate site, it could hurt the business owners
2.  Technology experts are concerned that the language in the bill could leave companies open to internet censorship as various sites, topics or services become a target
3.  Links you share on social networks and even emails might be monitored and potentially removed if it is believed to be promoting piracy or copyright infringement
4.  Sites that let the communities drive content are concerned that if the community posts something that is considered a violation that the entire site will be pulled down

WHAT SHOULD BE DONE INSTEAD?
Many internet openness advocates say, do nothing. Use the laws we already have and enforce them better.  An alternative bill called Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) has also been propose that would send any accusations of piracy to the US International Trad Commission first before taking a site offline or other actions.

WORD OF THE WEEK:
PINTEREST:  A mash up on pinboard and interests.  It’s a really cool site where you set up a profile of interests and you can pin up things that you love as well.   From wedding plans to travel tips to fitness and architecture.  It’s all there.  Just be careful how much personal information you share about yourself while you pin up your favorites!


WEB RESOURCES:
The Library of Congress has posted the text for the Bills at the following links:

SOPA:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:H.R.3261:
PIPA:  http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:S.968:

The alternative bill proposed is called OPEN>  If you want to see a draft of the bill and comment on it, go to:
http://keepthewebopen.com/

If you want to know if your elected official is sponsoring these bills, the Co-Sponsors are listed at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:HR03261:@@@P

PC World is tracking the progress of the bills at:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/248298/sopa_and_pipa_just_the_facts.html

For a graphical illustration, check out Mashable’s infographic at:  http://mashable.com/2011/11/16/sopa-infographic/

You check out the word of the week, PINTEREST at http://pinterest.com/

A Clean Sweep of Social Media Permissions!

Notes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Content also to be featured in an upcoming episode of WBTV's Protecting Your Cyberturf segment with Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton.

Managing your social life on the net can take time. You have email, Facebook, Twitter and other sites you feel like you need to come up with. That’s why a lot of you like to link your accounts together. This can be helpful but over time you may have too many apps linked or snooping on your social media life.

Who doesn’t want to simplify their life by letting their photo sharing app talk to their social media accounts so it’s one click and you share that funny photo with friends? But Cyber Expert, Theresa Payton, warns that too many apps with access to your accounts makes you more vulnerable to cybercriminals and cybercreeps.

THREE QUICK TIPS:
1. THINK TWICE: Be wary of giving permissions to other apps - you really have no idea how they treat your data or safeguard your id and password
2. MONTHLY SWEEPS: Make it a point once a month to look at each social media account and review, change or delete the permissions you have granted to apps for each social media account
3. DIFFERENT PASSWORDS: Use different passwords across your social media accounts

To make your clean sweep easier, there is a fun new tool out there, you can try out this tool at:
http://mypermissions.org/.

WORD FOR THE WEEK:
Googleganger

A play on the word, doppleganger. This is when you do a search of your own name on Google and you see people with your exact name but they are not you. This can be fun or even a little shocking depending upon what your Googleganger has been up to.

For example, Kristen Miranda! She’s not just an anchor and reporter at WBTV. There is another Kristen Miranda working in the health insurance industry! Another Kristen Miranda is attending medical school. Kristen sure has a lot of interesting Googlegangers.

WEB RESOURCES:
For a one page reference to several popular social media accounts, try My Permissions at http://mypermissions.org

To check app permissions on Facebook, go to http://www.Facebook.com/editapps.php

To check Twitter, go to https://twitter.com/settings/applications

Each Social Media account is different so be sure to check each account.

Bluetooth: Be Wary

Notes taken by: Theresa Payton, Fortalice, LLC. Also featured in WBTV's Protecting Your Cyberturf segment featuring Kristen Miranda and Theresa Payton.

Many of us use and love Bluetooth technology. You can use it to send a document

from your laptop to a printer in another room via a radio frequency. It’s easy to

set up and convenient to use! But you might want to think twice about what you

use it for because that easy connection for you can also be an easy connection for a

cybercreep. Cyber expert, Theresa Payton, explains what you need to do to

protect yourself.

THE RISKS:

1. You may be shouting out your information via your voice

2. What makes Bluetooth easy to work for you, can make it open to someone to

eavesdrop.

Have you ever been at a house where the baby monitor or the cordless phones pick

up the neighbor’s conversations? This is sort of like that.

It’s also less about your actual Bluetooth itself and the fact that many people walk

around with the Bluetooth enabled on their smartphone when they don’t use it

which means it’s open for cybercreeps to Bluetooth their way in.

When you have Bluetooth turned on but not in use, you are basically broadcasting

that your phone is on & available for other to Bluetooth to it!

HOW THEY DO IT:

A hacker can run a program on the computer that scans for Bluetooth connections.

When they find one, bingo, they connect and they are in.

WHAT THEY TYPICALLY STEAL:

What do they take? Typically things like your address book, possibly your calendar,

photos, using your phone to make long distance calls, or they may turn your phone

into an impromptu speaker and listen to your conversations.

3 TIPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF:

1. Turn your Bluetooth to “off” on devices such as your phone when not using the

Bluetooth feature

2. You can also look at your manufacturer settings to see if there is a “hidden”

or “private” mode

3. Refrain from sensitive and personal conversations using the Bluetooth device

WORD OF THE WEEK:

Snarfing: A blend of two words “snort” and “scarf” which are techie terms for

stealing data over wireless. If you snoop or steal data on a Bluetooth device it is

called Bluesnarfing

Bluetooth offers a page dedicated to security questions:

http://bluetooth.com/English/Technology/Works/Security/Pages/SecurityQA.aspx

BlackBerry users can find help on how to secure their BlueTooth connection at:

http://docs.blackberry.com/en/admin/deliverables/16648/

Protecting_Bluetooth_connections_on_a_BB_843702_11.jsp

Contact your phone service provider with any security questions you might have.