Page 94 - CDM Cyber Warnings February 2014

Thirty years ago (January 1984), Apple Computer aired its cyber-crooks and creeps to infiltrate our devices for illicit
historic TV commercial concluding that with the introduction purposes.
of the Macintosh �you �ll see why 1984 won�t be like �1984� •GPS technologies, that allow cyber-snoops, mobile carriers and
advertisers to know exactly where we are.
Ironically, 30 years after, while Macs and other personal •Search engines and social networks that capture personal
computer gave birth to the knowledge revolution that information (who we are, who and what we like etc) and use that
transformed how information is created and shared worldwide, knowledge to target ads and sales pitches to us.
in many ways… •Malware that leaves phones and computers open to criminal
theft
2014 IS very much like �1984� of corporate data, credit card, other personally identifiable
information.
In the late 1940s, when George Orwell wrote his dystopian novel
�1984, � he warned of a future world in which �Big Brother is Faced with these threats, here are four steps that consumers and
Watching You� businesses can do to reclaim their personal privacy:

Oh brother, if only it were Big Brother watching us today� Step #1: Resolve to Retain Your Privacy
In Dec 2013, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
As the Snowden scandal and other NSA revelations have (https://www.privacyrights.org/) published an article titled
revealed government surveillance is omnipresent, covert and �Make Protecting Privacy Your 2014 New Year �s Resolution.�
practiced on a global scale that Orwell might never have This must-read blog post article identifies ten common privacy
imagined. vulnerabilities, and then shares facts and recommended action
steps.
Beyond government spying, what�s surprising is that new digital
technologies that were intended to improve how we Step #2: Practice Counterveillance
communicate have now giving others highly efficient tools to To counter surveillance activity, families and organizations
snoop and steal from others. should proactively practice counterveillance. As its name
suggests �counterveillance� (also known as countersurveillance),
In the first decade of the 21st century, through these �liberating� includes actions, processes and the use of technologies to prevent
new technologies threats to individual, family and organizational or reduce surveillance.
privacy are greater and more diverse than ever:
Gary Miliefsky, a founder of the US Department of Homeland
Security and SnoopWall (security software company) offers
these seven tips as part of a free online course on
Counterveillance:

•You are under surveillance so figure out Who� What� Where�
When� How � and Why� If it �s just the NSA, maybe that�s not so
bad, because we all are under their surveillance
•Harden yourself, your family, your home, your computing
devices, your network and do the same at the office if you work
in the IT department
•If you are under surveillance, make It challenging
•Make yourself and your data invisible
•If you can� t be invisible, get as close as you can
•If you can� t make the data Invisible, get as close as you can
•Unsecured smartphones and tablets whose open data ports •Don� t store data permanently, if you don�t need it
allow

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