Page 41 - Cyber Warnings December 2015

Paranoia-free living?
Snowden makes an argument that ironclad privacy should be easy.

"We should armor ourselves using systems we can rely on every day," Snowden told technologist
Lee. "This doesn't need to be an extraordinary lifestyle change. It doesn't have to be something that
is disruptive.

It should be invisible, it should be atmospheric, it should be something that happens painlessly,
effortlessly."

Snowden advocated a practical approach to opsec in which persons evaluate what threats they
face, what parts of their lives they would like to keep private and not to worry about cloaking
everything.

"You don't need to live a paranoid life, off the grid, in hiding, in the woods in Montana," said
Snowden during the interview, which was held in a hotel near Red Square.

Use a password manager
There are some basic steps Snowden advocates everyone take. In addition to the phone and
message encryption mentioned above, he also recommends people encrypt their hard drives in
case the physical object is stolen. He also says to use a password manager.

"Your credentials may be revealed because some service you stopped using in 2007 gets hacked,
and your password that you were using for that one site also works for your Gmail account,"
Snowden said.

Ad blockers as security tools
There's been a lot written recently about ad blockers. Web publishers are seeing them decimate
their display ad revenue.

Not surprisingly, Lee and Snowden have less concern for failing online ad business models than the
privacy protections that come with ad blockers.

Snowden said any sites that use Javascript or Flash to automatically launch content can be vectors
for attacks on one's machine. To him, that absolves any implied contract to look at the ads that
support the site.

"If the service provider is not working to protect the sanctity of the relationship between reader and
publisher," Snowden said, "you have not just a right but a duty to take every effort to protect
yourself in response."

Interestingly, The Intercept attempts to back up its pro-privacy stance by collecting almost no
information about its readers. Journalism researchers at the Poynter Institute say The
Intercept hasn't completely figured out a business model along these lines, but give it credit for
putting its analytics where its mouth is.

41 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – December 2015 Edition
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