How private is ‘private’?

Guest post from Simon Ellson.

Imagine a world in which a hacker is not a stranger, but rather your neighbour. Now imagine that that neighbour has spent 18 hours a day on social media sites that you are present on, to work out your passwords and answers to secret question. And now imagine that the hacker has stolen over £35,000 from you.

That is the reality of today’s world. The Telegraph this week reported a hacking story that is different from what we are accustomed to. It showed how hackers no longer need to use code to gain access to a program or account, but instead they can monitor your online activities and view your conversations to gather enough data that will help them gain entry into your account.

For me, this story, once again, raises the question of how private the setting ‘private’ really is? You see, the story mentioned shows how an individual used the content of what his neighbours are sharing online, to work out passwords to online and offline banking accounts. It indicates how an innocent status update or comment can provide others with enough data to cause you harm and once again raises the issue of how it is important to consider what you are writing before you hit enter – it’s important to remember that there are a number of different people that will be reading what you write, and not to sound cynical, but not all of them will have your best interests at heart.

And so, my top three tips for keeping yourself, your data and your possessions secure are:

  1. Ensure that the privacy settings on your accounts are up-to-date and only people that you want your data to be visible to can see what you have written.
  2. Use strong passwords, ones that others will not be able to guess. One of our security response guys has posted an interesting blog on passwords.
  3. Before hitting enter, invest a minute to review what you’ve written. Think about the information that you are sharing and what people can take from it. Also think about the connection between current and previous updates and how they can be manipulated if they are seen by the wrong pair of eyes!

August 22, 2011 | Filed Under Family Online Safety, Identity theft, Security | Leave a Comment 

It’s Not a Con – Over the Pond

Well, it’s been a blast. I’ve been working for Norton for over four years now, developing our products from PC anti-virus to full-service internet security suites with add-on features like family safety and safe search, and now we’re moving on again, into mobile computing protection. And as Norton moves on, so do I, to head up the mobile product development team in California.

As such, my world is suddenly very busy, as we develop new applications for people to keep their smartphones and tablet computers safe from cybercriminal attack, but also work to help them manage these mini-computers, get the best performance out of them, and protect their privacy.

Therefore, I’ll be writing less and less for ItsNotaCon, as my UK colleagues take up the reins of the blog, writing about cybercrime and how it affects people in the UK, family safety and general PC protection topics. Simon Ellson, Marian Merritt and others will be keeping you abreast of security topics in the coming months.

In the meantime, a little plug from me. Why not try Norton Mobile Utilities, if you have an Android phone? This is a free application available from the Android marketplace here https://market.android.com/details?id=com.symantec.monitor&hl=en which is designed to help you get the most out of your phone. It helps you to understand what apps you have, helps you manage and back them up, as well as helping you understand exactly what impact each app is having on your phone’s performance and also your own data – many apps request a great deal of access to other functions on your phone which can be an indication of a malicious app. It also contains useful tools to help manage data and call limits, memory use and battery performance.

Have fun – I’ll be back from time to time to tell you about mobile developments, but in the meantime it’s over the pond and out!

August 8, 2011 | Filed Under Mobile, Security | Leave a Comment