Insider attacks, cell-site simulators, SIM-swap attacks, thriving markets in super-cheap, fine-grained location data, robocalls, fictitious coverage maps, and more: does the fact that all this terrible shit keeps happening, and only gets worse, mean that mobile companies and the FCC just don’t give a fuck if your mobile phone is a crime wave you carry around with you on your pocket?
Tag: Security
Three weeks ago I received a very flattering email from the University of Cambridge, asking me to judge the Adam Smith Prize for Economics:
As the creator of TAGS privacy and surveillance often sit at the back on my mind. From the beginning TAGS was designed to help show people the amount of data we personally share and how easy it is for anyone to access. We all know that technology is not neutral and whilst there is a long list of people using TAGS for positive purposes by its nature there are some who turn to the darkside.
In a keynote for Domains19, Martin Hawksey takes a look at privacy and security. He shares a number of experiments (Domain Invaders and They Live) designed to highlight what is possible. It is interesting to consider all this alongside Kin Lane’s sentinelization of APIs. I wonder if it is about being informed?
Virtual private networks are now a must-have privacy tool. But good luck figuring out which ones will actually make you safer.
Will Oremus explores the world VPNs. He explains the differences between free and paid subscriptions, as well as who owns the company and why it is not always possible to know.
Marginalia
One of the only definitive takeaways, besides “steer clear of free VPNs,” is that your choice of VPN should depend on what you’re using it for. If you’re just trying to stay safe online, it may make sense to steer toward a larger, U.S.-based company that’s clear about both who owns it and how it treats your data. If your goal is to torrent pirated files, view blocked content, assassinate an ambassador, or otherwise evade the long arm of your government (or the governments it shares intelligence with), one based offshore might be a better bet—provided you’re quite sure it doesn’t have secret ties to the government you’re trying to evade.
via Ian O’Byrne
Want to know the reasons why a WordPress site gets hacked? Check out the top reasons why WordPress sites get hacked and how to avoid them.
So if you’re looking for an alternative to the phone number, start with something more easily replaceable. Hardjono suggests, for example, that smartphones could generate unique identifiers by combing a user’s phone number and the IMEI device ID number assigned to every smartphone. That number would be valid for the life of the device, and would naturally change whenever you got a new phone. If you needed to change it for whatever reason, you could do so with relative ease. Under that system, you could continue to give out their phone number without worrying about what else it might affect.
We took a hacker to a café and, in 20 minutes, he knew where everyone else was born, what schools they attended, and the last five things they googled
Mr Robot in real life?
I’ve talked about two factor authentication (2FA) in the past. Basically when you log in to a site/service, you need to give another proof of identity. In this case, you would insert the USB stick, or click the bluetooth sensor on your keychain.
This reminds me, I got given a Kubikey and never got around to setting everything up.
These technologies provide amazing opportunities to provide real services to our lives. I experienced this first hand as we enjoyed our time in this road race, and will look forward to the next one together. I was impressed by the use of technology as I was interacting with these sources and signals. At the same time, I was still plagued by a number of questions as I was thinking about these tools, and other possible uses. In our current and future societies, we need to examine these uses and think about how or why we use these solutions.
Ian O’Byrne reflects on the use of ChronoTrack B-Tags consisting of two stickers that contain RFID antennas to track participants in a fun run. This is used to monitor participants, but also connect them with commercial opportunities. Along with facial recognition and smart badges, this is another example of the continual evolution of the surveillance state.