personal security

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So remember:
Clear your browser cookies
Use a VPN
Don't carry a cellphone
Don't drive a car

And in a few years when facial recognition software is deployed, don't have a face
 
I am glad they caught the loser.... while it may have been suicide by cop, when he started shipping bombs using a fedex store.  I hope he doesn't trigger copy cats with all the media attention.

Personal security is always a double edged sword... 

maybe we need to get cranking on mental health too.

JR
 
I'm definitely glad they caught him too - and it's hard to find the balance between personal freedom and privacy and being able to capture the wingnuts and prevent random violence.
Hopefully nobody thought I was giving advice on evading law enforcement. Just commenting along with the theme of the thread on maintaining your personal privacy. 

 
I switched to duck duck go search also ,maybe its more limited than google but it find all the sites I want to go to at any rate . I set my browser to dump everything it can on close down also ,no searchbar suggestions either.
I also use the privacy badger and with that you can lock out third party sites completely if you want ,sometimes it hampers website functionality in small ways ,but that your not getting directed to dozens of other places each time you hit a site it speeds things up a lot . Typing the full URL for any site would be a pain ,just typing 'group diy' in search brings up this place at the top of the list everytime ,Im happy enough with that . I wouldnt mind trying VPN's but Im really clueless on where to begin with it . I had a funny issue a few years ago when I was claiming a  suplementary payment from department of social welfare , in an interview I was asked twice if I had anything to do with or earned money through forestry ,funny thing was  I had a few months previous posted a pic of myself in the backgarden in working clothes sun glasses helmet with a hedge cutter on a small closed chatroom , bit of a weird co-incidence , I personally suspect the department here to be colluding with the service providers and illeagally intruding into peoples privacy, proving that could be difficult ,but certainly possible with the help of forensic IT specialist .Thats another valid point Scott made ,in that intentionally trying to avoid low level data mining ,you could end up flagging yourself to more secret government departments automatically ,those people are never going to stop listening and looking ,but of course they have to prioritise . This idea that everyones private business should be available to government in order to prevent attrocities ,your just marching yourself down the road to a police state ,the exact thing we like to point to North Korea and China and give out about .
 
They are working on facial recognition technology to incorporate into police body cameras... But I don't know that this invades anyone's privacy when in public.

JR

PS: I guess they can buy facial/name link databases from facebook.  :eek: :eek:
 
dmp said:
Evidently law enforcement is using license plate scanners throughout cities to automatically track and store the location of cars.
https://www.texasobserver.org/the-eyes-of-texas-cops-are-upon-you/
I've heard of this technology in the hands of police years ago, perhaps well over ten years ago. What's new is it's getting cheap enough for consumers to get, and here's a company offering it:
https://hypepotamus.com/companies/flock-safety/
 
The last time I was burgled was in the late 70's early 80's, but the criminals were not the sharpest sticks in the bunch. They did it while I was home (I was running my kit business from my house in CT so home all day). One miscreant knocked on my door to keep my busy, with a story about offering to paint my house, but I told him I wasn't interested (I was renting).  He seemed unusually persistent but finally got the message and walked away.

Since I was suspicious I went to my window where I could see my motorcycle parked in my open front garage. The bike was missing, so I immediately ran outside to see them finish loading it into their van and backing out of my driveway. I chased them and made a mental note of their license plate number for the police that I called immediately.

The police identified them from the plate and found my bike hidden in the woods behind one of their houses.

Of course getting my bike back from the police who held it for several months under the premise it was evidence was not trivial. I finally had to threaten them with a lawsuit for damages, due to long term storage of the bike without proper maintenance, something I made up to get them to release my property to me. It worked.  8)

The dumbass crooks ended up in the gray bar hotel.. I was subpoenaed to make me show up in court to threaten them to take a deal. It apparently worked, but none of this was shared with me, I was just used as a prop for their purposes. I read about the sentence later in the local newspaper (something like 6 months IIRC for one of them).

JR
 
That's good. I can't stand theives, lowlives, con men, tricksters... there's so many out there too. I wish I was Batman. I'd be kickin ass each and every night.
 
Hi All,

having watched this thread develop, I though I would offer some basic security hints and measures for your consideration as much as one can in a public forum.  They are mixed up with a large dose of cynicism but based on industry experience.  If you use just 2 or 3 of them, you are then above the average man in the street.

Some of the suggestions may appear to be a bit over the top - depends upon your level of suspicion and paranoia and what you consider proportionate to protect you and yours.

/paranoia  ON

Accept that you are the weakest link.  Electronics are, up to a certain point, predictable:  humans are not and can do non-predictable/impulsive things such as click on a suspect link in an e-mail without looking at the URL. 

It sound a bit obvious, but if someone ‘calls from the bank’ challenge them to prove it or call them back on a number that you know is valid.

Keep information about yourself to yourself.  Data fusion by the likes of Google and Facebook has enormous power that has been known about for years but ignored until the latest debacle with Cambridge Analytica.  If you have 'put it out there' already ‘tough’ you have got to live with it as there is no way to get it back.  Just hope that entropy kicks in big time.

The whole picture of electronic security measures of:

Confidentiality – keeping your stuff for you
Integrity – That is, this data is exactly what it purports to be, nothing less and nothing more and I know of any and all changes
Availability – If you lose something even to the point of a complete machine, if its information/data that is that valuable, you should have a back-up somewhere.
Proportionate - This is often not included, but basically ask yourself if you are really a target for a ‘state actor’ to electronically attack you or a high-worth individual that flashes it about.  Just don’t make yourself a susceptible target – you are the weakest link.

Think of electronic (and in some ways physical) security like layers of an onion with the most secure zone being at the core.  Each layer should have defences that are different to all the others.  The basic principle here is one of defence in depth.

Any portable device should be considered as totally sacrificial, both physically and electronically including all information on it.

Any device that uses wireless should be considered sacrificial.

Networks: If you use the Internet at home, your ISP will usually provide you with a router that has some form of primitive security features.  This is your outer layer.  This is also where you should locate your wireless networking (nowhere else) and some wired devices if necessary.  You can use DHCP here or fixed IPs and also your household devices such a smart TVs or the like.  No valuable data, maybe use a shared server for music.

Behind this you should run a separate zone that holds data and information that is more valuable.  This zone should be wired connections only. i.e. no wireless.  All IP addresses are fixed – no DHCP. Between these two layers run a firewall that allows you to create rules to allow only specific devices to perform wanted action.  This firewall should act as a proxy server and run an anti-virus on all traffic going through it.  If stuff is that valuable keep it away from the nasty Internet and back it up.

Devices on the inner zone should run at least 2 anti-virus programmes. – Microsoft do a reasonable free one that will run concurrently with commercial ones.  One AV should look at signatures and the other look at behaviours.  These should not be the same as the AV running on the outer/inner firewall.

If I haven’t mentioned it – back your valuable data up, proportionate to its value.

With the current attack vogue for banking fraud, set up 4 bank accounts, 2 checking and 2 savings.  Designate one checking for Outgoing and one for Incoming.  Tear up the cheque book to the Incoming account.  Keep the balance of both checking accounts at a minimum value with other funds in the savings accounts and don’t share any details of the savings accounts with anyone, including your partner.  ;)

On-line banking is fairly secure and a good bank will use transitory 2-factor authentication to access it.  Use online banking to move your funds around the above accounts.  Access it from within the Inner zone, not on a mobile or wireless device
 
I don’t care what banks say: mobile banking (i.e. on your mobile phone) is there for their advantage not yours otherwise they would not do it.  If it is compromised, they have made a calculation that allows them to write it off.  You may say that it therefore costs you nothing,  but it does. I have spoken to people who have been hacked this way and the repercussions are longer term than you may think.  One woman cleared of her savings likened it to being burgled.

Be careful with debit cards, they have details on them that makes them open to banking fraud if stolen.  Get an electronic purse card (mine was from Thompson and was free) that uses your own native currency and that you can top up when necessary.  They are anonymous, limit your liability to what is on them in real time and have no overdraft facility.  You can also take cash out of an ATM using them with no charge – in the UK that is.

Credit cards: get an extra one – they are quite easy to get nowadays – and lock it away somewhere, in a safe if you have one.  That way, when your wallet gets stolen you can activate it immediately, and buy the necessities of life while replacements are in the post.  Test it once a year to make sure it is still valid.  If you have several credit cards, make sure that use different networks – Mastercard, Visa etc.

Get yourself a cross-cut shredder and shred anything with personal details on it, including the envelopes.  Again what is proportionate here, do you think that anyone is going to try and tape your 2x4 mm shreds together?  Mix it all up in a large box and put it in the recycling at your local tip.

Keep credit card shopping receipts and shred them.  The receipt that has your card number as a line of asterisks “ending in 1234” is not foolproof.

/paranoia  OFF

Hopefully the above should provide some food for thought.

Happy browsing

Mike
 
I'd like to see them get facial recognition from my avatar. :)

here's another old favorite
262938_102910269863935_1944764263_n.jpg


Actually a pretty good caricature drawn by a friend with talent back in the 90s  before my beard turned grey and I shaved it off.

JR 

PS: But I long ago gave up hope of anonymity with any number of fingerprint sessions and photos in sundry government databases...  I once had a secret government clearance (when working on Navy project at MIT Instrumentation Lab) so answered their (more than) 20 questions, "and" I have been arrested.... but AFAIK they don't have my DNA on file (yet, I think?). Yes some people even volunteer that too.  ::)

PPS: Speaking of credit cards, my provider will issue virtual numbers on request if I don't trust the vendor. These virtual numbers have a short expiration date so even is somebody lifts the number they won't get much benefit from it. Right now I am going through some (self imagined) drama with the WSJ over this years renewal... last year that captured my credit card number without my permission for use with auto renewal... not acceptable IMO.  ::) So this year I am trying to switch them to a temp virtual number so keeping it will do them zero good for next year. So far they claimed the next month (5/18) expiration date was invalid... we'll see.  Turning off the WSJ for a while won't be the worst thing I deal with. 8)
 
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