Remove yourself from people search sites and erase your online presence
Read this article, and take actions.
Link: Remove yourself from people search sites and erase your online presence
Related reading: Google’s Pichai says people know how much Android snoops (really?)
Okay.. Let’s cast a critical eye..
At the bottom of an article about how, for a few bucks, ANY-one can buy a ‘kit’ and make their own Android Ransomware (see, Easy-to-Use Apps Allow Anyone to Create Android Ransomware Within Seconds) we are advised how to ‘stay safe’ from such unhappy things..
How to Protect Your Android Devices from Ransomware Attacks
In order to protect against such threats on mobile devices, you are recommended to:
- Always keep regular backups of your important data.
- Make sure that you run an active anti-virus security suite of tools on your machine.
- Avoid downloading apps from unknown sites and third-party app stores.
- Always pay close attention to the permissions requested by an app, even if it is downloaded from an official app store.
- Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources.
- Finally, browse the Internet safely.
And let’s analyze that advice with our critical eye:
- Always keep regular backups of your important data. Because it’s not a question of if you’ll get screwed, it’s a question of when.
- Make sure that you run an active anti-virus security suite of tools on your machine. No arguements. If it connects to the Internet you NEED this. But KNOW THIS: it’s only a semi-effective shield, NOT bulletproof armor.
- Avoid downloading apps from unknown sites and third-party app stores. Or even regular ‘stores’, as we’ve seen them get ‘poisoned’ already (Google Play Store, recently [see https://thehackernews.com/2017/08/android-ddos-botnet.html]). So let’s just change it to: Do NOT download apps.
[edit 9/18: and yet again. See this http://thehackernews.com/2017/09/play-store-malware.html.] - Always pay close attention to the permissions requested by an app, even if it is downloaded from an official app store. Utterly pointless to advise this. First of all no one will. Second, were ‘average people’ to start doing this, they’d have no clue what all that ‘tech jargon’ means. And 3rd, most apps don’t offer you any choices with ‘Permissions’ – if you want the app, you have to accept the ads and the spying. So let’s just use my #3 as our guide.
- Do not open any email attachments from unknown sources. Um. People who still do this have never read a tech article in their life. So they aren’t seeing this.Those who do (read articles) KNOW email is still a favorite way for the criminals to infect your machine. MY advice? Unless someone you know has told you, “I’m sending you a document”, don’t open it – period.
- Finally, browse the Internet safely. What? Great advice! Only one problem — there is no such thing. ( Um … I guess that translates to “don’t look at pron”?)
- Do not ‘jailbreak’ or ‘root’ your device. (Okay.. so I had to add one.)
* * *
Today’s quotable quote: “Lighten up, just enjoy life, smile more, laugh more, and don’t get so worked up about things.” ~ Kenneth Branagh
Copyright 2007-2017 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
14 Tips to be safer on Public Wi-Fi (‘hotspots’)
A couple reading reco’s for mobile Internet users.
* 14 Public Wi-Fi Hotspot Security Tips You Need
“Sometimes you need it so bad, you don’t care if it is clean or dirty. You don’t care who has been there before or what viruses they’ve left behind. I speak, of course, of public Wi-Fi hotspots, aka honeypots for weak-willed souls desperate for a sense of connection. Look, it’s okay to connect to strange networks. Just use protection, cover your tracks, and follow PCMag’s 14 Tips for Public Hotspot Security. Be safe out there.” Read more..
I disagree with what the author wrote there a bit.. it’s really not ‘okay’ to use public wi-fi.. (that’s why I put ‘safer’ where the Industry puts ‘safe’) but I know you’re going to. One of the main reasons is “53 percent can’t tell a secure network from an insecure one.”
That’s so shockingly stupid clueless in 2017 .. do we need to remove these devices from the hands of the masses?
* * *
Today’s quote: “A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what’s going on.” ~ William S. Burroughs
Copyright 2007-2017 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Just don’t download any apps..
Guys, I have long told people, if you don’t absolutely need it, don’t install it (and you sure as shooting don’t need five media players..). Well now there’s even more reason to repeat that advice.
* More than 1,000 Spyware Apps Found On Android App Stores
“If you think you are downloading apps from Google Play Store and you are secure, then watch out! Someone has managed to flood third-party app stores and Google Play Store with more than a thousand malicious apps, which can monitor almost anything a user does on their mobile device from silently …” Read More..
Update: 500+ Android apps found containing program that can download spyware plug-in
“More than 500 mobile apps on Google Play were recently discovered containing an advertising software development kit capable of downloading malicious plug-ins that can spy on Android users’ call histories.. Apps using the ad SDK, a product called Igexin, were downloaded over 100 million times by Android device owners before Google removed these programs from its store..” Read more..
Tell your friends.
Addenda: I have been asked my thoughts on Wikileaks and the (alleged) CIA hacking tools (such as this one, posted today) often enough now that I think I should mention them here.. please don’t think the CIA are the only folks who can do/are doing these ‘exploits’. They basically copied from the hackers. These things are possible because all our devices/technologies are inherently, fundamentally, insecure. (Don’t believe me? Read this.)
* * *
Today’s quote: “I am thankful the most important key in history was invented. It’s not the key to your house, your car, your boat, your safety deposit box, your bike lock or your private community. It’s the key to order, sanity, and peace of mind. The key is ‘Delete.'” ~ Elayne Boosler
Copyright 2007-2017 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Are these people nuts?
Folks, the tech industry is talking about upcoming “improvements” to Windows 10. Which of course is an indicator of the evolution of our devices.. and what the big brains at the billion dollar companies think we want..
* Windows 10: Ten missing and highly anticipated features due in 2017
“A look at the most significant changes due to hit Microsoft’s evolving OS in the coming year.” Read more..
Okay.. I don’t want ANY of that. Do you? (Are you ‘eagerly anticipating’?) Would you even call these ‘improvements’?
The only one I think worthy of mention is for a browser I’ll never use.
I’m going to replace my desktop with a phone..? I guess marijuana is legal in the State of Washington? Cuz they gotta be high.
… It’s like they spend so much time in their labs, they have a complete disconnect with human psychology.. The numbers telling them that people are desperately clinging to Windows XP and Office 2003 must utterly baffle them.
Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
Today’s ‘Must Read’
Folks, not only does everyone need to read this article, but pass it along to their friends and family.
* How your connected home or office is a gift for hackers, criminals, and cyber spies
“The Internet of Things needs to learn how to secure devices — and fast.” Read more..
[ Note: I also highly recommend clicking on some of the embedded articles.. Like, the Snowden one.. ]
Related articles: (In my way of thinking..)
* Britain has passed the ‘most extreme surveillance law ever passed in a democracy’
“The law forces UK internet providers to store browsing histories — including domains visited — for one year. Not only that, the law also gives the intelligence agencies the power to hack into computers and devices of citizens.” Read more..
* Distracted minds: 3 tips to disconnect from tech and increase productivity
“Adam Gazzaley, neurologist and author of The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World, explains how multitasking damages focus, and offers advice for workplace productivity.” Read more..
.. But the truth is, no one’s going to read those. And no one’s going to change their thinking or behavior. I’m wasting my time.
* * *
Today’s quote: “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” ~ Aesop
Copyright 2007-2015 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.
>> Folks, don’t miss an article! To get Tech – for Everyone articles delivered to your e-mail Inbox, click here, or to subscribe in your RSS reader, click here. <<
All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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