DIGITAL SECURITYPART 2

TOOLS

phising

Internet criminals can steal your personal and banking information without you ever noticing – they can do it while you’re online shopping, reading email, or just browsing online. Phishing is when fraudsters send an email pretending to be a bank or other trusted source and ask you to confirm your personal information. A link in the email connects you to a phony site that looks just like the legitimate one. Pharming – an even sneakier way that fraudsters can gain access to your computer and personal information – uses malicious programs that can get installed on your computer when you simply click on a link in an email or view an image on a web page.

Tips to protect yourself against phising

When entering sensitive information (bank account numbers, credit card information, social security number, mother's maiden name) online look for “shttp://” or "https://" in the address line of your browser. This means information is being sent securely.

Never click on a link in an email directing you to a Web site. Manually type the Web site address into your browser to be sure you are not misdirected.

To prevent pharming, use anti-virus and anti-spyware software and be sure to keep them up to date.

Don't give out personal information unless you've initiated the contact or are sure with whom you are dealing.

·Look for Web site privacy policies. They should answer questions about maintaining accuracy, access, security, and control of personal information collected by the site, how the information will be used, and whether it will be provided to third parties. If you don't see a privacy policy – or if you can't understand it – consider doing business elsewhere.

Tools to use

Phish Tank, http://www.phishtank.com/index.php,

Fried Phish, http://www.castlecops.com/pirt

The above two sites are used to report suspected phising websites.

Comodo group offers free secure browsing experience to ensure you are protected against any form of fraudulent online activity

www.comodogroup.com/products/free_products.html

There are many other organizations that focus in ensuring safety online.

ANONYMOUS BROWSING

The best website for anonymous experience is Tor.

https://www.torproject.org/

It ensures that your browsing habits and location is protected. It even gives you a different IP address to make your detection impossible.

Tor is a good tool for media journalists to protect their sources and research.

MOBILE SECURITY

Encrypted communication is the way to go if your concern is privacy and security.

Media, activists and techies value privacy and security in their field.

Tools like: surespot https://www.surespot.me/

ChatSecure https://guardianproject.info/apps/chatsecure/

Email Encryption

The most common channel of effective communication is via email. We apply or jobs, make online payments and verify with our email account, share

confidential reports and work resources through email. Rarely do we think its important to encrypt our important communications.

Tools for email encryption

Mozilla thunderbird https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/download

Enigmail https://www.enigmail.net/download/

All your emails will then be imported to thunderbird for encrypted safe keeping.

Encrypting your hard drive

Download truecrypt and use it to create a partition on your hard drive for secure storage of important files.

This is an effective way to protect your data from prying eyes and safe from both internal and external access.

NOTE: Truecrypt has been compromised and so I would suggest use of bitlocker .For all windows machines, they have bitlocker installed by default and all you need to do is turn it on as it uses TPM ( Trsuted Platform Module)hardware to protect your files and drive. Select a drive of chice that has all your important files and folders then turn on bitlocker to protect them. Whenever you add new files and folders to the drive, they automatically become encrypted.