Users guide

Social Media Users Guide
I know not with what weapons World War III will
be fought, but World War IV will be fought with
sticks and stones.
Albert Einstein
By Darren Thomas and Aaron Vail

Revealed: The NSA’s Secret Campaign to
Crack, Undermine Internet Security
Did you know...
excerpts from an aricle written by Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times and Jeff Larson of ProPublica Sept
5, 2013
“Newly revealed documents show that the NSA has circumvented or cracked much of
the encryption that automatically secures the emails, Web searches, Internet chats...”
“The project, referred to internally by the codename Bullrun, also includes efforts to
weaken the encryption standards adopted by software developers...”
“NSA lost a public battle in the 1990s to insert its own “back door” in all encryption,
it set out to accomplish the same goal by stealth.”
“The NSA began collaborating with technology companies in the United States and
abroad to build entry points into their products.”
“to covertly introduce weaknesses into the encryption standards followed by hardware
and software developers around the world”
http://www.propublica.org/series/surveillance

Revealed: The NSA’s Secret Campaign to
Crack, Undermine Internet Security
Continued...
excerpts from an aricle written by Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times and Jeff Larson of ProPublica Sept
5, 2013
“N.S.A., has been looking for ways into protected traffic of the most popular Internet
companies: Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft’s Hotmail. By 2012, GCHQ had
developed “new access opportunities” into Google’s systems, according to the
document.”
“Some of the agency’s most intensive efforts have focused on the encryption in
universal use in the United States, including , or SSL, , or VPNs, and the protection
used on fourth generation, or 4G, smartphones”
“N.S.A. worked with company officials to get pre-encryption access to Microsoft’s
most popular services, including Outlook e-mail, Skype Internet phone calls and
chats, and SkyDrive Google, Yahoo and Facebook have pressed for permission to
reveal more about the government’s secret requests for cooperation. ”

What to be aware of...

Technology and privacy are the two most important areas which will help foster a
better “cybersecurity aware” society.

The more we understand the technology we use, and the way that technology can
be attacked, the better we can mitigate the possibility of attack. Understanding
how things work, will make us more aware.

Almost all digital devices store and use our personal information to provide
authentication to email, bank, stock, insurance and credit cards. Unless secured
these devices are easily exploited (compromised)

Our privacy is valuable. Be mentally present when providing sensitive
information. Be suspicious of applications and communications requesting
personal information, and information that provides authentication

cash to computer transactions has made our everyday activities easier and
speedier, reliance on the internet has opened the doors to fraud and cyber attacks.

What to be aware of...
The following charts were borrowed from Hackmageddon.com and very up to date at
the time this presentation was being put together. They relay some information
regarding the nature of cyber attacks. The following are aggregate statistics for May
2014.

Good Social Networking Habits!
Common sense, caution and skepticism are some of the strongest tools you
have to protect yourself...
Registering an account:

a strong password different from the passwords you use to access other sites.

If you are asked to provide security questions, use information that others would not
know about you.

Never provide a work-associated email to a social network, especially when signing
up

Consider creating a new email address strictly to connect with your social
networking profile

Consider not using your real name, especially your last name. Be aware that this
may violate the terms of service of some social networks. Continued...

Registering an account: continued...

Review the privacy policy and terms of service before signing up for an account.—
it may provide information regarding the use of your private information and who it
may be shared with.

keep strong anti virus and spy-ware protection on your computer.

Provide only information that is necessary or that you feel comfortable
providing. When in doubt, err on the side of providing less information.

During the registration process, social networks often solicit a new user to provide
an email account password so the social network can access the user’s email address
book.--To be safe, don’t provide this information

Tips of using Social Networks...

Familiarize yourself with the privacy settings available on any social network you
use. On Facebook, make sure that your default privacy setting is " Friends Only".
Alternatively, use the "Custom" setting and set to maximum privacy.

Don’t share your birthday, age, or place of birth. This information could be useful to
identity thieves and to data mining companies
I.Study done by the Carnegie Mellon found that Social Security numbers can be predicted
based on publicly-available information, including your birthday, age and place of birth. The
Social Security Administration began randomized numbers on June 25, 2011.
continued...


Stay aware of changes to a social network’s terms of service and privacy policy.
Changes may affect the visibility of your profile information

Be careful when you click on shortened links. Consider using a URL expander
Examples of URL expander: LongURL, Clybs URL Expander and Long URL

Be very cautious of pop-up windows, especially any that state your security
software is out of date or that security threats and/or viruses have been detected
on your computer.

Delete cookies, including flash cookies, every time you leave a social networking
site. Continued...


Be mindful and in the present-whatever goes on a network might eventually be seen
by people not in the intended audience

Don’t publicize vacation plans, especially the dates you’ll be traveling

be careful when posting any sort of location or using geotagging features because
criminals may use it to secretly track your location.--keep your routines secret as well

Don’t post your address, phone number or email address on a social network.
Remember scam artists as well as marketing companies may be looking for this kind
of information. If you do choose to post any portion of this, use privacy settings to
restrict it to approved contacts. Continued...


Use caution when using third-party applications. Applications offered by Face-book
for instance. For the highest level of safety and privacy, avoid them completely.
− Whatapp?: rates applications, browsers, platforms and social networks on
privacy, security and openness.

If you receive a request to connect with someone and recognize the name, verify the
account holder’s identity before accepting the request. (phone call, email
confirmation...etc.)


If you receive a connection request from a stranger, the safest thing to do is to reject
the request.

Adopt a zero tolerance for requests for money, even if they are from contacts you
know and trust. If a contact’s account is compromised, a scam artist may use his or her
name and account to attempt to defraud others

report it to the site immediately and alert your contacts if you feel your profile
information has been compromised

You will need to change passwords, but proceed with caution because your
computer security may have been compromised as well. Don't use that same machine.
It may be infected with a virus, trojan or worm. Continued...


Malware, including key-logging software, may have been installed on your
computer. If you use online banking, do not log on from the computer that may have
been compromised

If you are using a social networking site that offers video chatting, pay attention to
the light on your computer that indicates whether or not your web-cam is in use.

Be sure to log off from social networking sites when you no longer need to be
connected. This may reduce the amount of tracking of your web surfing

As a general rule, before posting something on a social networking profile, imagine
it displayed on a billboard on the side of a highway.


Social networks themselves do not necessarily guarantee the security of the
information that has been uploaded to a profile, even when those posts are set to be
private.

It can work both ways…
− anonymity is a useful tool for anyone who prefers to keep a strict
separation between an online persona and an off-line identity. It can
also be used by individuals trying to shield their identities while
engaging in illegal activities

If you are considering a pseudonymous (using a false name) profile, refer to the
terms of service for the social networking site. Providing false or incomplete
information violates the terms of service of some social networking sites

What can You do?
Here are a few things that you can do to help
protect yourself:
• Be knowledgeable
• Know what information you are giving and who can
see it
• Be proactive
• Choose security and privacy settings that are
secure
• Be vigilant
• Keep an eye on changes

Facebook
• Facebook is the largest social media web site
• It has over 1,310,000,000 active users!
• If it was a country, it would be the second
largest
• And as such, we are going to pick on it

Facebook
A lot of personal information is required to sign up for Facebook.

Facebook
They wouldn’t let me use “John Doe” as a name

Facebook
More personal information they want you to include.

Facebook Settings YOU should be aware of
This was a brand new account. All settings are their defaults.
Link if video does not work
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlGCPagdgYE

Is your data ever gone?
When you delete something from your computer,
a flag is simply switched from “Do not
overwrite” to “Can be overwritten.”
The file still exists on your hard drive
Software available for free called Recuva can
bring it back
What about on the internet?

Internet Data
You are NOT in control of data on the internet
Your data lives on servers, which are basically
very powerful computers.
If you request your data deleted, it is up to the
company in charge of your data to
erase/delete it.
But is it truly gone if the company does erase it?

Internet Wayback Machine
http://archive.org/web/
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine saves
copies of web pages in case they get changed
or deleted.
Try it out for yourself.
https://web.archive.org/web/20130403110212/http://a
Aaroncvail.com was a website I had for quite
awhile but couldn’t justify the cost to keep it
around. While the images are gone, the text
remains.

Overview
• Never assume what you send is truly private
• Be smart about what services you use
• Be vigilant to changes in policy
• Know what you are doing and why
• Scrutinize your habits to determine if they are
unsafe

Bibliography
• www.dotrights.org/social-networking
• www.eff.org/wp/effs-top-12-ways-protect-your-online-privacy
• http://epic.org/privacy/socialnet/
• http://getnetwise.org/
• www.tosback.org/timeline.php
• http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2012/06/facebook-your-privacy/index.htm
• Privacy & Safety on Facebook-A Guide for Survivors of Abuse
• http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/safe-reading-pane/
• http://www.bullguard.com/bullguard-security-center/internet-security/social-media-dangers/social-media-security-a
• http://www.staysafeonline.org/stay-safe-online/protect-your-personal-information/id-theft-and-fraud#sthash.j8O9bY
• http://www.propublica.org/article/privacy-tools-encrypt-what-you-can
• http://hackmageddon.com/2014/06/11/may-2014-cyber-attack-statistics/
• http://www.networkworld.com/article/2363212/security-leadership/security-training-is-lacking-here-are-tips-
on-how-to-do-it-better.html
• http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/editorial/your-cyber-security-requires-
awareness#ixzz34oXsGDsB
• http://www.propublica.org/series/surveillance
• http://journalistsresource.org/skills/research/chat-peter-singer-brookings-cybersecurity-media?
utm_source=JR-email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=JR-email#sthash.Kq8hUXG8.dpuf
• http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_populations

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