Posts tagged "Privacy"

Some Simple Steps to Social Media Privacy

When was the last time you checked your privacy settings on your social media profiles? Being aware of the information you share is a critical step in securing your online identity. Below we’ve outlined some of the top social media sites and what you can do today to help keep your personal information safe.

FACEBOOK Social Media Privacy

Click the padlock icon in the upper right corner of Facebook, and run a Privacy
Checkup. This will walk you through three simple steps:

  • Who you share status updates with
  • A list of the apps that are connected to your Facebook page
  • How personal information from your profile is shared.

As a rule of thumb, we recommend your Facebook Privacy setting be set to “Friends Only” to avoid sharing your information with strangers. You can confirm that all of your future posts will be visible to “Friends Only” by reselecting the padlock and clicking “Who can see my stuff?” then select “What do other people see on my timeline” and review the differences between your public and friends only profile. Oh, and don’t post anything stupid!

Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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12th Day: Holiday Security Tips All Wrapped up Together

Would you like to give the people you care about some peace on earth during this holiday season? Take a few minutes to pass on our 12 privacy tips that will help them protect their identities, social media, shopping and celebrating over the coming weeks. The more people that take the steps we’ve outlined in the 12 Days of Christmas, the safer we all become, collectively.

Have a wonderful holiday season, regardless of which tradition you celebrate. Now sing (and click) along with us one more time.  

On the 12th Day of Christmas, the experts gave to me: 12 Happy Holidays,

11 Private Emails,

10 Trusted Charities

9 Protected Packages

8 Scam Detectors

7 Fraud Alerts

6 Safe Celebrations

Fiiiiiiiiiiive Facebook Fixes

4 Pay Solutions

3 Stymied Hackers

2 Shopping Tips

And the Keys to Protect My Privacy

Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker .
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iCloud Hacked for Nude Jennifer Lawrence Photos? How to Keep from Being Next

icloud-hacked

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or haven’t been on the internet in the past 24 hours), you most likely know that intimate photos of celebrities like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton have been exposed (pardon the pun) to the public.

While it is not yet verified, Apple has said it is “actively investigating” the possibility that iCloud accounts have been hacked.  The photos surfaced immediately after an Apple “Find My iPhone” exploit was revealed, so Apple’s own security is being questioned. As of now, Apple is saying that iCloud has not been systematically hacked, but that the breach of celebrity photos was a limited, targeted attack. Whether or not iCloud was exploited in any way for these pointed attacks hasn’t been determined.

Posted in Cyber Data Security by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Privacy Settings Get Needed Update

Facebook Privacy Settings Update

Facebook Privacy Settings… Some may say it’s too little, too late. I’m relieved that Facebook is finally responding to concerns about their confusing and weak privacy settings.  The social media giant (who has been losing customers of late) has recently made several changes to their settings.

Facebook Privacy Settings Update

  1. Additional photo settings.  Your current profile photo and cover photos have traditionally been public by default. Soon, Facebook will let you change the privacy setting of your old cover photos.
  1. More visible mobile sharing settings.  When you use your mobile phone to post, it is somewhat difficult to find who your audience is because the audience selector has been hidden behind an icon and this could lead to unintended sharing.  In this Facebook privacy settings update, they will move the audience selector to the top of the update status box in a new “To:” field similar to what you see when you compose an email so you’ll be able to see more easily with whom you are sharing.

Posted in Online Privacy, Social Media Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Jimmy Carter Exposes 1 of 2 Non-Secrets of World’s Most Powerful People

carterThe answer is so simple that you probably won’t believe it.

How do the world’s most powerful, wealthy and well connected people keep their lives more private than the average American?

Former President Jimmy Carter recently revealed one of two truely non-secret tactics that get completely overlooked because of their simplicity: snail mail. When asked about NSA surveillance by NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Carter responded:

“As a matter of fact, you know, I have felt that my own communications were probably monitored, and when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write the letter myself, put it in the post office and mail it,” Carter said.

Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Snapchat Hacked? Duh! Of Course It Was.

Snapchat Hacked! Is there any sense of wonder left when another Internet giant (or any corporation, for that matter) gets hacked and loses your private information? No, the mystery died years ago, which is why we’ve basically forgotten about Target already. Of course Snapchat.com was hacked. Here’s the recipe for how your corporation can be like theirs:

  1. Collect a ga-gillion pieces of user data all while…
  2. Paying lip service to privacy and security measures until…
  3. Your database is hacked, the press circles & customers revolt while…
  4. You pay expensive recovery costs and belatedly decide to…
  5. Implement security & privacy measures that could’ve saved you a ga-gillion.

Breach Happens, no matter how big or how small you are. But breach destroys only when you are unprepared.  When it comes to privacy, the most effective medicine is getting burned. Snapchat is lucky to have experienced it early in their lifetime. When will you get hacked? Will it disappear in 11 seconds…

Posted in Cyber Data Security, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Privacy Expert: NSA Intercepting Your Address Books, Buddy Lists

Snowden_Leak_Tip_of_the_Iceberg_of_NSA_Surveillance_Program__141492What makes a privacy expert nervous? Glimpsing the size of the iceberg under the surface. When National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden became a whistle blower earlier this year, I think we all knew we were really just seeing the tip of the iceberg about exactly how much information the NSA was gathering on the average American citizen.  And it was a pretty large tip to start with.

Here’s a reminder of what started the whole thing.  Snowden provided reporters at The Guardian and The Washington Post with top-secret documents detailing two NSA surveillance programs being carried out by the U.S. Government, all without the average voter’s knowledge. One gathers hundreds of millions of U.S. phone records and the second allows the government to access nine U.S. Internet companies to gather all domestic Internet usage (so they are tapping pieces of your phone calls and emails, in other words). The intent of each program respectively is to use meta-data (information about the numbers being called, length of call, etc., but not the conversation itself, as far as we know) to detect links to known terrorist targets abroad and to detect suspicious behavior (by monitoring emails, texts, social media posts, instant messaging, chat rooms, etc.) that begins overseas. As a privacy expert, I understand the need to detect connections among terrorists; the troubling part is the scope of the information being gathered.

Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Higher Education Features Cyber Security Expert John Sileo

Universities perfect learning environment for data security

Higher Ed Organizations are among the highest risk groups to become victims of identity theft and data breach. Because students are relative “beginners” when it comes to personal finances, because university environments are predicated on trust and credibility, and because of the recent progress towards a mobile-centric, social-networking-dominated campus, higher education’s digital footprint is constantly exposed to manipulation.

"The most engaging speaker I've ever heard - period"

“The most engaging speaker I’ve ever heard – period.”  Debbie Bumpous, NSU Chief Information Technology Officer speaking about John Sileo

“John Sileo was the secret sauce in launching our cyber security awareness program” – University of Massachusetts Director of IT

Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Privacy: New Data Use Policy Banks on User Laziness

facebook privacy 2Is there such a thing as Facebook privacy? You’ve might have heard that Facebook is proposing a new Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (formerly known as a privacy policy). No one refers to it as a Privacy Policy anymore, because there is absolutely no sign of privacy left. And if you read the email from Facebook alerting you to the changes, or even the summary of changes that they provide, you are left with no clear idea of the magnitude of those alterations (you’d have to read the actual suggested changes).

Facebook is masking privacy erosion with a deceptive executive summary. The latest changes make me very uncomfortable in three ways:

  1. It appears that Facebook has left open the option to collect and utilize your mobile phone number when you access Facebook from your mobile device. That is valuable information to advertisers who want to text, call or serve up ads to you directly.

Posted in Online Privacy, Social Media Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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