Uncle Sam wants YOU to spy on your neighbor…

Back in June of 2013, many reports came out about the federal government asking its employee’s to spy on one another, “Thou shall snitch on thy neighbor”.  Sounds so nefarious doesn’t it?  According to Jonathan Landay and Marisa Taylor of the McClatchy Report (2013), this is exactly what is going on in our country.  The President has given the order to all federal employees’ to report suspicious activities.  According to the article, “Federal employees and contractors are asked to pay particular attention to the lifestyles, attitudes and behaviors – like financial troubles, odd working hours or unexplained travel.” Hmmm, what about the nervous tick I get when I drink too much coffee Mr. President?  Should I worry? OK, I get it, do we really want another episode of “Falcon and the Snowman?” (MGM Studios, 1985) or Edward Snowden spilling the beans on top secret US military and other issues of the day? Absolutely not! BUT, do we want to constantly look over our shoulders hoping no one is looking suspiciously at us? One of the big issues I see is if you DO NOT report someone who is doing harm; you can be held culpable and may face criminal charges.  Huhhhh?  So what happens when a fed employee does something, you know nothing about it but because of your associations with them, you get strung up too?  How about the “Look at me, Look at me” guy who wants to make a name for himself and starts a campaign to discredit people because they look or act a certain way just so they get noticed, or someone just doesn’t like you so they make stuff up?  I am all for profiling, this is a fantastic method that “TRAINED” (I’m yelling here!!) law enforcement officials can use to help thwart bad characters etc. but Joe from accounting who gets a daylong seminar in Threat Behavior has no reason to do this, nor should he be ordered to do so. 

I came across an article from Kate Tummarello (2013) of theTheHill.com, titled “Government “Rarely” follows Cyber security best practices” that pointed me to a report to the President on cyber security and what the government should do in order to secure our nation.  The report, titled “Immediate Opportunities for Strengthening the Nations Cyber security” (2013) written by the “President’s Council of Advisers on Science and Technology” is a very interesting read indeed, (see link below.)  In it, the authors discuss many issues that they see and outline methods that our government can undertake to strengthen our defenses both foreign and domestically.  My favorite part of the reports states the following, “The Federal Government rarely follows accepted best practices. It needs to lead by example and accelerate its efforts to make routine cyber-attacks more difficult by implementing best practices for its own systems.” (p. 1).  This is the lead into the report… Tells you something doesn’t it.  Please take a moment and read it if you can, it really is interesting.

Parting Shots: There are many things the government can do to secure our nations assets, such as educating employee’s, working with the public sector and not against them, getting out of date software and hardware up to date, as well as, multiple other things, but asking people to be tattle tales should not be one of them.

 

References:

Landay, Jonathan and Taylor, Marisa. (2013).  Experts: Obama’s plan to predict future leakers unproven, unlikely to work.  McClatchy report.  McClatchyDC.com

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/07/09/196211/linchpin-for-obamas-plan-to-predict.html#.Ud1k_T4a8gR

 Tummarello, Kate.  (2013) White House advisers: Government 'rarely' follows cybersecurity best practices. The Hill.  TheHill.com

http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/191254-white-house-advisers-government-rarely-follows-cybersecurity-best

Lander, E., Holdren, J., Savitz, M., Press, W.  (2013). Immediate Opportunities for Strengthening the Nations Cybersecurity.  (p. 1)

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/PCAST/pcast_cybersecurity_nov-2013.pdf

To BLOCK or NOT TO BLOCK!! and how do I do it?

My kids love the Internet, or to be more precise, they love the fun and games that they can access on the Internet.  Some of these games can provide hours of fun and learning activities for them and who knows, they may actually learn something.  Now for the BUT sandwich, the Internet as we all know can also be a dark and seedy place as well, accidentally misspelling a URL can take them to places they should not be, not to mention, the chance of getting virus’s etc.  So what can we as parents do to minimize the exposure to these types of unfortunate web sites?

I have a suggestion… don’t let them on the Internet until they are 18, that way as a parent, your conscience is clear.  “Tongue planted firmly in cheek.”

 Kidding aside, we can do some things to mitigate this but you have to actually do it, the problem is how and where do you start? The first and most obvious is to talk to your kids, explain what might happen, how it can happen and DON’T hide it if it does.  Keeping an open mind and an open dialog with them can go a long way.  Secondly, check to see what parental controls your OS has to offer.  Microsoft, for example offers a “Parental Control” suite in their Windows products and it really isn’t too difficult to accomplish it.  Here is the link to the Microsoft page to set up the controls.  What I like about this is you as the administrator have the control, while your child only has a standard account.  You can restrict access to certain websites “Age appropriate” either manually or automatically.  Set time limits and even control access to games.  Again, please see the link above to get a much more detailed overview of this subject.

If you want to get a bit more draconian, you can even purchase or download free computer monitoring software that you can load onto your kids PC’s.  CNET.com is a great web site to get reviews and find a software platform that can fit your needs.  Programs to block websites or log keystrokes and basically monitor everything they do. You can be the NSA.....

Again, the goal in this post is to give you a few options that you can have in your arsenal to not only protect your kids from unwanted, inappropriate web content but to protect your PC from unwanted threats.  I have seen it happen, a child gets on a website, gets nervous and instead of closing the web page out, they accidentally click on a link on the page or a picture and the PC gets infected.  Explain to them the importance of knowing who is sending them something and that their e-mails can have infected attachments.  Instant messaging is another foul little beast that gets them.  What computer these days doesn’t have some sort of IM program? These programs are a hackers dream. Never, ever click on a link that is sent by anyone you do not know.  Phishing isn't a relaxing day at the lake…..

Parting Shots: So even though programs are out there, the best option, you have as a parent is knowledge.  The more you can pound into your kids thick, I know absolutely everything, skulls full of mush, the better you will be as well as them.

Facebook... Really?

Many years back I wanted to play Farmville but didn't want to create an account on Facebook but, I had no choice. So, I jumped into the Facebook arena and added my name to the long list of FB users… Remember, all I wanted to do was play Farmville, why? I don’t really know.  I digress… My thoughts about FB were this, “Only people with self-esteem issues or Narcissists use FB.” And do I really want to hear a friend or family member drone on and tell me all about their delicious baked Ziti recipes.  But I started to look and post and truth be told it was fun at times, to be able to see the changes in people who I hadn't seen for many years was a cathartic thing to some degree.  

Well, being a conspiracy theorist (No, he was born in America, I’ll give you that one J), I rarely put out too much data about myself or family and truly marveled at the people who would.  Not to mention all the risky pictures that they would post of themselves in, um… odd predicaments.  I would always tell my nephew.  “Dude, stop with the pics of you binge drinking with friends… it will come back to haunt you, that information is no longer yours and you can never get it back.” He could never really understand what I meant.  I’m just an old guy who is outta touch.  

As time went on I started to get a bit bored of FB and stopped all together.  I have wanted several times to delete my account but wanted to be able to keep in touch with old friends and like the fact that I could reach them in this fashion, but I really do hate my information still being out in the ether…  Someone with skills could get ahold of that data that FB says is private and do nefarious things with it.  Sure enough, just yesterday, I read the following article written by Jose Pagilery from CNNMoney, titled 2 Million Facebook Gmail and Twitter passwords stolen in massive hack. Here is the story by the way.  I will let you read the story and make your own conclusions but needless to say, sometimes, your data isn't always safe and yes nephew, I am right.  I truly hope that I or one of my FB friends were NOT part of that hack… 

Parting shots: Like I told my nephew, once you put something on the internet, it is out there for everyone to see, copy and use against you, especially if you are vying for a job, this can kill your chances.  It shouldn't but it can.  Limit your exposure to risk and keep your data to yourself.  Like Gandalf said to Frodo.. "Keep it secret, keep it safe."

Had an interesting night a few weeks back.  My wife and I went to my kids school in the Sacramento area to listen to an FBI agent discuss social media and children.  Of course baseball was still going and a great playoff game was on but I dragged myself out and went.  I was very glad that I did.  My first thought was this agent looked only 17 years old, what does he know but he was packin heat so I kept my opinions to myself.  He was actually in his early thirties and a very nice gentleman... I digress.  He talked at length about how strangers can use social media to infiltrate your private information and even befriend your kids. 
 

I knew the part about stealing private information using Facebook and other social media web pages or at least I knew a lot of it, but I was a bit concerned about how criminals use it to lure children in, in order to gain their trust in the hopes of meeting with them and… well you know the rest.  Whenever I hear creepy stories like this, I sit up a little more straight lean in and listen to what someone has to say especially since I have a few kids at that age now.  The FBI agent went on to describe how these types of people are able to fool children into believing they are good people and just want to be friends… “Nothing else, just friends.” 

Do yourself a favor and type into any search engine. “Using social media to lure children” and see what you get.  For me, I received 36+ million results.  Very scary, to say the least.  This practice isn't just a phenomenon, it is an epidemic, what to do with those type of predators will have to wait for another post, but needless to say, throwing away of the key would be useful, my own opinion of course.  

Getting back to the FBI agent; he gave the kids and us parents several helpful suggestions on how to keep them safe on the internet.  Here are just a few of them.

1. Never give out your personal data.
2. Do not set up a user profile, it can be hacked and your information stolen.
3. Make sure you know and trust the people you are dealing with online.  
    Make sure your parents know them too.
4. Do not respond to any messages from people you do not know.  
    Tell your parents about the message.
5. Tell your parents if you come across something that makes you feel uncomfortable.  Never hide it.
6. Never, EVER arrange a face to face meeting with someone you do not know.
7. Keep your passwords strong, keep them safe.

This information as well as, other very useful tips can be found at FBI's website or

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parent-guide

I want to thank the FBI and the FBI agent for making that night possible.  It opened a lot of eyes especially for me and my children.

My parting shot; Parents, your children are your greatest concern, you cannot be their friend and parent too.  Get to know their habits, especially when they are online.  Limit their online activities, throw them a football or take them to the park instead of allowing them to surf. Know what they are doing.  It’s your house, your room, not theirs….