Cybersecurity & Privacy
OPSEC : Backup Strategy for the Security Conscious
RELATED: The best way to protect your data - images, music, documents Even with all of the technological advancements we have made, backups are usually overlooked by the "average Joe" until something significant occurs (causing a massive shift in paradigm). Why backup Traditionally we backed up our information in case the physical media we used (hard drive, DVD, ZIP Drive cartridge, Bernoulli Box, etc.) had a catastrophic incident. Modern headaches that we add to the justification list now include malware and cryptoware data modification, seizure at a border crossing or shutdown of a cloud service.
Chronicle Security launches under the Alphabet family of companies
Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google, has launched a new cybersecurity intelligence company called Chronicle. The company promises to bring Alphabet's advanced machine learning capabilities and large cloud computing footprint to cyber intelligence. The soft launch was confirmed via a blog post on Medium called "Graduation Day: Introducing Chronicle". A quote from the blog entry says: “Organizations deploy dozens of security tools to protect themselves, and their security teams are highly skilled and extremely dedicated, but they can’t keep up with the growing number, sophistication and ambition of attacks.
Private Internet Access leaves Korea due to security concerns
We learned that Private Internet Access (PIA) has shut down its Korea exit nodes due to concerns about the privacy of its users. It learned through a "close contact" that South Korea law enforcement intended to clone its local data. Private Internet Access (PIA) didn't know why they would take these types of actions against it, but took immediate action as soon as it learned about this possibility. “On the 21st January 2018 at 6.15pm Pacific Time, Private Internet Access was alerted by close contacts in South Korea that law enforcement would be seeking to mirror our servers tomorrow, 24th of January 2018, at 10:00 A.
OPSEC - Security when making calls
RELATED: OPSEC - Introduction to Malware RELATED: OPSEC - How to securely delete files If you are making calls using a cellphone or landline phone then you should assume that your conversation can easily be intercepted by the carrier (providing the service or a government agency that has control over that carrier). Security researchers have even proven that with $1,500 in parts, they can build a cell phone call interception device by pretending they are a cell tower. “Regular phone calls on your cell phone (including SMS and MMS messages) are easily intercepted and should be considered insecure.
OPSEC - How to securely delete files
You should also read my previous article "OPSEC - Introduction to Malware". Most computer (or smartphone/tablet) users believe that when you use the delete function in your operating system, you have securely destroyed the file beyond recovery, but that simply isn't the case. In most cases, the entry to the file was removed from the index but unless that disk space is needed by the operating system, the file is most likely still on the disk (just isn't normally accessible anymore).
Is your Chromebook vulnerable to Specter or Meltdown?
TL;DR: If you are using a Chromebook that is actively supported, you are probably fine. Specter and Meltdown are two significant chip level vulnerabilities that kicked off the 2018 security scene with a bang. Affection millions of devices from almost every manufacturer, many consumers are panicking about what this means for them. Since I love Chromebooks, I wanted to write an article about how these two vulnerabilities affect them. This isn't a deep technical review about Meltdown or Specter. There are loads of well-written articles about them.
SecureDrop protects the anonymity of whistle-blowers
SecureDrop is an open-source project created by (the late) Aaron Swartz with support from Kevin Poulsen and James Dolan. The entire raison d'être of SecureDrop is to create a safe information exchange mechanism between media organizations and whistleblowers. The solution requires two servers: a TOR facing server to store messages and files a private server that monitors the security of the first server When a message or files are dropped on the first server, the information is encrypted with GPG for secure storage.
Alternative ways to get the TOR browser
Tor is an incredible power privacy enhancing tool that every security-conscious netizen should have in their arsenal. It doesn't replace a VPN service, since TOR isn't optimized for high bandwidth usage (like streaming music/videos) but it definitely has a place in my internet usage portfolio. To use TOR, you need access to a small kit of software that includes the TOR router and the TOR browser (a locked down customized version of the Mozilla Firefox browser). <img src="https://ekiledjian2.micro.blog/uploads/2025/4bf3ee060e.jpg" alt=""> The Great Firewall of China site test tool confirms that the TOR Project website is blocked.
The New York Times now available on TOR
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” — Voltaire When the average consumer thinks about TOR (which isn't very often), they imagine that it is the ugly, damp & rancid underbelly of the internet. Reality is that TOR is a US government-funded project to create anonymity on the internet. It is a platform that allows everyone to have a voice without fear of punishment or even death (think political activists).
Karma releases an anonymizing hotspot
Open a magazine, newspaper, your local nightly news or almost internet blog, and you will be confronted with news about another security breach. Breaches, breaches everywhere. Concerned netizens are trying to find ways to protect themselves when online and to protect their privacy. In response, I have written a bunch of articles (such as): KeepSolid VPN Unlimited Review Review of Private Internet Access (PIA) Honest review of the ProtonVPN service Honest review of the Tunnelbear VPN service VyprVPN Review Review of HideMyAss VPN (HMA) The above reviews were VPN services, but what if you wanted a piece of hardware that was portable and could be used with any WIFI enabled device?