Steve Ensley
Internet Safety Specialist
Norton Symantec reports pcAnywhere security breach!
January 27th, 2012
If you are using pcAnywhere, the company is recommending you disable or uninstall the product until they can release a new version. It seems their code was stolen and is in the hands of hackers.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/26/dont-use-our-product-symantec-warns-customers/
As an ISP (American Family Online) and a filtering company, we see lots of issues with Norton products, but this one goes beyond performance or efficiency. Apparently code has been stolen that will allow a hacker unimpeded access to your computer if you are running pcAnwhere. The article above does not give a lot of technical detail, but it looks like it might be wise to uninstall pcAnywhere if you are using it for remote access to your computer. I recommend you read the entire article because it has some good suggestions regarding the issue.
As remote access and functionality continue to improve, so too does the security risk. I know a lot of folks just don’t want to bother with security or may be overwhelmed by the issue, but folks it is not optional. Unless you want to add to the complications of life, you need to be concerned about computer security.
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Google announces privacy changes; users CAN NOT opt out
January 25th, 2012
Wow! This happened even faster than I thought it would! A quote from within the article above says it all:
“There is no way anyone expected this,” said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group. “There is no way a user can comprehend the implication of Google collecting across platforms for information about your health, political opinions and financial concerns.”
Folks, forget the spin from the Google people and the government about how this will help privacy. The information collected by Google will virtually allow anyone with authority to know exactly where you are and what you are doing at any time. And it is well known that Google is tightly connected with the current administration. On OpenSecrets.org, Google is listed as the top contributor to the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Google is the 800 pound gorilla in the room that no one is talking about.
I will try to keep you informed as more detail become available. As for me, I have officially stopped using Google search, email and document services. I also turned off all GPS functions on my android phone and will find a phone that has nothing to do with Google (if I can).
Developing …..
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Facebook Gives Politico Deep Access to Users Political Sentiments
January 17th, 2012
Ok, this should scare you if you use Facebook to share any political thoughts or share thoughts that some one may THINK is political.
http://allthingsd.com/20120112/facebook-gives-politico-deep-access-to-users-political-sentiments/
This excerpt was taken from the above article and WILL result in your personal and private Facebook information/thoughts becoming exposed!
“A partnership between Facebook and Politico announced today is one of the more far-reaching efforts. It will consist of sentiment analysis reports and voting-age user surveys, accompanied by stories by Politico reporters.
Most notably, the Facebook-Politico data set will include Facebook users’ private status messages and comments. While that may alarm some people, Facebook and Politico say the entire process is automated and no Facebook employees read the posts.
Rather, every post and comment — both public and private — by a U.S. user that mentions a presidential candidate’s name will be fed through a sentiment analysis tool that spits out anonymized measures of the general U.S. Facebook population.”
So I am often told I am paranoid about Internet privacy. It is not paranoia when it is true! Bit by bit, drip by drip, your privacy, your security are being eroded. Give it a rest I am told? My response is I can’t give it a rest. Two many men and women died to give us that privacy and freedom! And we are squandering it away by letting technology rule our lives.
Read the book ’1984′ by George Orwell. What he wrote as fiction is happening today! And folks DO NOT BELIEVE IT when they say no employee will see the data, it JUST ISN’T TRUE.
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