Your Safety and Privacy Online: The CIA and NSA
Your Safety and Privacy Online: The CIA and NSA
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Overview
The purpose of this book is to provide an average computer user with the knowledge that will help them stay safe while online, as well as help them make privacy choices that work for them. My goal is to explain online threats in terms that don't require a technical background to understand. All techno-speak will be limited, and where it cannot be avoided, I will first be explained in common non-computer terms.
This book should be accessible to anyone with enough computer knowledge to use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media, do some online shopping, use google to search for cat videos and pay your bills online, all the important stuff. If you are comfortable doing those things, you are in the core demographic for this book.
While this book was written with a US consumer in mind, this book will be equally applicable all over the world. There may be an occasional inside joke that folks outside the USA won't understand, but that shouldn't detract anything from the book.
What is different about this book is that I'm targeting non-technical folks and I'm explaining the issues and the threats without resulting to scare tactics or threats which seem so prevalent in today's security training. Something called FUD, Fear Uncertainty and Doubt is very prevalent in today information security space. I'm avoiding all FUD in this book.
If I were to summarize this book in a few short bullet points, it would be like this:
- Don't be clicking on links or attachments in strange, unexpected emails
- Don't share your password, like ever
- Do use a password manager for all your password
- Do use long, unpredictable, and unique passwords for every site.
- Do use critical thinking skills and don't be swayed by emotions.
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940163650538 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | InfoSecHelp LLC |
| Publication date: | 09/07/2019 |
| Sold by: | Draft2Digital |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Siggi Bjarnason is an expert cybersecurity professional with four decades of computer and online experience. Born in Iceland, Siggi spent much of his adult life in Seattle, Washington. In Washington, he lived through the development of a groundbreaking form of technology that would revolutionize not only the tech industry but the world as we know it. Everyone now knows this groundbreaking technology as the internet.
In the early 1980s, while still a teenager, Siggi developed an interest in computers as a hobby. By the mid-1990s, he turned that hobby into a profession. You could say that he was a pioneer in the birth of the internet when he worked as a network engineer at Microsoft during its infancy. Siggi has communicated and explored online since the mid-1980s, even though the first public web browser wasn’t available until 1994.
Siggi’s newest venture, InfoSecHelp, is specifically designed to help those with limited technical knowhow to stay safe online. It doesn’t matter if it is a home computer, small business, or large enterprise, InfoSecHelp can help.
Siggi’s enthusiasm for technology is what drives him to find new ways to help people stay on top of the changing digital landscape. By assisting people in remaining safe online and avoiding scams that could damage their systems and their wallets, he hopes computer users can fully enjoy the marvels of the internet.
In his free time, Siggi enjoys the simple things in life like listening to music, attending live theater events, and going ballroom dancing. Additionally, Siggi enjoys volunteering for organizations that help his community. He is a volunteer for the American Red Cross, Public Health Reserve Corps (PHRC), and other similar organizations. For Siggi, nothing is more important than finding ways to enjoy life, whether that be through computers, working with others, or listening to his favorite album.
Table of Contents
About This Book 1
About the Author 2
Introduction 5
General Principles 8
Threat Modeling 8
Threat Actors 17
Nation-State Threat Actors 17
Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) 18
Organized Crime Groups 18
Hacktivists 18
Random Threat Actor 19
Script Kiddies 19
Privacy 19
Physical Address Privacy 21
Once Posted, It Never Goes Away 24
Loading Remote Content in E-mails 24
Free Stuff 30
Free Seminars 34
Raffles and Drawings 35
Critical Thinking Skills 35
Paranoia minus Tinfoil Hats 37
Shared Computers 40
Social Engineering 41
A Balancing Act 42
Deleting Files 44
Keep Things Updated 46
Multiple E-mail Accounts 50
Parts of a URL 52
Where Is an E-mail Address Hosted? 56
CIA and NSA 59
Confidentiality 60
Integrity 61
Availability 63
Encryption 63
Overview 63
Encryption Types and Categories 65
Hashing 71
Authentication 74
Authentication Factors 74
Authentication Factor Categories 75
General Authentication Factor Overview 83
Password Selection and Handling 86
Managing Passwords 96
Physical Password Managers 99
Sticky Notes 101
The Notepad 101
Password Manager Applications 101
Federated Logins 113
Remember Me 115
NSA, SSL, TLS, VPN, and TLA 116
NSA 116
SSL and TLS 116
VPNs Defined 119
VPN Use Cases 121
Problems with Public Hotspots 122
Selecting a Good VPN Service 124
Malware Threats 127
Viruses and Worms 127
Trojan Horse 127
Malvertising 131
Ways to Get Infected with Malware 132
Protection Approaches 135
Example 137
Scams, Cons, and Other Dangers 138
Let's Go Phishing 138
Common Scams 159
Scareware 161
Fake Sales 165
Free Offers 168
Saving Money on Sales 168
Bait and Switch 169
Clickbait 169
Congratulatory Ads 170
General Offer of Help 171
Common Themes 172
In Closing 174
Appendix 176
References 176