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Privacy

Privacy is the main concern for many people. Although you wouldn’t want applications to have certain information such as your current location, among other things, users tend to give permission to most apps to access all their information, thereby giving it up to automate everyday life. Thus, this allows users to connect with others all around the world.

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Online privacy’s intent is to ensure the users that their personal information will be protected. However, the new media tools have made it harder to protect user’s personal information when the essence is to share and collaborate. Many sites ask their users to agree with a privacy statement that encloses how personal information is gathered, who has access to it, and most likely how will the information be used if used at all.

The privacy statement should always be thoroughly read by the agreeing party. The personal information that the sites usually ask for from the registering user is their name, age, address, education level, and etc. The personal information requested upon registration also varies depending on what type of media site it is that the user is registering with.

Recent issues that deal with privacy flaws are online hackers that are capable of stealing personal information if the sites are not secure enough or the potential revenue source that such information could bring when willingly sold to advertisers by the businesses. [1]

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The issues of privacy and confidentiality are related to new media. In these tech-savvy times, users should be aware that whatever they put out on the internet can be used against them. The issue of privacy is also a problem because many sites steal information and sell it to others without permission. Thus, the user has to be very careful with new media. According to "Attack Ad Marks New Era For Millennials Running for Office" by Jessica Taylor, the generation of millennials are very much affected by this issue of privacy. Democrat Jon Ossoff, a very young candidate, was running in a Georgia special election. His opponent used an ad that showed some unflattering college footage found on Youtube from Ossoff's college days, which went against his conservative state. In the past years, oppositions would have to dig through to find any flaws of their rivals to use against them. Now, they don't have to go much farther than googling the opponent's name or going through a photo section of their Facebook account. Another issue of privacy can be seen through credit/debit card transactions. Nowadays, we all want to make our life simple and convenient. Using a card means we have to carry less and don't have to worry about having enough money on us when we go out. In the article, "Target Works on Security-Heavy Credit Cards, After Breach" by Dara Keer, Target's customer information was once hacked into and stolen, affecting as many as 110 million customers. Now, Target is strengthening its protection over credit card transactions, using chip-enabled smart cards. These chips protect against credit card frauds and online hackers. The issue of privacy is still a concern for many consumers of new media, and we should all educate ourselves to stay protected. [2]

The popularity of internet use and the emergence of novel technology are impacting the effort of preventing loss of privacy. Because of the exponential increase in the volume of information and in the speed of information flow, participants have more discretion in what they do and how they want to do. But in the aspect of preventing privacy loss, anyone can become a victim of a potential loss of privacy; and it is not uncommon to see cyber-bullying and scams happen on a daily basis due to a user information leak.

Nowadays, most smartphones have an embedded location service feature that enables users of social networks to post updates with their location displayed. Therefore, any interested party can utilize this feature to learn the routines of a user. While the purpose of social networks is to maintain and extend the interpersonal relationship, participants are facing an increasing risk of privacy loss.

New media has created new issues in privacy and confidentiality. The biggest concern now is our rights as users. Sometimes, people create accounts and it asks for private information, such as name, email, address, amongst other sensitive information. Most of the time companies sell that information to a third party whether it is for research or advertising. As a result, it is important that people have a right to their privacy, and their right to not have their information sold.

Other apps within these sites also have access to your information. However, Facebook addresses privacy settings, it allows us to adjust for privacy to photos, posts, and profile, so the user can adjust according to who they want to see what they post. They also require third-party apps to show what they access when you sign up for the service. In addition, most services now allow you to keep your profile private except for approved friends. This is easy to do and makes it easy to decide who can see the content you post.

Privacy should be very important to some people. People do not like to share personal information especially if it is with people they just met. However, once a person opens a social network, their privacy will diminish if the person is not careful. The whole purpose of having a social network is to share information with your family and friends. Yet, some people provide more information than is required. It is very difficult for a person with different kinds of social networks to have privacy.

Particularly if that person likes to post every single thing he/she does on a daily basis, makes comments about every single thing, and so on. There are many different types of information we can find on a person’s social network. “The profile contains a photo, first name, last name, date of birth, E-mail ID, mobile number, workplace, home town, his current location, etc.,” Devmane and Rana (2012) stated [3]. This means that if somebody wants to know your phone number or where you work, they just have to go to your profile. In addition, the more information you post about yourself, the more I know about you. For instance, if you post your hobbies, your favorite color, your mother and father’s name, etc., I will know that information.

Moreover, when people create their social media account they mostly forget to check their privacy settings. This is a huge mistake people make when they create their profile, whether is on Facebook or LinkedIn, for the first time. The privacy settings are where you can choose the people that you want to see your profile. Most of the people set their accounts for just their friends to see. This option lets just the friends of a particular person see all the information he/she posts, this way other people that don't know you can't see your profile.

On the other hand, some people just do not change the settings. Others just do not mind strangers seeing their personal information and perhaps sharing it with other people. They leave their profile with the default setting, which lets every single person see his/her information. “It is observed that at the time of registration with the OSN (Online Social Network), the user doesn’t take these privacy settings seriously, so most of the data remains accessible to everyone. This leads to loss of privacy or personal information leakage,” Devmane and Rana (2012) said in the article. This is when your privacy is in jeopardy and people can take advantage of this. Again here if your profile is not private, it is a lot easier to know your information.

Some people don't see how dangerous it can be by not take privacy seriously because privacy is like a vaccine and not taking vaccination seriously promotes a sick society. According to Laas-Mikko and Sutrop, “Privacy can be described as limited to the ‘sphere’ surrounding the person, within which that person has the right to control access to himself or herself.” So, it is wrong to not be concerned about the loss of privacy.

As we know, privacy is essential and important to both individuals and society and intertwined with several other humans and social values like autonomy, equality, freedom, trust, and democracy. According to Rachel’s account, when gossip about you is being circulated, you feel threatened by the loss of control over your personal information and you don’t have any control over what is being said about you and to whom the information is being given (Deborah G. Johnson).

In a nutshell, since privacy is so tightly tied with many other human and social values needed to live an honest, law-abiding, and rewarding life, violating it puts these values at risk and undermines the pillars of our civil society.

Furthermore, because privacy, autonomy, and democracy are seamless with one another, violating anyone is like breaking the genetic code that ties the liver, the lungs, and the heart together. If someone’s privacy is at risk at any given time, his autonomy (ability to do what he will) and democracy (ability to live a free and autonomous life) will also be at risk. Fried (1968), George Orwell’s (1984), and Zamyatin’s We (1920) said, friendship, intimacy, trust, and mutual respect could not develop or become established in societies where individuals are constantly being watched (Deborah G. Johnson P.91).

The author’s notion about privacy goes beyond crimes because as rational beings we need privacy to create a rich diversity of relationships. As per our discussion in class, the way information flows in surveillance societies makes it difficult for someone to know who has information about him and whether the information is true, wrong, or unimportant. McFarland in his article “Why We Care about Privacy” talks about how Fred Draper’s irrelevant records as a gang member in the past led to his discharge from a Wall Street law firm. Thus, privacy seems essential because the revelation of information be it genuine, irrelevant, or erroneous can leave the subject vulnerable in many situations like applying for a loan, a job, or an academic opportunity.

Privacy and the Digital Age

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The Digital Revolution, which transitioned the world into the Age of the Internet, has been largely responsible for redefining how individuals view privacy and what they choose to share about themselves. Privacy has always been seen as a sensitive issue in Western culture with clashing views between younger liberals and the older conservative generation. Needless to say, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have vastly expanded the general public's “tolerance” for privacy and the public information known about oneself. Recent studies show that 91% of teens post photos of themselves publicly (up from 79% in 2006) as well as their real names (92%) and birth dates (82%) (Madden, et. al).

This study alone shows how privacy issues truly are in the realm of social networking. Specifically, the teenage demographic seems to be the most troubling in terms of how freely they disclose personal information. The same study showed that a startlingly low 9% of teens on social networking sites are “very concerned” with third-party access to their personal information (Madden, et. al). The study also notes that in contrast to Facebook, Twitter profiles tend to be public due to the more collaborative nature of the platform. In fact, over 60% of teen Twitter accounts are open to the public (Madden, et. al).

In addition to the declining sense of privacy due to social networking, users of these platforms are reported to be unsure of what public information is specifically being released to third-parties (Madden, et. al). The fact that Internet users are more liberal with private information to the extent that they are not aware of what data is being publicly shared is startling.

The true problem lies not in what personal information is being shared, rather whether users are conscious of what they are disclosing. However, popular social networking sites such as Facebook have made efforts to improve the growing privacy concerns. Many speculate that Facebook’s increased privacy interest could stem from the public’s attention to the subject (Parry). Truthfully, the spread of information globally is something that most likely will not slow down. Nevertheless, it is critical to monitor what personal details are being disclosed closely to promote the existence of boundaries and privacy in the Digital Age.

Future of Privacy Within Big Data

Big data!

As the amount of big data increases, there must be an increase in data security and measures to keep our consumers safe. So much of our world is now digitalized and efficient that we need to protect and privacy more than ever. In fact, our privacy will decrease as time goes on and it will be a luxury, if at all. In fact, Alexander Tsesis writes “Consumers and researchers are often at the mercy of technology they only partially understand, with little they can do to prevent third parties from acquiring and then using sophisticated algorithms to connect details about their online habits with personal-and sometimes embarrassing-information on family, health, and relationship histories.[5]” This is a great point – besides the fact that tons of information will be online and publicized, some consumers will not even be properly educated on how to navigate the interwebs and probably be vulnerable to leaking personal information such as his or her social security number and other important information. And I believe Alex will be right – people will be at the mercy of public information as nothing will ever go away forever once it’s online. Any information that a consumer accidentally releases life-destroying information will never be able to take it back as users will be able to eventually uncover it no matter how deeply buried it is on the internet. Moreover, privacy has become more important now since an issue that companies are even offering services that help "erase" or help hide stories way back down in the history of google search.

As a result of this phenomenon, some new companies have also come to fruition to help consumers bury certain details that may be unattractive to future employers or even significant others! It happens – a consumer may slip a curse, upload a picture with two hands full of beer, or even have a video of him or herself doing something extremely vulgar or dumb. Social media has become a quick and easy way for stalkers to monitor and harass their victims. A lot of people are not too careful of what they are posting on the net sometimes, what you post on the Net can be very affecting people or can come back to haunt you down. We all make mistakes and we are all human in our own ways. However, as technology advances and as almost all of our information becomes increasingly public online, this is bound to happen. One example of a company that performs this service for you is “https://www.abine.com/optouts.php.” According to its website, Abine provides services that remove certain online records by simply burying it as deep as possible where a person would have to search extra hard and probably take hours instead of the top few listings on a Google search. They also help with online privacy which will become an increasing problem in the future as big data increases and the exposure to the public increases.

We should all be very careful from now on especially about what we say or do online. On the Internet before hiring an employee if a prospective employee has posted something embarrassing on social media, it can drastically affect their chances of getting that dream job just because of the way that person uses his social network sites in the past. It will always be there and it’ll be extremely difficult to take something back or at all. The only recourse would be to prevent it in the first place and hopefully, we don’t say or do anything that we would regret, but of course – it will invariably happen.

Trackers on Devices

Tracking devices are placed in smartphones when they are being produced so they can be used for user's convenience. When a person needs help finding their way around, they turn to the GPS on their smartphones. Once the user turns their location on, their location can be tracked down and pin-pointed to allow for precise directions. Since such applications exist on smartphones, that would mean a person's smartphone can be tracked at any given point in time. Regardless of whether a person has their location option on, the tracking device will still be there allowing for others to track down a person's location. It becomes a frightening thought that you can be tracked down if someone had access to the tracking device on your smartphone just by using it.

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Our rights to privacy can be compromised at any time or at any place by the temptations from social networking sites. It is all because of the implementation of LBS (Location Based Service). LBS is being widely integrated into today’s many mobile applications. It collects a user’s geographic data from mobile devices in order to provide more value-added services. Most of us have been prompted the message say “…would like to use your current location” where users can either choose to allow or decline the feature. The application of LBS is more commonly seen on mobile apps that allow users to “check-in” at different places and to search for others that are within a certain distance. Many users are taking it for granted without thinking how it might have put themselves at risk for privacy loss and even put their lives in great danger.

Type of Threats

There are many types of threats on the Internet such as various viruses, Email Spoofing, Electronic Spam, Phishing, Overseas Money Transfer Scam, Trojan Horse Programs, and cyber pirates. A virus is a harmful malware that copies itself to attach itself to a user’s computer data. Its intention is to create an exploit to steal space from people’s computers and takes up CPU time making the computer run slowly. A virus can be passed on to other people when a file containing the virus is sent to another person. A trojan is a type of virus that doesn’t replicate itself and doesn’t spread like viruses. Email Spoofing is a way people forged email to appear as it was sent by a reliable person. The Better Business Bureau [1]warns that we should be suspicious of offers of the beneficiary of a will, bogus cashier checks, donation solicitation, and fake websites.

Privacy and Advertising

With advertisers able to use new media to gather more data about consumers, there is a struggle to find a balance between what is collecting too much data on consumers where it is an invasion of their privacy and what is needed to learn more about them to make more effective advertising. People generally don't like advertisements, so if advertisers are able to present more relevant ads, then consumers may not feel as inconvenienced as they would feel if they were seeing ads that did not apply to them.

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A big problem is when companies, especially social media sites, do not respect the boundaries of privacy. For example, Facebook[6] has storage of personal information that is given to third-party companies for use in creating specific advertisements for users. In fact, they may even use a user's personal image in a commercial if that user liked a company on Facebook.[7] Companies like Facebook have no qualms about manipulating users into giving up their privacy.

On Facebook, whenever a user writes or shares anything, or simply “like” a product’s page, the amount of information he or she is sending out is large. Because agencies including advertisers, marketing analysts, and the like are collecting user information that is later used for e-mail spamming, and scams. Although the exchange and trade of user information are for the purpose of analysis and advertising is not criminal, uses always face an unforeseeable threat that their information would be in the hands of unethical parties. Therefore, it is important to raise awareness of online security.

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Well-known retail corporations such as Target often partake in this desire to gather intel on every individual customer to effectively target every consumer’s personal preferences. Target assigns each shopper with a unique code that keeps tabs on everything they buy. For instance, an ID number that is also linked to a demographic information page, which includes everything about you from your name to your address and estimated yearly salary, even what types of credit cards you carry in your wallet. They collect the most specific details they can find on a person, details one would think are completely irrelevant on the matter, however, they analyze it. Every major retailer has the “predictive analytics” department designed to understand both: the consumers’ and their personal habits, to more efficiently market to them and profit from doing so. They want to know everything they can about you so they can use it to trick you into buying their products. (Duhigg, How Companies Learn Your Secrets). [8]

A couple of years ago, Target recognized its 16-year-old customer that she was pregnant from her past purchasing habits. Then, Target kept sending emails, coupons regarding pregnancy, which eventually led her parents to find out about her pregnancy. Sometimes, Advertising can interfere with one’s privacy. It should provide its customers with some control over what they are receiving. [9]

Software Attacks

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There are three types of different software attacks cybercriminals use to attack web users. (1)Remote attacks needing user action, (2) Remote attacks needing no user action, and (3) Attacks by programmers developing a system. Cybercriminals use these methods to access your system and gain access to your information. Many times these attacks are profit-driven and sensitive information can be sold on the black market for large sums of money. [10]

(1) Remote attacks needing user action

Malware - Collection of hostile software intended to damage or disable computer systems coming in the form of executable codes, scripts, active content, and other software.

Virus - Computer codes that perform malicious actions by attaching to another computer program.

Worm - Segment of computer codes that perform malicious actions and will replicate itself, or spread without requiring other computer programs.

Phishing Attacks - Uses deception in the form of official-looking emails and instant messages to acquire sensitive personal information.

(2) Remote attacks need no user action

Denial of Service Attack - The attacker sends immense amounts of service requests to the user in order to crash their system and therefore rendering it useless

Distributed Denial of Service Attack - Similar to denial of service attacks, except the initial systems that the attacker becomes bots for the attacker to attack more systems.

(3) Attacks by programmers developing a system

Trojan Horse - Software programs that hide in other programs and are activated to reveal their designs

Back Door - A password that typically only the attacker knows that grants him access to the entire system of the attacked. This allows the attacker to bypass all security measures.

A botnet is a collection of compromised computers under the remote command and control of a criminal "bot herder" (also known as botmaster, zombie master). A bot herder can gain control of these computers by unleashing malicious software such as viruses, worms, Trojan horses. These are done generally by luring users into downloading files or programs.

Individual computer users unintentionally allow unauthorized access by: 1. running outdated Anti-virus and Anti-malware software 2. running an unpatched Operating System and/or unpatched common applications 3. click on an advertisement

Encryption

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Definitions

Encryption is the method by which information is converted into a secret code that hides the information's true meaning. Encryption is a good way to prevent others from accessing people's private data. Encryption has been a longstanding way for sensitive information to be protected. Historically, it was used by the military and governments. In modern times, encryption is used to protect data stored on computers and storage devices, as well as data in transit over networks. The science of encrypting and decrypting information is called cryptography.

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Encryption plays an important role in securing many different types of information technology (IT) assets. It provides the following:

  • Confidentiality: encodes the message's content
  • Authentication: verifies the origin of a message
  • Integrity: proves the contents of a message have not been changed since it was sent
  • Non-repudiation: prevents senders from denying they sent the encrypted message

Major components

Encryption is used to protect the information being relayed when people use an ATM or buys something online with a smartphone. Businesses are relying on encryption to protect applications and sensitive information. Encryption inhabits our every waking moment so life as we know it would be practically impossible without it.

In laptop encryption, there are three major components that are running or stored in the same place. They are the data, the encryption engine, and the key management. The three components usually run or are stored in separate places to reduce the chance that compromise of any single component could result in the compromise of the entire system.

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  • The data

It is important to leverage encryption as part of your broader IT security efforts. Data classification policies and tools facilitate the separation of valuable information that may be targeted from less valuable information. Classification tools can be used to improve the treatment and handling of sensitive data. Therefore, it promotes a culture of security which helps to enforce data governance policies and prevent inadvertent disclosure.

  • The encryption engine

It is cryptographic encoding and decoding of data that is executed within a database engine. Encryption can be executed at many locations, including application servers, database management system servers, and appliances.

  • The key management

The first step in gathering information is to gain a clear understanding of the organization's inventory by centrally managing keys and certificates. Critical aspects of key management include encryption key lifecycle management and heterogeneous key management. Encryption key lifecycle management can be overwhelming to organizations with a large number of keys. Keys must be protected with a reliable key management solution from the moment they are created through their lifecycle of initiation, distribution, activation, deactivation, and termination. Heterogeneous key management allows for unified access to all of the encryption keys and a 360-degree single pane of glass view into the overall strategy.

The encryption process

The first step of the encryption process is that the sender must decide what cipher will best disguise the meaning of the message and what variable to use as a key to making the encoded message unique. The most common types of ciphers: symmetric and asymmetric

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  • Symmetric ciphers (secret key encryption) use a single key. The key refers to a shared secret because the sender or computing system doing the encryption must share the secret key with all entities authorized to decrypt the message.
  • Asymmetric ciphers (public-key encryption) use two different but logically linked keys. It uses prime numbers to create keys since it is computationally difficult to factor large prime numbers and reverse-engineer the encryption.

Symmetric key encryption is much faster than asymmetric encryption. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) used symmetric key encryption to protect government-classified information. Nowadays, symmetric is used to encrypt data, and asymmetric is used to securely exchange the secret key.

Types of encryption

  • Bring your own encryption (BYOE) is a cloud computing security model that enables cloud service customers to use their own encryption software and manage their own encryption keys.
  • Cloud storage encryption is a service offered by cloud storage providers whereby data or text is transformed using encryption algorithms and is then placed in cloud storage.
  • column-level encryption is an approach to database encryption in which the information in every cell in a particular column has the same password for access, reading, and writing purposes.
  • Deniable encryption is a type of cryptography that enables an encrypted text to be decrypted in two or more ways, depending on which decryption key is used.
  • Encryption as a Service (EaaS) is a subscription model that makes cloud service customers take advantage of the security. It provides users who lack the resources to manage encryption themselves with a way to deal with regulatory compliance concerns and protect data in a multi-tenant environment.
  • HTTPS enables website encryption by running HTTP over the TLS protocol. It helps a web server to encrypt all content that it sends. But a public key certificate must be installed.

Privacy and Social Media

Social Media, a major cornerstone in the digital age, including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Snap Chat, Twitter< makes up a large component of individual interactions and documentations of peoples files, in which befriending individuals is a simple task which allows the accessing of the individuals' person profile. Many users have concerns over the privacy and confidentiality of information being shared and uploaded. They believe that certain social networking websites also sell user information to certain marketing companies to make extra profit.

Marketing companies can track people's online activity and use that information to tailor their advertising to a specific customer.[11] Social networking sites can also collect and store personal data that can be easily used by strangers. Marketing agencies are allowed to track all websites that the user visits in order to get to know the user’s interest better. In addition, social networking users have higher risk of identity fraud. The incidence of identity fraud in 2011 raised to about 5 percent of the adult United States population. But among Facebook users with public profiles, the rate was 7.5 percent, while users who accept “friend” requests from strangers had an even higher rate, of nearly 9 percent.[12] On the other hand, there have been instances when people lost their jobs just because of something they uploaded or commented about on Facebook via their profile.

Moreover, employers or recruiters always check potential employee's profiles before they decide if they should be hired. So are we safe on these social networking websites and do we have any privacy as individuals? To make sure that your information is private, I will recommend everyone to go to their profile setting and disable anything which allows the website to share your information. We think that we only know what we are doing on these sites, but in reality it is opposite.[1] In compilation, every interaction and activity in the digital age is recorded and watched.

To wake up one morning and find yourself bankrupt thanks to identity theft: all of us are in the scanner, being watched, scrutinized and are possible targets and victims. An article provided by ITPRO called "what to do if your data is being sold online" talks about "Around 600,000 people in the UK had their personal details stolen over the last year and the staggering thing is, criminals are able to buy information including email addresses, passwords, card details and even bank account details for around 19 euros a pop. We have transcended from the issue of physical privacy to a relation one. It is important to be cautious about posting on social networking sites. Giving away personal information can result in cyberstalking, cyberbullying, identity theft, and can hurt chances of employment.

Social media sites are tapping uncomfortably into many user’s privacy and security networks. They tap into people’s personal networks by allowing users to fill out basic information on their profiles about their education, relationship status, and work experience. They can also share their photos and videos that they either filmed themselves or they have seen through YouTube. Social media have even advanced to share locations with friends. People can post the location of spots they have eaten from or places they have visited. Privacy has even gone to the point where people can find out what people are interested in based on what people shared and what people like.

Even when posts are private this does not guarantee that the posts are protected. There have been many instances where privacy has been compromised due to crimes. This puts tech companies in a difficult situation because many criminals communicate through social media or on their cellular device. Police investigators usually inquire owners of social media and cellular companies in order to solve cases. However, this puts these companies in a difficult predicament since this would be a compromise of privacy to users, which will have a detrimental and long lasting effect on the future of the business and force companies to lose credibility with their customers.

Personal Information Exposure on Social Network Service

People don't realize that everything they do or post on the social media ties back to exposure of personal information. There are so many media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc. and for all these accounts you must add personal information to open and get access to it. One way or another all these social medias connect with each other and it’s a way for others to connect with you. They all also have specific privacy settings but the question is how private your information may actually be. On the internet, nothing is ever going to be private especially if you can share and link it with other things on your accounts.

The most popular social media platforms are the ones that have the most access to more personal information. One site in particular such as Instagram which also uses cookies, along with other features like your location. Instagram uses your location to suggest advertisements that may be more relevant to you based on where you live and spend your time. The site has allowed you to see what type of posts your friends are liking in real time and more recently, made it even easier by allowing you to scroll through hours of your friends and followers’ likes.

If you’re not careful and thorough when looking and adjusting your privacy settings, and it’s made easy to miss, Instagram can access your other social media profiles, third-party websites and even your contact list on your phone. Once you post a photo, it isn’t yours anymore. Anyone anywhere can re-post the photo that you’ve posted which they probably discovered through use of hashtags and similar posts and use it for their own benefit or profit [2]. Data collecting software applications tend to use customer’s personal information and sell them for a profit. This is an invasion of privacy and can be harmful if it is not used in an ethical way. Also, many people are not comfortable with their personal information and interests being tracked and spied by others, for personal benefits.


According to the study, out of 6.5 million Facebook account, exposure of personally identifiable information is less than 1%. However, with non-personal identify information, researchers could have distinguished 207 thousand accounts just by the name, because users have a unique name, which is 3.1%. 2.26 million accounts are distinguishable just by using names and what high school they are from, which is 34.4%. In addition, if you add university into the statistic, 45.2% of accounts, meaning 2.975 million accounts, are distinguishable.[13] This study shows the information we provide on social media could lead to following problems.

Cyberstalking

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Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet or electronics to stalk or harass individuals, groups or organizations. Cyberstalking may also include identity theft and is a form of cyberbullying. Cyber-stalking may be posting fake edited pictures of someone to humiliate the person or spying on someone’s computer. In addition, cyberstalking may include defamation, slander and false accusation. Cyber-stalking has devastating impact on youngsters to whom online profiles equal to their personal lives. Malicious posts often are cause of depression and misbehavior in school for teenagers and sometimes can lead to suicides. Cyberstalking is considered a crime and there are federal and state laws against cyberstalking. [14].

A supplementary victimization survey showed that 83 percent of Internet stalking was done by sending emails to the victim and 35% by instant messaging.[15] Women are more likely to be stalked online. Cyberstalking can result in being humiliated as well as harassed. It has hurt people financially as the cyberstalkers have accessed their victim's accounts and hurt their credit.[16] . As a precautious measure, a user should never make sensitive information including address, phone number and photos available to all. By doing this will block the malicious individuals from accessing information that is directly related to a user. Of course, it cannot completely prevent users from getting sales calls and junk emails. But to say the least, physical safety is ensured. In my opinion, the most important thing is never enable “check in” feature on our mobile apps that reveals exact location of a user. Just think of it this way, it might be a fun way to share with friends where you are and to learn if any of your friends are nearby at the same time. What if one day, one of your friends’ account was hacked and the attacker sees you as a specific target. After learning you exact location, a number of horrible things could happen, which is only the matter of time.

Cyberbullying

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With the introduction of social media to progressively younger generations who have yet developed the skills set needed to differentiate what is someone’s opinion and what are facts, can be adversely affected by what their peers say. What is worse is that cyber bullying through various social media sites often happen through person as well. Whereas, before the introduction of technology, children were only open to be bullied in person at school but once they came home they were safe from such oppressive and negative behavior.

However, with the advancement of technology and the easy accessibility of social media, cyber bullying has become available twenty-four hours a day, and can happen at any moment. The worse thing about cyber bullying is that it can be anonymous. Having the power to be anonymous allows the person to be even more powerful since they can truly speak their mind and disregard the victim’s feelings and hold no accountability for their actions.

Cyber bullying is bullying that occurs using electronic technology. Electronic technology includes devices such as cellphones and computers, as well as communication tools such as social media sites. Social networking sites always encourage people to be more public then private about their personal lives on the online world because intimate details of our lives can be posted so easily, users are prone to by pass the filters they might normally use when talking about their private lives.

Examples of cyber bullying includes mean text messages or emails, rumors /false information on social networking sites and embarrassing photos or videos on the web. Victims of cyber bullying are usually middle school students and high school students. Cyber bullying is similar to cyber stalking but it is more severe and extreme form of online malicious behavior. It is illegal and many institutions has been on alert to prevent cyber bullying. Contributing to social media is no longer just 'for fun'. What someone says or does has long lasting effects and it is no longer just words being posted. There has been numerous suicides over people posting hateful and mindless comments. It is not something that should be done by anyone at any age because what happens online does not go away and can haunt someone for the rest of their life.

Ditch the Label conducted a cyberbullying survey in 2013 with more than 10,000 young people surveyed. [17] 7 in 10 young people are victims of cyberbullying.[18] 20% of young people are experiencing extreme cyberbullying on a daily basis. [19] New research suggests that young males and females are equally at risk of being cyberbullied.[20] 54% of young people using Facebook said that they have experienced cyberbullying on the site.[21] Facebook, Ask.FM and Twitter were found to be the most likely sources of cyberbullying.[22]

Cyberbullying has also, unfortunately, been a major cause in death among adolescents in recent years. The world is for sure changing. We as a society live in a day and age where it is more widely accepted to love who you love and be who you want to be. However, with this acceptance also comes a great deal of close mindedness. This is often where cyberbullying begins, especially among those that are in their moldable years. Cyberbullying can often not only destroy spirit, but also destroy a life while at it. For example of situation that happened not long ago, a group of girls in high school fought another girl while they were in the bathroom and end up killing her because they all fought her at the same time. And went on social media after her death saying they always hated her. Of course young people is the primary concern of this situation.

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[23]

Examples of Cyberbullying

Perhaps one of the saddest stories of cyberbullying is the story of Megan Meier. Just a rather vulnerable 13 year old with some insecurities as well as ADD, Megan was duped into befriending who she thought was a nice boy on MySpace, a social networking site. Her excitement of gaining the friendship of a male who actually found her attractive simply excited her. The two never had any contact other than on social media. Unfortunately with some time, however, Josh began to fade away and act in the completely opposite way that he had initially been. He would tell Megan that the world did not need her, along with other hurtful things. These very hurtful words cause a very young, defenseless girl just three weeks short of her 14th birthday to hang herself in her bedroom closet within minutes upon receiving Josh's final message. [24]

Others

Some more disadvantages of privacy and the Internet are theft of personal information, spamming, and virus threats. When you use the internet personal information can be stolen by many people. When you put things out online such as your name, credit card number, and where you live, these things are at risk of being used by other people (Pakhare 2011). Spamming is another invasion of privacy where you are sent e-mails that you do not want and take up space on your system. These e-mails are an invasion of privacy and can be very annoying. Virus threats can invade your privacy on the Internet and they can do much damage to a person’s computer as well (Pakhare 2011).

Ways to Ward Off Cyberthieves Outside the Office

Here are tips to keep your computer and phone secure when working remotely.

It was later found that Josh did not even really exist. Instead, the actual person sending all of these messages was the mother of one of Megan's former friends. Lori Drew, the woman who created the fake MySpace, took it upon herself to torment Megan to the point of suicide. Stunts like the one Drew pulled happen much too often. This is usually because it is so much easier to hide behind a computer.

It was obviously unclear that the person that was sending Megan all of the messages was actually a woman that is significantly older than the teenage girl. This case shed a lot of light on who we are really encountering on the internet. It often seems as if no one is safe. The fact that anyone could be behind that unknown computer has many parents worrying about what their children are getting involved in on the internet. This is usually being parental blocks come in, but there is always a way to get around a parental black - that's where the real harm is.

In the story of Megan Meier, it proves to show she was "Catfished". Catfishing is the term used when a false identity is used to lure people into a romantic relationship. Research has indicated 83 million Facebook accounts are fake [25]. Catfishing is personally used to help damage the vulnerability of its victim. There are some possible warnings signs in regards to being catfished are if the person on the other end is avoiding personal communication, looks never changes, traumatic life experiences excuses, and large number of opposite sex friends [26]. In order to prevent more situations of Megan Meier one should be careful when interacting with an online identity, it might turn out the other identity is fake.

In addition, cyber bullying has become a huge deal within the social networking world, especially among teens. Many teenagers are cowards and choose not to say what they feel in person, which is why many resorts to the internet, not allowing the victim to stand up for themselves. This has gone to so many extremes, which resulted in many teen suicides around the world. Some children are bullied at school and it continues at home due to the power of social networking. “Suicide is the number three causes of death in America and kids from age ten to twenty-four years old are killing themselves due to bullying and cyber bullying (Constantine 2010)”.

Those working remotely while traveling or on-site with a client may wonder if the data and work on their laptop are as safe and secure as when in the office.

In many cases, the answer is no.

Almost anytime you work outside the office, you're open to invasions from hackers if your device or the Wi-Fi network you're on is not secure, said Jerry Ravi, CPA, a partner specializing in technology solutions for EisnerAmper in Iselin, N.J.

Risks can come from connecting to a compromised internet resource or contracting malware from a client-supplied USB device, said Roman Kepczyk, CPA/CITP, CGMA, director of firm technology strategy for Right Networks. And, of course, the risks go up if your whole device is stolen or lost, he said.

"If these devices are not secured properly, they could give thieves access to confidential data on the device or even allow access to the firm's network," Kepczyk said.

Complacency about security can lead to problems as well, said Michael Dickson, CPA/CITP, director of information technology services at GBQ Partners LLC in Columbus, Ohio.

"A lot of people say, 'Why would they target me? I'm boring,'" he said. "The truth is, every person has attributes that represent money to a hacker."

Hackers can sell lists of names, addresses, and phone numbers, Dickson said. They can capture your login credentials or access directories on your computer as well, he said. And it can mean big trouble from regulators — as, for example, the 2017 Equifax data breach, which led to a hefty fine in the UK, as TechCrunch reported.

There are ways to protect your devices outside the office, however, and following this advice from Dickson, Kepczyk, and Ravi can help:

Don't trust public or "guest" networks. The best practice while on-site with a client would be to access the internet through a secure guest network connection, Dickson said. "However, unless your client has a top-notch security team, there is really no way for a traveling CPA to know how secure the guest network is," he said. CPAs out in the field should protect their clients' data by connecting to firm servers only through secure virtual private networks (VPNs), he said. (More on VPNs in the tip below.)

If the client has a guest network with a weak password, a hacker could get into that network to access your files, he said. Be aware, too, that if the client has a guest network that doesn't have a password, it's possible for someone sitting outside the building to infiltrate the system and, by extension, your files, he said.

Implement mandatory security measures. An organization can set up a secure VPN through which employees must log in when they work remotely, Ravi said. It's now possible for even the smallest organizations to do this because basic anti-virus software that most organizations purchase comes with a VPN component, he said. If the employer is responsible for configuring, managing, and enforcing the VPN, then employees won't have any choice but to connect to that secure network, Dickson added.

Essentially, when employees start up computers and initiate the VPN connection, they can securely connect to all of the resources they would in their own office, even if using private or public Wi-Fi networks, Dickson said. "All of the security precautions are in effect as if they were at the office," he said.

Use your cellphone as a mobile hotspot. If you suspect that a client's guest network is not secure or you are working in public places such as coffee shops and airport terminals, another option is to use your own cellphone to create a secure connection to the internet, a function known as a mobile hotspot that only requires connectivity to your cellular network. "I know it's a lot harder for someone to get into my personal hotspot because it has a password attached to it," Ravi said.

Use cloud-based file-sharing services. If you're working in a client's office, it could seem simple to transfer files between computers using a USB device, but this poses a risk, Kepczyk said. If the client's device has malware, that can be transferred through the USB to your computer, he said. Instead, cloud-based file-sharing applications can be used, Ravi said. Citrix ShareFile and Microsoft SharePoint are two examples where files can be stored securely via cloud-based software and accessed by both you and your clients through a secure internet connection, rather than sharing them via USB or sending files via email, he said.

Be aware of your surroundings. Thieves can pose a physical risk to your laptop, tablet, or phone as well, Kepczyk said. It's important to password-protect your devices and encrypt your hard drives to make them more difficult for thieves to access should they steal your device, he said. Also, simply securing your device is important as well; don't leave devices where a thief could pick them up and walk away with them. And finally, beware of lurkers around you. Someone nearby in a coffee shop, for example, could simply capture the information displayed on your screen. A computer screen privacy filter (like the 3M privacy filter) can prevent that, Kepczyk said.

Offer ongoing cybersecurity training to your employees. Organizations should offer training that includes an annual review of the firm's security policies, discusses new IT threats, and offers reminders on good security habits, Kepczyk said. "Ongoing education is critical, as I have found that the more people do work remotely, the more lax they get on firm policies and security," he said.[27]

Identity Theft

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We all know how bad it can be to get our identity stolen. People can open credit cards, create bank accounts under your name, take loans, and many different things. Identity theft can also be a significant problem of social networking.

Social networks make it easy for thief to steal identities. Sometimes people do not realize that with your full birth date and the name of the town where you were born, thieves can figure out your social security number.

According to the article Identity Theft on Social Network Sites, “Other things you should never post publicly include your address, phone number, driver's license number, Social Security number, student ID number and even your hometown. Thieves can figure out your Social Security number by what town you were born in and what year” [28].

This is the type of information we see everyday people post on their profiles. If you are one of those people that do not check the privacy settings and just have your profile public to everyone, you can become an easy target. Your information will be available to a much greater amount of people. On the other hand, if you are up to date with your privacy settings, your chances of getting your identity stolen are lower but not one hundred sure. However, this does not mean that you cannot get your identity stolen. Only recently has Facebook launched a new app called “moment” for mobile devices.

It relies on the “face print” technology to capture face features, meaning the app is able to dig through all the photos on your camera and sort them into different events-be it a party, or a trip. Combined with “tag” technology, the app sends photos to friends we agree to share with so that there is no necessity to take group photos or to take photos with multiple mobile devices. Though “moment” is intended to be “a private way to give photos to friends and get photos you didn’t take. It is not designed to be a way to publish photos broadly.” (Roberts) a company spokesperson said.

However, it doesn’t mean that the photos won’t be published by intended recipients elsewhere. The underlying concern with this kind of face recognition technology is in that, users will eventually have to give up their unique identity, in this case, their face, in order to use the photo sharing feature. However, Facebook is unlikely to change the privacy setting restricting the use of such face recognition technology in the absence of effective laws. Identity thieves are clearly beginning to target smartphone users and people who use social media sites to get information that they need to operate and who aren't cautious about their use of social media.[29]

According to Javelin Strategy & Research, someone whose information is revealed as part of an online data breach is 9.5 times more likely to have their identity stolen.[30] With the increasing popularity of social networking through internet-mediated platforms, users often face the dilemma where they have to give up some personal information in exchange for full access to site features. The resulting consequence usually is when users are enjoying the convenience, they are also taking the risk of being spied on.

The purpose for participants of social networks is to share and communicate. But communication often involves exchanges of personal information including name, gender, habit, career etcetera. Aside from the aforementioned, important information such as address, ID number, bank account and phone number have to be entered before a user can enjoy full service.

Although giving out information about oneself one at a time may seem insignificant, Johnson argues that “what seems to be a choice about a local sharing of information may actually be a choice of global sharing” (Johnson), which essentially means when we add up all information given out here and there, we may find ourselves with little to none privacy at all.

In general, users can choose to fake their identities while filling out such signup information. However, a majority of them lack the knowledge as to what important information they should never give out, nor do they know how securely protected the information is. While only a small portion of privacy conscious users choose to change their account security settings allowing only close friends to view their personal information, the rest of the users are not aware that the content they post online may one day make them victim of privacy loss.

By the time they learn they have become victim, their information has already reached enormous number of people. Many people are willing to trade their real identities for the sake of being a member of a particular social networking group where they are easily reached by others. But the concerning reality is, most of the users cannot foresee the ways their personal information is being distributed as well as how far-reaching the effect might be if such information is in the hands of malicious parties.

There is a huge problem with security, privacy, hacking and fraud on social networks. As Welinder argues, there is no more private part of person than his/her face. She writes: “I argue that face recognition technology in social networks needs to be carefully regulated because it transforms the information that users share (e.g., it transforms a simple photo into biometric data that automatically identifies users) and provides this personally identifying information to new recipients beyond the user’s control”. [31]

Automatic face recognition can lead to the theft of personality, because it shares your private information to a large amount of users. Social media network should limit the function of face recognition to some extent or use it only in special cases, not on daily basis. Social networks must pay attention to how they use photos and biometric data because there is nothing more personal or susceptible to identification than a person’s face and private information. Nowadays a lot of security agencies have an access to people personal accounts, which makes the privacy very suspicious.

In the article Preventing sensitive relationships disclosure for better social media preservation, the authors created the privacy-oriented social media preservation strategy that prevents the disclosure of sensitive information, that the users want to keep private. Social media often store, share and copy all the personal information you enter without your knowledge of it. For example, your information can be sold to advertising firms, sociologists, researchers or criminal groups.

In the article above media preservation was offered. It can has these possibilities: processing of social media data, performing “actions based on users’ settings” (users are allowed to set their own standards to the private information they post) and evaluation of any risks associated with all postings. [32]

Employment

Social networks are not only used for posting personal content but can be controlled by companies to complete a background check on possible employees. Many companies nowadays are using social network sites to check the behavior of future employees. Depending on the behavior on their social network, people can be hire for the job or rejected. More and more employers are using this method to determine whether or not hire their new job applicant. “45 percent of employers reported they used social media for screening job applicants,” Herols (2010) stated [33].

This allows the employer to see how the applicant really acts when he/she is not at the work place. Unprofessionalism, drug abuse, inappropriate information and pictures, information concerning criminal behavior, and many more can be found on a person profile. A lot of people do not realize this and post anything on their profile page. From getting drunk at a party to using offensive language to other people are the things we sometimes see on social networks. For example, I have a friend that posted how much he hates his job, and that is boring, and so on. He probably forgot that his manager was one of his friends on Facebook.

A couple of days later, his boss fired him from the job. People should be careful with the things they post and say on their social network. You never know who is going to see it one day. You never know who took a ‘screenshot’ of what you just said or posted to show it to somebody else. “Even though there are privacy settings on most social networking Web sites, it is never safe to assume that a comment will not be copied and pasted somewhere else on the Internet,” Herols added.

Employment.jpg

In 2012, CareerBuilder.com surveyed 2,303 hiring managers and human resource professionals about if, how, and why they use social media to hire candidates. [34]
Some of the results of the survey were: 37% of employers use social networking sites to look at possible candidates.[35] 65% of employers said they use social networking sites to see if the potential employee presents himself or herself professionally.[36] A little over half, 51%, want to know if the candidate would be a good fit for the company's culture. [37] Another 45% want to learn more about the job seeker's qualifications.[38]

Other managers and HR professionals said they use the sites "to look for reasons not to hire the candidate."[39] 34% of employers said they have found content that made them not hire the job seeker because of what they posted on social media.[40] About half of those employers said they didn’t give the job seeker the position because they had provocative or inappropriate photos.[41] 45% of those employers said they didn't to hire the candidate because of information related to drinking and/or drug use on social networking sites.[42]

In addition, sometimes what we do not realize is what we post on our social network sites can affect our relationships with our coworkers and employers. For example, a person can make a comment in contradiction of an opinion somebody made at work. This can be either with his/her coworker, manager, or even his boss. This can generate tension at the work place between coworkers and managers. According to Herols, “many employees do not realize that what they post on social media sites, whether it be from home or work, may be grounds for termination.”

Moreover, this cannot only create tension between coworkers and managers, people can actually get fired because of it. ‘At-Will Employment’ is an agreement that the employer does not need a good reason to fire you. So basically, if the employer does not want you there anymore, he/she can find a reason to get you fire. With the exception, of course, of situations where religion, gender, and race are involved. Hence, making a negative comment against your company, a manager, or even your own boss, can get you dismiss of your job. Especially if the comment is on your social network. Where you are making that comment public for everyone to see.

In conclusion, recruiters for companies are also online and viewing potential employee’s profiles. When applying for a job, many companies will search for a person’s profile and view their social networking sites to evaluate what kind of person they are and how they will represent their company. Many people have been fired or lost job offers due to the information they have posted online. Multiple Twitter users ranging from a Taco Bell employee to a member of the Obama administration made posts that have either cost them their jobs or their job offers due to offensive posts, accidental tweets, and even strong private opinions. Users have to be aware of the content of their posts whether it is pictures, videos, or their updates of statuses or tweets. Companies often use what you post to help determines whether or not they want you as part of their team.

Why Cyberdefenses are Worth the Cost

These tips can help not-for-profits and other organizations minimize the risk of potentially devastating data breaches.

Cybersecurity

Yes, all organizations are vulnerable, and yes, you've heard the warnings that it's likely only a matter of time before a data breach happens a your organization. But how do data breaches apply to not-for-profit (NFP) organizations? Why would anyone want to target an NFP?

The primary motivation for today's attacks is to acquire information and money. Every new person a hacker can identify can be a new victim or opportunity, and NFPs possess information about donors that may be very useful to hackers. Some in the health care sector, such as hospitals, have electronic health records (EHR) that may be worth more than $1,000 each (i.e., the EHR for one person) on the black market, according to a 2017 Forbes article.

NFPs host an array of potentially valuable information, from donor lists and profiles to employee and client files containing Social Security numbers and other sensitive data. Even if your organization is 90% volunteers and consists of little more than a tent-based medical camp, attackers realize that you likely have data and funds they can target.

On the other hand, your organization might be a large, well-established NFP. Perhaps you have an IT staff that supports computers for hundreds of other staffers across multiple sites. Regardless of the size or sophistication of the organization, an NFP that falls victim to a ransomware attack might prefer to pay an attacker instead of having operations paralyzed for any amount of time and perhaps damaging its reputation (see the sidebar "Ransomware" below).

A lack of IT resources devoted to cybersecurity can make NFPs appealing to hackers. But regardless of the type or size of your organization, you can choose from multiple options to enhance your security against attacks. These tips can help any organization guard valuable systems and data.

TRAIN USERS ON SECURITY PRACTICES Educate your employees regularly about new attacks and risks. You can provide this education in many ways, including online training (perhaps through a company intranet) or written documentation provided in a simple, user-friendly format.

Consider monitoring the news for security incidents and passing along those articles to your staff. Staying informed about recent attacks can be a great form of defense.

It doesn't cost much to warn users against opening malicious files and clicking on links. To prevent wire or Automated Clearing House (ACH) fraud, educate employees on when to be suspicious of certain messages or email addresses (see the sidebar "Wire Transfer and ACH Fraud" below).

Management support goes hand-in-hand with security awareness training. Employees should be able to contact their superior and ask, "Are we sure about this?" or "Is this real?" without any fear of reprimand. Management must emphasize that missing a deadline to get confirmation from a superior is better than taking the risk of sending money to the wrong person.

It's also important to have a process in place that allows an employee to get confirmation from a superior absent the use of a computer. For example, if the CFO sends an email requesting to wire $10,000 to a specific account, the employee should call, not email, the CFO for confirmation. Walking to the CFO's desk may even be the best course of action. If attackers have access to your systems, they may be able to read and respond to the CFO's emails and allow the fraud to occur.

If an employee clicks on a bad link or gets a virus on his or her computer, does the employee feel that reporting it could endanger his or her job? Help your employees feel comfortable about discussing mistakes and understanding what happens when they report an incident (see the sidebar "Phishing for Credentials" below). Emphasize the importance of doing so immediately.

Also understand that this sort of training is not "one and done." Training should be ongoing and periodically refreshed because everyone needs at least a gentle reminder now and then.

CREATE AND TEST SYSTEM BACKUPS Backup is a key component of mitigating a ransomware attack. Data backups should match the recovery time and objective defined in your organization's disaster recovery plan.

Backing up systems nightly gives you the ability to restore a system to its state from the day before a breach, and in the case of a ransomware attack, you may be able to ignore an attacker's demands and maintain business as usual for the most part.

Your systems should be backed up every day, and some organizations may wish to back up systems more frequently. For example, some organizations are transaction-heavy, and losing an entire day of data entry could be problematic. Today's backup technologies afford organizations the flexibility to back up data using multiple methodologies over varied time periods to many locations, whether in-house, to an alternate location, or online (cloud).

Simply making backups of your systems and data is not enough, however. System backups should be tested periodically by doing a system restore. A good exercise would be to ask your IT team when was the last time that they tried to restore something from a backup. It's a mistake to just assume that the "green checkmark" showing in the backup software is reliable. Your team should take the time to test your restore process often, perhaps quarterly, even if it's just for a single server. Additionally, if a test restore is being done for a critical application, it is usually best to have users test the application after the restore to ensure there is no database corruption and the required data exist.

PRIORITIZE ANTI-VIRUS AND PATCHING Make it a top priority to install and run anti-virus software on all of your systems and apply all security patches in a timely manner. While anti-virus software is important, it is worth considering additional layers of protection, including a new breed of anti-virus applications called automated endpoint protection, which is part of an overall advanced threat protection methodology. You may also consider having multiple anti-virus applications running at the same time to cast a wider net.

It's important to understand that you cannot settle for 99% anti-virus coverage. Every computer in your organization should have anti-virus software installed. Computers without it should not be allowed on your network.

Anti-virus products do come at a price, but you can't afford to not have them running on your computers. When you consider the cost of a breach, anti-virus products seem quite affordable. If you are concerned about the price of anti-virus software for all of your organization's computers, companies such as TechSoup (techsoup.org) offer discounts for qualifying not-for-profits.

IMPLEMENT NETWORK SEGMENTATION Segmenting your network is your best defense against a hacker moving through your environment, as would occur in a lateral movement breach (see the sidebar "Lateral Movement" below). Segmentation involves implementing certain controls (e.g., firewall rules and access control lists) to divide up your environment and prevent certain networks from being able to access others.

In implementing segmentation, it's important to consider which groups need access to which systems and data. Should volunteers and HR be on the same network? Should sensitive accounting data be on the same computer as marketing collateral? Separating by job function can save your organization from a breach, or at least limit the type of data that is exposed should a breach occur.

In addition, it is too dangerous to run old or unpatched systems and software. Systems and software that are "end-of-life" no longer receive security updates from their vendors, meaning they can't be updated to protect against the latest threats. For example, Windows XP should not be allowed on your machines or in your network, no matter the circumstance. Even Windows 7 in some circumstances may not provide the level of security your organization needs.

No matter the platform, you need to apply security patches as quickly as possible. Do you have a vendor who says it can't apply a security patch to its computer on your network? You may need to consider changing vendors or, at the very least, giving that computer its own isolated network to prevent lateral movement in the case of an attack.

RESEARCH CYBER INSURANCE Do you already have cyber insurance? Don't just assume it's on your general policy. Make it a priority to ask your agent. While this isn't preventive, it's something your organization should be looking into, as it can help you cover and recoup costs if an incident occurs.

When setting up a cyber insurance policy, you will want to inform your insurance company of which service providers you would use if you needed help with a breach (e.g., incident response/cybersecurity firms, lawyers, PR firms). It's worth mentioning that you can specify which law firm you want to use if you give the insurance company prior notice. If you don't preselect a law firm, your insurance company may assign someone to work with you.

When you are trying to frantically respond to and contain an incident, you don't want to be meeting new business partners, especially one as important as your legal counsel. Another important issue around cyber insurance is to know specifically what constitutes a breach in your organization and what constitutes restitution.

CREATE A WRITTEN INCIDENT RESPONSE PLAN A written incident response plan can help an organization decrease the impact of a breach if it occurs. The organization's leadership and the board should approve a breach response plan in advance, and all relevant personnel should be trained on how the plan requires them to respond in the event of a breach.

The plan also may include the contact information for an incident response/cybersecurity firm that would be the organization's preapproved consultant if a breach occurs. In the case of a ransomware attack, the cybersecurity firm may help you decide if your organization would pay the ransom or try to find another course of action.

Finally, the response plan may contain information on which law enforcement agencies or regulators the organization would contact in the event of a breach. Even after the breach is over, your plan should help you prepare for media inquiries and breach notifications to regulators, consumers whose data may have been stolen, and other affected businesses, in compliance with legal requirements.

MONITOR LOGS If you have IT staff, part of their weekly duties should include reviewing logs. The logs might be from firewalls, anti-virus programs, or any number of other systems.

Even though performing log review may not equate to identifying a breach within moments of its happening, it may help stop a breach more quickly.

COST-EFFECTIVE PROTECTION While NFPs may not always possess an abundance of resources to devote to cybersecurity, following these tips can provide protection at a reasonable cost.

Ransomware By now, likely everyone has heard about an incident involving ransomware, which was the most prevalent form of malicious software in 2017, according to Verizon's 2018 Data Breach Investigations Report. A ransomware attack involves a piece of malware that encrypts all the files on a computer system or network. Typically, the attacker demands payment (likely in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency) within a certain number of hours to decrypt the files. The attacker might either set the ransom amount based on the number of files it encrypted or demand a flat-rate ransom.

Even if an NFP is willing and able to pay the ransom before the attacker's deadline, there is no guarantee that the attacker will be willing and able to decrypt the files. The organization may pay out funds to the attacker only to be left with a bunch of encrypted files that it cannot access.

Ransomware attacks most commonly start with a single client or volunteer opening a malicious file or clicking on a malicious link. That person doesn't have to be in IT or finance for the attack to succeed. Because the user's computer often has access to "the shared drive" or is connected via a network to other systems, it's often easy for that single user's computer to infect many others.

Wire transfer and ACH fraud Wire transfer and ACH frauds are growing in popularity because of how easy and successful criminals find these frauds to be.

In older versions of this type of attack, the attacker would send an email to a finance employee asking for a certain dollar amount to be wired to a specific account before the end of the day. The attacker's email was created to appear as if it had come from a person of authority within the organization.

This attack has grown in complexity recently. Attackers now email organizations posing as outside vendors and state something along the lines of:

We are your vendor, Acme. We have changed banks from First National Bank to Second National Bank. When you send us our monthly payments going forward, please remit checks to this new account.

While this type of attack may take a month to yield any results, rest assured, the attackers are patient enough to wait for the payout.

You can prevent this type of fraud by making sure you never initiate a transfer through an email. Rather, always type the address into the browser and go directly to the bank website to initiate the transfer.

Upon detecting wire or ACH fraud, your best course of action is to contact your bank immediately. Each bank has its own process and its own window of time in which it may be able to reverse a transfer.

Lateral movement The term "lateral movement" describes an attacker's ability to move from one computer to another in the same environment without detection and with minimal effort. If an attacker can get from one employee's computer to another employee's computer without going through a firewall, the attacker may be able to access and obtain sensitive data without being detected.

An attacker first needs to gain access to the environment and would likely do so through a phishing email (see the sidebar "Phishing for Credentials"). For example, if an attacker can get a volunteer coordinator to click on a malicious link, giving the attacker an opening into the environment, the attacker could use that opening to ultimately access the HR director's computer or even the CEO's computer.

Unfortunately, an attacker need not be overly sophisticated to perpetrate this type of lateral movement. Dozens of tools that help attackers are for sale on the "dark web."

Phishing for credentials Phishing attacks are very similar to wire transfer/ACH attacks. When phishing, the attacker wants to steal the credentials of your organization's associates, donors, volunteers, and customers — anyone that could provide access to your website or computer system. Stealing credentials can be the first step into your organization to launch a variety of other attacks, including denial-of-service attacks that flood or overwhelm your systems with the intent of temporarily disabling them.

A phishing attack often involves two steps: The attacker creates a webpage that looks like the organization's webpage on which volunteers and partners are prompted to sign in. While the page looks real to end users, it is designed to capture usernames and passwords from would-be victims. One way to avoid this type of attack is to make sure to always type your organization's URL into the browser rather than clicking a link in an email.

Once the phishing webpage is ready, the attacker sends a mass email to your constituents and points them to the fake webpage to log in, allowing the attacker to capture their usernames and passwords to use on the real webpage. The attacker may leverage social engineering to access an employee's email account to send the mass email, or send the mass email from an attacker-controlled domain chosen to make it look like it came from the organization (e.g., @acrne.com instead of @acme.com).

Fake landing pages are not easily identified. It takes a smart employee to spot, and then report, an impostor page. Once a phishing page is identified, consult your incident response plan. Your actions may include blocking the page at your firewall. Keep in mind, though, that this will not protect your remote users. The slower, but better, approach may include notifying the internet service provider (ISP) for the webpage. You might also consider notifying federal law enforcement.[43]

Linkedin

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Technology has made the world become a smaller place. Anyone could simply go on the internet and use search engines to find information about a person. Social networking websites such as LinkedIn has huge privacy concerns that every user should be aware of. LinkedIn is a social network that is specifically designed for career and business professionals to connect. Users LinkedIn profile is a representation of themselves. It could have a huge impact to their career and success. An employer can see various personal information such as someone’s education, previous jobs, affiliated organization and groups, and their connections.

In addition, the information on LinkedIn is published to the whole world, as well as to a person’s future employer. Any mistake or wrongdoing could jeopardize an individual’s success. Therefore, the privacy concerns not only exist in how social networking websites use personal information to generate more profit, but also the concern that employers would use social networking websites to assess a candidate. According to Forbes, in the past, companies tried to determine candidate fit through their résumés.

Today, employers perform web searches on candidates, learn more about them from social media, and examine their work samples. [44] As the rise of social networks gave employers more ways to examine a candidate, the act of screening a candidate through social networks is an invasion of privacy. Social networking websites often contain sensitive information, such as people’s age, gender and their views on different aspects of things.

Even though an individual is protected by the law from any discrimination, the fact that employers could view sensitive personal information should bring concerns. Often, people are not aware of the fact that personal information could be so easily accessible, which causes them to disregard the consequences of giving their personal information.

Reddit:Michael Brutsch aka Violentacrez vs Adrian Chen

Michael Brutsch

Reddit is a website, where millions of user interact in a forum. Different people created different topics and other will communicate with each other. Michael Brutsch aka Violentacrez was a famous Reddit user. He became famous through Reddit but no one knew him as Michael. In this online community, he was the king of Reddit and he was known as Violentacrez. Violentracrez had created different subreddit that brought a lot of controversies to Reddit. Viilentacrez had created a subreddit section called "Jailbait" [45] In this subreddit he posted pictures of underage girls. Eventually, his post influenced other to do the same thing. This caused a lot of stir outside the Reddit community and it brought the attention of journalist Adrian Chen. Adrian Chen took this case seriously. He thought that Violentacrez was a perverted bully. On the other hand, the Reddit community supported Violentacrez. He was their king. When Adrian started to investigate Violentacrez he realized he was going against a guy that the administrators defended, The only way to stop him was to uncover his true identity. by using the Reddit site itself. He was able to find the picture of Violentacrez and eventually found his true identity. [46]

Once Adrian Chen found Violentacrez identify he talked to him on the phone and asked why he did such thing and would he regret. Violentacrez stood for what he thought best. Adrian Chen ended up revealing to the world that Michael Brutsch is Violentacrez. Once his identity was known Violentacrez life changed completely. He lost his real job at a Texas financial service. HE also lost a job that helped him take care of his disable wife and his mortgage. Adrian Chen didn't feel bad about messing his life because it was his job to do. In return, Adrian Chen received a backlash from the Reddit community but Adrian got what he wanted. Violentacrez left but it took him a just couple of days to return to a new role. [47]

Donald Sterling

Donald Sterling (left)

Audio tapes of Donald Sterling (the owner of the L.A. Clippers) are a great example of privacy in a New Media world. Donald Sterling's mistress revealed secretly taped audio tapes portraying Sterling as a pure racist, talking about his team as a group of dogs & slaves, rather than employees. With social media so rampant in today's world, these tapes spread like wild fire. It led to the NBA commissioner to ban Sterling from the NBA and for him to sell the team immediately. This is unheard of and it marks a turning point in the world. Whether in private or in public, you are always being watched and even if you do something in the privacy of your own home, that privacy does not necessarily exist anymore. I do not agree with his views but as someone who values their privacy should not see this as something that should be released publicly. While Sterling's actions were deemed grounds for being banned from the NBA, he certainly does have a case for invasion of privacy against those who recorded him and spread the recording throughout the media.

Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf

Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf


A group called Blackshades hacked over a half-million computers all over the world by using malware that let them spy on victims via webcam and steal their personal information. One of the people that was hacked was Miss Teen USA Cassidy Wolf. In 2013, Wolf said she received an anonymous email by someone who said they had nude photos of her that were taken via the webcam on her laptop. The email said that her dream of being a model would be gone and instead she would be known as a porn star.[48] The email stated that the pictures would be uploaded online if she didn't provide better quality photos and videos. One of the videos the hacker wanted was a five-minute sex show on Skype.

The hacker, Jared James Abrahams, was caught and pleaded guilty to extorting and hacking Wolf and other young women. He was sentenced to 18 months in jail. The Swedish hacker who created Blackshades was arrested as well as over 90 other people involved in the cyber breach. Blackshades used a remote access tool, called RAT for short to turn on webcams, steal passwords, and get into hard drives to commit extortion and bank fraud.[49] What is frightening about this case is that Blackshades paid only $40 for the RAT and was able to hack over half a million computers. Most computers now have webcams built-in and people could be hacked without even knowing it. This case shows how easy and inexpensive it is for hackers to gain access to webcams and personal information. It has become easier to invade a person's privacy with the use of RAT's and other malware.

News in Privacy

Social networking has become a common phenomenon in people’s lives. There are billions of people use social networking on a daily basis. They are sharing and posting information online. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) first announced a plan to monitor people’s social media account in 2016. According to a Fox News article in 2019[50], the U.S. government is allowed to use fake social media account to monitor immigrants and visitors who apply visa to the United States. This new updated policy has caused a lot of controversies because people will face the invasion of privacy and loss of privacy. In addition, this new updated policy both violates Facebook and Twitter’s Term of Use and Terms of Services.

DHS.Privacy.png

This policy can be beneficial to the government so they can check and search for potential people who might create a threat to the nation. The cons are that immigrants and visitors will directly be affected by the government to decide their rights to settle in the United States.

The NSA and Government Surveillance

Edward Snowden

In May of 2013, computer professional, former CIA employee and government contractor for the NSA, leaked classified information from the NSA. The classified information was about the various global surveillance programs, many that were run by the NSA and other organizations with cooperation with telecommunication companies and even European governments. The amount of information was damaging to the NSA as it revealed its modus operandi as well as the extent of the surveillance. [51] The information that was leaked was top secret and as a result the United States charged Edward Snowden with Theft of Property and Espionage.

When Edward Snowden leaked the documents, both the Washington Post and The Guardian distributed the documents with considerable media attention and this propelled Edward Snowden to national attention. An example of this is The Guardian leaking that the NSA is collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily. [52] This shows how the NSA is working with telecommunication companies to spy on the common man. The Guardian also claims that these days, the NSA is receiving an unusually large amount of information from various sources and is very concerning.

One of the NSA's most notorious spying programs is PRISM. The extent of the monitoring by PRISM is great since it has the ability to monitor but is not limited to: e-mail, voice and video chatting services (such as Skype), videos, pictures, file sharing and transfers and also social networking details [53]. When this program was revealed to the general public, thanks to Snowden's leak, many companies were quick to claim that they had not cooperated with the NSA willingly such as Facebook as they stated that they had only provided the information that was required by them up to the extent of the law [54]. This information being revealed can affect senate and congress proceeding if senators and congressmen lose their autonomy after getting blackmailed by individuals and companies through their friends or relatives working in the NSA and having access to private information. This can have drastic consequences for public policy which can limit the freedoms of others and reduce democracy since elected officials act as a conduit for public opinion, and that conduit has been compromised through blackmail.


Data Mining

Data mining is a process used by companies to analyze data collected with hopes to discover new patterns and correlations of data. This process attempts to simplify the data acquired by extracting and translating the information interpreted to make it understandable to companies in order to help them make important decisions in the future. Businesses use data mining to improve sales and profitability by analyzing particular demographics to reveal patterns which can be used to create advertisements tailored to the user's interests and drive customers to buy their products [55]. Some examples of data mining being used by companies include tracking cookies which can track a user's online shopping cart as well as a user's username and password. Data mining has existed before social networking sites but has really taken off over the past few years [56].

While there is nothing wrong in mining data, the problem exists when the companies use the data to track users and bombard them with ads and spam. This has taken off in the past few years as for example, Facebook's "Social Ads" initiative as well as Facebook Beacon. This is controversial as Facebook allows companies to access millions of profiles in order to create ads that are personally suited for the user. The problem exists here because, the companies can freely peruse a user's profile and acquire personal information which is very invasive. Facebook beacon also tracks users who access websites outside Facebook Facebook justifies this by claiming that it's website is a public forum for all to access. In effect, the user has become the product because of these initiatives [57].

Another problem with data mining is the vast amounts of data that the companies have after mining all if it. If not secured correctly, hackers may end up with the data to the user's disadvantage. There is no form of law that really exists to monitor the data mining process in the United States which makes it even more concerning as the government has no say in how companies are to notify users of them being monitored as well as no control on how the data should be secured [58]. This ultimately puts the user at risk which hampers communication and progress when appropriate measures are not put into place by the correct party.

Although data mining might be seen as negative, many individuals don't really mind their information being used, if they are receiving something of value in exchange. A data-driven society benefits customers and individuals being profiled in many ways. For example, according to The Atlantic’s Alexander Furnas [59], if an algorithm can figure out the interest and needs of an individual based on the information acquired, the individual can be presented with ad’s and coupons in relation to those interests. For example, if an individual is very interested in fishing and constantly researches fishing gears, eventually an algorithm will use the data being researched to develop ad’s that link similar content. Overall, the information being collected is used to benefit both the organization gathering the information, and the individuals being profiled. The information is regurgitated back to the people in the form of useful content, to better their lives through convenience.

Max Schrems v. Facebook

In 2011, while Max Schrems studying law during a semester abroad at Santa Clara University, he requested company's record on him under the European "right to access" provision, and he received a CD containing over 1,200 pages of data. He has been using Facebook only for 3 years until his request.

The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony on Capitol Hill

The scandal of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica happens in early 2018 when it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica had collected the personal data of approximately 87 millions of users' Facebook profiles without their consent and used it for political purposes. It started with the Soviet-born American researcher, Aleksandr Kogan, who gathers basic profile information of Facebook users along with what they chose to “Like.” through his app, called "This Is Your Digital Life".

The data collected was used to create psychological profiles of users and ultimately was used to send targeted political ads towards influencing voters. Multiple campaigns used the information for the 2016 elections, in addition to the Trump campaign [60] Ted Cruz also used the information. [61] The scandal was revealed by a whistleblower, an ex-Cambridge Analytica employee named Christopher Wylie.

In reaction to the news, groups of users created "#deletefacebook" in an effort to remove their accounts. Additionally the share price of Facebook had taken a hit and Congress in the U.S. and the U.K. demanded answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The scandal eventually led him to testify on Capitol Hill. [62]

By July 2019, Facebook was fined $5 billion by the Federal Trade Commission.

Ashley Madison

AshleyMadison website

AshleyMadison.com is an online dating and social networking service that is similar to Match.com or OkCupid.com and their goal was to target men who are married or in a committed relationship. The Ashley Madison Agency is the world's largest online social networking, based in Canada, where it helps people who are already in a relationship but still want to date. Their slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair." The name is their website was created based on the two most popular female names "Ashley" and "Madison". It currently has about 39 million members in 53 countries. The company "guarantee that you will successfully find what you're looking for or we'll give you your money back"[63]. "All I'm saying is, don't do it in the workplace where it could result in someone losing their job, don't go to a singles dating service and lie about your status, don't hire a prostitute. Given that affairs are going to happen no matter what, maybe we should see Ashley as a safe alternative,"[64] said Noel Biderman, president of AshleyMadison. He believes that AshleyMadison.com would help men in committed relationships "cheat" in secret without anyone knowing. There was a lot of controversy regarding to the company as it grows bigger. Ashley Madison was a growing site and the company started doing more advertisements on TV commercials and billboards. In 2009, NBC refused an ad that was submitted by Ashley Madison for the network's broadcast of the Super Bowl XLIII. NBC believes that Ashley Madison's ad was too offensive to the viewers and too provocative. The president of AshleyMadison.com, Noel Biderman, stated that, "I find the rejection to be ridiculous given that a huge percentage of the NFL'S marketing content is for products like alcohol, which they sell in their stadiums, promote on their ad and have in the game program. That's a product that literally kills tens of thousands of people each year"[65]. NBC banned any ads related to Ashley Madison from their program. Although none of the employees at NBC saw the ad, they did not want to support that type of behavior due to the fact that during the Super Bowl showings, there are plenty of family members watching the broadcast. Which would most likely cause a commotion.

warning email sent to users

Hacking of Ashley Madison

On July 15, 2015, the company was hacked and the hackers stole all of its customer data - including their emails, name, addresses, credit card information, and even their sexual fantasies. The hackers threatened the company to post all the information online if Ashley Madison would not be permanently closed. It was calculated by New York Post that about 37 million potential adulterers were exposed when AshleyMadison cheating site was hacked. One user name John R. said he got an email where the subject line of the message said: "You got busted." The email stated that, "Unfortunately your data was leaked in the recent hacking of Ashley Madison and I know your information. I have also used your user profile to find your Facebook page, using this I can now message all of your friends and family members" and demanding money from the users[66]. It was reported that 70 percent of the users were men in their late 30s to early 40s. On July 22, the first names of users on Ashley Madison was released and then on August 18, 2015, all of the user data was released. Following August 20, 2015, data associated with CEO'S was released as well. The main problem in the hacking does not lie in the data breach but more on the things that were exposed in the people's lives that they tried to hide. Trustify was a startup company based in Georgetown where they help people discover the truth from their significant other. The company state that over the several weeks after the hack, they saw millions of people on their site to get help from them to determine whether what they were told at home was really true.

Major Data Breaches

Home Depot

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Home Depot announced that 56 million credit cards were compromised in a breach that lasted from April to September 2014—making this latest retail breach larger than Target’s 40-million card breach.

Home Depot began its investigation on September 2, the same day Brian Krebs broke the news of a potential breach at the retailer. On September 8, Home Depot confirmed that a breach had occurred. Now, just more than two weeks after the investigation began, Home Depot says that all malware is gone from the company’s system.

Home Depot says the malware used in the attack has not been seen in previous attacks, describing the malware as “unique” and “custom-built.” This differs from reports during the investigation that experts believed the breach involved the same malware as the Target breach.

“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and anxiety this has caused, and want to reassure them that they will not be liable for fraudulent charges,” said Frank Blake, Home Depot’s chairman and CEO Frank Blake.

Home Depot estimates that the breach has cost approximately $62 million, with more costs likely to come. The company believes it will be reimbursed $27 million thanks to its insurance coverage. Last month, Target announced that its breach cost the company $148 million, more than twice the amount Home Depot is estimating.

According to its statement, Home Depot believes it will have a 4.8 percent growth in sales this year, as previously predicted. When Home Depot first began investigating a potential breach, Forbes reporter Samantha Sharf noted that Home Deport could suffer high financial losses from the breach, with one analyst predicting a loss of 7 cents per share from Home Depot’s 2014 earnings. [67]

Uber

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Uber is a global transportation technology company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States and operates in over six hundred cities worldwide. The company markets and operates its transportation services through its mobile app. Uber’s ride-hailing services is a pioneer in the sharing economy in which individuals can seek out peers for transportation services. Uber drivers provide transportation with their own cars or they could also rent a car with Uber. The system demands its drivers of certain requirements such as occasional selfies, health, and ability to drive among other things in order to be a qualified Uber driver. As a leading company, Uber has had many challenges with the legal system.[68]

In November of 2017, a company board investigation into business practices uncovered a data breach in late 2016. Two hackers had stolen the names and license numbers of 600,000 drivers and the email addresses and phone numbers of up to 57 million Uber users.[69] The hackers gained access to information stored on Github, where they subsequently stole Uber’s credentials and later used to download Uber user’s data from a separate cloud service provider. The former chief executive officer, Travis Kalanick, and the chief security officer, Joe Sullivan, attempted to hide the data breach by paying off a ransom of $100,000 for the hackers to delete their copy of stolen information. Furthermore, they tracked down the hackers and made them sign nondisclosure agreements. The actions taken by the CEO and the security officer puts into question the problem of ethics and policies.[70]

The payment of a ransom is not illegal but the intentional act to conceal the data breach jeopardizes the company’s reputation and breaks state and federal laws. In an attempt to hide the breach, the company destroyed the copy that the hackers had which is considered to be forensic evidence. In certain states, companies are required to disclose data breaches to people who are affected. Some states that have decided to sue the company include Washington, Illinois and California because Uber failed to notify within residents within a reasonable time about the breach. Another problem is that the ransom payment was concealed as a payout to “bug bounty” (a common practice where tech companies have hackers attack their systems to find potential weaknesses). Although the CEO and the chief security officer have been replaced, the privacy concerns in Uber continue as governments worldwide have taken up actions against Uber. To resolve future dilemma with managerial decisions, the new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, is committed to changing the company culture to do what is right.[71]

Equifax

Equifax.jpg

Equifax is a consumer credit reporting agency that is based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, and operates in or has investments in 24 countries. It is a company that uses unique data, innovative analytics, technology, and industry expertise to power organizations and individuals around the world by transforming knowledge into insights that help make more informed business and personal decisions. Equifax allows a consumer to check their credit history while also providing their credit score that will also let the person know how their credit history compares with the rest of the country. It discloses any type of accounts that may have been opened using one's personal information, such as a credit card, personal loan, mortgage, etc. While providing these services to consumers allows them to monitor their credit history against any suspicious activity, Equifax itself was a part of a very significant data breach where consumers personal information was compromised.[72]

In September of 2017, Equifax released a statement saying that their data was breached from May to July of 2017. They had noticed the breach on July 29th, 2017, and failed to let their consumers know. They stated that around 143 million consumers in America may have been affected - that is roughly half of the United States' population. Consumers in Canada and the United Kingdom were also affected by this breach. As to what type of data was hacked, this includes social security numbers, addresses, birth dates, and driver's license numbers. Also around 209,000 of the 143 million included people who had their credit card information stolen.[73]

To combat this intrusion, Equifax hired an outside cybersecurity firm to assess the damage that was done and to prevent any further information from being stolen. In order to help its consumers, Equifax set up a website, www.equifaxsecurity2017.com, to allow someone to see if their information was hacked or not. They are also offering free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to the people affected.[74] This is is great and all but this doesn't fix the fact that the information is still out there and can be accessed by the wrong people. The black market is now filled with all of this information and it can give thieves a complete record of a person's financial history, allowing them to ruin their credit by opening up new credit cards and maxing them out among other things. Information like birth dates, addresses and social security numbers are out of consumer's control to change, but they can sign up for the Equifax protection while also doing more. They can monitor their credit report and loan and credit card statements to see if there are any changes they don't recognize and stay on top of their information.

Yahoo

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On August 2013, Yahoo suffered one of the largest data breaches in history. The company revealed that almost three billion accounts at the time were exposed (basically every Yahoo account). The breach in security took approximately four years to discover and investigate. In that time a separate breach at Yahoo occurred that compromised five hundred million accounts.[75] According to cybersecurity analysts the stolen data was placed up for sale. To further prevent the breach of security and loss of sensitive private information, Yahoo required affected users to change passwords and to not reuse passwords.[76]

Anonymity Networks

TOR (The Onion Router)

Tor Logo

Tor (The Onion Router) is a network that increases privacy and security in the Internet by connecting to the volunteer operated servers, instead of making direct connection. The data passes through these Tor servers, before they enter external world through the output server. Routing between the server of the Tor is chosen randomly, but only once at the beginning of each connection. If there is need in changing chain: the connection has to be updated [77]. Tor is used as tool to protect privacy and gain access to the information blocked by Internet censorship [78]. For that reason it's mainly used for communication: through post, blogs, messages and forums.

SnapChat

Snapchat, a video messaging application that is created by Reggie Brown Evan Spiegel, and Bobby Murphy in Colombia University. Users take and share photos, record videos and add messages to those photos and send them to whoever desired. What makes Snapchat so different compared to the other social media sites, well, according to the growth hackers " Snapchat created a way for teens to share photos freely-without the ramifications of other social services like facebook. The easy-to-use, self-destructing transiency of the experience feels more human in its interactions than regular MMS, Facebook, Instagram<and twitter. And also according to the growth hackers in just 2 short years they were able to make a whopping three hundred million snaps in as little as one day. Now that is a lot of snaps.

Snap chat

Snappening

Snappening, a third party website called snapsaved has taken responsibility for leaking several thousands of photos and videos that been conceived through the messaging app, Snapchat. According to the Independent article "the snappening': has snap chat been hacked? What is Snap-saved? Your questions answered" an estimate between 100,000 and 200,000 images were stolen from the website and the majority of the users were under 18, some of these images would be classified as child pornography. Do we want our children's information exposed on such sites? Such an exposure reduces autonomy as such users would be less likely to attempt to get into certain areas of expertise such as politics because of controversy. Also, individuals that use Snapchat or any other form of social media platforms will be more paranoid and as a result, this will affect their conversation with their friends and family members. Privacy is considered exaggerated; experts make a big deal about it; people don't care about being monitored or data being collected, and the average individual is unaffected by privacy concern--these statements are simply not the case. Now after their images got leaked on Snapchat, they will rethink on their decision on posting such images and posting personal information online.

Snapchat's New Map

Snapchat added a new feature that is alarming for people who use the app and don't pay attention to it's privacy settings. The new feature is a map that you can access by zooming in the camera section of the app. The map pulls up the locations of the people who you are following. If you would rather not be on this map it is easy to change in your settings. This new map can be scary for those who do not know how to change it. This is scary to me because it can increase stalking if you are not careful. It is important to look into your app updates so you can avoid any of these issues that can arise from the changes of privacy made. It is very easy to briefly read all the information given to users about app updates.

Swatting

Swatted

Swatting is a prank or crime in which someone finds your address and anonymously calls 911 and reports a fake emergency. This happens when a hacker hacks into a source and finds your address through your IP address or when your name and location is known. The anonymous would report to 911 by requesting them to save someone at this address because someone has a gun loaded and is holding someone hostage, this would result in the SWAT team being dispatched to take care of the situation[79]. Although this joke has been increasingly popular, it is dangerous for everyone that is involved: the public, the victim, and the police officers. There seems to be numerous reasons where someone would resort to this extreme measure to get at someone. Some reasons may be jealousy, to get even, or trolling. Even though no one may be hurt from swatting, this event is a waste of resources. Any individual caught swatting would result in serious federal criminal charges even if the person was a minor. The minor would be tried as an adult.

Twitch TV Swatting

Twitch TV is a broadcast media platform which has become a popular social network due to live streaming. Streamers would broadcast themselves and a game to gather viewers from a global audience. This allows a community to be developed. Although this is great in creating networks and the promotion of games for the business industry, it is also widely known for having trolls. A troll is someone who deliberately tries to pick a fight and aims to gather upset/anger response from someone over an online setting. While Twitch may be all about fun and games, swatting has become dangerous issue because of these trolls. Hackers would be able to gather your IP address from Twitch and with the IP address, they would have your real address and possibly access all your information on your computer. This is really problematic where someone is able to gather where you live and possibly more information from just hacking a platform. It shows how online security is very weak. The troll will then gather satisfaction from this prank, when they see on the stream the SWAT team invading someone else's home and privacy [80]. A popular Twitch streamer,James Varga or known as PhantomL0rd, describes his experience after getting swatted. He is clearly shaken about the incident where he was being pointed at with automatic rifle and being arrested for no reason. He explains how life isn't the same after getting swatted [81]. How would you feel if you were in his place?

Officers at Sean "P. Diddy" Combs house

Celebrity Swatting

Celebrity swatting is essentially the same as Twitch swatting. A Swat team is called to the celebrities' home under a false pretense. Unlike Twitch streamers where a hacker would be required to gather someone's home address, celebrities literally have no privacy. Paparazzi and reporters would gather numerous photos of the celebrity and their homes and publish this information on their websites. Information such as home address and where they are at the moment are usually given on these sites [82]. One incident of swatting happened to Justin Bieber. Officers received a threat phone call from inside his home stating a threat was happening. Officers arrive at the scene of the crime sweeping through JB's home and the neighboring mansions in search of a phantom assailant. After the search happened they found out it was a hoax and Justin Bieber was nowhere near his home [83]. Isn't it scary when armed officers come and search your neighboring mansion even you had nothing to do with the victim's home?

Protecting Your Privacy

Nowadays, it is really important to protect your privacy. Privacy settings vary with each website. If you set a high privacy setting, it limits who can see your public profile. Twitter has one option, on the settings page to protect your tweets. Some of the most important settings to look for on each website is who can read your profile, who can see the posts, what information your friends are sharing and who can see your pictures and location. It’s important to be cautious about what you post because the information will be out there forever. It may not be seen by everyone but it’s important to be aware. It’s important to always think before you post.[84]

Through social networks, attackers can steal personal information and situation can go as far as attackers spread unauthorized and deceptive messages. For example, after obtaining the contacting list from a user, attacker might start sending false information to people in the list, alternatively, stolen information may still be used for online phishing. And certainly, social networks’ online security is not as secure as would have imagined. It has been proven so in a series of computer worm attacks. In 2005, Myspace was attacked by computer worm named Sammy, it exploited the vulnerability on the server and started replicating rapidly. Fortunately, no user information was stolen except it severely impacted the normal operation of the site. In 2009, computer worm Mikeyy attacked Twitter, changing some irrelevant user information. In the same year, Facebook was attacked. Only this time, enormous amount of user information was stolen and caused cascade of attacks on many other social networking sites, causing enormous loss to the companies affected. Clearly, attackers have come to know they can carry out cybercrime that has far-reaching impact through attacking social networks. In this case, it’s always important to use secure websites and be cautious of where you put your information on the web. Nowadays, for some social media websites there is an extended fee to get more services. Hackers can steal sensitive information such as credit card number, address, name, date of birth if it is not protected securely. If you want to verify a website is secure, look for a virtual lock in the URL address bar of your browser. The website is most likely secure if it’s a known website. If the website is shady or no one ever heard about the website then you most likely shouldn’t buy from the site.

Susan B. Barnes says protecting privacy can be approached in three different ways—social, technical and legal solutions. Experts think the first step to protect teens starts with the parents. They think parents should be more involved. People should be more aware about the privacy loss in social media. Some schools are actively participating by waring students that college admissions officers are looking at their online presence. Some schools even banned blogs. Companies are also working together to protect customer’s privacy. Myspace reported that they are working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to create an online safety program.

Social Networking sites are changing their privacy systems to protect users. Facebook is using tighter controls. Myspace is using software to identify children under 14 to ban the accounts. People are also monitoring networking sites. On May 2006, a representative introduced a new bill to Congress called the deleting Online Predators Act. The law hopes all schools and libraries will deploy internet filters. The bill hopes to protect teens from libraries and schools but it won’t protect them from their homes. The article says it hopes parents will protect teens from revealing too much information[85]. Other important ways to protect your privacy include creating strong passwords, changing your name, and revealing little information about yourself. On many websites, the recommended password is a capital letter, at least a number and an alphabet. Sometimes you can include symbols to make the password even stronger but I think the most important way to protect your privacy is be self-aware. Famous Youtubers reveal a lot about themselves because some do vlogs. They talk about their daily lives. The world is big and there are all sorts of crazy haters. A lot of Youtubers get stalked so they should be aware and be very cautious. Privacy to a certain extent should be breached and violated because we never know what the bad individuals want. As you can witness with the case such as Edward Snowden's revelation of the NSA Surveillance activities and whistle blowers. Then we would never know what the government the land they protect are doing to us the people.




A safe Password

An organization called NIST( National Institute of Standards and Technology ) have recently recommended setting up long passphrases instead of complicated alphanumeric passwords. Nowadays, many people know that creating complex alphanumeric passwords is the best way of preventing from hacking and some websites do require alphanumeric passwords or special symbols. A man named Bill Burr from NIST, he wrote what would be the best password management, when people sign in to a website the website requires that passwords must be at least a certain length and include a number, upper and lowercase letters and special characters like an exclamation point or question mark, and must be changed every 90 days.

Most people create a password that is easy to guess, using special characters like an exclamation point or question mark and if they need to change the password they just change minor things like changing Pa55word!1 to Pa55word!2. Academics who have studied passwords says rather than a special letter or capital letters, creating a longer number of letters make a lot more difficult for hackers to hack people's password. Longer password takes months to figure out and sometimes takes years. It's more convenient to memorize than writing special letters and don't need to change the password every 90 days which is a meaningless thing to do.

Electronic Frontier Foundation

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a nonprofit organization promoting civil liberties in the digital world. This organization was found in July 1990 by John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow, and Mitch Kapor. EFF is to protecting users right under the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They challenge the government of abuses of powers, fight illegal surveillance, and challenge potential legislation to protect on personal liberties.

EFF.PRIVACY.jpg


Most importantly, EFF is fighting for users in protecting their privacy rights in the digital world. There are more than 30+ privacy topics that might helpful for users to know under certain circumstances. [86]

The right to privacy refers to whether or not an individual is being protected by the laws. Under the U.S Constitution and the Bill of Rights, there are several Amendments are protecting people’s rights. For example, the Third Amendment protects the privacy of the home being used by soldiers. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens' privacy against unreasonable searches and seizures. EFF has designed and shared tips for individuals to know their rights under U.S laws.

Tips to Minimize Privacy Risks

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Despite various data protection firms and agencies all across the globe, launching investigations on United States technology giants such as Google and Facebook for revamping their privacy policies. These social networking sites platform continue to source billions of user's personal information for the benefits of their own business goals - to sell more advertising. In Facebook's new private policy, it states that Facebook has the right to provide users posts, messages and other online interactions for their business practices. Below are practical tips to help every day users minimize privacy risks when using social networks on the internet. Keep in mind that these tips are precaution and is not 100% effective as the internet evolves each and everyday. Remember that you take on risks every time you engage with social media sites. Always use common sense and be very careful of, caution and skepticism to proceed as they will be your strongest tools to protect yourself.

First and foremost, when you register for an account consider not including your first and especially your last name in your username. Most social networking sites strictly ask users to identify themselves but consider not using your real name to maintain your privacy on sites that connect you to strangers rather than family or friends. Use strong and different passwords for various sites.[87] When asked to provide security questions try to be as vague as possible. Never provide your primary work or school email when signing up for a new account unless you are prepared to receive messages relating to any activity on your account whether it is posted by you or someone else. Be sure to review the private policy of the social networking site. Although it is common for us all to check "I agree..." at the end of scrolling through the agreement, keep in mind it is your privacy that is at stake. Only provide information that is either absolutely necessary or that you are comfortable with sharing on the web. Occasionally, through the registration process, social networking sites ask new users to log into an email address. Often this is how social networks access your email address or book and verify your identity through email profiles. Try to avoid providing as much as personal information or a matter of fact at any information at all.

Some general tips to navigating social network sites. Be aware of private policy settings of sites you frequent such as social media sites as Facebook. Keep a look out on the news to know if there were any possible privacy breeches or concerns you may have from the site or sometimes try to do a little research before getting to involve on the internet. Try not to share your birthday, your age or your place of birth. Also try to not let others know where you are every time you post a status or pictures. This information is what makes you unique as an individual. Any hint to this piece of info be useful for data mining companies or identity thieves. Hide as much information on your profile as possible that you can. Social networking platforms give you the option to protect and secure your information so why not accept their help before something happing. Pinpointing a location to tag and save is now made available on many social networking sites. Know which locations you are posting online and under no circumstance should you post your home address or share your routine of your everyday live.

Privacy Within Facebook's Free Basics

Free Basics by Facebook provides people with access to useful services on their mobile phones in many undeveloped areas.

Many companies realize the value of big data and the pertinent information gathered from consumers, companies like Facebook and Google will look towards underdeveloped countries and areas to expand their reach and access just for their own benefits. As part of a developed country, we are blessed to have options and be able to choose and educate ourselves through the internet and other services – however, not every nation can be so fortunate to have access with the internet as easy as other countries as it. Recently several giant social media platforms and networking services providers such as Nokia, Facebook, Qualcomm, Samsung, and more have teamed up to provide internet service to less developed countries. This partnership may seem relatively benevolent, but in actuality received a ton of criticism and controversy even though they were providing a free service.

This partnership of social network giants provided a free service but specifically only the sites that Facebook approves of and collects tons of valuable private information that can then be reused and recaptured. In fact, Mike Elgan from PC world writes “It’s a brilliant scheme for Facebook, if you want to take the cynical view. It gets the customers, the user data and the ability to monetize with advertising, while keeping people off the Internet and away from rival companies and other services that might distract people from spending most of their time on Facebook.[88]

Mike touches upon another key point – being able to provide advertisements for this “free” service now from Facebook and not allowing free searches into the world wide web as we know. The users who will be participating in this program would only have a severely limited range of applications from Facebook and yet Facebook and this organization is claiming that they’re providing “free internet” when they’re barely providing a minute fraction of what the internet can actually do.

Moreover, privacy becomes a huge concern after these untapped or underserved markets in Africa and India. Many of these users have to make a choice between this limited model of internet services which ultimately will record tons of personal information or abstain from this free service and miss out. Privacy becomes a big issue once as Facebook becomes one of the sole provider of internet services for underbanked populations. Facebook and related companies must take great care to make sure privacy is upheld.

Ultimately, Facebook and this partnership renamed itself as “Free Basics” as it was evident that providing this service was more self –serving and not simply charity. This renaming of the program still allows for the collection of big data once again – now this time reaching into untapped, undeveloped nations such as India and some may not even see Facebook’s ulterior motive.

Moreover, Alice Troung from Quartz describes this phenomenon further by stating “Reaching the next billion people coming online is why Facebook is so heavily invested in deploying internet-beaming drones, lasers, and satellites, and why it’s partnered with local telco providers in 29 countries to offer free access to parts of the internet. The decision is at least partly driven by profits, with Facebook developing ad formats for slower connections. [89]

Facebook is a for-profit company and a prime example of a company maximizing its reach and possibly simply because it can. Companies, inherently, are for-profit organization and should maximize shareholders' value, but corporations should take into consideration corporate ethics and morals. Although it may be second nature next to profits, it's ultimately still an important measure to take into account.

References

Palazzolo, Joe (2018 Feb. 27,) When Illegally Obtained Evidence Can Be Used Against You. The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-digital-age-defendants-can-lose-even-when-they-win-1519747467

Ramirez, Alexia, and Rachel Levison-Waldman. "Cell Phone Privacy At The Supreme Court | Brennan Center For Justice". Brennancenter.Org, 2019, https://www.brennancenter.org/blog/cell-phone-privacy-supreme-court. Accessed 26 Feb 2019.

[90]

https://sites.google.com/a/cortland.edu/privacy-and-the-internet/home/disadvantages

https://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/definition/encryption

https://edge.siriuscom.com/security/7-key-elements-of-a-successful-encryption-strategy

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