The search engine DuckDuckGo has received a lot of attention because of its attitude towards user privacy. Unlike Google, DuckDuckGo doesn’t store your search queries. Their motto is ‘The search engine that doesn’t track you.’
Not everyone cares whether their online activities are tracked. But for those who do, DuckDuckGo’s Fix Tracking! page is an excellent source of information. Once you’ve selected your web browser, you’ll be presented with a list of tools and techniques that can help to reduce the amount of tracking that is done when you use that browser.
The Fix Tracking! page also contains a section describing Common Tracking Methods. Recommended reading.
Brian Krebs runs an excellent security blog called Krebs on Security.
One particularly useful post on Brian’s blog is Tools for a Safer PC, in which he presents his recommendations for securing your PC against various threats. There are numerous similar lists on the web, but this is one of the best, and I have no qualms at all in recommending it.
Fast-forward three years, and the Contact page on the Atos web site still sports email addresses. Not as easy as you thought, right? Maybe that’s because email has distinct advantages over other forms of online communication. In particular, email is far less likely to be overlooked by the recipient, than, say, a Facebook post.
In case you were wondering, that headline is intentionally ironic. There’s nothing joyful about changing passwords in the wake of yet another breach.
One of the SANS ISC handlers posted an entertaining report on his recent password-changing experiences. The upshot is that many web sites still don’t make this easy… especially Facebook.
Security researchers recently discovered a flaw in DropBox that could allow access to users’ private documents in certain circumstances. DropBox responded quickly to fix the vulnerability. It’s not clear whether the vulnerability was known to – or exploited by – any nefarious persons.
If you use DropBox, you should review your Shared Links settings and restrict shared links to collaborators only.
This month’s Ouch! newsletter (PDF) provides some basic guidelines for determining whether your computer has been hacked. There’s also some help for dealing with hacks. Note that this information is aimed at regular users, so if you’re an IT professional, it’s unlikely to be useful.
The full extent of the damage caused by the Heartbleed vulnerability may not be known for months. New reports of compromised systems are appearing daily.
Also in Heartbleed news: apparently the recently-reported Heartbleed-based intrusion of the Canada Revenue Agency was the work of a teenaged computer science student. He’s been arrested. It seems clear that his motivation was curiosity rather than something more sinister, since he did absolutely nothing to conceal his identity.
According to the RCMP, about 900 Social Insurance numbers were obtained from CRA systems by unknown persons over a six hour period around April 8. The affected account holders will be contacted by the CRA via registered mail.
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