Courtesy of Flickr |
Even the President Thinks Big Brother is a Good Thing
At least one world-renown author has written
about a society beset by them and the current President of the United States
recently spoke about them when he said, "In the abstract, you can complain
about Big Brother and how this is a potential program run amok, but when you
actually look at the details, then I think we've struck the right
balance."
Move Over George, Here Comes "More Well"
Category:George Orwell Category:Nineteen Eighty Four (Original text : George Orwell, 1984. This self-made image is based on a picture that appears in an old acreditation for the BNUJ.) Picture of George Orwell taken from File:GeoreOrwell.jpg. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Prepare for the Coming Hackathon
English: OpenBSD hackers at c2k++ at MIT. Photo by Dug Song. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Watch Out for the RAT Hack Attack!
Think
that sounds more than a little paranoid?
Tell that to Miss Teen USA, Cassidy Wolf, who was blackmailed by a hacker
who used her laptop’s webcam to take nude photos of her without her
knowledge. The hacker used what’s known
in the industry as a remote administration tool (RAT) that is able to not only
remotely operate a victim’s webcam, but is also capable of disabling the little
light that lets someone know that their webcam is on. (And to think that not
too long ago, celebrities had only to worry about pushy paparazzi trying to
catch them in compromising situations.)
In September, the FBI arrested a 19-year-old man named Jared
Abrahams from Temecula, California, on charges that he hacked into the social
media accounts of several women, including Wolf, and took nude photographs of
them by remotely controlling their webcams. He then allegedly contacted the
victims and threatened to post the pictures on their social media profiles
unless they sent him more nude photos and videos or did what he demanded for
five minutes in Skype video chats. http://www.macworld.com/article/2081940/researchers-older-mac-webcams-can-spy-without-activating-warning-light.html
Ancient Greeks Had a Trojan Horse, We Have to Contend with Trojan Emails
Courtesy of Flickr |
Countries Spying Everywhere Without Remorse
EFF has written
extensively about
the worsening situation for bloggers in Vietnam, supporting campaigns to free
high-profile bloggers such as Le Quoc Quan and Dieu Cay, and criticizing the Vietnam’s Internet censorship bill. Vietnam’s
Internet spying campaign dates back to at least March 2010, when engineers at
Google discovered malware
broadly targeting Vietnamese computer users. The infected machines were used to
spy on their owners as well as participating in DDoS attacks against dissident
websites.
Spy vs. Spy (2005 video game) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Of
course, the majority of the public are not on the blacklist of unfriendly
governments. So why should the average family
worry about their privacy being invaded by hackers? Because some hackers make a tidy living from
this kind of activity, that’s why. And
I’m not talking about sextortion here.
If Only We Had a Digital Neighborhood Watch
As long as there have been homes and
businesses there have been burglars. In
the past, thieves had to risk being detected while they cased a home or a
neighborhood in search of targets of opportunity. (This is why the neighborhood watch program was
invented.) The problem in the digital
age is that thieves no longer have to prowl the neighborhood to determine a
victim’s patterns. That’s because your
home or business may become their unwitting accomplice.
The
latest things to hit the market are smart appliances. Everything from smart lighting and
entertainment centers, to wireless security devices and the networks upon which
they operate are subject to being hacked.
As a rule, if you can use your smartphone to set your home’s thermostat,
open your garage door, or let you view your home when you are away, then so can
a hacker bent on stealing your goods.
While “Smart Homes” are all the rage, a number of people in the know
consider them to be a major chink in your home’s security armor.
Forget the Attack of The Clones, Watch Out For The Household Appliances
Samsung to Join International Smart Home•Building Show 2013 (Photo credit: samsungtomorrow) |
Now Your Car is Spying on You
English: 2008 Triple Black smart car 451 (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said the Obama
administration decided to announce its intention to require the technology in
new vehicles in order to "send a strong signal to the (automotive
industry) that we believe the wave of the future is vehicle-to-vehicle
technology."
Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/v2v-technology-us-unveils-plan-for-cars-of-the-future#ixzz2sJcamcLp
Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/national/v2v-technology-us-unveils-plan-for-cars-of-the-future#ixzz2sJcamcLp
This is on top of
all the automated surveillance being used in shopping malls and big box stores.
Not only do shopping centers' eyes-in-the-sky watch for shoplifters and observe
employees, but they can also be equipped with face recognition software, or be
programmed to observe and track shoppers as they window shop and make
purchases. Coming to a mall near you is
a new technology that will allow store owners to tailor ads displayed in
strategically placed kiosks that match a shopper's demographics.
Shoppers
at the new International Finance Center Mall in Seoul can find their way around
the four-story complex by approaching one of 26 information kiosks. When they
do, they also are being watched. Just above each kiosk's LCD touch screen sit
two cameras and a motion detector. As a visitor is recorded, facial identity
software estimates the person's gender and age.
The system's makers, two companies from South Korea's SK Holdings Co. conglomerate, plan
to allow advertisers to tailor interactive ads on the kiosk by those
attributes. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10000872396390444897304578044322254166986
Kiosk (Photo credit: compujeramey) |
So
to sum it up, when it comes to who’s watching you in the digital age, know that
it's “More Well” (everybody), not just Orwell. You can’t take a walk, you can’t go shopping,
you can’t take a drive or stay home. You can’t even spit outside of the tracking area of the surveillance
society. Or, to put it bluntly, when it
comes to "Eye spy, with my little eye," I see George Orwell was an optimist.
In
this article I covered a multitude of ways, (even levels) that the surveillance
society employs to track our lives. I have covered aspects of how everyone is spying on someone,
in some way or another, including: individuals spying on each other, businesses spying on
employees and or customers, governments spying on other governments (and their own
citizens), and last but not least, the criminal element spying to get our money
and goods. If you found this article to be useful or entertaining -- or disturbing -- pass it along
to your friends and co-workers. If you have a comment relating to this article, leave
it in the section below. Thanks for sharing
this journey with me. Until next time, watch out for the "Watcher of the Skies."
If you like this article, you can find more by typing “Internet Security” in the search box at the top left of this
blog.
If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. I hope you have found these questions and answers useful. Thanks for sharing your time with me.
If you like this article, you can find more by typing “Internet Security” in the search box at the top left of this
blog.
If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. I hope you have found these questions and answers useful. Thanks for sharing your time with me.
If you'd like a free copy of our eBook, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," please fill in the form below and we'll email it to you. Your information is always kept private and is never sold.
Since 1995, Carl Weiss has been helping clients succeed
online. He owns and operates several online marketing businesses,
including Working the Web to
Win and Jacksonville
Video Production. He also co-hosts the weekly radio show, "Working the Web to Win,"
every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.com.
Related Articles
No comments:
Post a Comment