Linux Security Good Practice

Some people say that hackers like to attack Windows/Mac system. The reason is because there are a lot of user of those. Is it true? I think it is not.
Each computer is prone to be attacked once you start to use it. In this case, if you are using Linux, you also need to keep good practice to protect your computer.

These are some good proctice to keep your Linux system safe.
a. Keep your system up-to-date
b. Only install software from trusted sources
c. Use strong password and always change it regularly
d. Disable all services that you are not using
e. Backup your data/system regularly
f. Do not use root account to access your machine. You can use sudo utility to act as root temporaly

[Book Review] Don’t Get Pwned! How to protect your child online

Where real safe online begins? Do you have any answer for this?

If we look back ten years ago and we compare with we have now days, we see that there is a big leap regarding how we get information. Everyday, we step into digital world that you might not imagine ten years ago.
You starts and end your day using smart devices that help you to work and enjoy your day. You are (almost) connected 24 hours with digital world. It does not see how old you are. Everybody, pre-school kids, teenager, adult and senior people are connected to online environment.
The question now is how you know about real identity that you access/talk to. They are hidden by a Profile. You may not know exactly who he/she is. It can be a ‘predator’ who want to prey on someone especially children.

Then, the question on top becomes important to answer to protect yourself and your family. It starts with the parents. Yeah.. you.. Mom and Dad. Why?
By right it is simple, Mom and Dad are a role model for a family. You teach what real love, respect, honest and trust to your children. So, your children will not be mislead by false version of those.
It is your responsibility to build confident, trust and respect because a confident child is naturally less of a target for predators.

I can say that this book is a guideline for parents to protect their family. I agree with the authors that building relationship is important. How to make your children trust and are able to talk you about his/her issues when he/she is online.
This book teach the parents how to teach their children to use internet safely. The authors also give a good explanation about chat rooms, instant messaging, social networking and some tips to avoid sexual predators.

I recommend you to read this book so that you can get benefit from the authors’ experiences.

 

How do Big Names want to control and track you?

When smart phone was booming 5 or 6 years ago, there were two big names became more and more popular. The choices were iOS or Android. Even till now, those are still major players in this industry. Both are controlled by Apple and Goolge respectively where you might not know that they (secretly) have ‘power’ to monitor your activities.

At that time, I still chose Nokia phone which was still running using 2G. I just needed to call and send SMS only. Now, I have been using Android phone for about 7 months. It is due to my job requirements. However, I still miss my old Nokia phone where not much secrets stored.

Recently, I read news that making me feel that my old phone was the best choice. First, Google introduce My Activity (https://myactivity.google.com/). This product reveals that Google knows everything about you. Your activities on internet is tracked, it shows a searchable history of pretty much everything you do online, including previously visited websites, voice searches, searched things and places, watched Netflix programs, places you search using Google Map and all activities you did on each of its product. Those activities are tracked not only when you surf using desktop. It also includes what you do using your Android phone. The purpose of stored all activities is to target relevant ads to Google users and to improve its service. You would be surprised that you can see what you did two or (even) three years ago. My Activity covers almost Goolge products, such as Ads, Search, Android, Play, Chrome, YouTube, Video Search, Image Search, Maps, News, Now, Books, Developers, Finance, Help, and Shopping. The good thing is Google allow you to remove your history records. You can even suspend web and application activity tracking for My Activity, but that could impact the features like auto complete suggestions.

Second one is a news about a patent to allow Apple disabling iPhone cameras (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jun/30/apple-iphone-camera-disable-remote-sensors-patent). The patent shows that Apple may allow iPhone cameras to be disabled through special infrared sensors, giving the example of a concert venue. One side, it is very good  because smart phone (sometimes) make a nuisance at concert or worship places (for example). The other side is about Apple (and third parties) has power to access your ‘secret’ in your smart phone.

Now, the thing that we have to think is how safe our personal data is. Let’s say Google and Apple make their systems always send something to central or accept any command… are you ok with this? If not… is there any other OS available in market that you can use? 

For me… my personal view.. i still need them. However, i  ‘manage’ what i do (search, watch and listen) and not open/store confidential files. I am also not interested to do mobile banking and payment using smart phone.  At least, this is what i can do now.

What about you?  The choice is yours…

Hackers are attacking SWIFT

Hackers are attacking the backbone of the world financial system, SWIFT. There are three cases reported so far. The total around $ 100 million had been transferred. How did it work?

First, hacker intercepts banking security system to install malware. Once it has been installed and run, it started to gain access to SWIFT messaging network. Using valid SWIFT credential of a back employee, hacker modified transaction detail to transferred monies to hacker’s destination accounts around the world.

Reference : http://thehackernews.com/2016/05/swift-banking-hack.html