Secure Communication

With so much going on lately from the NSA’s wholesale captures to the Celebrity iPhone leaks, there really is no reason to allow this to affect you.  There are ways you can protect your privacy online in today’s digital age:

Get a new cell phone every month 🙂

Prepaid cell phones really are about the same cost as the normal phones now.  If you need anonymity and your privacy, changing your number/device every month might be one way to keep you off the grid.

Encrypt your communications

There are a few programs now that support end-end voice & SMS encryption from smart phones to help deter people from listening in. There are also two industry standard methods for encrypting email from end-end: S/MIME & PGP.  (iPhones actually support S/MIME natively 🙂

Secure your credentials

Don’t use obvious addresses/usernames/passwords.  Consider using a security token as well.  That way even is someone obtains your username/password, they can’t login without your token.

Secure your Data

Plan for the perfect storm (the worst case scenario).  If everything went wrong, how would that affect you?  Don’t upload those photos to the cloud. Make sure all your digital devices utilize encryption that has not been broken or susceptible to attack.  “The cloud is not your friend.  Passwords are not secure.” Write that down in the sand 1000 times tomorrow at the beach 🙂 Balance the risks verses what you need, and understand your solution.

Read those popups BEFORE clicking through them

Make sure you understand them.  They may tell you that your data is not safe.  If you don’t understand them, don’t click through them. Someone may be trying to steal your data or credentials.