It wasn’t very long ago when everyone and their mother was afraid of online theft. But now thanks to things like Facebook, we feel very comfortable sharing our most deepest of thoughts, just as long as you remember to set up your privacy settings.
But some things still bother some people. Electronic voting machines keep getting a bad rap because they are supposedly susceptible to hacks, which is true, but then again so is a Coke Machine if you know the right button combination on the front of the machine. And what’s saying that those stupid paper ballots are any less infallible.
Some people also have an issue with their medical information being online. How different is that from having ALL your credit information available to anyone with your social security number and 40 dollars? Your medical information online would be as private as your bank account, but you don’t complain about that being online, now do you?
Now, on the other end of the hypocritical statement, people seem to have absolutely NO problem jumping onto a free, non-secured, public wifi. Free Wifi is like a bug zapper for humans. They would rather go to a subpar coffee shop with free wifi, than a decent shop with wifi you have to pay for. (PAY FOR WIFI!?) And yet, many people still don’t have the basic idea of how to protect their computer from possible hacks. Granted most proper websites offer https, but there are still a few here and there that don’t. And let’s not forget those people who accidentally forgot to turn off their shared folders. Yeah, those are available. Oh, look. An itunes library is available as well for my listening pleasure. Thanks, buddy.
Am I being a little paranoid about one thing, and not paranoid enough about others? Probably. But if we’re going move forward into the 21st century we need to understand that technology shouldn’t be feared, but at the same time should assume it’s sometimes flawed.
Different strokes for different folks.
What you talkin’ ’bout, Jack?
You brought up a very good point, man. We’ve all foregone security for the sake of convenience these days.
Tell me about it. We’ve become so accustomed to the right here, right now, mentality that we don’t take the extra precautions. After all, that always happens to “the other guy”.
There are ways to be somewhat safe, but I try to avoid doing banking or shopping anywhere but my Fortress of Solitude as a general rule.
Same here. At home on my private wi-fi is the only place I do any high secure stuff like banking and shopping.
Yeah – worked in IT for a couple of years. Got out when it was challenging both my sanity AND my medication!
And people wonder why I have an encrypted WiFi network, with a “hard” firewall and running “soft” firewalls on all portables. AND, anything that’s even remotely confidential lives on a thumb drive; which, if I take it anywhere, is either in my pocket or around my neck.
Anything REALLY confidential stays between my ears – it’s the only truly secure place I have!
I can only imaging the type of stuff you must have had to deal with in IT. I get tired when I only have to deal with my mother.
And that’s a lot of steps to stay secure. Probably doesn’t hurt to be over protective if it’s not that much trouble, or causes any extra hinderance in your day to day use.
It’s a lot, but it’s also finding a balance. A little inconvenience due to enhanced personal security, or a lot of inconvenience fixing an intrusion. Which would you prefer?
And yes, I do have a “Guest” account on all machines. You want to use my computer? I log out real quick, log in the Guest account, and you can get online – you can’t download anything, you can’t execute anything I don’t want you to execute, and even the sites you can visit are sharply limited. And, there a whole boatload of programmes on the machine that you won’t be able to find, much less access.
Don’t like being limited? Use y’own damn machine (Yes, even I can’t download, install, or run most software under the Guest account. I have to change back over. And, there’s a fingerprint reader to log in as me – I had the programming change so it has to read TWO fingerprints to work. You’ll need both of my hands to log in as me…
(Paranoid? I’ve been called worse. And that’s not even mentioning the “automatic back-hack” utilities written for me by hacker/programmer friends…)
And for that matter, puppies. Can we really trust them?
No we can’t. Get the lolcat army ready.
that must be some super HD porn shot on IMAX that he’s paying for. He does realize that 85% of the internet is porn and a lot of it is free right?
Of course he does. He freaking filmed 75% of it in his bedroom.
thus creating a new genre called FYB
FIC
test
The hard part is making a fake ID that looks like a green booger.
I dunno. Those Frumps look mighty easy to draw.
Tell me more about this Coke machine hack.
Could alway use free ZERO.
Google.
A lot of people who frequently use public wifi have laptops easy to access…… not that I’ve done that…… recently…… nice weather, isn’t it? *whistles inconspicuously*
People who classify in the aformentioned also wonder why people like me have a headache from face-desk related injury when we hear about bad things happening to their computers. It does make for good job security though.
I suppose you would know better than anyone about these wifi security issues. Got any cool clientcopia style stories to share on the subject?