security

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Encrypt Your Thumb Drive

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        "Many of us use a thumb drive to backup data while traveling and to pass data to trusted friends," Allen Laudenslager gets our attention.  He elaborates, "Some of that data needs to be very private and should be encrypted. So, how do you encrypt your thumb drive?
        "Here is a link to the entire Wired magazine article,  but the specific directions for the Mac are below:
        "Mac OS X actually has a nice built-in encryption tool you can use right out of the box. To get started, just plug in your USB stick and open up Disk Utility (you'll find it in the Utilities folder inside your Applications folder).
        "In Disk Utility head to File >> New >>Blank Disk Image. Select your USB stick as the destination and choose one of the encryption options. You can also set the size of the volume, number of partitions and the format.
        "Once that's done click create and enter a good password (see our guide to picking strong passwords). Alternatively, there is a Mac version of TrueCrypt which may be used.
        "May not be important for pictures of the gandkids, but if you need to take your tax information to the accountant you just might care!"

Anti-Virus Protection

        "Does your Mac need virus protection?"  Jim Hamm gets our attention here.  "Lots of opinions on that question. An article from the MakeUseOf.Com newsletter (11/16/10) describes a new anti-virus program from Sophos, a company based in the United Kingdom. There was a short video in the newsletter that didn’t come through with this email. If interested, perhaps you could watch it on their website. I’ve also included a link where MakeUseOf.com describes two other anti-virus programs for the Mac: PC Tools and ClamXav.
        "So far I haven’t used an anti-virus program on my Mac, but I’m keeping an open mind on the issue. I don’t really want another program running all the time, and something else to keep updated. But, I don’t want a virus either, or be directed to a website that puts malware on my Mac. As I understand the protection native to the Mac’s OS X, nothing can be installed without you specifically allowing it to be installed. However, if one is misdirected to a malicious website—one different than the one you thought you were going to—perhaps that could be a problem.
        "I’ll keep an open mind and be cautious on what I install."

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Facebook: Privacy, Security Concerns

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Here's the straight scoop from today's posting on PCWorld, "When a piece of software is automatically installed on your computer without your knowledge, it's called malware. But what do you call it when Facebook apps are added to your profile without your knowledge? We discovered Wednesday that this is actually happening, and stopping it isn't as easy as checking a box in your privacy settings."  Read the whole article and decide if your kids and grandkids need to know this, too.

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Sneaky Cookies You Might Not Have Seen

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Flash “cookies” can be up to 100 kb. They never expire, will never be deleted automatically, and by default they don’t have to ask your permission to save all this data. There’s no easy way to delete them yourself, your browsers are not aware that they exist, so clearing Cookies and History doesn’t help. Adobe has hidden the settings in a Flash app deep in their website. Got your attention, so far?

Also, did you know you can set privacy settings for access to your camera and/or microphone on your computer? The Maintain Blog alerted me to check out Adobe’s Website Storage Panel. The page that comes up has the information from your computer already listed. You can view and make changes in Storage, Security Settings, Global Notifications Settings, and more. Reassuringly, it says, “Adobe has no access to this list or to any information that the websites may have stored on your computer.  (Double click on this illustration to enlarge.)

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Google Remembers You

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     Following up on PMUG blog posting of 10-24-09, “Do You Value Your Privacy?” here’s more.
     Read this article from Google on how to clear your address bar history, your toolbar history, and your search box history.
     This entry details how to delete your web history. You can also choose to stop your web history from being recorded in the future.
     Also, remember you can go to Safari and click to Clear History.
     Did you follow up on the suggestions from 10-24? You can delete Web History, Clear History, and delete Cookies.

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Watch for Google Goggles Info

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Are you reading about "Google Goggles"?   It's a photo-based search in real-time.  This PCWorld article describes its features.  This article from the UK points out serious privacy concerns. Barbara Krasnoff, Computerworld points out, "So what's scary? The day when you can quickly point your smartphone at a person in the street and know within seconds that person's name and particulars may not be that far off."

Address Book Privacy

Keeping up to date on the latest in security and privacy, we hear from John Carter. We had asked if putting Google or Yahoo or MobileMe to link to Address Book could in any way be something to avoid.
Here's his take on that.  .

 "If you frequently switch between Mac Mail and something like Google Mail or Yahoo Mail when you are away from home and you also frequently update your address book on one or the other, then synchronizing your address book across these platforms could make life a little easier for you.

"If you have a cell phone that you always carry with you, you could also keep your contact list updated between Mac Address Book and the cell phone Contact list and rely on your cell phone Contact list when you are not at home, which is what I try to do."

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Do You Value Your Privacy?

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Here's the latest PMUG handout from today's October 2009 meeting.  Hope it's helpful.  Read on about security.

10-24-09
You have some choices to make that affect your privacy on the Internet. Here are some considerations.

A recent Internet article mentioned privacy, and the writer gave this advice. Use one Internet search engine, say, Google for looking up articles; use Firefox for your financial dealings with your bank; use Opera for ordering things from the Internet.

Open to Safari. Click on History on the main menu at the top, and go all the way down the list to click Clear History. Every website you’ve opened since the last time you cleared it, or for the last several weeks will be erased from this list. Want to save some? Click Show All History and delete just the ones you want to, at this time.

Go to Safari > Preferences > Auto Fill (or Command + ,) See what your default setting has been all this time. If “Use info from my Address Book card” has been checked, then no wonder that yesterday in your mailbox you got something from British Columbia. Just a few days earlier you saw a cute ad on the Internet when you were looking up something else, and you clicked to just read that ad. Now the company has all that info about you that you posted to your own Address Book.

Command + Shift + H takes you from wherever you are on the Internet to the Google homepage.

On Google’s homepage click under More. Then click Even More. There are lots of interesting Google Products. Decide which ones you want to know about, but keep in mind what level of privacy you want.

Got all your Cookies? Open Safari, do Command + , (comma) and chose Security. Here you can choose to accept Cookies, “always,” “never,” or “only from sites I visit.” Some sites will prompt you to set to accept Cookies, but when you’re done with that site you can go immediately back to this list and click Never, and Show Cookies. Delete what you want; I delete all every time I finish on the Internet. The next time you need a Cookie temporarily you’ll be prompted to allow Cookies. Do it, then delete after you’re done with that site.

Sign in to Google with your email address and your Google password, chosen for your Google account. Go to Web History. Here you are being tracked. To opt out choose to Pause Web History. Your previous History will be deleted and it says they will not gather this info until you allow it.

DO NOT use any social networking sites: FaceBook, MySpace, etc. Don’t post any information about yourself on the Internet, comments, forums, etc. that you don’t want the whole world to know.

On the Safari drop-down menu Private Browsing could be a good choice. # # #

Does It Work Now?

David Passell writes, "I have been using MacScan, the possible subject of a future meeting, for over a year and it has detected and removed 50 tracking cookies. Here are the latest for August 31, and September 4. (Double click on images to enlarge them.)

"Tracking Cookies are considered harmless as far as security is concerned, but they may spawn a junk E-mail. Some of you fearless pioneers using Snow Leopard might try downloading the trial version, see if it finds anything, and report back. Here is their address and more info. MacScan - Mac OS X Anti-Spyware Security and Privacy Protection ...
Isolates, detects and removes spyware, keystroke loggers, and trojan horses for Mac OS and Mac OS X."

Security Update Posted

If you haven’t been automatically notified from your Mac’s Software Update, you might want to look at this. It’s a security update, “Java for Mac OS X v.10.5, update 4.” Several news sources on Google reported it. I looked at http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/06/15/apple_plugs_critical_java_security_hole_affecting_tiger_leopard.html

Sure enough, it came up when I looked at Software Update on my Mac. It said, "Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 4 delivers improved reliability, security, and compatibility for Java SE 6, J2SE 5.0 and J2SE 1.4.2 on Mac OS X 10.5.7 and later. This release updates Java SE 6 to version 1.6.0_13, J2SE 5.0 to version 1.5.0_19, and J2SE 1.4.2 to 1.4.2_21.
Please quit all web browsers before installing this update.
For more details on this update, please visit this website: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3581

Check it out for yourself. "Secure" is such a nice concept.

Safe and Secure

Our February 21 meeting will feature a Keynote presentation by Art Gorski. He will give us features, tricks and tips, some unique to Leopard (Mac OSX 10.5) that will make your computing safer and more secure, especially if you use a laptop in public locations.  He will also discuss safe computing practices, do's and don'ts, that will protect you on the Internet.  He promises to be gentle and not too technical, and everyone should learn something new.  See you there.