Wednesday 19 October 2016

SumTips: 8 Must-Have Tips from EFF’s Surveillance Self-Defense Guide

Man giving tipsThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an international digital rights group that supports user privacy, free expression and innovation. In addition to its impact litigation, policy analysis, grassroots activism and technology development, the nonprofit offers an online Surveillance Self-Defense Guide, with overviews of what digital surveillance is and how it can be countered; tutorials on installing and using protective software and tools; and briefings on relevant situations. Eight must-have tips include:

1.    How to Make a Super-Secure Password Using Dice (Animated): Think your complex password is secure? Think again. Computer programs allow hackers to guess millions of passwords in just one second. For greater security, try Arnold G. Reinhold’s Diceware technique.

2.    How to Delete Your Data Securely on Windows: Think a file moved to your computer’s trash folder is gone forever? Not exactly. Try BleachBit for secure file deletion for Windows (and check out EFF’s resources for deleting data from Linux and Mac OS X).

3.    How to Enable Two-factor Authentication: Not willing to rely on a single password to keep your accounts secure? Take the extra steps required to add an additional authentication method (usually your phone number). Facebook calls it ‘login approvals’; Twitter calls it ‘login verification’; Google calls it ‘2-step verification’; and we call it plain smart. A complete list of websites that offer 2FA can be found at https://twofactorauth.org/. 

4.    How to Use OTR for Windows: Looking for a secure chat application? Try OTR (Off-the-record) with instant messaging client Pidgin. OTR encrypts chats, identifies your chat buddy and prevents servers from logging conversations, but beware—it cannot control the actions of your chat buddy. Also, check out EFF’s resources for OTR for Linux and Mac).

5.    A Detailed Guide to Attending Protests (International): Interested in exercising your freedom of expression? EFF provides measures to take to protect your electronic devices, before and during a protest.

6.    A Detailed Guide to Protecting Yourself on Social Networks: Regarding Facebook, Twitter and Google+, have you asked any of the following questions lately: How can I interact with these sites while protecting myself? My basic privacy? My identity? My contacts and associations? What information do I want to keep private and who do I want to keep it private from? If so, EFF has answers.

7.    What Is Encryption? An Overview: You have questions; EFF has answers.

8.    A Detailed Guide to Choosing the VPN That’s Right for You: We may be biased, but we’d say that SumRando’s promise of no logging, secure server locations and acceptance of alternate payment options make it an excellent choice.

Know your resources, surf secure and stay Rando!



Image credit of Shutterstock.com.
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