to Prismstop`s complimentary white paper, "11 Steps You
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1. front end application allowing NSA analysts to find all data gathered by PRISM with a phone number email address credit card number etc and the latest batch of programs titled Blarney Fairview Oakstar Lithium and Stormbrew as reported by the Wall Street Journal These programs together are capable of intercepting and analyzing approximately 75 of all Internet usage in the US With basic threat analysis one would have to conclude that the most likely threat to our privacy comes from our own government While their intentions may be pure to protect us from further terrorist attack etc it also exposes information that you may wish to be kept private There have been numerous stories in the media over the last several years including the Washington Post report of August 15 2013 detailing how an internal NSA audit revealed that the agency violated their own rules for privacy thousands of times per year Can we do anything about this The answer is yes Part of it means adopting new habits and part of it means adopting new technologies While there is no such thing as completely safe Internet usage no more than you can be assured that you ll never have an accident at work we can take some simple steps to dramatically improve our privacy and make it much more difficult to have our privacy compromised 4 http news cnet com 8301 1009 3 57579981 83 top wi fi routers easy to hack says stud gt http online wsj com article SB1000142412782. is highly protected This protection begins at your Wi Fi router and extends to every device you use Ensure that your mobile devices are encrypted see your user s manual or research online how to do this and that they are protected by passcode password gestures facial recognition fingerprints some smartphones support this or other method It is likely that logins and passwords are stored on your mobile devices and could compromise your privacy and cause you to incur financial loss if they fall into the wrong hands 8 Considerusing a password management system A few companies have sprung up to handle the issue of managing all of our login IDs and passwords This isan area definitely worth investigating and does not have to be expensive For example Lastpass com can create a complex password as you re setting up an account store your login information allow you to audit all of your passwords and works on virtually all web browsers Operating systems and mobile devices for 1 per month Other password management companies provide similar services 9 Never reply to spam messages never click on pop up ads and be skeptical of every offer These are common sense measures that too many people forget about or out of temptation disregard You put yourself at great risk so don t an vd O N xS N N xS 06 www prismstop com 10 Never use publically available Wi Fi networks without strong encryption Open W
3. password Have you ever updated the firmware on your router Without these basic steps your home Internet connection is subject to hacks via Wi Fi or over the Internet And when your router is compromised everything in your home is compromised your laptops smartphones PCs iPods tablets and so on In a 2013 article CNET reported findings from Independent Security Evaluators entitled Top Wi Fi routers easy to hack says study detailing how 13 1 http blog instantcheckmate com is your password really protecting vou 2 http usatoday30 usatoday com tech news story 2012 03 22 lost phones 53707448 1 3 http blogs mcafee com consumer unprotected mobile devices an vd O N xS N N le www prismstop com of the most popular off the shelf wireless routers could be exploited by a moderately skilled adversary with LAN or WLAN access Who are our adversaries in our effort to protect our privacy and our personal data They are hackers identity thieves government officials and sometimes just people with too much time on their hands With all that we do online shopping banking social networking paying bills and so on every Internet user represents an attractive and potentially lucrative target With the revelations about the US government s intrusive NSA programs PRISM designed to gather data from social networking sites telephone companies mobile phone companies and so on XKeyscore an easy to use
4. 87324108204579022874091732470 html 6 http www washingtonpost com world national securitv nsa broke privacy rules thousands of times per vear audit finds 2013 08 15 3310e554 05ca 11e3 a07f 49ddc7417125 story html hpid z1 an vd O N xS N N xS 06 www prismstop com 11 STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY 1 Realize that protecting your personal information is up to you and that no one else can do it for you know that sounds like the beginning of a 12 step program but it is the most important step you can take It takes time effort and diligence but you have a right to your privacy and a responsibility to protect it 2 Secure your browser The most popular web browsers in use today are Internet Explorer by Microsoft Safari by Apple Chrome by Google and Firefox by Mozilla All can be made more secure by following a number of FAQs available online but if you re not using Firefox you might consider switching to it It supports a number of privacy plugins including Adblock Plus and Electronic Frontier Foundation s HTTPSEverywhere and was not developed by companies that are actively working with the NSA Microsoft Google Apple etc 3 Review your social networking permissions and sharing Most Americans use some form of social networking such as Facebook Twitter Pinterest Google and so on It is up to you to decide what information you want to share with family friends and the p
5. Prismstop com LLC 11 STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY TO PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY www prismstop com www prismstop com Overview Maintaining your privacy online has been always been a challenge and with each passing day it seems to become more difficult Companies are spending millions in identifying who you are what you like and where you go through pervasive and subversive means Internet Service Providers are seeing their client base as a potential goldmine of detailed data and the US government has a long and storied history of gathering all sorts of information on all of us To take on any one of these challenges to your natural right of privacy can seem daunting As more of our lives move online many become jaded at the thought of having to perform basic security and privacy protection for every web site we visit For example a 2013 study by instantcheckmate com showed that 73 of people use the same password for more than one web site and 33 of people use the same password for EVERY web site Needless to say this makes people s personal data less secure their accounts easier to hack and the likelihood of their private information being made public increases Most Internet users are casual about their Internet usage More of our time is spent online from our mobile devices smart phones tablets ultrabooks and laptops But are we good about protecting those devices In a 2011 study by Lookout com a maker of smartphone security ap
6. and we want to help you protect it by providing a highly affordable and effective solution For more information visit Prismstop on the web at www prismstop com our Facebook Page at www facebook com Prismstop or follow us on Twitter Prismstop orismo I NP M Walnut Bottom Road Suite 15 169 Carlisle Pennsylvania 17015 infoQprismstop com 855 PRISMSTOP VY vd O N xS N N Mm 00
7. i Fi networks are conveniences but represent a high degree of danger to your security and privacy Simply put anyone on their network who is using some very basic hacking tools can log every keystroke you make steal your passwords and potentially connect to your device and steal your information Publically available hacker applications can do all of this and much more If you must use their network use a Virtual Private Network service like those provided by Prismstop to ensure that your data is completely encrypted and unreadable by anyone on their network 11 Secure all of your home Internet traffic and the traffic on all of your mobile devices with Prismstop Prismstop provides a complete encryption cloaking of your Internet address firewall identity theft protection and uncensored Internet access for every device in your home with our Secure Privacy Routers and Recommended Virtual Private Network Services Prismstop Protection does not stop at your front door but provides the same levels of protection on all of your mobile devices smart phones tablets laptops and more for the same price You can use public Wi Fi hotspots with confidence that your personal data is encrypted and secure Prismstop Secure Privacy Routers remove the inherent insecurity of off the shelf routers are individually configured to our best practices standards and tailored to your particular requirements We believe that you have a natural right to your privacy
8. lace 5 Use various e mail addresses Most people have an email address that they received from their Internet Service Provider when they established service and use it for the majority of their email This can quickly lead to increases is spam received and email borne attacks by virus malware phishing and so on If you re logging into or an vd O N xS N N xS 06 posting on sites you don t frequent or know a lot about consider using free email accounts such as www prismstop com Hotmail Yahoo or Gmail While none of these can be trusted with your personal information due to the NSA s monitoring within their data centers they can be useful as disposable email addresses or even used a single time 6 Review your company or school s Internet Usage Policy Many large companies and many small ones use programs like Websense to log and track what their employees students and faculty are doing on their networks This type of privacy intrusion is usually tied to the Internet Usage Policy or terms of service It is safe to assume that your usage is being logged and possibly monitored 7 Adapt good security practices on all your Internet connected devices particularly mobile devices This means using a good security and privacy software suite like Symantec McAfee or others using complex passwords a mixture of UPPER CASE lower case numbers and symbols no shorter than 8 characters in length and your home network
9. ps include provide lost phone services an estimated 30 billion dollars worth of smart phones are lost each year They based this on real usage oftheir services Domost users protect their devices in case they are lost or stolen According toa McAfee One Poll study 36 of users do not password protect their phone From McAfee s blog for example only one in five respondents have backed up the data on their smartphone and tablet and more than one in ten 15 save password information on their phone This means that if their phone falls into the wrong hands they risk opening up all sorts of personal information such as bank details and online logins to whoever finds the device 3 sobering thoughts In our homes we frequently feel safe on the Internet we feel that we are in control But are we Your Wi Fi router typically sits behind your cable modem and does a number of jobs that make using the Internet easy for us It is your gateway to the Internet allowing us to roam around our homes using Wi Fi anywhere it provides a basic level of protection against hackers and might have some features that balance or prioritize certain types of traffic to ensure a good Internet experience Is your router adequately protected Have you disabled remote administrative access have you changed the admin or root password to something highly complex Is your home s Wi Fi running the highest standard of encryption with a highly complex
10. ublic at large Every social networking site is different and has various methods to secure your data go through all that you use and see what information others can see about you Is your phone number or address available to the public have you posted pictures that you d prefer remain viewed only by family or do you play games online that have access data you d prefer they didn t It takes some time and effort but if you are concerned about your privacy it is a necessary step to take 4 Begin changing your habits If you frequently post online share pictures use instant messaging and so on take a moment to ask yourself if you re sharing more than you should or if you are sharing anything you would not want your government to see If you re conducting financially related activities such as paying bills banking or shopping is the web site trusted and do they support HTTPS a protocol supported by web browsers and most internet applications to ensure security during transmission If you re being asked to provide personal information to open an account with a company or web site online are they asking for more than you are willing to provide The vastness of the Internet allows us as consumers the ability to find what we need and to be picky about who we do business with make sure those you trust with your personal information are requiring the minimum data to conduct transmissions and that they have a trustworthy privacy policy in p
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