Are your keystrokes being recorded?

It's always nice to set the scene for these subjects it helps my over active imagination to write better, so lets sit back and imagine the following: you are browsing the internet, firstly you look up a few weird and wonderful subjects, then you tip over to that dodgy website your wife doesn't know about to catch up on that online affair you have been having. You ask how did you know? well if you have been watching any tech related news in the past week you would have seen a headline or two stating things like "popular sites record your every keystrokes" and the rest.

So you ask what does that mean, websites are recording my keystrokes so they have a bulk file filled with code and text and links right?  Well technically yes but someone also though it would be a good idea to create a software that plays back all of this stuff in a film like format, sound scary? well it is and as you can see from the video below were your "keystrokes" to get leaked you might be in a whole pile of doo doo pretty quickly.

Researchers from Princeton University's Centre for Information Technology Policy (CITP) analyzed the Alexa top 50,000 websites in the world and found that 482 sites, many of which are high profile, are using a new web-tracking technique to track every move of their users.

Dubbed "Session Replay," the technique is used even by most popular websites, including The Guardian, Reuters, Samsung, Al-Jazeera, VK, Adobe, Microsoft, and WordPress, to record every single movement a visitor does while navigating a web page, and this incredibly extensive data is then sent off to a third party for analysis.

"Session replay scripts" are usually designed to gather data regarding user engagement that can be used by website developers to improve the end-user experience. However, what's particularly concerning is that these scripts record beyond the information you purposely give to a website—which also includes the text you type out while filing a form and then delete before hitting 'Submit.'

If your starting to get cold sweats after reading the above then here are a couple of sites where you can educate yourself a bit further on this topic.

https://thehackernews.com/2017/11/website-keylogging.html

https://thenextweb.com/security/2017/11/21/hundreds-of-websites-record-your-every-keystroke-without-you-knowing/

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/websites-record-keystroke/

How safe are messaging apps

With the massive rise in popularity of messaging apps in the past few years with Snapchat said to have at least 30 million active monthly users while WhatsApp and LINE sport 400 million and 300 million registered users, respectively. The ever increasing risk of cyber attacks against such accounts and there retrospective servers is a given. The issue with a lot of these apps is they request a mountain of personal information in order for you to be able to use the service. Giving this information requires a lot of trusting of the application developer and from past exploits its hard to say a lot of these developers deserve your trust. The question now is "how do you protect yourself whilst using such application?"

Well in order to help you with this I have compiled a number of steps that if followed should help minimize your risk of exposure if your account becomes victim to a cyber attack.

1) Be discreet. If you want to use messaging apps as a way to contact certain people, avoid using real-life identification details that can be traced back to you. If that can’t be avoided, use as little real information as possible, depending on the app you’re using. Avoid linking your social networking profiles to your messaging app accounts.

2) Secure your messaging app accounts. Use a unique email account for your messaging app. Don’t reuse passwords.

3) Don’t share anything you wouldn’t want the public to get wind of. Oversharing is one of the biggest mistakes you can ever make online; using messaging apps is no exception. Be aware of what you share. And when in doubt, keep sensitive information to yourself.

4) Limit what access you give your messaging application eg don't give access to your location or photos unless you need to.

Securing your iot devices

2016 has been named the year that the internet of things (iot) takes hold, with a reported 50 million plus devices sold worldwide to date with everything from smart fridges to smart plugs iot is here to stay. It must be noted however with all of this extra connectivity comes a juicy threat surface for cyber criminals to prey on. The main thing consumers need to remember that if you bough a devices that connects to the internet then you can be guaranteed that it needs to be secured. In this post I am going to outline a number of steps you can take to help protect yourself and your family from becoming victims of a cyber attack.

1) Keep your devices up to date

This goes for all devices that connect to the internet but I would especially recommend it for iot devices as new exploits are exposed manufactures may push down patches to solve the vulnerability and therefor you should regularly check to make sure your device is running the latest software.

2) Change the default password on your device

This is a very important step to take as the majority of iot devices are mass produced with a default login and not changing this on day one will leave yourself vulnerable to attack. May I suggest using a password that is at least 10 character long with special characters and capitals and numbers i.e don't use your last name and type 123 after it.

3) Be familiar with your devices privacy section

What kind of information are you saving or sharing through this device and what guarantees are put in place that this information is been protected. Don't assume just because the manufacturer says its a secure device to use that it is and make sure your information isn't been shared with third parties.

4) Be carefully buying a second hand device or selling your own device

Buying a second hand device on line may come pre-installed with malware or a backdoor only buy second hand devices from a reputable dealer. On the flip side think long and hard about selling your device, resetting a device may look like all your data has been cleared but with a little know how a lot of this information may be retrieved. There are a number of programs out there that ensure proper data erasure and this may be something you should look into first.

Securing your android (the basics)

I have been asked a bit lately about securing android devices as I tend to focus on the apple side of things as I myself use the iPhone. There is a myth out there that android is inherently insecure and this really isn't true, android out of the box is pretty good its the user that make the device insecure. The real issue with android is anyone can make an app and upload it to their store they don't check first to see if you are a potential cyber criminal. I think from memory that at one stage in the past few years the top 5 apps in the android store were in fact trojan horses this might be wrong but I am pretty sure their is some truth their I need to go back and double check this. So to minimize the waffle you ask "what do I need to do to secure my android?" Well I have put together a number of steps that if followed will definitely help you get to a place where you can feel "secure".

1) Do not save all of your passwords in your device! I don't know why I need to say this but people naturally tend to save their passwords for easy access of whatever the reason on their devices. This is a very bad practice and you should avoid this, think of memorizing your passwords of a way to delaying Alzheimer's and not getting ripped off by cyber criminals.

2) Use your devices inbuilt security features, If you are running on Jelly Bean, you can have a screen lock and encryption enabled to further enhance your security. Use these features they will help you keep your device safe.

3) Androids allow you to lock your apps you should use this feature especially for apps that hold sensitive information. Their is a free app that you can download to enable this feature called App Lock.

4) If you are installing an app read what permissions the app want's!!! If you are downloading some recipe app it doesn't need access to your camera, microphone and contacts. This should be common sense but for some reason people download apps and click ok to everything.

5)  Download a mobile security app, androids are very much open to virus's and malware in comparison to their i0S counterparts. An app I think is pretty good is avast!mobile security.

6) One of the most important things you can do to secure your android is secure your network. I know you wont listen but try to avoid using public networks. You can protect your information by using apps like Hideninja VPN so that your outgoing connection is always encrypted, making it harder for anyone to sabotage your data. If you suspect that your device is being attacked, WiFi Protector can help fend off these attackers. To further enhance your network security you can apply settings from SecDroid but note that this app is only for rooted phones.

Protecting against phishing

Phishing (pronounced fishing) scams are among the most prevalent forms of cybercrime, targeting unsuspecting victims. Although phishing is widespread, it is possible to identify and prevent. Apart from ensuring you install security software, the best way to combat scams is to educate yourself to what these scams are and how to identify them. I found the below video from Meridian Banking that explains phishing very well, and even though its aimed at Meridian customers you should get the idea.

Now that you have an idea of what phishing is and what forms it can take lets go through some addition steps you can take to protect yourself. 

1) Be wary of emails asking for confidential information - especially information of a financial nature. Legitimate organisations never look for this information over email or the phone, if you get such a call or an email you should contact that organisation independently using know contact information from previous correspondence such as a statement or contract.

2) Make sure you when signing up to a new website's that you read there privacy policy. The majority of commercial websites have a privacy policy, which is usually accessible at the foot of the page. In this policy look for the website's policy on whether it will or will not sell its mailing list. If the site in question does sell its mailing list see do they have a policy that allows you to sign up and opt out of this feature if not you might want to consider do you really need to join the site in question. The majority of spam and potentially dangerous phishing emails you receive come from sites you have signed up to that have sold your mailing information to another company or companies.

3) Make sure you maintain effective software to combat phishing. Most Internet Security suites automatically detect and block fake websites. Some will also authenticate major banking and shopping sites. I have also stated in another blog how you can add security plugins to your browser that will help identify dodgy sites and links.

4) Never use links in an email to connect to a website unless you are absolutely sure they are authentic. It is very easy to add a fake link or hyperlink text that will bring you to a fake site or similar looking website. To avoid this open a new browsers and type in the url subtle differences could bring you to a fake site (eg) ww.aib.ie is the AIB banking site what if the link you received was www.aibbank.ie would you know the difference?

5) Never submit confidential information via forms embedded within email messages. This is not a secure practice and all reputable companies know this. If the form is part of a phishing attack the senders are often able to track all information entered.

6) Think twice about opening attachments from senders you are not familiar with eg. getting an email off an unknown address with an attachment labelled as "invoice". If you are not expecting an invoice and you don't recognize the sender chances are the attachment is carrying a malicious payload delete it!

7) I will end with my pet hate, clicking articles on social media that are clearly made up just so you will click on them. eg  BREAKING NEWS: Pamela Anderson shoots president Obama over views on healthcare! This is clearly a bullshit article don't click on it, you can be guaranteed you are entering a world of spam and malware.

I recently came across a bluebird care campaign surrounding cybercrime and the elderly. As part of that campaign they had an infograph that I think is a super informative and can be viewed by clicking here.