Let me add to the list of everyone that you know in wishing you a happy New Year. Like all of the Brown community, I am returning from our winter break and looking forward to starting off 2013 with a bang.
As you will read in another section of our Secure IT! newsletter, Brown is participating in National Data Privacy Month in January, which will culminate in a special event on Data Privacy Day, being held on January 28th.
While it’s always a good time to think about privacy, ISG joins others around the globe recognizing Data Privacy Day on January 28th in an effort to empower people to protect their privacy, control their digital footprint, and escalate the protection of privacy and data as everyone’s priority.
This year, ISG has planned a timely colloquium focused on the issue of personal privacy as well as organizational confidentiality entitled Perspectives on Privacy: Rights, the Law & the University.
In this edition of Secure IT! we profile a group of individuals brought together from diverse areas of IT by a common interest in information security: the Brown Security Round Table. The members of the BSRT meet regularly to discuss information security items relevant to the Brown community. As part of formalizing their vision, the BSRT created a website to provide resources as well as a forum for others with similar interests.
Patrick Laverty
We’re now at the point where social media isn’t just for teenagers any more. Parents, grandparents and apparently everyone has their own Facebook account, uses Twitter and puts their photos on Instagram. We all have fun when we get a “friend request” from a name we might not have thought of in years. We can reconnect over Facebook, see their family and how life has gone for them.
Want to know what personal information is online and easily available to others? A site like Spokeo — a people search engine that aggregates white-pages listings and public records — makes it possible to view details about yourself beyond age, address and phone number. Its searches can turn up house photos, address history, religion, political affiliations, financial status, tax records, social network details and much more. The good news is, you can opt out of it.
Lea Snyder
Recently I posted an article called “Windows calling to the faraway towns …” to the BSRT website which talked a bit about a scam that has been around for awhile in which individuals receive calls from Windows letting them know their machine has a virus. Yes you read that correctly — Windows calling. I thought I could expand my thoughts on protecting your privacy over the phone as we so often focus on protecting your privacy while on the internet but protecting your privacy is critical no matter the vehicle – the internet, the phone, the mail, etc.
Over 3,000 individuals have taken the Protecting Brown’s Information class to learn what constitutes “Brown Confidential Information”; where, when and how it’s at risk; and what you can do to mitigate that risk. Are you one of them? Or has it been awhile and you’d like a refresher or this newsletter has gotten you thinking about privacy and you want to learn more? If so, join us on Wednesday, January 16th at 1:00 p.m. for a presentation by David Sherry. You can sign up here.
A new version of Identity Finder (6.2) has been released and is now available for download from CIS’ Software Distribution site (click OS and search for Identity Finder). Note that if you currently run Brown’s Identity Finder, you’ll need to remove it before installing the new version.
ISG recommends that you install and periodically run Identity Finder to detect and secure sensitive data on your computer, which will help protect you from identity theft. More information is available in the Identity Finder FAQ.
“By taking some simple steps now, you can protect yourself if you lose any of your mobile devices.”
Heather Mahalik is the guest editor for this issue (OUCH! security awareness newsletter). She is a certified SANS instructor and the Mobile Device Forensics Technical Lead for Basis Technology, working out of Washington, DC. Heather is active on Twitter @heathermahalik.
What have you done with technology in the last 24-48 hours? I going to assume that you did many, many things including: used your email, looked up sports scores or news, sent a text (or hundreds), purchased a book on Amazon, sent or viewed tweets, updated your wall, and reviewed your calendar to plan a trip to view the foliage. And I can also assume that you did some work with your devices and networked technology as well.
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