Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons Podcast

Latest Episodes:

🎧 Best Buy Geek Squad or Spy Squad? Apr 09, 2018

Show notes

Would you take your computer in for repair if you knew the technicians would be scanning your hard drive looking for anything suspicious while they had the hood up? It’s something that apparently we all need to be considering now. A recent lawsuit against a California doctor has revealed that the FBI has been paying Best Buy Geek Squad technicians to search for illegal content on the computers that were sent in for repairs. The relationship appears to go back at least 10 years.
Today I speak with Aaron Mackey, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation - the organization who discovered this connection through the use of Freedom of Information Act queries. I’ll also briefly update on the latest Facebook scandals and their attempts to address the massive privacy issues.
Aaron Mackey joined EFF in 2015 after moving from Washington, D.C. where he worked on speech, privacy, and freedom of information issues at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown Law. Aaron graduated from Berkeley Law in 2012, where he worked for EFF while a student in the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic. Prior to law school, Aaron was a journalist at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, Arizona. He received his undergraduate degree in journalism and English from the University of Arizona in 2006, where he met his amazing wife, Ashley. They have two young children.
For Further Insight:
Website: www.eff.org
Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/aaron_d_mackey
Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons
- https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/geek-squads-relationship-fbi-cozier-we-thought
How to delete (or curtail) Facebook: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/its-time-to-delete-facebook/

🎧 I’m Deleting Facebook. You Should, Too. Apr 02, 2018

Show notes

At Facebook, it’s critically important to remember that you are not the customer, you’re the product. None of Facebook’s users pay a dime for its service and yet Facebook makes tens of billions of dollars a year. Facebook makes money off of you and your data. And as we’ve seen in the last two weeks, that business model is ripe for abuse. It’s long since time that we, as consumers, reject the current Internet business model: the collection and sale of phenomenal amounts of highly personal data.
In today’s episode, I’ll discuss the Cambridge Analytica scandal and why a Facebook VP believes that growth is good at any cost. I’ll spell out all the reasons why I’m deleting my Facebook account - and why you should strongly consider doing the same. At the very least, you should see what information Facebook has on you, so you can make an informed decision - I’ll tell you how to do that, too.
For Further Insight:
Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons
Further Reading: https://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/its-time-to-delete-facebook/

🎧 Your Privacy is Now Under a Dark CLOUD Mar 26, 2018

Show notes

Your privacy and 4th amendments rights were dealt another blow last week, while no one was really looking. Congress opened the door to more warrantless surveillance by tacking on a little-known, unvetted bill to the monster spending legislation passed last week. This bill, benignly titled the Clarifying Overseas Use of Data (“CLOUD”) Act, removes the need for foreign countries to obtain a search warrant before demanding data from US companies. This bill was never debated. It wasn’t reviewed or marked up by a single committee. There were no hearings. But it is now law. David Ruiz, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, helps us to understand the stark implications of this new law and together we explore how it can be used to completely circumvent your 4th Amendment rights.
David Ruiz is a writer covering NSA surveillance and federal surveillance policy for Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights non-profit. As 2017 closes, he is deeply involved in covering the multiple bills before Congress that seek to reform or reauthorize Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, a law that is currently one of the U.S. government's most powerful surveillance tools. Previously, David worked as a journalist covering legal affairs for some of Silicon Valley's largest companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Uber. He has also had his work featured in KQED, The East Bay Express, SFGate.com, The Sacramento Bee and KZSU Stanford 90.1 FM. Beyond writing, David also hosts a personal podcast called Death Knell, which explores the grieving process after death.
For Further Insight:
Website: davidalruiz.com
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidalruiz
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
Donate to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons

🎧 You Should Know What Facebook Knows Mar 19, 2018

Show notes

Have you ever really stopped to consider the sheer amount of data Facebook has on you? How long have you had your Facebook account? How many pictures have you posted and tagged? How many relationships have you had? Facebook has all that data, and much more - all your posts, your messages, your status changes, your likes, your comments, your profile (every version), your photos and videos… Facebook knows all. Do you have the Facebook app on your smartphone? Then it probably also has all of your phone contacts, ever. What many people don’t know is that you can actually download your entire Facebook dossier, and it’ll blow your mind. I’ll tell you how.
In other news, Intel has fixes coming soon for its chips while AMD chips have several newly discovered vulnerabilities. Alexa has been laughing at some of you, Apple has a nice web page to help you control what your kids can access, PayPal shares your data with over 600 companies, and the Geek Squad has been snooping around on your computers for the FBI.
For Further Insight:
* Apple’s Families page: https://www.apple.com/families/
* Download your Facebook data: https://www.facebook.com/help/302796099745838
* Download your Google data: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en
* Download your Twitter data: https://help.twitter.com/en/managing-your-account/how-to-download-your-twitter-archive
* Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons

🎧 Protecting the 2018 and 2020 Elections Mar 12, 2018

Show notes

If a vote falls in a ballot box, but there’s no one there to see it - does it count? Marian Schneider, President of Verified Voting, explains why so many of our national voting systems have absolutely no way of being audited. Digital technology has been a wonderful boon for this world, but when it comes to something as fundamental to democracy as casting a vote, you simply must have a physical record that you can verify by hand if necessary. It may already be too late for the 2018 midterm elections, but we simply must have this fixed for 2020. We’ll tell you how you can get involved and make a real difference. This is a non-partisan issue that affects us all.
As the President of Verified Voting, Marian Schneider brings a strong grounding in the legal and constitutional elements governing voting rights and elections, as well as experience in election administration at the state level. Immediately before becoming President of Verified Voting, Marian served as Special Advisor and Deputy Secretary for Elections and Administration, to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. Marian received her J.D. from The George Washington University, where she was a member of the Law Review, and earned her B.A. degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania.
For Further Insight:
* Website: www.verifiedvoting.org
* Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VerifiedVoting
* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VerifiedVoting/

🎧 Facebook’s Two-Faced Privacy Mar 06, 2018

Show notes

Facebook has wants your face. Guess we should have seen that coming. While Facebook has been using face recognition for years now, it began notifying users in December of much broader use of this technology. Of course, they will tell you that you are the prime beneficiary, but by accepting this new feature you may be enabling Facebook to do much more. Tune in and I’ll tell you all about it, including how to turn it off!
We’ll also discuss how Apple is taking heat for moving some of its iCloud customers’ encryption keys to China, some great new privacy features coming soon to both Firefox and Android, and how you can see all your snail mail online (and maybe others can, too).
For Further Insight:
How to turn off FB facial recognition: https://mashable.com/2018/02/28/how-to-turn-off-facebook-face-recognition/
Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons

Security Tips from a Professional Hacker Feb 26, 2018

Show notes

Should you cover your webcam? Is anti-virus software worth the money? How do you know if you’ve been hacked? How do you know what software you can trust? We’ll cover all of these topics and more with Patrick Wardle, a computer security expert and ex-NSA hacker. While Patrick’s focus is Mac security, we also discuss PCs and mobile devices, and much more!
Patrick Wardle is the Chief Research Officer at Digita Security and founder of Objective-See. Having worked at NASA and the NSA, and as well as presented at countless security conferences, he is intimately familiar with aliens, spies, and talking nerdy. Patrick is passionate about all things related to macOS security and thus spends his days finding Apple 0days, analyzing macOS malware and writing free open-source security tools to protect Mac users.
For Further Insight:
* Website: https://objective-see.com/
* Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/patrickwardle
* Optional guest headshot: https://2016.zeronights.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Patrick_Wardle.jpeg
* Support Patrick! https://www.patreon.com/objective_see
* Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons

🎧 Authorized Personnel Only: Saving You from Yourself Feb 19, 2018

Show notes

You know the best way to limit what malware can do on your system? Limit what YOU can do! Software on computers generally inherits the privileges of the current user. The problem is that the default account that comes with all computers has full administrator privileges - you can do anything. And whatever you can do, malware can also do. The solution is to always have a non-admin account that you use for day-to-day activities, reserving your admin account for very special tasks. According to experts, using a non-admin account could have mitigated 80% of critical Microsoft bugs in 2017.
I’ll also talk about Chrome’s new “ad filter” that falls well short, a bug on Apple devices that will allow a single character to crash your messaging apps, a new “turducken” Microsoft vulnerability, a nasty Skype bug that Microsoft claims takes “too much effort to fix”, and a new Facebook app feature called “protect” that should really be called “spy”.
For Further Insight:
How to set up non-admin accounts: http://firewallsdontstopdragons.com/use-non-admin-account/
Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons

🎧 Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts Feb 12, 2018

Show notes

Do you know where your software’s been? If you’re downloading your apps and driver software from third parties, you may be getting more than you bargained for. Software download sites may be attaching unwanted extras to your installers in order to make money. And bad guys are also hacking these sites to trick you into downloading malware. I’ll tell you how to ensure your software is pristine.
In other news, Equifax admits that it lost even more sensitive information in the massive hack that affected over 145 million customers last year. Some key Apple source code in revealed that may help hackers attack your iPhone. And Lenovo announces critical bugs in the WiFi software on many of its ThinkPad laptops.

🎧 Mobile Privacy: A Modern Oxymoron Feb 09, 2018

Show notes

Our mobile phones today are chock full of private information and are constantly tattling about our whereabouts and activities. Most phones today have GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, motion detectors, magnetic field detectors, microphones, cameras, and of course cellular radios. Some even have facial recognition built right in. With all this personal data and telemetry information, is it even possible to prevent tracking and information leakage?
CLICK FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW
Today we discuss these topics and more with Daniel Davis from DuckDuckGo - a company dedicated to protecting your privacy. He and I discuss DuckDuckGo’s new privacy-focused smartphone app, along with other tips and techniques to guard your privacy on your mobile devices.
Daniel Davis is a Community Manager at DuckDuckGo, the Internet privacy company helping you take control of your personal information online. DuckDuckGo has its roots as the search engine that doesn't track you, and has expanded to protect you no matter where the Internet takes you.
CLICK FOR FULL TRANSCRIPT OF INTERVIEW
For Further Insight:
* Website: https://duckduckgo.com
* Twitter URL: https://twitter.com/duckduckgo
* LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/company/duck-duck-go
* New DuckDuckGo mobile app: https://duckduckgo.com/app
* DuckDuckGo privacy guides: https://spreadprivacy.com/tag/device-privacy-tips/
* Help me to help you! Visit: https://patreon.com/FirewallsDontStopDragons

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