P2P AND YOUR PRIVACY

It is imperative to know how your personal identity, and that of your business or family, can be comprised and stolen without your knowledge. With the advantage of increased bandwidth in our broadband delivery, it enables the opportunity for faster, deeper theft of your personal files, bank accounts, private documents, business papers etc.

Remember, there are no secrets on the internet. If you keep personal data, SSN, bank accounts, tax returns in a digital form on your hard drive then they are potentially bait for theft. If 10,000 SSN’S are stolen and sold at $35 a pop, that’s a cool $350K in theft.

Starting to see the picture? It’s not some kid hacker with a new tool, it’s organized criminals from around the globe stealing you blind. The theft has become so efficient that few protective applications will validate or find these intrusions.

This is particularly true regarding what are known as P2P, or peer-to-peer networks.  They are abundant  —  applications such as Napster, Limewire , Bit Torrent are but a few of the more than two hundred that exist.

You might say, well I never utilize these P2P file sharing applications, so identity theft regarding them does not affect me. Not so fast.  Because of the broadband capabilities of the internet, which is growing as ISPs are delivering faster and faster throughput, we are all vulnerable.

If you share a computer with someone in your family or business you need to be aware of anything that they may have downloaded on your PC. The threats come disguised in many veils. Some are programmed to be deceitful from the source, they may  just open your computer to file sharing where others may have access to your complete hard drive.

The files that are wanted are medical records, tax returns, financial records, military documents, lists of employees etc. You might be exposed by who you give your personal information to. For instance does your physician’s medical records department have adequate protection?  Does your bank protect the private information you provide to them? These are questions to ask when providing access to any requests for personal information.

The unscrupulous thieves who do these sort of things are targeting some of the most vulnerable amongst us. That would be our military and their families. Whilst they are away protecting us on missions away from home, often for long periods of time, their personal data is targeted by criminals who are after SSNs and other data.

There is one application from CNET that is freely available and able to protect against  some of the theft possibilities from file sharing, and below is quote from an article written regarding this.

"The ZapShares software works in conjunction with any P2P file sharing software, and allows the user to continue downloading any files they want while protecting them against lawsuits and identity theft. P2P file sharing software automatically shares files on a user’s computer, and new files they download, with all other P2P users. Unfortunately, some of the files being shared can contain copyrighted materials, private information such as the user’s tax returns, and other sensitive data."

This application can be downloaded here…

ZapShares

Now this would be to protect those who share files on their PC without realizing it. The above software is for PC’s running Windows 2000/XP/Vista/ and Windows 7.

My personal recommendation would be to sand box your private data by keeping it on a separate external USB disk, or flash drive, or CD/DVD’s. If it is not physically on your PC then it is much safer.

As I have mentioned prior utilizing a "virtual machine" can also go along ways in protecting you, if you take the necessary precautions. The major one is:  don’t run Live CD sessions for days, just to do your business and shut it down. The Live CD version is only as good as the latest edition for security enhancements. So if you are using a Live CD from Ubuntu or Knoppix and it is a year old or more, then your protection has been compromised. You can learn more about this concept here.

Ubuntu

Or

Knoppix

Really, the best thing to do is do your taxes while not being connected to the internet, until the files are uploaded to the IRS if you are doing your own taxes. Is your tax preparer using adequate protection for your data?

Keep your private information yours, protected on another device, not connected to the internet is the best way. The same concept as not storing your  jewelry or expensive watches on the dashboard of your vehicle.

Remember there are no secrets on the internet, so the best we can do is secure the data that is important to us, away from access on the WWW. For TTP members owning businesses who may be interested in an audit search of any confidential information on the web, there is a company that specializes in just that. The name of the company is Tiversa and they can be found here.

Tiversa

You can watch an interview with Bob Boback, the CEO of Tiversa here.

Bob Boback interview

In other news the FTC has requested of ISP’s to start using SSL.

Senior Counsel David Sobel of EFF to testify on The Freedom Of Information Act and the Obama Administration

Stay safe and until next time enjoy your freedom!

Marco