PROTECT YOUR PRIVACY Personal privacy is one of those freedoms and rights that many people take for granted. We consider our business transactions, conversations, mail, and other communications to be private. If another person needs to know our business, we make a point of telling them. So it almost always comes as a shock when our private information is exposed. The American Bill of Rights implicitly guarantees the right to privacy to Americans. It was not spelled out because it did not need to be spelled out. Common sense told those early Americans that their communications were private. Yet since the advent of electronic communication, personal privacy has been under increasing attack. With the advent of the information revolution, people everywhere are being watched, studied, and monitored. Computers, cameras, GPS, sensors, and biometrics all feed data into increasing numbers of data banks. And every year we hear of new means of collecting data such as implantable microchips, data mining, DNA chips, facial recognition software, identity theft, etc. What the Government Really Thinks of Your Privacy Governments think that they have a right to know the content of your private communications. Why? Personal privacy gets in the way of government’s never-ending quest for more power and expansion of its taxing authority. Personal privacy has always been an affront to government. Until recently, government had to expend some expense in order to attack your personal privacy. Law enforcement agents were supposed to show probable cause and obtain a warrant. Today, with powerful computers placed strategically in key Internet infrastructure, government can scan vast quantities of e-mail, sniffing for interesting keywords on its watch list. It is rumored that government can do a similar thing with telephone conversations. Law enforcement agencies only bother to get a court order when the information they have looks promising and might come in handy when supporting an indictment. Things Have Worsened The attacks on New York City and Washington DC in September of 2001 have precipitated yet another round of assaults on the right to privacy. The Patriot Act, as passed by the American Congress, has far less to do with capturing Osama Bin Laden, than it does in making criminals out of increasing numbers of individuals and businesses. Financial firms in the United States must now gather the names, addresses, ages, and social security numbers of all their account holders. Failure to comply can result in criminal penalties, fines, and prison sentences. The national governments of the world consider YOU, the individual, to be the single greatest threat to its future security and taxing authority. First, you need to know what the governments of the world are doing to undermine your privacy. Second, you need to understand what steps you can take to protect your business and personal privacy. Attacks on Your Privacy The national governments of the nation-states are the single greatest threat to personal liberty and freedom and have been since their inception. The terrorist attacks in the United States in September of 2001 resulted in a huge power grab for the federal government when reckless legislators of the US Congress passed the Patriot Act. Unfortunately most Americans just did not care. Their immediate concern was security rather than the hard and difficult job of protecting liberty. The law enforcement agencies of the US Government have been fairly persistent in their efforts to undermine personal privacy over the decades. Consider the following:
- “Project SHAMROCK, was an espionage exercise that involved the accumulation of all telegraphic data entering into or exiting from the United States. The Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) and its successor NSA were given direct access to daily microfilm copies of all incoming, outgoing, and transiting telegraphs via the Western Union and its associates RCA and ITT. At the height of Project SHAMROCK, 150,000 messages a month were printed and analyzed by NSA agents. This program lasted well into the 1960s when computerized operations (HARVEST) made it possible to search for keywords rather than read through all communications.” (Source >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_SHAMROCK).
- ECHELON is a monitoring system established by the US, Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand. The system has intercept stations all over the world and they are designed to capture and analyze virtually every phone call, fax, e-mail, and telex message sent around the world. Keyword lists analyze and conversation or document flagged by the system.
- Senate Bill 266, a 1991 omnibus anti-crime bill, would have required manufacturers of secure communications equipment to insert special trap doors in their products. Doing this would have given the Government the ability to read anyone's encrypted messages. The resolution read in part:
"It is the sense of Congress that providers of electronic communications services and manufacturers of electronic communications service equipment shall insure that communications systems permit the Government to obtain the plain text contents of voice, data, and other communications when appropriately authorized by law." - In 1992, the FBI Digital Telephony wiretap proposed legislation would have required all communications equipment manufacturers to build in special remote wiretap ports that would have given the FBI the ability to remotely wiretap all forms of electronic communication from FBI offices.
- In 1993 the Clipper Chip was drafted by the first Bush Administration and unveiled by the Clinton Administration. This device contained an NSA encryption algorithm designed to give the government access to secure communication products. Manufacturers would load each Clipper Chip with its own unique key. A copy would be placed with the Government in escrow. The Government promised that they would only use the keys to tap your communications when authorized by law. The problem of course is that the law is just a minor inconvenience that is easily circumvented.
- Carnivore is information-gathering software created by the FBI to combat criminals who utilize the Internet. Carnivore is housed in a computer that connects to your Internet Service Provider's (ISP's) servers and mines all incoming and outgoing mail for information. The FBI intends to use the software to locate and monitor specific email addresses for evidence of criminal activity.
- President George Bush has authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on US citizens and foreign nationals. The spying has included the monitoring of e-mail, telephone calls, and other communications of hundreds or perhaps thousands of people. More recently President Bush asserted in a signing statement on 12/20/06 that he has the authority to open mail under “emergency conditions”.
In addition to the threat of government snooping, identity theft, employee theft, and slack security measures all contribute to the exposure of valuable business and personal information.
Consider these statistics: - In 2005 theft of proprietary information cost US Businesses $30,933,000.
- Laptop theft cost US Businesses $4,107,300.
- Losses due to financial fraud were estimated to be $2,565,000.
- The average loss due to unauthorized access to information was $303,234.
Protect Yourself If you use a computer for business, electronic communications, Internet, or just want to secure your computer, you need to use encryption.
Encryption protects your data by scrambling it so that only the recipient can decipher it.
There are two main components to encryption: - An algorithm that scrambles your data. It will encrypt and decrypt the data
- The key will lock or unlock the encrypted data.
Probably the most common encryption is Public Key/Private Key Encryption. This is based on the idea of a pair of keys that are linked together mathematically. Your Private Key will sign outgoing data and decrypts incoming encrypted data. Your Public Key encrypts data that only your private key can decrypt and verifies your signed data.
There are many different situations that may require that your data be encrypted differently. There are:
- Full/volume disk encryption
- Server-to-server batch/FTP encryption
File/Folder Encryption
File/folder encryption products allows users to secure all the data in a folder or file. If the data is encrypted to the user's key, only the user can decrypt the data and access it. Here the user’s private key is used to encrypt information in individual files. Similarly, the same key can be used to encrypt secure email.
Disk Encryption
Full (whole) disk encryption products will encrypt an entire disk, including not only stored data but all the boot and system files as well. Full disk solutions prevent the user from accidentally saving data in the clear. Volume disk encryption allows users to set up a separate volume (like a mounted external drive) that is encrypted using their key. To access the contents, users must decrypt the volume. To secure the data, the users must put their data into the volume and then encrypt the volume.
Server-to-Server Batch/FTP Encryption Entities that regularly move large amounts of sensitive information between data centers have special encryption requirements. These entities create automated scripts to move bulk information between locations at preset times, generally overnight when network traffic has slowed and there are fewer bandwidth constraints.
Email Encryption
Encryption solutions secure information and the transmission of that information. These solutions are usually categorized in terms of the functionality they provide:
- Desktop solutions let businesses and individuals encrypt email and stored information at the desktop level. Desktop solutions require the individual user to actively decide what information to secure before sending it.
- Network-based solutions move encryption from the desktop to the server. This approach allows security policies to be set globally by IT administrators. Users are relieved of the need to remember to encrypt individual messages. Email can be secured on internal servers (called “end-to-end” encryption) or only from the gateway to external recipients.
Encryption Solutions There are several encryption solutions that you can use to protect your data. The information provided below is offered for information purposes only.
LiveOffshore.com does not offer or imply an endorsement of any of the products below. Neither has LiveOffshore tested all of the products listed below. USER BEWARE!
Hardware and Software Encryption Solutions - Pretty Good Privacy Corporation (PGP) >> Since 1991, PGP has offered several helpful and advanced solutions for maintaining your privacy. PGP offers solutions for secure e-mail, Blackberry security, Network security, Server Security, Laptop and Desktop security, Software solutions, and more.
- Hushmail >> Hushmail is a Web-based e-mail service that lets you send and receive email in total security. Hushmail messages, and their attachments, are encrypted using Open PGP standard algorithms. You can even open a free e-mail account.
- Cypherix ™ >> Cypherix™ is one of the few companies worldwide to specialize in cryptography and data security. We believe this focus allows us to best leverage our expertise in delivering state-of-the-art, world-class products.
- TrueCrypt >> TrueCrypt is free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux.
- Dekart Private Disk >> Dekart Private Disk is a hard disk encryption software with a unique feature set, combining strong, NIST-certified AES 256-bit encryption with the best tools needed to build a protected infrastructure, where information can be processed in a secure way. Private Disk is compatible with virtually any version of Windows, from the discontinued Windows 95, to the latest 64-bit releases of Windows XP and Windows 2003.
- Lexar ® >> Lexar has introduced a line of compact, high-capacity USB flash drives that provide secure data storage and protection to encrypt your data with on-the-fly 256-bit AES encryption.
- Little Brother >> The Little Brother encrypted email system consists of an email and data only Blackberry that allows your group to communicate with each other using the highest level of commercial encryption on the planet, routed through our own private secure offshore servers racked in a biometric security lockdown facility in Panama.
- Seagate Momentus 5400 FDE.2 Hard Drives >> Seagate® Momentus® 5400 FDE.2 drives are hardware-based, full disk encryption products that offers the most advanced data protection to personal and corporate laptop users.
Internet Privacy - PHProxy >> PHProxy allows you to visit Web sites without using your own IP address. Simply enter the Web address of the site you'd like to visit to start.
- Privoxy >> Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, modifying web page data, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
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