So, it seems Edward Snowden and his considerable experience with the NSA are likely to venture into the anti-snooping software development. Surely, many people regard him as the person qualified enough who can pull off this kind of manoeuvre and limit the ability of government to intervene in our cyber lives. It remains to be seen what his next step will be but in a recent interview with the Intercept, he outlined five basic steps to protect yourself on the web from NSA and other federal agencies from collecting your information:
1. Signal, an easy-to-use mobile service that encrypts all your basic mobile communications so that it becomes difficult if not possible for other people than yourself to access that information. However, the other user also needs to have this app for it to function properly.
2. Enable two-step authentification on your accounts. This way, an eventual attacker will have to take hold of your device and your password to get into your email or social account.
3. A good password manager will ensure that your passwords are quite difficult to fail or guess with the help of brute force method. Never use one password for more than one accounts.
4. Install Tor. Tor is a free software project that will attempt to hide your location and defend your computer against meta traffic analysis done by the NSA and similar institutions. Plus, it has a free adblocker too!
5. Everybody should be running Adblocking software. Whether or not you decide on installing Tor services, an adblocker is always a good option even if you have to pay to get rid of the ads. This is because the adverts and companies who are running ads are simultaneously collecting information about the viewers and doing traffic analysis. While it may not be the kind done by the NSA, it is still privacy invasion, and you need to make it as difficult for them as possible.
I tried TOR its alright accept the forums I belong to have either gone dead slow or don’t come up at all.
All his points are not necessary for average users who have nothing to fear except things like identity theft or loss of their machine.
1. Signal is very inconvenient and highly restrictive. Maybe some spies or terrorists want to use it but average person doesn’t need it., an easy-to-use mobile service that encrypts all your basic mobile communications so that it becomes difficult if not possible for other people than yourself to access that information. However, the other user also needs to have this app for it to function properly.
2. If a device is encrypted it’s safe.
3. I don’t trust password managers because they can get hacked too! Yes, good idea to use different passwords on different devices.
4. Why use Tor unless a person is involved in some illegal activity.
My main concern about security is thieves or loss of my machine. Both Apple and Samsung provide strong encryption on phones. I’ve ported to a Mac for my main system and my disks are encrypted. That’s enough to serve my purposes…