Category Archives: Security

aftermath

Recently someone who I am very fond of was the victim of a crime.  Physically she’s fine and I think emotionally she’s fine too.  She’s remarkably strong.  But even the most resilient of us can be somewhat marred by such an experience.

I’ve been mugged a couple of times, I’ve known other people who have had their homes or offices burglarized, I’ve known victims of domestic abuse.  Crimes such as these tend to leave a type of blemish or scar on the soul that is sometimes hard to see or make out.

Even the most “benign” or transitory of crimes can be a jarring experience for the victim.  I think part of the reason is the wanton violation of one’s personal space.  The thought that someone can come in at will and impose themselves on you that way would be unsettling to anyone.

What you thought of as “safe” places suddenly need to be re-evaluated.  Someone I know had their office burglarized and he came to the office after it happened and slept in the office with a loaded gun.  His space had been violated and he felt he had to re-establish it as his own.

The other thing is that these type of crimes make you feel jumpy about strangers.  You no longer look at strangers with the same kind of trust and open mind like you once did.

The damage, though it may not show, is real.  You want to help.  But you really shouldn’t.

Not at first anyways.  Something like this has to be dealt with by the person, first and foremost.  They have a lot to sort out and a lot to work through.  Most people do it on their own and at their own pace.

We as friends and family need only stand by if needed.  Just let them know that you’re available and let things work themselves out.  Frustrating sometimes but the best way to handle the situation.

Sometimes though if the person affected doesn’t seem to be healing or moving forward it may be necessary to step in but usually it’s best done with the help of a trained professional.

It may not seem as if you’re doing anything by just standing by, but believe me, you are.  If you are in some way needed, the person will let you know what they need from you so don’t worry about it.

Protecting yourself online

I sometimes look at my friends on social media and wonder how they haven’t had more problems before.  I look at their profiles and they share so much stuff that it boggles the mind.

If you ever do a search on yourself you will be amazed at what you find with even the most lazy search.  I’ve found lists of my old addresses, phone numbers, possible relatives, even the value of my house.  That’s just for basic information.  Who knows what is out there available for a small fee!

Add to that the fact that people will post all sorts of private details online and accept friend requests from anyone and I just can’t believe that people live like this.

So some basic tips for staying safe online.

1.  User names.  Unless absolutely necessary never use your full name for usernames or email addresses.  You’ve no clue how useful that is to hackers and various other online predators.  Use abbreviations of your name, use pseudonyms.  Never use partial numbers from your social security number or drivers license or address in your username or address.

2. Restrict access.  All social media now has privacy features.  Use these features.  Don’t let just anyone peruse all your details.  Even persons close to you don’t need to know everything.

3. Cleanup.  Maybe you have an ancient account that you never use, maybe a photo or article from some event held ten years ago lists your birth date or address or some bit of personal information.  Go online and do a deep search.  Not just on one search engine but several.  Delete those old accounts if you don’t need them anymore.  Try to remember old emails too and delete them as well.  Most websites will gladly edit out details on old articles for you if you ask.  Sure it takes time but it would take more time to clean up the mess that a hacker could create from impersonating you.

4.  Catfishing.  Someone will contact you and pretend that they know an old friend.  Then they hit you up for a loan or to go into business with them or worse.  Follow up this reference with that supposed mutual friend.  Ask for other details.  If they really are a friend of a friend then they shouldn’t mind a few questions.

5.  Live offline more.  Online sites are great for connecting with other people but they shouldn’t be the be all end all of your life.  Connect online but live offline.

Cash is king

I have to shake my head when I read stories about all the great credit card heists that occurred during the holidays.  We’ve grown so blase and so inured to the outrageous nature of it all that we rarely even get miffed anymore when we hear about it.

Similarly the retailers, the credit card companies, and even law enforcement seem to collectively shrug their shoulders.  They offer up free credit monitoring, promise that any fraudulent charges won’t damage the victims credit, issue new cards, and form new task forces to combat the online thieves.

Plastic cards are cheap to issue and the credit that these thieves made off with is not even real.  It’s numbers in a databank.  Numbers that can be easily readjusted after the fact.

In essence the crime won’t have happened.  Maybe down the road a few careless fools will get caught and be given small prison sentences but life goes on.

It has to.

The entire house of cards that credit is built upon rests on the fact that the general populace has confidence in the banking system to “make things right”.  Whatever that means.  In this case some “cheap and easy” solutions.

Fundamental and long-term solutions are much harder and take longer.  Solutions like redeveloping credit cards to be harder to steal, imposing sanctions on countries that seem to harbor these dens of thieves, coordinating police agencies to work with each, and changing the general public’s attitudes about how they use credit are slow hard and most of all expensive solutions.

In the meantime the problem goes merrily along.

I can’t feel too smug.  I may be more careful that the average consumer.  I avoid using even debit cards as much as possible, I don’t store banking information on my devices, I use prepaid cards when purchasing online and limit my personal information out there, but I could just as easily get hit by credit thieves opening credit lines in my name or hacking in and emptying my accounts.

My only safety lies in numbers.  That’s the only safety anyone of us really has.  I swim along with a giant school of tuna hoping that a barracuda doesn’t focus in on me and instead picks on my neighbor who’s a little slower and a little more careless.