While our informative guest speaker was discussing cybersecurity last Thursday, I began to wonder what OTHER measures we could take to retain our privacy. Considering the recent incident involving CIA chief Petraeus, I found a plethora of articles regarding cybersecurity.
So, what measures could be taken to ensure our privacy (and that the CIA chief could have considered when trying to mask his relationship)?
1) Keep in mind the location you are using…try using tools that allow for anonymous web browsing.
2) Encrypt your messages
3) Use features such as 10-minute mail, which allows users to open an email address and send emails…only for the address to be destroyed 10 minutes later.
Alright- so, probably none of this advice applies to us because we do not have such sensitive information to hide…but, the point that I am trying to make is- do we really have to go to such lengths to keep ourselves private? It truly is mind-boggling the steps we must take.
And just how easy is it for the government to obtain information?
“Under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a warrant is not required for e-mails six months old or older. Even if e-mails are more recent, the federal government needs a search warrant only for “unopened” e-mail, according to the Department of Justice’s manual for electronic searches. The rest requires only a subpoena. Google reported that United States law enforcement agencies requested data for 16,281 accounts from January to June of this year, and it complied in 90 percent of cases.” (NYT)
Even President Obama states that “cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation” and that “America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.”
For more information and to see the sources I used, click on NYTIMES and White_House