Posts Tagged ‘security’
How to Avoid Browser History Sniffing
Friday, April 8th, 2011
Have you ever wondered how online advertisers are able to deliver relevant ads as you go from site to site on products or services you were recently checking out? I did, but thought it was a strange coincidence until it happened one too many times. After hearing about something called “browser sniffing” it all made sense, in a disturbing sort of way. Here’s why it’s important you know about it too and how to avoid it.
It all started when I was looking for solar powered outdoor lights. This is a product that I’ve never bothered to look for previously, so it was a one-time search. Yet for several days after that search, I saw display ads for the very lights I reviewed on news and other types of Web pages. Hmmm, what a coincidence –not. It turns out that some sites are literally “sniffing” your browser history to see where you have been online and even what you searched for recently. Armed with this information the online ad services are able to tailor online display advertising that zeros in on your recent show of interest. Sort of like the movie “Minority Report” where people walk past sign posters that scan their irises for ID and then deliver a totally customized advertising experience. It was creepy in the movie, and frankly I find this somewhat lower-tech version just as creepy.
There are two primary ways these sniffing sites are able to gather this information from your browser:
- Literally read your browser’s history file;
- Ascertain which links and URL’s you clicked on by seeing the change in link color (most sites have one color for hyperlinks that you clicked on, and another where you haven’t yet).
I’m not going to go into specific details of how to prevent the two methods above, simply because someone has already done that quite nicely. Just CLICK HERE to review a recent article about how to prevent these kinds of privacy intrusions for both IE and Firefox browsers. A couple of words of caution however. One of the recommendations for avoiding something called “Link Color History Sniffing” (has to do with the different color links) will cause most of the Websites you visit to appear broken. DO NOT follow the “Uncheck Allow pages to choose their own colors instead of my selections above.”, otherwise you may find most sites nearly unreadable. Also, if you turn off Adobe Flash Cookies, you may find many sites that depend upon Flash to not function properly either.
As far as I’m concerned it’s nobody’s damn business where I Web surfed and what I searched for. Follow the recommendations above and you may still what little privacy you have left online.
How to Find Out If Anyone Else Is Using Your Images Online
Saturday, January 29th, 2011
Some of us spend a great deal of time (and money) creating the best and unique look for our Website and it content. Needless to say it is just a bit annoying if others “borrow” your work to use as their own. Well, here’s a very cool, quick and free way to find out if there is and who they are…
Big Eye In the Digital Sky
Tineye.com is an extremely powerful “reverse” image lookup search engine. What this means is that if you provide Tineye.com with any image (whether uploaded from your computer or a link to it online) it will search for all likely instances of it. The operative and most powerful word here is “likely”. That’s because Tineye.com utilizes some very cool image AI (artificial intelligence) to find all images that even come close to the one you submitted.
The reason this capability is important is that someone who “borrows” your images will likely change them in some way. With TinEye it doesn’t matter, it will most likely find them. However, finding ne’er-do-wells is not the only way you will find TinEye’s unique capabilities useful, for example:
- Helping to determine if an image you use for say a blog post may be owned by someone else, thus precluding your use without permission;
- Finding similar images that may better represent the look or idea you are trying to capture.
TinEye is one of these simple, unique online tools that you may not use often, yet be glad you bookmarked it for when you do.
NOTE: Mr. Internet®, RUSSER Communications, its staff and officers receive no compensation whatsoever from any third party vendors (unless he/they are directly involved with the creation and/or improvement of a vendor service or product), and make no recommendations as to the suitability of the products or services mentioned in this article. Always thoroughly investigate any product or service before trying or purchasing.
Avoiding Password Hell
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Almost everything you do on the Internet requires the use of passwords. User ID’s and passwords are supposed to protect us from having our bank accounts etc. cleaned out while we are sleeping. Yet most people find themselves frustratingly try to manage dozens of passwords, or worse, use the same one for everything.
The use of effective passwords are a fact of online life that you can choose to ignore at your peril. Just the other day someone was relaying to me that a mutual friend of ours had his company Website hacked into so many times that Google has blacklisted it. This means if you do a search under his or his company’s name, the search results actually recommend staying away from it because it is not safe! BTW, the user ID he used was “admin” and his password was unsurprisingly not much better.
Password Etiquette For Maximum Safety
The more you use the Net, the more passwords you will need to use. There are caveats to follow when creating and using passwords so they don’t fall into the wrong hands:
- Don’t use anything that resembles a real word, name, date, or public information about you (i.e. address, date of birth, social security number, etc.).
- Use a combination of at least 8 upper and lower case characters (passwords typically are case sensitive), special characters (i.e. /!@&*], etc.), and numbers.
- Don’t leave the password any place near your computer or where it could be found easily.
- Make sure you can remember it and keep it in a hidden spot in case you forget it.
- Do not give it to anyone or put it in any documents available to other people.
- Don’t let anyone look over your shoulder when you type it in (a.k.a. “shoulder surfing”).
- Avoid using the same password for different kinds of services.
- Change critical passwords often.
At this point you are probably thinking “Awesome, now how am I supposed to remember dozens of unbreakable passwords?!” Actually, you’re not…
Managing Passwords the Easy Way
As of this writing I have over 630 User ID and Password pairs. Every one of the passwords meets the criteria above and it takes no time at all for me to find and enter any of them when needed, and I only need to remember one master password to access all the others. The key is to use a password managment tool and there are several very good available. Password Agent is the one I use and it sits on my computer task bar ready for action —which it sees a lot of because I use it probably 20 – 30 times each day. To use it I do a nearly instant search for the Website or program that needs password access, double click on the entry and it takes me to the Website in question and then I just hit a special key combination on my keyboard to enter the security cedentials and I’m in. Password Agent will also generate new passwords for me at random of nearly any length and character combination.
Another program that I’ve heard works well also is RoboForm. This is a browser-based application that appears to make the process of entering Web-based form information (including User ID’s and passwords) a snap, even easier than Password Agent. However, since it is strictly Web-based, it cannot help me with keeping and entering non-Web based security information. I suggest checking both out and see what works best for your needs. Almost all password management solutions however, require that you use a “master” password that gives you access to all the others. Obviously, it is critical to your security to use a master password that is very hard to break, yet one you will never forget or have to write down…
Creating Hard to Break / Easy to Remember Passwords
The trick to creating a password that really does its job (i.e. protect you!) yet is easily remembered, is to use acronyms. Use the first character in each word of a sentence or phrase that you would never forget. And just to really confuse the would-be hackers of the world, begin and end your acronym based password with special characters. For example:
(And no, I no longer use this as a password 
)
Living with passwords doesn’t have to be hell-on-earth. Trying to use the Internet without a way to use them effectively will almost certainly end up being that way.
DISCLAIMER: Always investigate any third-party products or services to your satisfaction prior to using them. RUSSER Communications, its officers, staff and consultants do not receive any compensation whatsoever from third party vendors and are not responsible for any damage or liability you may incur as a result of using products or services mentioned herein. If you do not agree to these terms do not use the product or service mentioned.
