February 21, 2017

The Shared Security Podcast Episode 61 – Home Device Hijacking, Used Device Security, Creepy Facebook Search Tool

30 minutes

This is the 61st episode of the Shared Security Podcast sponsored by Security Perspectives – Your Source for Tailored Security Awareness Training and Assessment Solutions. This episode was hosted by Tom Eston and Scott Wright recorded February 15, 2017. Below are the show notes, commentary, links to articles and news mentioned in the podcast:

Here Is How to Fend Off a Hijacking of Home Devices

This article has some very good tips on how to secure your IoT devices and home network. Here are our suggestions as well:

1. Research the device you’re about to buy. Google search for the “device name” and “security vulnerabilities”. Read their privacy policy!

2. Create a second wireless network for your smart devices (utilize the “guest” network feature). Ensure a strong passcode using WPA2.

3. Change default passwords on all IoT devices (if you can!), especially your wifi router.

4. Register your product with the manufacture to be updated on new firmware and security issues

Used government computers bought at auction filled with personal information

It’s hard to believe that you can still buy previously owned computer equipment (in this case the local government in Houston Texas) and find a treasure trove of personal data! This news story is a great reminder to always erase and/or wipe the data from your personally owned devices (laptops, iPad’s, phones, etc.) before selling them to someone else!

Facebook’s Creepiest Search Tool Is Back Thanks to This Site

This “creepy” new search tool is called “Stalkscan” and it gives you a web front-end that will create creative “Facebook Graph” searches. The application shows a lot of information if you’re not careful with your FB privacy settings. You can also search for others and what information they’ve posted publicly as well. Note that this site does not bypass any Facebook privacy settings it just shows you what you and others have publicly available. Want to fix this? Adjust your Facebook privacy settings for specific posts or for all posts going forward.

Hotel ransomed by hackers as guests locked out of rooms

What could possibly go wrong when someone hacks a hotel, locks everyone out of their room and demands a ransom paid in Bitcoin? Attacks like these are setting an interesting precedent and a potential new form of “ransomware”.

The Confide app is being used by certain paranoid politicians

The Confide app tries to allow “secure” message sharing but this is proving more difficult. See our last episode for our run down of secure messaging apps.

Where has all the climate data gone? To Canada…

Canada is now becoming a safe haven for climate data from the US. Scott gives us his take on this interesting development.

Please send any show feedback to feedback [aT] sharedsecurity.net or comment below. You can also call our voice mail box at 1-613-693-0997 if you have a question for our Q&A section on the next episode. Be sure to visit our website, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. Thanks for listening!

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By Tom Eston, Scott Wright, Kevin Tackett

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