The Internet - a blessing and a curse, but lately a curse on steroids

I had not been a techi person, for the majority of my life. However, cyber warfare has become so commonplace that I’ve become semi literate in tech security, out of necessity. My goal is to share this info with you, so you that you may protect yourselves.

The advent of the cyber warfare, which is now in full swing has certainly changed the world, and all online communications, whether people are aware of it or not yet aware. According to some, WW3 has begun already, in the cyber world, and its just a matter of time before it spills over into the physical world. Based on my research and experience with the cyber world, there is some truth to this. The internet has become one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods, with zero inherent protection and zero security.  Different gov’ts of the world are chronically attacking each other online. Military personnel is being retrained from fighting in the physical world to fighting in the cyber world. As one journalist put it, ‘Alpha males are being turned into alpha geeks.’

Certainly different rules of living, communication, commerce, apply in peace time then in war time. Unrestrained expression which marked the years of expansion of online communication is dead, and is being replaced with the art of deception and social engineering which are hallmarks of tyranny, not a free society. In that kind of environment, deception as in the hiding of truth, becomes a necessity, as it goes more inline with the need for privacy and security online. But the darker more sinister forms of deception are definitely in the lead online nowadays. For example, different factions of gov’ts are lying so much to each other and the people, that even they no longer know what the truth is, and therefore cannot make proper informed decision about any course of action. Those who are producing the gmo’s, spraying chemicals everywhere, and pushing poisons on people are falling victim to their own medicine too.
As a result, the system is basically falling apart. With that as the back drop, scams and criminality is thriving online now, and is another huge contributor to the deceptive advertising and false language. 

So where does a normal human being who just wants to live in peace and do the right thing, fit in that picture? Well, the truth is, nowhere. If no one felt safe to go outside because the streets of every town have become mine fields, people couldn’t go on business as usual, could they? If this happened, you’d realize you live in a war zone. You would have to take radical action to ‘fix’ the world. 

Well, the internet has become just that. There are many criminal organizations pretending to be legitimate organizations, with the criminal ones outnumber the legitimate ones. Many people unknowingly call phone numbers published by scammers pretending to be Microsoft tech support, HP tech support, Apple tech support, who install malware on people’s computers claiming these are security suites that will protect them from malicious hackers and charge them thousands of dollars to infect their own computers. There are scams and imposters in many areas: beauty products, health supplements, pharmaceuticals, weight loss solutions, psychics, charities, loans and banking, the FBI and the police, but nowhere more than the technology industry, where there are probably more scam companies than genuine companies. Genuine companies have to build their reputations slowly over time. Scammers can just create another spoof site, if their previous operation gets caught.

Many pedophiles go on kid chat boards, pretending to be other kids, and try to be-friend innocent children in attempts to kidnap them. Facebook is full of links that look like the latest gossip or news but when you click on them, you get malware, or your email password is stolen, if you happen to have your email open in another tab of your browser. Identity theft is a booming business. I could give you 10,000 more examples of all the ways that the internet has become dangerous, but that would be too much for one blog. In my book, the internet is currently a war zone. And that brings me back to the question, so what is an ordinary human being to do in that kind of hostile environment? My answer is: don’t be ordinary. Become more techi and learn how to protect yourself online, and offline. Because if you don’t, no one will.

Below are some articles you may find interesting, that relate to the topics I discuss in this blog.

Schools and hospitals are the most targeted by ransomware attacks.
http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/latest-security-news/education-sector-most-targeted-by-ransomware-attacks-survey-says
Some companies (including hospitals) that were attacked by ransomware hackers, paid between $5000 and $20,000 to get their data back. Some paid and didn’t get their data back. When victims of ransomware turned to the FBI, the FBI told them 'Pay the hackers.' because there is nothing the FBI or anyone can do at that point. There is only one solution to not becoming a victim of ransomware: encrypt your devices ahead of time.

Children are the most targeted individuals for identity theft. 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/child-identity-theft/
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/18/your-money/a-childs-vulnerability-to-identity-theft.html?_r=0

The gov’t believes that  people need to be more techie, and that tech education needs to start as early as kindergarten. I agree.
http://www.inc.com/lisa-calhoun/top-10-takeaways-from-white-house-report-on-artificial-intelligence.html

Hackers are shaping the landscape of politics and social life
http://www.pcmag.com/commentary/349482/why-trumps-cyber-is-the-strongest?mailing_id=2428579&mailing=SecurityWatch&mailingID=B4E188C4286D5416BED359BEA2B89BA8

The web of trust is not trustworthy
http://www.pcmag.com/news/349328/web-of-trust-browser-extension-cannot-be-trusted?mailing_id=2392832&mailing=SecurityWatch&mailingID=25DBA3AEAFF6487F171E10549644318A

Anonymous Hackers Warn of Possible World War 3
http://www.hackersnewsbulletin.com/2016/10/anonymous-hackers-world-war-3.html

Someone Is Learning How to Take Down the Internet
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2016/09/someone_is_lear.html

One out of Two American Adults Part of the FBI’s Facial Recognition Database
https://www.hackread.com/fbi-facial-recognition-database-usa

More than 900,000 fake Android apps found on Google Play
http://www.hackersnewsbulletin.com/2014/07/900000-fake-android-apps-found-google-play.html

Cyber-Criminals have Infected Over Four Million Android Phones with Malware
http://www.hackersnewsbulletin.com/2014/11/cyber-criminals-infected-four-million-android-phones-malware.html

'State of Surveillance' with Edward Snowden and Shane Smith (FULL EPISODE)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRWyGKBVzo 

How your smart phone can be hacked with one txt msg. All the hackers need is your phone number.
https://it.slashdot.org/story/16/04/18/1534228/your-phone-number-is-all-a-hacker-needs-to-read-texts-listen-to-calls-and-track-you%20Page%201%20of%2011

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3202504/Hackers-access-call-message-send-track-location-moment-computer-expert-shows-just-easy-eavesdropping-is.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/android-stagefright-flaw-protect-android-phone

More on stagefright
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagefright_(bug)
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/07/stagefright_vul.html
http://www.howtogeek.com/225834/stagefright-what-you-need-to-know-and-how-to-protect-yourself
http://www.9jumpin.com.au/show/60minutes/stories/2015/august/phone-hacking

And that's why drug dealers use the old style phones. 
http://www.vice.com/read/the-uks-drug-dealers-love-the-nokia-8210-988
Of course, not only drug dealers, but lots of other people use dumb phones. I no longer use smart phones at all. I use the absolutely dumbest phones that are available. It turned out an acquaintance had an old Nokia phone from maybe 15 yrs ago, in his basement and I bought it from him for $10. That is one of the most affordable while actually secure phones on the market because, It has no internet capability, no blue tooth, no multi media messaging capability, so it can’t be so easily hacked. 
I know many of your will say, that you just must be able to go on Facebook, and check your email. Do you? Consider the story below.

Single mother [of 6 children] in California facing imprisonment over private transaction on Facebook food group. 
http://www.naturalnews.com/055976_Mariza_Ruelas_food_freedom_California.html

Still think Facebook’s privacy settings can protect your privacy?

My recommendation is connect with people directly, not through a hodgepodge of third parties (google, android, Facebook, AT&T, etc.) all of whom collect your private data and store it probably forever, and sell and resell to gov’ts and ‘private parties’ which means anyone, including criminals.

Sim card hacking. Another way your phone could be hacked.
https://threatpost.com/weak-encryption-enables-sim-card-root-attack/101557

How mac computers can be made to spy on you. I applaud Apple for stepping up so quickly and addressing this issue. (Unlike android, which has been notoriously easy to hack for quite some time.)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/09/02/apple-issues-urgent-security-update-after-hack-turns-mac-compute

At all levels, personal, business, industrial, gov’t, military, hacking is happening and everyone is effected.
https://threatpost.com/researchers-go-inside-a-business-email-compromise-scam/119576

The more I know about technology, the less I like it…
https://threatpost.com/new-trojan-spynote-installs-backdoor-on-android-devices/119560

Banking on a phone always felt like a bad idea to me. Turns out I was right.
https://threatpost.com/banking-trojan-outwits-google-verify-apps-scanner/118142

Its not just the Chinese, some US companies do the same. At least those advertising in the US.
https://threatpost.com/chinese-ad-firm-raking-in-300k-a-month-through-adfraud-android-malware/119030

Few Feel that the Government or Advertisers can be Trusted
http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/11/12/few-feel-that-the-government-or-advertisers-can-be-trusted/

Massive amounts of info about surveillance of US and other people kept secret from voters
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/13-things-government-trying-hide-you

These are just a few select articles I came across when writing this blog. You can find many more that reveal even more info. But If that was not enough information for you to see that the cyber world has become one of the most dangerous ‘neighborhoods’ to go out into without awareness and proper protection, then I don’t know what is.