Summer is synonymous with vacations, a time when families pack their bags, grab their sunscreen, and embark on exciting adventures. In the digital age, smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives, serving as cameras, maps, entertainment hubs, and communication tools. While these devices enhance our travel experiences, they also become prime targets for theft or damage while we’re away from home. From keeping us connected with family and friends, assisting in navigation, capturing moments, to even helping us with language translation – it is a device of many conveniences. However, when you bring your smartphone while vacationing, like any other valuable item, it becomes a target for theft and damage. Not to mention the potential for high roaming charges.

Don’t let the fear of losing or damaging your valuable devices dampen your vacation spirit! By taking some simple precautions and implementing effective strategies, you can ensure that your family’s smartphones remain safe and secure throughout your travels. In this blog post, we’ll share essential tips and tricks for safeguarding your devices, so you can focus on creating unforgettable memories without any tech-related worries. This article will provide you with tips on how to protect your family’s smartphones while on vacation. We will cover strategies like enabling security settings, backing up data, checking for travel insurance policies, and utilizing helpful apps. Ensuring the safety of your devices will make your vacation more enjoyable and worry-free.

Smartphone Safety During Vacation

Traveling without smartphones seems almost impossible. However, having them on vacation puts them at risk. In tourist hotspots, where distractions are many, it is easy to lose or have your device stolen. Moreover, using public Wi-Fi networks can expose your smartphone to cyber attacks.

→ Dig Deeper: The Risks of Public Wi-Fi and How to Close the Security Gap

Therefore, it is vital to be proactive in securing both your smartphones and the data they contain. Not only will it save you from the high costs of replacing a lost or damaged phone, but it also prevents potential misuse of personal and financial information. Implementing even just a few of these safety measures can help ensure your family’s smartphones are well-protected during your vacation. So let’s dive into the practical steps you can take.

Step 1: How To Protect Your Smartphone

1. Invest in Protective Gear: Equipping each device with a sturdy case and screen protector can significantly reduce the risk of damage due to accidental drops or impacts.
2. Protect Your Devices: Whether you protect yours through a mobile security app or as part of the multi-device coverage that comes with your comprehensive security software, mobile protection can alert you of threats and unsecured networks while also adding in the protection of a VPN. 
3. Regularly Backup Data: Back up photos, contacts, and other essential data to cloud storage or a computer. This ensures that precious memories and information are not lost in case of theft or damage.
4. Enable Tracking Features: Activate “Find My Phone” or similar features on each device. These tools can help locate a lost or stolen device and even remotely erase its data if necessary.
5. Exercise Caution with Public Wi-Fi: Public Wi-Fi networks can be vulnerable to hackers. Avoid using them for sensitive activities like online banking. If necessary, utilize a Virtual Private Network (VPN) for added security.
6. Establish Phone Usage Guidelines: Discuss responsible phone use with children, setting clear expectations and limitations. Encourage them to unplug and fully engage in the vacation experience.
7. Designate a Secure Storage Location: Establish a designated area in your hotel room or vacation rental for storing phones when not in use. This prevents misplacement and reduces the risk of theft.
8. Maintain a Low Profile: Avoid openly displaying expensive devices, particularly in crowded areas or unfamiliar surroundings. Discreetness can deter potential thieves.
9. Consider Insurance Coverage: Depending on your existing insurance policies, you may have coverage for mobile devices. Alternatively, explore dedicated device insurance for added protection.
10. Prioritize Family Time: Remember, the primary purpose of vacation is to connect with loved ones and create lasting memories. Encourage everyone to put down their phones and fully immerse themselves in the experience.

Step 2: Protecting Your Smartphone Physically

The first layer of protection for your phone should be a physical one. It starts with investing in a good quality, durable phone case. A waterproof case is always a good idea, especially if you’re planning on vacationing near the beach or a pool. A screen protector can also keep your screen from shattering or getting scratched. Remember, you’re more likely to drop your phone while on vacation as you juggle through maps, travel apps, and numerous photo opportunities.

Another aspect of physical protection is to be mindful of where you store your phone. Avoid leaving it in plain sight or unattended, which could invite potential thieves. Instead, carry it in a secure, zipped pocket or bag. If you’re staying at a hotel, consider using the safe to store your phone when not in use. Most importantly, be aware of your surroundings and keep your phone safely tucked away in crowded places.

McAfee Pro Tip: Activating the correct features can determine whether your personal data is lost permanently or if your device can swiftly recover. Install McAfee Mobile Security and learn more tips on what to do if your phone gets stolen on this blog.

Step 3: Data Protection and Privacy

Safeguarding your phone is not just about protecting the physical device—your personal and sensitive data deserves protection too. Before you leave for your vacation, make sure that your phone is password-protected. Optimally, use a complex password, fingerprint, or face recognition feature instead of a simple four-digit PIN. This singular step can deter any prying eyes from accessing your information if your phone is lost or stolen.

Ensure your phone’s software is up to date. Regular updates not only enhance the device’s performance but also incorporate vital security patches, fortifying its defenses against potential threats like malware. By staying vigilant and keeping your phone’s software current, you contribute to a more secure environment, minimizing the risk of unauthorized eyes accessing your valuable information in the event of a loss or theft.

Step 4: Backup Your Data

Backing up your smartphone’s data before leaving for vacation can save you from a lot of stress. In case of loss, theft, or damage, having a backup ensures that you won’t lose your cherished photos, contacts, and other essential data. Most smartphones allow you to back up your data to the cloud. Make sure to do this over a safe, secure network and not on public Wi-Fi.

For Android users, Google provides an automatic backup service for things like app data, call history, and settings. You can check if this feature is enabled on your phone by going to the Google Drive App and checking in the Backups section. For iPhone users, iCloud Backup can help save most of your data and settings. To enable it, go to Settings, tap on your name, then tap iCloud and scroll down to tap iCloud Backup.

Step 5: Understand and Manage Roaming Charges

Without proper management, staying connected while abroad can result in expensive roaming charges. Before you leave, check with your mobile provider to understand the costs associated with using your phone abroad. Some providers offer international plans that you can temporarily switch to for your vacation. If your provider’s charges are too high, consider purchasing a local SIM card once you arrive at your destination or use an international data package.

Another way to avoid roaming charges is by using Wi-Fi. Most hotels, cafes, and many public spaces have free Wi-Fi available. However, again, public Wi-Fi is not always safe. So, avoid accessing sensitive information such as bank accounts, and before traveling, download maps and essential content before traveling to reduce the need for constant data usage. This is especially helpful for navigation apps. To protect your data in such situations, it’s advisable to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

Step 6: Utilize Helpful Apps

Several apps can help protect your phone and its data during your vacation. Most smartphone operating systems offer a “Find My Phone” feature that can locate, lock, or erase your device if it is lost or stolen. Make sure this feature is enabled before you leave.

Again, antivirus apps can provide an extra layer of protection against virus and malware threats. Password manager apps can help you create and store complex, unique passwords for your accounts to enhance security.

VPN apps can protect your data from being intercepted when using public Wi-Fi networks. There are also apps that monitor your data usage and can alert you if you’re near your limit to avoid unexpected charges. Research and install these apps prior to your vacation for added security and peace of mind.

Final Thoughts

Your family’s smartphones are essential travel companions that deserve as much protection as any other valuable item during your vacation. By physically safeguarding the device, securing your data, backing up regularly, understanding roaming charges, and utilizing productive apps, you can enjoy a worry-free vacation. Remember, in the event of a mishap, having travel insurance can provide an extra layer of financial protection. So, before setting off, review your policy and check if it covers lost or stolen devices. In the end, preparation is key, so take the time to implement these safety measures and enjoy your vacation with peace of mind.

Above and beyond security settings and software, there’s you. Get in the habit of talking with your child for a sense of what they’re doing online. As a mom, I like to ask them about their favorite games, share some funny TikTok clips or cute photos with them, and generally make it a point to be a part of their digital lives. It’s great, because it gives you peace of mind knowing what types of things they are doing or interactions they are having online. 

For those of you hitting the road in the coming weeks, enjoy your travels, wherever they take you! 

The post How To Protect Your Family’s Smartphones While on Vacation appeared first on McAfee Blog.

In the world of surveillance, there are rarely any absolutes — and that applies to guarantees, too. If NSA, GCHQ and associated agencies really want to get at your communications, and are prepared to invest their resources in doing so, they will usually succeed to some extent. But there is no need to be fatalistic about it: some common-sense steps will go a long way toward frustrating most kinds of electronic surveillance.

Above all, it is important to bear in mind that even in these days of highly automated surveillance, the final step at least has to be undertaken by humans. They remain a scarce resource. So, while it is true nowadays that your phone calls could quite easily be automatically transcribed with a fair degree of accuracy, the quality of that automatic transcript will take a nose dive if you vary the acoustic environment unpredictably.

For example, you could speak with some music playing in the background, or running the words into each other, or by hamming up a strong accent that does not have many millions of speakers and that therefore will trigger a less accurate response by voice transcription algorithms. If you speak obscure foreign languages, sprinkle expressions and sentences in those languages into your speech. Basically, imagine the crystal-cut delivery of news announcers in days of yore — their pitch, their speed, their intonation — and do the exact opposite of them.

You could also revert to old-fashioned techniques for obscuring words, such as playground methods of putting extra syllables into words (e.g. aygo-paygo language). Do not do this just when you have some gobbet of information to hide; instead, do it randomly and with a lot of furtiveness, while what you’re actually saying is junk or humorous information.

Another way of frustrating the humans at the end of the technological chain of voice retrieval is by gassing endlessly about irrelevant or insignificant things in your call — particularly at the beginning and end. That way, you can stuff your sensitive information carefully into the middle sections of long calls with more confidence than if you were just to call your contact quickly, drop the information purposefully and hang up. Needles are best hidden in haystacks, after all.

Edward @Snowden said that if Trump is concerned about wiretapping, he should fix the NSA mass surveillance programs. https://t.co/33sLivcUCD pic.twitter.com/QxKieiNM1T

— The Intercept (@theintercept) March 14, 2017

The choppier your communication patterns are, the harder they are for computers or human analysts to detect rhyme or reason in. Call a contact up and refer darkly to “the message I sent you last week on secure channels”. Make sure he is in on it, so that he plays along by muttering a conspiratorial acknowledgement. Any officers assigned to you will then have the chore of combing back through other data repositories in a wild goose chase for your non-existent message. Even better, you could send such a message with some DIY encipherment, only for that message to turn out to be gobbledegook. Such a profile will help to have you written off as a time-waster.

Now, assuming that an intelligence officer really is listening to your calls, after having seen that the automated transcript is garbage because of the countermeasures you’ve taken as above: how to bore the pants off him? The best ways to do this are to witter on at length about obscure hobbies or religious views. This might cause him to lose the will to live, or at least the will to listen to you again tomorrow and the day after that. You could even address him directly, offering an array of eyebrow-raising conspiracy theories to brighten his afternoon.

You can take this a step further. In a panicked voice, you could predict that something awful and perhaps illegal is going to happen on a certain day soon, which you could describe in lurid detail. Entirely made up, of course. Cometh the hour, happeneth nothing at all. You have just trashed your track record — and have put another nail in the coffin of intelligence agencies’ preparedness to follow your every word.

Of course, while these techniques might reduce the likelihood of intelligence officers wanting to stay on your case, you should also take serious steps to secure your communications where key information is involved. For that, encryption and the use of a wide range of communication methods — including written notes — is the winning combination.

The post How to communicate when your phone is being tapped? appeared first on Rana News.

Three companies control the operating system market: Microsoft, Apple, and Google. These companies have a combined market share of 97%, and about 60% of all personal computing devices run on a mobile operating system. The desktop market is dominated by Windows – with a 75% market share – Apple (20%) and Chrome OS (Google’s desktop operating system) with 1 percent. Linux-based operating systems make up roughly 1.5 percent, but it is safe to assume that most  ‘unknown’ operating systems are running some form of Linux.

With smartphones becoming increasingly popular for day-to-day activities – such as browsing the web and buying goods online – most of our more complex tasks are still done on the desktop. That is especially true when working with sensitive documents, or when privacy and information security is of greater concern.

While productivity is certainly higher on the desktop, information security and privacy are not necessarily guaranteed. In this article, we briefly discuss significant flaws of desktop operating systems, as well as ways to avoid them.

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Windows

Microsoft is known for discontinuing the development of older operating systems. Eventually, all users will have to adopt Windows 10 or face serious software limitations and security flaws. However, Microsoft has implemented many new user tracking features and backdoors in Windows 10. Furthermore, their business model changed from one-time software purchase to a free and live service model. It is safe to assume intelligence gathering, the installation of apps, and features based on this information, are an integral part of Microsoft’s future business model.  

The backdoors that have been present in previous versions of Windows grant Microsoft access to your computer at any time to ‘update.’ That starts to live a life of its own, such as downloading and implementing updates without the consent of the user. Such features could be used and abused by law enforcement and hacking groups. Moreover, Microsoft could use it to implement spying tools.   

Spying tools are more prevalent than ever before. Most privacy settings enable Windows to send sensitive information to Microsoft. Examples are the time you spend in certain apps, whether they crash, and if you are browsing an online store.

Information concerning hardware configuration is always shared with Microsoft. It provides them and possible attackers with potential hardware abuses. The recent Meltdown and Spectre exploits show the potential risks, demonstrating how a flaw in modern Intel CPU’s could leave your decryption keys vulnerable.

Also, Windows uploads a recovery key of its disc encryption key, essentially giving Microsoft the keys to the castle. The premium service BitLocker provides more security, as it allows to store recovery keys locally. Through CPU security flaws and a surplus of backdoors, Microsoft and attackers could access your data. Even if you would use an alternative encryption solution such as VeraCrypt, there is no guarantee your data is safe.

With Windows being the most popular operating system by far, the majority of malicious software is designed to target that system. Without top-of-the-line security, the poor architecture of Windows leaves you vulnerable to all sorts of attacks.

MacOS

Historically, macOS has been a more popular operating system with professionals. OS is generally associated with higher security and better privacy. However, with the increase of casual users and overall growth in market share, malicious parties now focus on Apple’s operating system. Despite improved privacy and advanced security architecture, Apple was not able to stop the tide of new attackers.

A recent report shows that macOS has seen a sharp increase in malicious code. It is estimated that new attacks on Macs outpace those on Windows computers by as much as 400 percent. Particularly ransomware attacks are increasing and have disastrous consequences for both the private and governmental sectors. In terms of numbers, adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) have seen the largest increase.

Mac devices are just as vulnerable – if not more – than Windows computers, as their components are not nearly as diverse. That allows manufacturers to concentrate their efforts on patching these vulnerabilities. macOS has a baked-in encryption feature just like Windows, but unlike Windows, it requires no payment to manage your encryption keys. You have the option to store your recovery key online, but you do not have the same possibilities as a premium service, such as BitLocker.

Many reports exist about private information ending up on the cloud. Besides, crash reports of Apple’s software get automatically uploaded to their servers, which often contain logs with user data.

Overall, Apple appears to be a better choice than Microsoft regarding privacy. However, in terms of information security, you are just as vulnerable. Unfortunately, many Mac users still believe they have nothing to worry about when it comes to malicious software, and do not take the necessary precautions.

Windows vs. macOS: similar fundamental problems

In case of negative publicity or judicial issues, the reputation of Apple and Microsoft is on the line, which is a price both are not willing to pay. That happened during the FBI vs. Apple dispute over an encrypted iPhone. In the end, the iPhone was cracked by the FBI with help from a third party. Whether or not this party was connected to Apple – to make the court case go away – one can only speculate. Nevertheless, it was in the interest of both parties to make this case go away.

One should also take into consideration that both systems are designed for user-friendliness. Even when you use encrypted files and disks, a lot of sensitive data is stored outside of your encryption in non-volatile memory. That means file logs and other potentially sensitive data could be reconstructed because the information is never actually deleted. Unless you use a tool such as Eraser to scrub data from your hard drive manually, traces of data will remain on your device.

Also, both systems have major boot sequence vulnerabilities. Programs such as Kon-Boot allow you to bypass the password of the computer easily if you get physical access. Using encrypted drives could still secure your data, but the vulnerabilities mentioned above can undo them.

The Linux solution

As mentioned earlier, Linux represents only a small share of the market. Many universal security problems also apply to Linux systems. Yet, it has one major advantage: Linux’s system architecture has security in mind, instead of security being an addition to the system.

Linux has a far more robust permissions system preventing unauthorized access to files. Furthermore, rule-based security features – such as SELinux – prevent potentially malicious programs from reading, writing, and executing files. Though spying features in Windows can only be disabled, Linux products allow the removal of intrusive elements altogether.

Still, data does not magically disappear from your hard drive, and communication can be intercepted and read. However, some excellent security-oriented products – such as Tails OS –  can solve these issues and do so with incredible success.

Although not all Linux distributions are focused on security, they are not targeted nearly as often by hackers. Plenty of vulnerabilities are caught and patched faster because of its more open nature. Linux users are also more tech-savvy, making them more challenging targets. Finally, some Linux products are dedicated entirely to security, making Linux the preferred option for real privacy and information security.

The post Windows vs. macOS vs. Linux: comparing security appeared first on Rana News.

Scientists from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel have developed malware that can eavesdrop on computers by using an air-gapped network. By manipulating the power supply, a specific audio signal is transmitted, which in turn is intercepted. That means even data stored on an offline computer is no longer safe.

The scientists named their malware Power-Supplay, referring to data leaks from an air-gapped computer. These are devices that are not connected to outgoing networks, such as the internet. The driving force behind Power-Supplay is a phenomenon called ´singing capacitator,´ which makes a capacitator transmit a sound with high frequency, as soon as different quantities of power are flowing through. The operators of the malware can manipulate the power supply very precisely and determine the audio signal of the capacitator.

Yes, the irrepressible Mordechai Guri has found another weird way to exfiltrate data from an #airgapped machine: using singing capacitors. I bet the CIA is quaking in its boots at his “POWER-SUPPLaY” scheme: https://t.co/Ts39RFMCoK

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— @Richi Jennings (@RiCHi) May 6, 2020

Subsequently, an operator nearby can intercept the acoustic signals and steal the binary data from the targeted computer. A smartphone is sufficient to receive and store the stolen data. It is possible to filter the data up to six meters, but it also depends on the ambient noise. In close proximity, the malware can generate up to 40 bits of data per second, and on more considerable distances 10 bits per second.

The group of scientists is lead by Mordechai Guri, an expert in the field of eavesdropping on air-gapped networks. Previously, Guri researched techniques to manipulate screen brightness, to read infrared lenses of security cameras, and to modify sound ports of computers. Hacking is generally considered an online affair. However, Guri takes retrieving data through unconventional means to a whole other level.

The video below roughly demonstrates how Power-Supplay works:

The post Israel to launch advanced malware eavesdropping on your computer appeared first on Rana News.