Big Brother is watching you; Take Internet security measures

For such a modern phenomenon, the Internet has simplified our daily tasks through a very complicated algorithmic procedure. Simple chores that used to require physical effort such as purchasing groceries, paying bills, doing research, etc., are now being accomplished through invisible means, namely radio waves. While this may seem a no-brainer, it is imperative that we don’t become negligent. Just as we keep a close eye on our precious physical belongings, we need to take the protective measures to safeguard our banking, social security, and other private personal information from predators, whether they are crooks or even the National Security Agency, (NSA).

Our hope at The Advocate is that you will take personal time to jump into the following in-depth articles – starting in our May 22 issue – that will teach the basics of protecting your private information. While on the Internet, we are theoretically in one place, yet are simultaneously vulnerable in every corner of the world.

We hope that providing you background information and safety tips will enable you to lessen your chances of joining the millions of Americans who fall prey to identity theft each year.

Anyone can be seduced into giving the “man in the middle” information to access your hard drive. You can be tricked into false subscriptions, advertisements, or even virus notifications that demand your computer’s password. Hackers can then control your computer and use proxy servers to intercept information that travels from your brain, to your device, to the router and eventually to, say, your bank. They stand, figuratively, between your device and the router, where their malicious software siphons every character you type. As you type and communicate, adept hackers are able to identify important numbers and decode them to use the information to their advantage.

Crooks don’t always wear ski masks, however. Some wear suits and ties and even have a seat in the White House.

Internet security took precedence in the current decade after informants and the media exposed NSA’s breach of one of the agency’s most fundamental policies: Never spy on American citizens behind their back, if they are not a cause for concern.

Since the NSA was created in 1952, it vowed to protect the United States from another Pearl Harbor – the surprise attacks inflicted by Japanese fighter planes that devastated the U.S. naval fleet and triggered America’s entry into World War II.

Fast-forward 60 years, and according to a documentary by PBS-TV’s “Frontline,” the NSA was surprised on a clear blue morning as it grew aware of the World Trade Center towers burning and collapsing, watching on a cheap television set in the office. Another mass attack had slipped through the agency’s control.

Before the events of 9/11, cryptologist Edward Loomis time and time again proposed to the agency a data collection program called Thin-Thread. In an interview with “Frontline,” Loomis was brought to tears when he explained that ThinThread was designed to monitor international Internet traffic going from foreign countries to the United States, and would have prevented such a travesty.

In the months following 9/11, the NSA adopted this method of surveillance, except somehow the crucial privacy settings that would prevent the probing of all Americans were stripped away. The NSA would survey the lives of everyone – their phone calls, their emails, their search history, their payment history – and extract any information they desired to obtain.

There was clear opposition to the Patriot Act, pushed by the Bush Administration and passed by Congress, during the years following 9/11. Many people were silent, fearing that should another act of terrorism take place on U.S. soil, those who spoke against NSA surveillance would be blamed.

Edward Snowden, was a 29-year-old former NSA subcontractor when he leaked classified documents detailing the NSA’s surveillance practices to journalists, in 2013. He revealed that the NSA was coercing Verizon to allow the agency to record all phone calls the company routed. Some call Snowden a traitor and others revere him as a hero. Snowden currently has taken asylum in Russia.

Today, it is difficult to know who we can trust. We know that we are being watched by criminals and government agencies.

There are ways to shield your identity and personal information and to prevent fraud.

Keep an eye on coming articles.