Internet Explorer could have saved you

Last week, The Advocate ran an editorial against internet surveillance and why it’s important to secure your technology and yourself. To do that, you’re going to need a few best practices under your belt to actually be secure.

“The reality is that we all do dumb things with our computers, we all make mistakes, we all have accidents,” said Wayne Machuca, a business information science instructor at MHCC.

His example is of smart people doing stupid things. A doctor at OHSU, “propeller head of propeller heads,” left his laptop full of personally identifiable patient information at a bus stop.

There are two points here. The first being what an idiot. Second of all, what was that guy doing with that information on his laptop? If that information hadn’t been on the laptop, then the laptop wouldn’t have been as valuable.

Even if you think that you’re poor and there’s nothing to steal, or you have nothing to hide – so who cares if you’re watched? That’s absolutely the wrong idea, and you need to sit down and read this article three times.

Really the lesson is that in order to protect yourself, you don’t just need to protect your physical device, you also need to protect the information on your computer.

Machuca recommended using two laptops, or in the case of a college student, two web browsers. Use one web browser for financial information, school work, and healthcare. While it goes against my better instincts, using Internet Explorer is the best Internet browser for more sensitive activities.

For everything else where the Internet just acts as a second social life, then any other browser will do. Except don’t use Chrome. Machuca mentioned that Chrome has a bad record of saving personal information, then malicious software can take advantage of the stored information.

“We’re not seeing the malicious software being able to jump between the different browsers that are installed on your machine. I’m actually looking to see if that is coming next,” said Machuca.

Along the same lines, protecting your devices themselves is yet another way of keeping your information safe.

Make sure you have password protection on your devices. The idea is to give yourself a fighting chance against someone who has stolen your laptop. If your laptop is stolen, password protection can save you from the agony of losing your personally identifiable information.

The best way to keep your laptop from being stolen according to Wayne Feagle, manager of campus safety at MHCC, is to keep it near you at all times.

“That’s our biggest thing because all the cars that don’t have all the stuff in the seat, they’re not busting their windows and taking everything,” said Feagle.

It’s not just cars where this happens. Remember, keep your device near you.

As Feagle explains “Saturday a person left their phone in the bathroom, they left and of course it’s gone. It’s stuff like that that we’re up against.”

These suggestions are just a few examples of how to better protect yourself. They are simple, but that means they can be the easiest to overlook.