How to protect your identity on the Internet

and VPNsIulia Porneală CyberGhostVPN.com

Internet in numbers

• 7.1 Billion people in the world• 2.5 Billion internet users in the world

Internet in numbers 2014

Source: wearesocial.net

Internetul in numbers 2014• 1.1 Billion Facebook Accounts

Source: wearesocial.net

What does the Internet know about you?

• Computers and all other devices save traffic information about you

• Each servers saves a log where the following information is recorded:• Your IP address associated with the content you are interested

about • Your Downloads• Your Clicks

• Your Internet Service Provider can easily associate your IP Address with: your name, your address, your age, your phone number

Activities that contribute to defining your online identity

• Website navigation• Using a Search Engine• Registering to a Social Platform • Connecting your phone number to

your accounts

Every one of these activities is registered in a database (or several).

How is your online identity identified

• Internet users are identified by their IP address alocated by the Internet Service Provider.

What is an IP?

• There is a communication standard called Internet Protocol / IP• IP is a number used exclusively by all the equipment related to

information techonology (printers, routers, modems, computers) which allows them to identify and communicate between them in a computer network.

• IP can give all the parameters determining the location of the internet user. From this point of view Internet access is completely transparent and can be dangerous

Internet today

• Till 10 years ago the Internet was a place of diversity where everything was tolerated.

• A place where everybody was feeling safe and communicating in complete freedom, practicing a new type of democracy.

• Nowadays more and more organizations, entities and persons are interested in analyzing the internet traffic of individual users.

• Practically at this moment freedom, security and anonymity online are only ideals hard to reach.

Who’s interested in your identity?• Website owners want to know everything there is to know about your

interests to deliver you ads suited to your wants and needs. Or, bluntly put, to be able to sell your data to a third party or entity that solicits those.

• Store owners who practice price discrimination policies, originating establishments or previous behavior (recurring visitors get higher prices, as the probability to buy the products increases).Movie industries from Hollywood to Bollywood, want to know where and what kind of videos are you viewing.

• Governmental authorities, like secret services, want to know where you live, if you are planning to relocate, what you do, what you think, your political beliefs, your religious views – if you agree with them or not.

• Organized and not-so-organized criminals, are closely watching your moves, especially the financial ones. Business owners are followed. Industrial espionage has never been as easy as it is today.

• Companies which hire can investigate the behavior of their future candidates and choose discriminatory according the private life information of the applicant.

Comparison virtual identity versus real-life identity

• If in real life we have organic systems that help us cope with dangers (hormonal, lizard brain, primary instinct or whatever you want to call it) in our virtual life this is not valid;

• When you talk to somebody privately in real life, and a 3rd person is eavesdropping, you can notice, well online you have no idea when that is happening

Facebook• Facebook tracks activities for its users even when these are not

logged in anymore. There are transmited towards the Facebook servers informations regarding your IP address and all websites that have a Like or Recommend button integrated.

• The tracking is done based on cookies which remain in your browser even after logging off Facebook. The only method to stay safe is by periodically deleting these cookies, using different browsers or special apps that prevent this.

• Facebook does not delete the information the users delete. Even the ones who have deleted their accounts are still monitored.

• Both the website and mobile apps from Facebook are permanently monitoring your location. It seems that retaining users coordinates, will allow the company to sell publicity “calibrated” to the daily habits of the users.

Online Privacy• In current context, it is obvious to everybody that online

privacy is a simple illusion.• You need to start from the premise that nothing we are doing

online does not belong exclusively to us, that in the moment we share something, this thing is possible to be not only viewed by the recipient, but by many others also.

Methods to stay anonymous• If you use social networks, or other websites where your data is required, use aliases

and not your real name• Use Security Questions instead of alternative email addreses• Make sure that the passwords you use are secure and different for every account• Use a disposable email address• Avoid using Google Search (you can use DuckDuckGo as an alternative search engine)• Avoid using websites which request your phone number, or at least do not provide it

to them• Do not link your accounts between them• Check that all payment pages start with HTTPS• If you need to make online payments, use alternative methods to credit

cards(paysafecard, Paypal)• Regularly update your operating system and antivirus• Use a firewall• Restrict remote access, except for very secure sources• Download only from trusted websites and sources• Install a VPN

What is a VPN?• A VPN or Virtual Private Network is a method used to add

security and privacy to private and public networks, like WiFi Hotspots and the Internet.

• A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network, such as the Internet.

• VPN enables a computer to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if it is directly connected to the private network, while benefiting from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network.

• A VPN is created by establishing a virtual point-to-point connection through the use of dedicated connections, virtual tunneling protocols, or traffic encryptions.

How does a VPN work?

Encryption• In cryptography, encryption is the process of encoding messages or

information in such a way that only authorized parties can read it. • Encryption does not of itself prevent interception, but denies the

message content to the interceptor.

What are the advantage of using a VPN?

• You can protect your online identity• You can get access to content and websites that are otherwise

restricted (at the office, at school, in political context)• You surf the Internet seen as a user of the country of the IP you are

using• Your internet identity becomes anonymous• You can view georestricted content (videos from Youtube,

www.cbs.com, www.hulu.com)• Using wireless networks in public spaces without worries

CybercrimeThe term of cybercrime is applied in the case of 3 categories of plică în cazul a trei categorii de criminal activities• The first category includes traditional form of crime like fraud or forgery,

although in the case of cybercrime the context refers especially to the crimes committed using electronic communication networks and informational systems (electronic networks)

• Second category includes publishing of illegal content in electronic environments (for example materials regarding child sexual abuse or incitement to racial hatred)

• Third category includes crimes referring directly to electronic networks, for example attacks on the informational systems, A treia categorie include infracţiunile proprii reţelelor electronice , de exemplu, atacurile împotriva sistemelor de informare, denial of service and piracy. These types of attacks can target infrastructures of high importance in Europe and can affect the rapid alert systems from several areas, with potentially disastrous consequences for the entire society.

Online Censorship• Sorry, this website is not available in your country.

• Online censorship represents a range from geo restrictions to political censorship like the Great Firewall of China.

• Exemples: • In Iran Facebook is forbidden• In 2011 Egypt’s president, Mubarak, has banned Internet• In China (500 milion Internet users) Facebook, BBC, Youtube,

Google, Twitter are banned

Victimes of the Internet

• 35 killed journalists• 178 arrested journalists

Online identity theft• Internetul offers criminals new ways through which these can steal

personal information and commit fraud.• Criminals ca use ways like spreading viruses which once they reach a

comupter transmit username, passwords and personal details (like credit card details)

• Phishing emails• Most of the webstes store information regarding the users, beeing

exposed to such risks.

Edward Snowden and the Scandal NSA - PRISM

• Snowden worked in the physical security department or technical department for the CIA and NSA

• Until May 2013 he worked as a secret agent in the administration and consulting system for Booz Allen Hamilton

• Through his job as a technical collaborator he had access to the top secret information of the American espionage system, of which we notice the ones obtained through the program of the agency NSA PRISM surveillance and espionage of the Internet networks

• The program was making giants in the Internet domain like Microsoft, Apple or Google deliver their data to the NSA, in the basis of a "programatic warant " emitted by the IRS every year.

Thank you!@iuliamp

Useful links

• http://en.rsf.org/• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSXlKdWF5HE• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcPLdRJyFuE• http://mashable.com/2013/03/27/tips-against-identity-theft/

How can use VPN• http://vimeo.com/64800089

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