Wow! We had a great meeting last night. I was a bit nervous beforehand, not having received many RSVPs, but the turnout was more than enough to fill the seats and we had to steal a half dozen chairs from the next room over. The discussion, on the implications for security and privacy in an always-on world, was really good too and would have gone on much longer but I could see a few yawns and watch checks, better to end when people are still involved than falling asleep.
Major thanks to Cindy Cohn of the EFF and newly-independent open source ambassador Chris Messina for coming and sharing their expertise and experience and to security maven Phil Burton for moderating and more. Thanks also to Steve Levine, Barry Kramer and Dante Billups of Fenwick & West for arranging our use of their lovely conference center in Mountain View.
Aside from pointing out the obviously less vulnerable Mac and Linux platforms, the key takeaway was use these new gadgets and services, use the web, but do it from a protected setup and with both eyes open because the attacks use both technology and social engineering to try and separate you from your money and other valuable resources.
(Ed. Note: When people talk about OS X being more secure, and not just because the smaller number of machines is not a tempting target, this article from the Cult of Mac is a good technical explanation of what they mean.)
Chris specifically suggested that Windows users start by installing the following free, mostly open source products:
- Firefox: web browsing
- AVG: antivirus (but boy do they try and convince you to buy a slightly different version!)
- ZoneAlert: firewall (the free personal edition)
- Thunderbird: email
Using these four applications instead of the Microsoft equivalents will reduce vulnerabilities substantially.
All in all, I’m very happy and looking forward to the next JHTC meeting, which will be in Tuesday, July 11, at the Fenwick & West conference center in Mountain View. The evening’s program and guest will be announced in the next week or ten days (keep your fingers crossed).
BillSaysThis 