Freedom Down

Should Ordinary People Use Anonymous Software?

It is an extreme simplification that you don't need to use software online to protect your data unless you've got something to hide. Well I don't know which Internet they are using but it's not the same one as me!  I think this opinion is more a matter of not knowing the risks than thinking they don't exist.  The simple fact that there is a huge information war going on all around us and the information generally being targeted is ours.

So who is exactly after our data ?

It's a long list but here's some examples to start.

Search Engines, want to build up profiles to target their searches, and their advertising.
Companies want to build up profiles of users, to again help target their adverts.
Democratic Governments - to catch criminals, terrorists and monitor their population looking for'baddies'.
The Less democratic governments - track and imprison political dissidents, quell any opposition.
Identity thieves, our information is gold to them, why risk your liberty stealing from someone in the real life, when you can wipe out their bank accounts from Cyberspace.

These are black and white statements but of course there are a myriad of real life examples which lie somewhere in between.  Remember though there are many, many people incarcerated at the moment who have 'said the wrong thing' online.   Just as there are huge crime rings spreading from Eastern Europe to South America which specialise in Cyber crime.

No one knows exactly how much is stolen online every year.  Any guesses would be inevitably be innaccurate but experts agree the figures would be truly frightening.  The sophistication of criminals grows every year, some of the most advanced cyber gangs like the ones in Brazil have frightening resources and technical skill.

You will see it at every level, take for instance your average spam or phishing email - have you noticed how these have changed?  A couple of years ago they were badly worded and illegible pieces of rubbish which were obviously false.  Nowadays even the most aware internet user may have to look very carefully to see if they are fakes.  The advances in this area have often been exceeded in other areas.

Take for example using proxy servers online for various reasons.  People often use them to bypass fitering, surf anonymously or to access content in a country which is blocked or maybe like BBC or Hulu.  Identity thieves know this and wil frequently 'release' proxy servers for people to use.   This is because when you use a proxy server you generally leave a huge log of all your data on that server.  Every web site you visit and all your data is left in the logs of the proxies, they can even intercept Secure SSL traffic with a few little techniques.  Doesn't take long to amass some details, some account names, passwords - maybe access to your online bank accounts.