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Going online without understanding the basics of how the internet works is like getting behind the wheel without knowing the road rules: you might still get where you’re going, but you could be a danger to yourself and those around you.
Using the internet is now a daily activity for most Australians. Yet, the number of people who actually understand the internet’s mechanics is small. Government and schools do work to promote cyber security and cyber safety, but the message is still not getting widespread attention.
Ultimately there is only so much that government or businesses can do to keep us safe online. At a certain point, we need to take personal responsibility and educate ourselves about how to use the internet safely.
http://theconversation.com/we-need-to-take-responsibility-for-our-own-safety-online-38368
(Score: 5, Insightful) by dyingtolive on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:23AM
I have a question: How do we keep ourselves safe from institutions that have insurmountable budgets with the mission statement, "Make sure people aren't capable of taking responsibility for their own safety online"?
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:28AM
Don't use Microsoft products.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @08:29AM
That's certainly a good start, but far from enough. You also should keep clear from Apple products, Google products/serives, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ... and that's still just the beginning. Install security updates. Don't install software where you don't exactly know where it comes from. Encrypt your mail. Use https wherever possible.
But even that doesn't mean you're not vulnerable. It's just that all further means need much more effort.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday March 17 2015, @03:28PM
It seems the red thread is large corpomonoliths? And the conclusion likely to avoid such entities and their offspring.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Tuesday March 17 2015, @04:44PM
It seems the red thread is large corpomonoliths?
Funny, I read that at first as copromonolith, and imagined a giant stack of fossilized excrement. [wikipedia.org] I'm still not sure I'm far off from your meaning.
=D
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday March 17 2015, @04:54PM
Monolithic corporation is what it means. They will just steam roll anything that comes in their way being powered by (ab)used wage slaves chained by salary and debt to their cubicles. They do however as a functional unit tend to lack imagination and forth sight. That's why they buy up smaller companies.
(Score: 2) by Zinho on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:13PM
Right, like I said: enormous piles of fossilized excrement.
"Space Exploration is not endless circles in low earth orbit." -Buzz Aldrin
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday March 18 2015, @01:20AM
Its not that they *lack* imagination; rather its been my observation that corporate structure will not *tolerate* it.
Been there. Seen it.
To build something innovative and new takes the artistry of an engineer ( didn't say a *degreed* one! ).
Laying off the engineer for failing to kiss the ass takes the leadership skill of a manager.
Placing a bunch of paper-pushers over the creative types takes the organizational skill of an executive.
Each is paid what the people hiring them think they are worth.
Its been my observation that most investors value an executive handshake more than they value the creation of new things the world has never seen before.
That does not stop innovation though. It gets done anyway. In some guy's garage.
There will always be artists that will create - even if they aren't paid.
Its "in our blood". Some of us seem ingrained this is what we must do. And we will do it, employed or not.
Then the big company buys it up - mostly for the patent rights to keep anyone else from competing with them. Which leads to yet another round of price hikes and executive handshakes.
We engineers only see the tail of this monster girded in contracts and legal protections. Wanna see ground zero? Musicians! Every musical artist I have talked to tells me the same tale of woe, of all the labels, leeches, and people living high on the hog at his expense - as per contract.
Its our fault in a way, because we won't make contracts of our own for them to sign.
We are so afraid that if we dare ask them to sign a contract, we will be seen as a pain in the ass to do business with and they will find someone else that treats their business relationships better, however they are not limited by that same fear of customer rejection upon presentation of the contract; and that's how they get away with imposing themselves onto the rest of us.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday March 18 2015, @01:45AM
I'll agree with you on people having imagination and that corporate structure will not tolerate it.
Interesting example with musicians!
I think the advantage the executive has is that there's likely always another sucker to pull the stunt on. So the question is if one really have a choice.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday March 18 2015, @02:55AM
I feel you are so right...
The desperate bloke doesn't have much choice, so the corporate manager is left with his choice of those who have no other choice.
The ones he really needs to make his division productive would probably not be compatible with his leadership style. Its not him, personally, rather its the corporate immediate bottom-line this quarter mentality along with rules that you have to spend money for things you do not need but you are not authorized to get the things you do need.
People who have experienced the takeover of technical companies by investor-types would probably elect to go at it again by forming yet another small group of techie people with the common goal of making yet another small productive company than try to be a survivor at a big corporate entity. My skills are in making things work, not the fine art of office politics. I flat suck at office politics.
So, I am trying to start up another small company after my layoff. I have slim hopes any existing entity would hire me. I am too old, seen too much, and recognize too fast when someone is pulling a fast one at my expense. They need $20/hr wage-slave people for that. Not me.
I see no logic in trying to tell some manager type I want two monitors, a specific type of display card, I need EAGLE and LTSpice, etc. Take those away from me and I am about as productive as a gardener without his pruning shears... there are just certain things I cannot discuss with someone who has the leadership skills to see my demands as threats to his leadership superiority and force him to again lay me off.
However, I have also seen the dearth of people out there who have a really good feel for engineering and circuit design. It is a lot easier to lay one off than to find one. That is the one facet of my enterprise that for now I go at it alone, as all of the guys I know who have a really intuitive feel for it are either treasured at the company they presently work at or have formed their own company. Its really hard - once I have the experience - to take orders from someone else like I used to, as I do not want to accept responsibility for the result which I already know will result if I do it the way I am told to do it.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday March 18 2015, @01:29PM
The problem with going alone is that you need money to buy equipment and pay rent + food. And there could be some female nagging about getting "a real job". Even if you could make lots of money on your product it won't produce a penny until it ships and can be billed.
Btw, what is your opinion on KiCAD?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday March 18 2015, @01:35PM
The problem is that one often needs money upfront to support buying equipment, materials, food, rent, dresses for spouse etc. So even if the product is the best since nuclear power one still can't make money on it until it ships and can be billed. Oh and then there's the nagging female at home that may tell one to "get a real job".
Btw, what do you think of KiCAD?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 17 2015, @10:47AM
Move your online life into darknets. Not 100% sure, but the cost of their tracking scales up more than their "insurmountable budget".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday March 17 2015, @03:26PM
The price is slowness..
(Score: 3, Funny) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday March 17 2015, @03:56PM
The Internet is a series of tubes. One of them seems to be a short length of lead pipe, in the hands of a sociopath.
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:25AM
There is NO AMOUNT OF EDUCATION that can ensure that the Internet is "used" safely.
Thanks, Ed Snowden!
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:33AM
Safe from what? Bullies? Trolls? Muslims? Niggers?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Common Joe on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:00AM
Despite the rude, crass, racists, trollish statement, I think it accidentally has a point and is on topic. (There's a first time for everything. Especially on the Internet.)
The point it accidentally made: "Safety Online" is going to mean different things for different people. To ISPs "think of the children" means to censor. In our SN community, we've changed its meaning to freedom.
To me, safety online means: no cloud enabled software, regular offsite backups, completely redone Internet protocols (no javascript; very simple protocols), mandatory Tor, encrypted emails that have to be fetched (so that the three letter agencies don't know who sent it or who is retrieving it), no DRM, sane copyright and patenting, anonymous cowards, no storage of data online except what the user explicitly puts there, and complete control over my hardware and software (no hiding operating systems in the BIOS, no auto sending information to Microsoft or Google).
And even if you (the reader) and I fully agree on everything I just wrote, it's still makes me a bit sad knowing that everything I just wrote means something slightly different to you than it does to me. The details will always be just a little different between people. You and I can never completely agree on what is safe. That, unfortunately, is the bane of communication.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:12AM
You, sir, are a terrorist. Or as your kind were known a hundred years ago, an anarchist. Why won't you obey the jackboot?
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday March 17 2015, @07:00AM
I like to think of myself as very much anti-terrorism and my "freedom list" above supports that notion. But, I think you drove home my point (on purpose) and showed that a single concept can simultaneously yield polar opposite words. :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @08:35AM
I see you've got a gmail address, which you even make public here..
I note that you have an account, and use it for posting.
(Score: 1) by WillR on Tuesday March 17 2015, @02:36PM
I see you've got a gmail address
Who doesn't have at least one? If you're using good passwords for all your web site accounts, the next best attack to take over one of them is to intercept a password reset message. Gmail (and Yahoo, Outlook, etc) are way too big for domain hijacking. A boutique private email host probably isn't, your personal domain definitely isn't. [medium.com]
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Tuesday March 17 2015, @03:02PM
Don't get too worked up over it. The guy's trolling. You're my target audience. Not him.
Your link is an older story, but one well worth remembering in today's world. Thanks for providing it.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 17 2015, @11:16AM
From whatever nastinies the Internet has on offer. You know? Just like in real life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:35AM
Winders Oopdate? This is the Safety Patrol! We don't need to know techie shit!!!!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:38AM
I got me a .357.
Got me a trunk load
of shotguns.
I got three big-bore
battle rifles...
ammo up the ass...
and I ain't safe!
I can't protect myself!
Okay, take it easy, pal.
That weirdo, man.
He got up after I put
enough lead in him...
to drop a rhino.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:43AM
That's violence! You can't install violence on your com-puter! You're goin' to jail.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday March 17 2015, @02:56PM
Commie-putin? I knew it was some thing fishy about these machines.. ;)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by kaszz on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:45AM
We would need politicians that take responsibility to keep their long uninformed fingers away from issues where they have no clue or just try to abuse the situation for irrational opinion gains. And the general public seems uneducatable on personal responsibility and getting a clue.
Hey! naked chicks and a cat lolz on this link..
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 17 2015, @11:38AM
They can't abstain [wikipedia.org].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @04:15PM
I think the most important thing to note there is that, in Indiana of all places, somebody was able to talk some sense into lawmakers. Sadly their willingness to accept knowledge has long since vanished.
When it reached the Indiana Senate, the bill was not treated so kindly, for Waldo had coached the senators previously.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:46AM
shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits, shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits, shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits
(Score: 3, Insightful) by anubi on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:29AM
Yet, just one rogue Javascript will cause more harm than several gigabytes of the crass words listed above.
And our gummit has done absolutely nothing to rein it in.
You have no idea how much I wanted my "representatives" to stand up for me and insist that in keeping with the "copyright is like a book" mantra, "DRM is like a restaurant."... meaning I do not go in the kitchen and see how the food is prepared, and the restaurant takes full responsibility that I do not get food poisoning from their dish. I wanted them to codify into law so bad that hold harmless clauses were not applicable to DRM'd software.
The copyright people got what they wanted. I did not. "My" representative sure "fought for me", didn't he?
I feel if I pick something up off the sidewalk and eat it, if it makes me sick, I should have known better, but if I paid for the food, the person who sold it to me is responsible for it by the act of accepting payment for it.
Surfing today's internet seems so much to me like going out on the street only to have people handing me all sorts of hazard-laden things... even so-called respectable businesses will hand me dangerous things, thinking that "hold harmless" is the businesslike thing to do, instead of verifying the integrity of their offerings.
The copyright people want so bad to assign responsibility to anyone violating their desires.
So do I. I also want to assign responsibility to those forcing us to adopt risky computing practice.
But, who will Congress write Law for? Does Congress even represent the people anymore? Or are they just a wish-list enforcer for the well-connected?
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @07:18AM
Congress represents The well-connected business-owning land-having People. Not the poor, not the injuns, not the negroes, and not you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @10:40AM
Hey (grinning), you used a Food analogy. I thought all internet explanations used Car (or in extreme cases Pipe) analogies?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday March 17 2015, @12:23PM
Err... what? You still free to do your computation using pen-and-paper - it's almost safe (100% safe if you exclude paper-cuts).
(I don't think that word means what you think it means)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @12:57PM
We know a song about this, don't we boys and girls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bLFO4ZV0i4 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday March 17 2015, @01:03PM
The parent comment, titled "gummit protect me from the words" is an apparent reference to a ruling in the USA forbidding certain 'offensive' words from being used on the airwaves during certain hours of the day. (I don't have it to hand, so the above is from memory.)
Given the story is titled "We Need To Take Responsibility For Our Own Safety Online", I see the foregoing as being an interesting counterpoint.
Okay, a *quick* search came up with this link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SevenDirtyWords [tvtropes.org] which gives a readable background on those words, and some others, and the changing attitude towards them.
Now, going off-topic a bit, but while on this subject, George Carlin had a skit which made use of those words. He had another skit I'd once heard on the radio using 'fuck' in a number of different parts of speech. "It can be a noun! (gives an example.) Or, a verb! (another example.)" My search-fu is not so good this morning... Can any Soylents find a link to the routine?
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:12AM
Talk about blame the victim.
How can you expect ordinary users to protect themselves when
- no two web sites have the same pattern and requirements for passwords (length, letters, numbers, special characters)
- the site with the weakest security is often your bank.
- things that you might use to "protect" yourself - Tor comes to mind, and encryption - are under attack by your own government
- other tools that you might use are built with back doors to let the spooks in.
- even if you are aware of all of that, your web, cel, and phone traffic is being captured and scanned.
- the security tools that you use tend to turn out to have big fat flaws every couple of weeks or months.
- the criminals are smarter and better equipped than many of the people who claim to protect you.
And of course, you're getting your advice from government sources or the media who really don't know what they're talking about.
I will say kudos to Tor for making at least some things fairly easy.
But my god - OpenPGP. That has to be one of the least user friendly things ever invented. I'm good at this stuff and I'm still struggling to figure out just how I can use it easily.
All of the ways that people are told to secure themselves are either difficult or borderline useless. It's time to invent something new and painless.
It's not reasonable to expect end users to be uber-geeks just to be safe.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by TLA on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:18PM
the question I ask myself is, can I do this thing without having to do it online?
If the answer is yes, then hell, I'll put on my shoes, get up off my arse and walk the mile and a half and interact with other human beings (yeah, I know, right?) to get the thing done right first time, and I know what they say about computers supposed to make our lives easier but for daily interactions, they really don't. Online banking, to pick the prevalent example, is a: NOT proven safe and b: unbelievably complex a venture for the uninitiated who can quickly come unglued and end up giving their money to Oxfam on a thousand year standing order without realising it. I would rather deal in cash not because I don't know how to use online banking (I've developed CRM systems complete with payment gateways), but because even with all the propaganda about how wonderful and convenient Chip & Pin or Contactless Payments is, I don't trust cards or electronic banking in the face of often dead-spit duplicate breaches of data including card numbers and OLB login data, least of all the privacy issue. In fact, personal privacy is the least of my concerns when it comes to who is accessing MY MONEY.
< /rant>
Excuse me, I think I need to reboot my horse. - NCommander
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 17 2015, @05:58PM
Yet, the number of people who actually understand the internet’s mechanics is small.
And to bring us full circle back to the analogy:
You don't need to be a mechanic to operate a vehicle safely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:24PM
Talk about blame the victim.
I know how this thing works. I dont blame the victim. They literally do not know better. Many times they do not even know they were a victim.
There are people out there setting out to 'rob' them and they never even know it.
A good example is my dad. He gets some good ol internet drug into his house. Surfing the web. Bit of ebay. Whatever...
The neighbors though decided since his access point was open he was willing to let them torrent 24/7 and max out his connection.
He went from 'my internet is slow' to 'you fixed it'. All I did was secure the router. They had even changed the password on it so someone else could not do it.
Christmas eve and you lost your internet. That is a shame. Christmas is on a friday? Oh cant get anyone out until at least monday. Well sucks to be you.
How can you expect ordinary users to protect themselves when
The defaults for most stuff is wide open. For some reason people think 'wide open' means sure help yourself I dont care. Well they do care but just do not even know any better.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday March 17 2015, @08:24AM
Using the internet is now a daily activity for most Australians.
Okay, bit random focusing in on the Aussies...
Oh, wait, it's because it's from an Aussie source, and this bit:
AnonTechie writes:
was a lie.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 3, Insightful) by darkfeline on Tuesday March 17 2015, @06:54PM
At the end of the day, everyone needs to take responsibility for their own safety, period. We are all adults, right? Right?
Yes, responsibility is hard, I know that. Life is hard. But are you really asking other people to take responsibility for YOUR safety?
This sort of falls into the same "controversial" area as topics like "You were asking to be raped wearing revealing clothing walking around at night" "Stop blaming the victim you victim blamer!". Look, forget about about assigning blame or finger pointing. Let's say that doing foo would have prevented bad thing bar from happening to you. But you didn't do foo, so bar happened to you. Sure, you can come up with all sorts of reasons why it's not your fault ("No one told me!" "But YOU'RE supposed to stop me from being stupid"), but the milk has already been split, so to speak.
Here's another example: suppose you have a hair dryer that doesn't have the "Don't immerse in bath" warning label. If you know that electricity+water is bad and you have good judgement, then you can avoid dying. If you lack either or both, then you die. Assuming we are in America, your relatives would then sue the manufacturer for not putting the label on the hair dryer (pushing responsibility onto the manufacturer). But guess what? You're still dead. Had you taken responsibility for your own safety by educating yourself and making sound judgements, you would be alive. Fancy that.
tl;dr Finger pointing only works if you still have fingers.
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