A Question About Mobile Security.

My Wife was on an online form when she came across a question.

"Do need to put Security on my mobile devices?" This person has an iPhone, iPad and kindle.

So let start with a question.

How much information is on your Computer?

Is it important?

Is it Valuable?

Do you have security to protect it?

How much more Information are you carrying in your pocket?

It has all your contacts, email, facebook, banking, notes, pictures and videos.

I would say that we have more valuable information to us in our phones and tablets, then we do in our computers today.

I know we should be protecting that information, but the way we protect our computers and how we protect our phones are different.

On the subject of Anti-Virus:

Anti-Virus companies have computers out on the internet that see what new Virus' there are, and then see how they are written. By doing this, they can then create a "Signature" of the Virus and then send out that signature to everyone's computers and tell them to add it to the Bad Signature list, much like a bad check.

With our computer software, like Microsoft office, it have a signature, and the Anti-Virus company puts it on the OK list and then that software doesn't get updated very often.

With Application on our phone, whether it is a iPhone or Android, we can't use the same type of methodology. The reason being, is that the application on our phones get updated very often. And every time it gets updated, it is a new signature. So there would be no way for the Anti-Virus on your phone to be kept up to date.

What I would suggest as best practices for securing your mobile device.

First, Set a lock screen pin
For anyone trying to get in your phone while its on the table, it will slow them down from getting to your important info. The Longer the Password the better. It would be great if it where at least 8 digits long.

Second, Make back ups of your device.
With iPhones that is done with iTunes. For Android, this will become easier for the non-rooted devices, with this app when it is released. It's currently called carbon (beta). If your Android is Rooted just use, TitaniumBackup. When you are doing these backups, if you have the option, make sure to encrypt the saved  data, just as an added level of security.

Third, I would get a service that can track your phone if it is lost or stolen.
For iPhone you have the option to use iCloud with remote wipe. And for Android, I would use Cerberus on the Play Store, or for your Kindles use Cerberus on Amazons App Store

Fourth, DO NOT trust free or public wifi.
There are people at coffee shops, airports, anyplace with wifi, waiting for some ones phone to connect and then be able to steal your data from your device. DO NOT BANK OR SHOP ON FREE OR PUBLIC WIFI. I would also go so far as to say, turn off your wifi on your phone unless you need it. Because when it is left on, it broadcasts what wifi routers it has connected to in the past. By turning it off, you will be more secure when you aren't using it, and you will save battery life.


Fifth, Make sure your Phone is up to date. Update to the newest Operation System when it becomes available, because with they offer that, it means that they are patching security  holes they found in the last version.

This is a very basic security template for securing your mobile devices.

If there is more interest in this Subject, I will follow it up with more ways to secure your information while using your phone on wifi.

SecurityTube Wifi Security Expert Class

I have finally finished SecurityTube Wifi Security Expert Class!

It is worth it's weight in gold! It is over 1000 minutes in video alone, and to follow along you need at lest 1000 minutes to set up the routers and such.

I would suggest anyone who wants to learn more about wifi, wifi security and how it works.

I have gone threw and made notes to go back to in the future.

I was Super Excited to finish it!

and for my next project,
Network+
Raspberry Pi Os class
and a few other projects.

More to come.

Lenovo Update

I Love My New Laptop!
I updated Windows 7 pro, and then make my back up copy of the OS (written to dvds), then made an image of the system, then partitioned the hard drive to install Backtrack 5 R3, and updated that.

A couple of things along the way:
Ubuntu didn't see my wireless card, Linux Mint on the other hand did.
I found out that I have a usb 3.0 port and a external sata port as well, and that it will boot off of my sd card! Epic!

The Keyboard is nice, still getting used to the switched Function key and Control key, but I'll can change it in the BOIS.

Another thing I really liked, was when I booted it up for the first time, it didn't have that much bloat-ware.
I uninstalled, norton, and office 2012 demo, and that was it. It came with Chrome set up as the default browser, and Evernote as part of the softwares installed.

Over all, I Love it, and in a bit I'll add more Ram, but a great laptop at a great price!

Weekend Lab Project: Personal ESXi Server

I finally got it up, and am now loading os' onto it. In the coming Days I'll post what I have done, and document the pitfalls I hit.

My Weekend Project

Here is my weekend project. 

I "left" my router in my neighbors house, 

I still need my internet, so here is how I got it and also the snags I came up against.

Say you left few of your routers around your neighborhood, (Linksys, and Belkin.34e) in this case, and you have alot of devices you need to connect to the internet. I have my TP-Link USB adapter connected to my "Dell Server" to supply the internet using the "Internet Connection Sharing" protocol  with the sharing to "Local Area Connection" (Nic 1) which connects to the internet port of my "Personal Router". That gives "My Network" Internet connection. 

But on my "Dell Server" I have a "Media Server" and "Virtual Box" running and want to be able to have that accessible to my network but not my neighbors. So what I did was connect my Second "Local Area Connection 2" to my "Personal Router". Now when I had it plugged in, nothing was working, what I had to do is set a Static Ip Address on "Local Area Connection 2" then everything started working.

Yay, It's Done, Now It's Time To Play!

Is your Wifi secure?

It's a known fact, open Wifi is not safe. Can you be safe on open Wifi? Yes, you can be, with what's called a Virtual Private Network or VPN for short. How can I get one? There are websites that sell them, but I suggest logmein.com product called Hamachi. You install the software on your home or work computer, and then on your mobile device (i.e. laptop, iPhone, or Android) then you create an account with logmein.com to link your devices together. After you have done that and have logged into your newly made account on all your gadgets, you now have a Private Network, you can think of it like a shield, from anyone (on the same Wifi) trying to see what you are doing on the internet.us