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What Happens to Your Data?

Posted on by Hannah Livergood

Where does your data come from? What is your data?

Data can be anything- your shopping history in Amazon, the grocery store you subscribe to for delivery, your internet browsing trends and history (hello, cookies). More invasively, this data often connects to you at a granular and personal level- your IP address, your device, which browser or app you used. Often, information collected can dive into your age range, ethnicity, education, and gender. This is all before even touching on the limitless amount of times you have inputted your email address, first and last name, job title, state, or the reoccurring password reset questions such as “Where did you attend high school?”. 

We have to be alert and wake up. The internet isn’t going away, and if we don’t set a standard of digital security for ourselves as individuals, we make ourselves open to identity fraud, financial theft, and our safety. Anyone can get the answers to half of those preset password reset questions from a combination of Facebook and LinkedIn if you’re active on both. Did you put your high school and alma mater on your LinkedIn profile? Is your mom listed as your mom on Facebook? What is your mother’s maiden name? Yikes. I hope a few of you shuddered just now and checked your privacy settings.

 

“Wait, I don’t own my data?”

 

Unfortunately, as it currently stands- no. There are varying limits and regulations in place depending on the country, but overall and simply put everything collected from you digitally is not owned by you. This begins the complex and ethically questionable practice of different types of companies and retailers selling subscriber lists, shopping intent, and information such as email/name/age/gender/device.

 

 

To some extent, we’re all guilty.

Listen, I am here, in this open, expansive space yelling into the abyss of the internet about security, let me yell one more thing: I’m not judging you. I was only a teenager when my identity was exposed through a data leak connected to my first email. I didn’t think much of it, I didn’t even change the other accounts I had at that time with the same password- just the one email. I moved on. Done. Fixed. 

That is until I went to get my license. At 16, in the DMV of my hometown, with my dear mother beside me, the clerk squints at her screen. We had all the required paperwork. I had passed my driver’s test. Why were we standing here for so long? She notified me someone had recently attempted to get a license. Under my name. With my social security number. The horror on my mom’s face was remarkable. I remember the inner sleuth inside her begged the clerk to give her more information- it was confidential, they couldn’t. Now, to connect the two directly is impossible for me. But, I am sure a mass data leak and improper account safety certainly did not put the odds in my favor. A recent example is the Red Cross network- that a hacker had access to for over 70 days before it was noticed and remedied (Arghire, 2022).

 

“Do only large businesses see this? Who has access?”

The answer to this is a loud and resounding no. Anyone who manages a website, blog, company, or channel can collect your data. If you’ve read this far in my blog, I’m sure you’re wondering what my true intent has been with these routine blogs. Folks, I have written and edited content for years. Writing a blog doesn’t stump me. This blog doesn’t stop at a social media post and hoping you hear out a small portion of what bumps around my brain at night. I’ve been tracking your data.

 

If you try to stick it to me and leave now, that’s okay. I’ve already captured your data. All you can hurt is my bounce rate.

Does that sound creepy? Admittedly, it is a little bit. But, I guarantee this is not the first time you’ve been used for your data. Probably not even the ten-thousandth time. If we consider myself a brand, you’ve been following the content published by what is referred to as a Personal Brand– that is, myself. The post I put up on my accounts through varying social media platforms enables me to track who likes, comments and shares my posts. But, you knew that. The links I put in each post (for those of you who clicked) have embedded tracker links. This allows me to see how many clicks I received by the day, hour, minute, and to which page. What adds a final touch to my creepy-professional-connection-tracking-your-data persona is the analytics portion. 

By simply integrating specific codes and trackers through my free Google Analytics and Search Console accounts into my blog website, I am opened to a world of new possibilities. What I said earlier at the beginning of this post, about what information can be tracked, is not a special case. In the modern world, this is the status quo. More than anything, I challenge you to take this moment to consider the private information and vulnerabilities that you have left behind in the data footprints you left while walking the internet- and then try to clean it up.

 

 

“What information did you collect?”

Ever wonder how that brand you’ve been thinking about suddenly started sending you emails and targeted advertisements? Now, it is more like how couldn’t they? Since I am a single person, with a network full of exclusive connections I know or are in the same field as me, it is easy to weaponize this data.

Less than 5% of my overall traffic was by readers with security settings that prohibit me from tracking their location, gender, or age.

Even then, I still captured their device, browser, and all their marketing metrics used to measure the growth or decline of my public voice. For the other 95% of my readers: over half of you work in security and at least a quarter in digital marketing of some kind. Do better! I can tell which of you read (or at least clicked) previous posts by the city you read from, as well as what type of device you’re viewing from. 

 I plan to publish the entire spread at the end of this project for any curious eyes, but here are the following metrics I tracked: country, city, operating system, browser, age range, gender, users, new users, sessions per user, page views, pages per sessions, session duration, bounce rate, clicks by day, clicks by blog, likes, comments, shares, impressions, new connections, and profile views. A large amount of these metrics can be directly linked to individuals since I know my audience and can identify by social media interaction, device, location, and other identifying factors.

 

What can you do to better prevent your information from being exposed?

 First of all, I highly encourage you to read this link for a more secure password strategy and your general internet safety. As a people, we all carry the responsibility to make the internet and digital world safer for one another- on an individual, corporate, and federal level.

 

Data is the pollution problem of the Information Age, and protecting privacy is the environmental challenge. – Bruce Schneier

 

 

Not All Collected Data is Bad Data
– Conclusion From A Digital Marketer/Data Analyst Who Allows Cookies

Not all collected data is bad data. If I trust a site, I allow cookies. I allow my data to be captured, analyzed, and used- because it benefits me. My digital experience is enhanced through my data being tracked- companies can better suggest resources, products, and ads based on my interaction, history, and pre-filled forms. If you make your data as private as you possibly can, some websites will have a difficult time giving you as convenient and easy an experience. Another setback of too strict of privacy settings can be the inconvenience of forgotten passwords, usernames, less accurate search results, ect.

There are precautions I take across the board, such as only allowing my location to be used in apps or sites that pertain to navigation, health, or safety. I ask apps to not track data if they are companies that I don’t use often or don’t trust their published data ethics.

 

References

Arghire, I. (2022, February 17). Hackers Had Access to Red Cross Network for 70 Days. SecurityWeek. Retrieved from https://www.securityweek.com/hackers-had-access-red-cross-network-70-days

Chai, W. (2021, April 12). What is Google Analytics and How Does it Work? Search Business Analytics. Retrieved from https://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/Google-Analytics

De Groot, J. (2021, January 25). 101 Data Protection Tips: How to Keep Your Passwords, Financial & Personal Information Safe in 2020. Digital Guardian. Retrieved from https://digitalguardian.com/blog/101-data-protection-tips-how-keep-your-passwords-financial-personal-information-safe

Henderson, G. (n.d.). What is Personal Branding? What Is Personal Branding? Retrieved from https://www.digitalmarketing.org/blog/what-is-personal-branding

Kaspersky. (2022, February 9). What are Cookies? www.kaspersky.com. Retrieved from https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/cookies

Ruberg, B. (n.d.). What is Your Mother’s Maiden Name? . Retrieved from https://ourglasslake.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Ruberg-FMH-Mother-Maiden-Name-July-2017.pdf

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What Makes a Building a Smart Building?

Posted on by Hannah Livergood

Lobbies, Doorways, and Hallways: Safety Pain Points

Entrances and places where the general public, employee, or tenant walk pose two main risks: when someone who shouldn’t be there is there, or when a disaster strikes. Do you have an emergency plan to vacate in case of fire? What about when unauthorized- or even dangerous personnel are present? How will you both prevent and control these events?

 

With a technology boom in recent years, it is crucial to have a building not just smart enough to detect when a risk is present, but to be more intelligent than attempt to steal assets, data, or put the general safety of those present at risk. Enter: the Smart Building. A Smart Building is a crucial and relatively new surge in the security industry to tailor a building to shift security from reactive to a state of proactive sensing and deterrence.

 

Access Control: Enforcing Credentialing with Software

Access control is a broad term used to describe the systems that identify users and authenticate their credentials; thereby deciding whether or not the bearer of those credentials is permitted admission to either a physical or digital asset.

Access control is software that works on a verification basis, also known as credentialing. Biometrics, proximity cards, and key codes are types of verification credentialing that can be run through access control. Access control reads the credential and will compute demand-based decisions in real-time to either unlock the door, open the turnstile, or permit entry. If the entrant is not authorized, the entrance can remain closed, and even sound alarms or alert security personnel or building management to the attempted entry. Access control enables capabilities such as population counting, weapons detection, and mask enforcement when paired with entrance control hardware, like optical turnstiles. Below, you can see how such complicated access control software work in stages of protection and verification. 

 

Access Control Systems & Software | Guide + PDF | Openpath

Entrance Control: Allowing  Authorized Entrants

Entrance control is the first line of defense for physical on-site threats of any office park, apartment complex, corporate headquarters, hospital, or other building. There are security guards, metal detectors, locking doors, full height turnstiles, and optical turnstiles that are all valid and practical forms of security that start at the door. Entrance control hardware interacts with the access control software to create a physical barrier with intelligent decision making, to optimize building safety.

 

How to protect the physical security of your data - CREA

 

 

References

Cohen, M. (2019, March 25). How to Protect the Physical Security of Your Data . CREA Café . Retrieved from https://www.creacafe.ca/how-to-protect-the-physical-security-of-your-data/

Siemens. (n.d.). Security in Smart Buildings Overview. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSLN0ucAlK0

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Digital Security for Skeptics

Posted on by Hannah Livergood

In a time full of opinions, I am sure we all have varying levels of trust (or lack thereof) for robots. I hold a running joke with friends and colleagues alike, “don’t trust the robots”. Something about self-driving cars and smart homes that lock from your phone cultivate unease within me- I probably watched The Love Bug and Smart House too many times as a child. As a sci-fi junkie, occasional conspiracy theorist, and an alien-suspicious indulgent, I wouldn’t necessarily brand myself a cynic. 

I not only recognize this as uncanny and contradictory toward my profession, but I embrace it. I am sympathetic to those who approach life with an old-school frame of mind. I understand how “things aren’t made like they used to be” is often true (I am looking at you Doc Martens, iPhones, and general kitchen appliances).

The movement of digital and intelligent security is not something to be reluctant or afraid of. Not all things should be made as they used to, remember children didn’t always have car seats and you used to could smoke on airplanes. Below are common hesitations I have heard over the years and my response, as a fellow skeptic.

 1: Trusting Digital Decision Making Leaves Room For Error

As people, we commit errors daily. You miscalculate your foot placement and manage to stub your toe on the same corner of your bed, each morning, even though your bed hasn’t moved in the last five years. If we can’t trust ourselves to remember where our own bed begins and ends, how do we trust our own cyber security habits to be sufficient? I’ve witnessed people who have worked in the security industry for more than twenty years click on phishing emails, give their passwords away on camera, and I know myself and others who are constantly resetting passwords due to poor memory. While forgetting a password seems minor, you’re bound to get lazy and create a weak password the 42nd time you reset your LinkedIn account. 

IBM conducted a study into cyber breaches that occurred among thousands of their customers in over 130 countries. This study was the most wide-reaching look into the causes of the cyber violations that had been performed at that point, but similar studies have since corroborated its results. ‘Human error was a major contributing cause in 95% of all breaches.’ — IBM Cyber Security Intelligence Index Report. (The Hacker News, 2021)

2: Automating Security Removes Jobs From Our Market

A security guard is no longer needed to patrol single entrances for theft of high-end stores because a combination of access control, video cameras, and accurate anti-theft devices are deployed. Instead, one guard can be given more perimeter to monitor and be granted more time focusing on disputes among customers and employees, and preventing vandalism or misuse of store products.

Another prime example of ROI without job removal is full-body and bag scanners in airports. Scanners allow TSA to scan bags and persons for dangerous objects. These scanners prevent injury to airport security when going through luggage, avoid patting down each traveler, and enable them to improve throughput in the security check. It additionally minimizes the margin of human error by scanning compartments and materials that a TSA agent could easily miss.

In a Forbes article “Does Digital Transformation Cut Jobs?”, Jeffrey Ton tackles the concern of digital transformations across the job market: does coding a computer or machine to complete small tasks hurt our job market?

“In reality, if digital transformation is done correctly, the result is a new way of looking at your business model. In other words, it’s not about doing the same work faster; it’s about doing different work” (Ton, 2019).

Digital Transformation of security is not removing security jobs, but widening their capabilities and the depth to which we can protect employees, the general public, and ourselves. If we enable security guards, TSA officers, and campus security to streamline their time-consuming processes, we can train and educate them further to secure high-cost areas, reply quickly to emergencies, and shift security from a reactive state to a position of proactivity.

 3: I Don’t Need Modern Security

Your company is so small that you don’t need security? Your doors lock and you have an alarm code for the office? Doors can be broken, alarm systems are often outdated, and regardless of company size it at minimum stores valuable information on employees, customers, and company financials. If you are unsure of your security needs, reaching out for consultation is crucial. Don’t trust your 20-year-old alarm system to protect you. If you are a business owner or building manager, you could suffer millions of dollars in lost assets, stolen information, and liability.

References

Ton, J. (2019, May 10). Does Digital Transformation Cut Jobs? Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/05/10/does-digital-transformation-cut-jobs/?sh=7d89349f74af

Why Human Error is #1 Cyber Security Threat to Businesses in 2021. The Hacker News. (2021, February 4). Retrieved from https://thehackernews.com/2021/02/why-human-error-is-1-cyber-security.html

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Modern Security Solutions for Modern Risks

Posted on by Hannah Livergood

Today, the world possesses more risks and vulnerabilities than we may have ever previously imagined.

Tragedies like 9-11, school shootings, and internal attacks have not only changed how the general public thinks: fear of crowded spaces, higher security in airports, cameras at registers, concern over dropping your child off at school; but it has also forced the industry to truly weigh their priorities. Security, regardless of if inventory, information, or people are the target to secure, must focus on the highly specific needs each customer requires.

In a modern climate of constantly evolving threats, the security landscape must continue to change to not only match the challenges we face in modern, corporate environments but to get and stay ahead of the risk. So, what are the different forms of physical security?

“At its core, physical security is about keeping your facilities, people and assets safe from real-world threats. It includes physical deterrence, detection of intruders, and responding to those threats” (Swinhoe, 2021).

How have they changed to match unauthorized entrants, active shooters, and population control? It begins with hardware and software– but intelligently. From access control to jewelry security casing, to turnstiles and metal detectors, security protocols must become more intelligent at solving modern ‘hacks’ to keep buildings, employees, and the general public safe.

As someone who has always happened to find my place in the security field one way or another for the last six years, with no plans to leave it, I believe I have a wide range of security knowledge pertaining to the needs of those in different spaces. With an early start as an editor for a security casing company for jewelry stores and high-end retail, I remember my fascination with how many millions of dollars go into protecting inventory. As a technical writer in undergrad working for a government contractor, I couldn’t believe the countless hours, meetings, and versions everything went through to make sure our government was kept as secure as possible. And lastly, my awe when working as a digital marketing professional in both access control (software) and physical security (turnstiles, hardware) at the tender care and precise hand that building managers, security directors, engineers, and integrators alike take in order to protect the inhabitants of each building.

With this blog, I will touch on different verticals such as how to better protect those in universities, medical laboratories, ​venues, government facilities, and large corporate offices.

References

Swinhoe, D. (2021, August 4). What is physical security? How to keep your facilities and devices safe from on-site attackers. CSO Online. Retrieved January 18, 2022, from https://www.csoonline.com/article/3324614/what-is-physical-security-how-to-keep-your-facilities-and-devices-safe-from-on-site-attackers.html