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- Aug 13, 2015
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Something that has come to mind in light of the recent Ashley Madison cheaters site breach is the idea of our security, and more specifically, our electronic security and how it relates to our behavior on here & other forums.
Now i'm no tech head, and to be honest, except for a few Hobby sites, e-mails and private communications, i tend to avoid technology like the plague (Minelab tech. excepted from the rule LOL). I wrote elsewhere recently of my old Nokia 1800 phone which is limited to calls & sms. It is so limited as there is no i/net connection, no Picture texts, NO Camera etc... and most of this is due to my desire of privacy in a modern world.
This has been a feature of my life for over 15 yrs, and as such has continued to broaden the more i continue to hear of either breaches of networks or regulation allowing others access to my information & details. It's not that i do wrong, i just feel the only ones who should have this information are the ones "I" choose, not as a matter of default.
The reason behind this post is... I now wonder about those among us who are unaware of the ability of those much more clever than I to obtain details & information about us as we blindly post our thoughts, equipment or pics of finds herein & elsewhere via phone or camera pics when posting.
For example, i hope, but i'm certain there won't be some, that we do have "secure" methods we use for the storage of our precious or valuable items/finds. Think for a moment about our phones and cameras (digital at least) that are embedded with "smart chips" that track or reveal "meta data" allowing the "smarties" to identify where the photo's were taken or our location whilst on our "secret patch".
Security has become a bugbear for me since i had a quantity of gold & cash stolen from me some years ago (second phase of enlightenment in my case), and as such, i no longer continue to have trust in any electronic depositories for example. When cash appears in my bank account, i now withdraw it in hard currency and deposit it to a secure facility (banks don't pay interest these days anyway). Same with my gold and other precious/valuable items of interest/collection, they are all offsite in as secure a situation as i could provide. NO I/net Banking, NO Phone Banking, and any I/net purchases are done with a pre-loaded "Debit" Mastercard, wherein i only "load" the required funds and those alone at any time. In short, i try as best i can to leave nothing for the advantage to others.
Many banks these days are ill equipped to supply folks with "safety deposit boxes" and in fact in a large inland Victorian city i was once a resident of (pop. ~ 90,000) there was only 1x bank branch in the whole city that had safety deposit boxes available to rent, and they were a limited number. Security satchels are available but not designed for irregular or "hard" composition items, mostly just for documents, these are NOT suitable for "valuables".
I hope that ALL you whom have items of significant value take great pains to keep safe that which you have worked hard for, for as we have seen much too much of lately, your info. such as physical location, computer IP address's (therefore your HOME) etc can be got much easier than we are made aware of when incorporating this technology into our lives (despite site assurances to the contrary). I'm sure in a lot of instances, you may very well be at risk to those who might have an illicit or illegal mindset to make an easy score...
Please be careful in protecting you and yours when you set out to share your good fortune with "friends" via the i/net, as we never really know who is looking, and what they may do with that information, whether personally or via 3rd parties.
Consider this a Public Announcement and discuss as you see fit. I do understand a lot of the above "goes without saying" (and funnily enough it does go "without anyone saying"), but it does surprise me the level even I as an uninterested observer can obtain about many of you here when you post. If this makes just ONE of you take time to ponder what i am saying, and take the time to REALLY secure yourself, then this long rambling will be worth saving you the heartache i had to endure those many years ago.
I'm not suggesting you do as i have done but if it works for you too then go ahead,however for some/many this will not be convenient. Unfortunately for me, "convenience" IS what caused my experience to happen in the past and now that is NO longer possible. I hope you can find a way to be both secure & have peace of mind that suits your individual position..... but be aware that sometimes....the enemy is within (which it was in my case).
Cheers
Gypsy
Now i'm no tech head, and to be honest, except for a few Hobby sites, e-mails and private communications, i tend to avoid technology like the plague (Minelab tech. excepted from the rule LOL). I wrote elsewhere recently of my old Nokia 1800 phone which is limited to calls & sms. It is so limited as there is no i/net connection, no Picture texts, NO Camera etc... and most of this is due to my desire of privacy in a modern world.
This has been a feature of my life for over 15 yrs, and as such has continued to broaden the more i continue to hear of either breaches of networks or regulation allowing others access to my information & details. It's not that i do wrong, i just feel the only ones who should have this information are the ones "I" choose, not as a matter of default.
The reason behind this post is... I now wonder about those among us who are unaware of the ability of those much more clever than I to obtain details & information about us as we blindly post our thoughts, equipment or pics of finds herein & elsewhere via phone or camera pics when posting.
For example, i hope, but i'm certain there won't be some, that we do have "secure" methods we use for the storage of our precious or valuable items/finds. Think for a moment about our phones and cameras (digital at least) that are embedded with "smart chips" that track or reveal "meta data" allowing the "smarties" to identify where the photo's were taken or our location whilst on our "secret patch".
Security has become a bugbear for me since i had a quantity of gold & cash stolen from me some years ago (second phase of enlightenment in my case), and as such, i no longer continue to have trust in any electronic depositories for example. When cash appears in my bank account, i now withdraw it in hard currency and deposit it to a secure facility (banks don't pay interest these days anyway). Same with my gold and other precious/valuable items of interest/collection, they are all offsite in as secure a situation as i could provide. NO I/net Banking, NO Phone Banking, and any I/net purchases are done with a pre-loaded "Debit" Mastercard, wherein i only "load" the required funds and those alone at any time. In short, i try as best i can to leave nothing for the advantage to others.
Many banks these days are ill equipped to supply folks with "safety deposit boxes" and in fact in a large inland Victorian city i was once a resident of (pop. ~ 90,000) there was only 1x bank branch in the whole city that had safety deposit boxes available to rent, and they were a limited number. Security satchels are available but not designed for irregular or "hard" composition items, mostly just for documents, these are NOT suitable for "valuables".
I hope that ALL you whom have items of significant value take great pains to keep safe that which you have worked hard for, for as we have seen much too much of lately, your info. such as physical location, computer IP address's (therefore your HOME) etc can be got much easier than we are made aware of when incorporating this technology into our lives (despite site assurances to the contrary). I'm sure in a lot of instances, you may very well be at risk to those who might have an illicit or illegal mindset to make an easy score...
Please be careful in protecting you and yours when you set out to share your good fortune with "friends" via the i/net, as we never really know who is looking, and what they may do with that information, whether personally or via 3rd parties.
Consider this a Public Announcement and discuss as you see fit. I do understand a lot of the above "goes without saying" (and funnily enough it does go "without anyone saying"), but it does surprise me the level even I as an uninterested observer can obtain about many of you here when you post. If this makes just ONE of you take time to ponder what i am saying, and take the time to REALLY secure yourself, then this long rambling will be worth saving you the heartache i had to endure those many years ago.
I'm not suggesting you do as i have done but if it works for you too then go ahead,however for some/many this will not be convenient. Unfortunately for me, "convenience" IS what caused my experience to happen in the past and now that is NO longer possible. I hope you can find a way to be both secure & have peace of mind that suits your individual position..... but be aware that sometimes....the enemy is within (which it was in my case).
Cheers
Gypsy
