TELUS Spends More on Security Than Anyone

So interesting to me. So when I’m invited to blog events, when I’m supposed to be focusing on whatever, instead I gravitate to this fact, “sooo, what are you spending it on?  Here’s where I think the biggest security holes are, what do you think?”, like that.

Which is how I ended up in a phone meeting with Dave Weiss, VP Solutions Development and Marketing at TELUS.

The timing of the meeting was great, because the night before I was at their flagship store launch party.

I like the store, because it’s all white (you’ve seen my home).

It was at the party, that I heard about, “Smart Set Up“.

Smart Set Up – basically, they’ll help you get your phone up and working, before you leave the store. Email installed, voicemail, Twitter accounts setup, whatever it is you need, and all with security in mind.

They’ll help you create strong passwords, remind you to change them regularily, and to be aware of the value of the information now in your pocket (BYODish).

(I’ll throw in my 2 cents here: don’t click on stupid stuff)

This is a good email password: [j~w=A{v(%9cs8_t<3hif

I’d way rather have my credit card compromised,
than my email. Wouldn’t you?

On their end, the one you don’t see, they’re taking sercurity seriously.

You want them to do this, so you never have to. Things like securing data centres and networks, both virtually and physically.

That’s why you’ll never find me on a tiny provider; the smaller companies don’t have the money, and security is almost always the first thing to get cut at budget slashing time.

I talk a lot with my hands, a lot

Think I was demonstrating locking down a data centre here, to the people on the phone :|

View from the meeting.

 

Don’t Want it Public? Don’t Post It

Above is me deleting a photo from my Picasa Google + photo account. See the asterisk?

“It may take 24 hours for this photo to be deleted”

And that’s Google; they have more servers than anyone. A smaller site might take longer. Plus, 24 hours in internet time is forEVER.

During that time, the photo could be crawled by bots, screen-capped, something like this could happen:

Years ago, my ‘Following on Twitter’ list backed up to my Blackberry, photos included. 

What if your profile pic is online for that brief moment, where someone somewhere, backs up?

Maybe you’re thinking: a 2 KB photo is too small to matter.

It is small, but it’s enough.

If you’re on Twitter in Toronto (and beyond), I bet you could identify everyone above, with that 2 KB.

How to Change Your Router Password

It’s not that I don’t trust the guy setting it up, but, why rely on someone else for my own security?

Things you’ll need.

  • 1 – access to your router
  • 2 – a CAT 5 cable, connecting your router, into your computer
  • 3 – a flashlight
  • 4 – a pin to push the ‘reset’ button on the router
  • 5 – a password manager

Okay here we go!

Reset your router.  Push the tiny reset button on the back using your pin, hold for 30 seconds.  I also unplug/plug it back in, for good measure.  This will clear all your settings… your WiFi name and password, everything.  It’s like we have a brand new router now.

Use your cable to connect computer to router. Plug into ‘Port 1’ on your router.

Open a new browser window, we’re going to log into your router.  Use this chart for what IP address, to type into the address bar of your browser:

Don’t see yours above? Use this site to look it up.

Log into your router. Type the IP address into the address/URL bar of your browser, then log in using the username and password.

Here we are inside my router.

First change the name of your router, and the password.

Now we’re going to secure your WiFi.  Find your ‘wireless security’ tab, look for the SSID.

SSID = name of your WiFi

  • 1 – Name your WiFi network
  • 2 – don’t click that, we’re going to keep your WiFi network hidden (security through obscurity)
  • 3 – change the channel to anything other than the default.  Your internet will be faster. I’ll explain why in video sometime, for now just do it.

For example, here’s my settings:

  • Router Name – $r}W68@2%J
  • Router Password – 8fXM(e;?sbU67R#Za$hk
  • WiFi Username – $8LP^y:6[e4r
  • WiFi Password – iq7B:f<o3e4xa[%GuP,g

Make sure your password includes numbers, letters and symbols, and is at least 15 characters long.  15 is the magic number, again I’ll explain why in video.

Copy the changes into your password manager. Save all your changes.  Unhook the cables, you’re done, good work.

Do this regularly.  I change mine 1/month.