KeriBlog

Cars, Security & a Peek into my Life

Mass Publishing for an Audience of One

Sometimes if what I write doesn’t make sense, it was never supposed to, to you. I delete Tweets, posts.

Nooo, this is a regularily scheduled face-post for the Security section

That blog category is filled with drier photos, and I just needed a line of text to separate the two above.

Jokes aside, I used to hide messages in photos using text, but Google can read that now; symbols and gestures too.

A friendly reminder to edit your photos before uploading;
online editors are probably saving a copy of the original

How to do that here.

 

Delete your Phone from the Rental Car

Otherwise, the next renter sees something like above.

When you pair your phone to a car, your contacts are stored

Contacts plus I don’t know what else.  I tried to write a column about it during the winter, but couldn’t find barely any documentation about what information is saved… lots on how to connect a phone, almost none about what’s there, and how to clear it.

It was weird actually, like I’d found a hole in the internet.

Those are all my phone names, in order:

– BlackBerry
– iPhone (security through obscurity)
– Samsung Galaxy SIII

It’s a 2013 Dodge Dart, click here for my review.

 

Securing Your Car in the City

Defend against 2 types of attacks when parking your car in an urban environment.

(Last line reads: because unless the car is stolen out of your driveway, the thief now knows where you live and where you’re not. 

Favourite line:

Securing your car isn’t so much about making it theft-proof (that’s impossible); it’s more about making it invisible and undesirable.

Above – where this week’s column came from.

24 Hours readers – you’ve met me through cars, but as a hobby around here, I blog about security, mostly online.

***

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

Don’t Name your Phone your Name

At the airport, scanning Bluetooth signals in a passenger waiting area.

The results:

Purple * – See the person’s name clearly displayed? The type of device/computer they’re using?
Green * -And that long number? That’s a MAC address

MAC address – a device’s unique number, a digital signature. Every device has one. Not related to Apple/Mac computers.

These people are unnecessarily broadcasting a lot of personal information.

If someone shouted, “Hi Rahul!”,

a gentleman within a 30-feet radius would react.

Someone with bad intentions could do a lot with that.

Practice ‘Security through Obscurity‘, and name your phone something boring.

The name of my phone is —

And always remember, one of the most dangerous places to go online is using airport WiFi.

Even the best guys in the world don’t.

SOLUTION – tether your laptop to your phone using a USB cable