Activists around the world will need to keep up with the times as the digital landscape of data packet driven cyber security grows wider and wider with many ways to get incriminated once enough digital evidence has been gathered from the opposition.
“It’s completely new territory, and there aren’t a lot of professionals in this area. So the first thing is, people do have an idea what the digital risk and threats are, but they actually don’t understand what’s in the wild — like what’s an actual capability or method of law enforcement or de Blasio or anything like that.” says the founder of CryptoHarlem Matt Mitchell.
“it’s really just guessing, which is not good. So you want what people say is “an evidence-based approach.” You want to defend against what’s probably likely out there based on past research.” Mr. Mitchell stated as most activists believe that just using a VPN and getting a Signal would work with controlling the data about them.
Firms and companies often have what’s called a red carpet rolled out for them in terms of data collection where buying and selling data and information from certain companies is actually considered legal in some states like California.
“You can say, ‘Oh, I put it in a Faraday bag, wrapped it in foil, put it in an Airplane Mode, and I move forward to get to Starbucks.’ but then you passed all kinds of cameras, whether they’re attached to an ATM or whether they were attached to a police box that’s just surveilling that corner or that street or that block and you pass through it. These are pieces of data that you don’t control.” the cybersecurity expert explains as many would believe removing traces of a digital footprint is as easy as hiding away the phone while meeting to discuss the protest or rally.
“There’s the information you do control. That’s the words you say, the words you type. You control that. And where you put them and how you manage them, you can control that So it’s about that more holistic viewpoint, not just the basics that we talk about when you’re reading a quick article or things like that — because activism, it’s different from living in this crazy world we all live in.”
Matt Mitchell offers training and seminars to those who wish to learn more about cyber security at the higher levels to protect your data and information on the internet.
