A Brief Discussion About Internet Safety and Your Computer's Security

With all the Internet threats surfacing in the world today, such as the latest iCloud accounts of a few certain celebrities being compromised, I decided to take my accounts' security to a new, more-secure level by using two-step verification on Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Apple, PayPal, and Google.

What does two-step verification do? If someone is attempting to access your account, they'll need a code either sent via SMS (text message) or e-mail. I highly suggest that everyone upgrade their accounts' security to two-step verification. The process is very simple and can be done quickly. Seriously, consider it.

Here is a list of the services that do and do not provide two-step verification: http://twofactorauth.org/

Data Encryption

If you have a Mac, I more than highly suggest enabling hard drive encryption. Without it, in the case of losing or having your Mac stolen, someone could easily by-pass your password and instantly gain access to all of the personal information that you've saved on your Mac. With hard drive encryption, by-passing the password is impossible. How to encrypt your Mac's hard drive is detailed at the end of this post.

But what about Windows? Well, rest assured, you can encrypt your hard drive as well. Although not as simple as hard drive encryption on a Mac, the procedure is fairly simple enough that anyone can do it. Details on how to encrypt your PC's hard drive are featured at the end of this post.

How about back-up drives? Yup, you can encrypt those as well. Instructions to do so can be found at the end of this post.

You can also opt to have your iOS device's back-ups encrypted when your sync your device to a Mac or PC. Simply check the box that says "Encrypt iPhone backup (or iPod or iPad, whichever your device is) under the Backups section within the iPhone panel in iTunes.

If your accounts or devices are compromised, there is really no one to blame but yourself. That is, of course, unless there is a proven flaw in the security of the service you're using.

I'm probably going beyond what I need to in order to make sure my devices, accounts, and personal
information stay secure but, in today's world, it's better to be overly safe than not safe enough.

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How to Encrypt a Macintosh hard drive:

1. Open System Preferences by selecting it in the Dock, or searching for it by selecting Spotlight (the magnifying glass in the upper right corner).

2. Click on Security & Privacy.

3. Click on the FileVault tab.

4. Click the lock in the bottom left corner of Systems Preferences and enter your password. This will unlock all of System Preferences so that you can enable features Apple believes should be password-protected.

5. Click "Turn on FileVault."

6. If there are multiple users on the Mac, System Preferences will ask you which users you wish to grant access to. Meaning, the users you select are the ONLY users that can log into the Mac upon start-up. After a user who has been granted access to the encrypted hard drive has logged on, all users then can log into their accounts on the computer. Click "Enable User" for all that apply.

7. System Preferences will then display your recovery key. It is important that you write this down and keep in a safe place.

8. After writing down your recovery key and continuing on, you'll then be asked if you wish to store your recovery key with Apple or not.

9. If you chose to store your key with Apple, you'll then be required to provide three questions and answers of your choosing. In case you lose your copy of your recovery key, you can contact Apple to retrieve it. However, your answers to the questions MUST match up with the ones Apple has on-file. So, choose easy-to-remember but difficult-to-guess answers.

10. After continuing, you'll be prompted to restart your Mac. The encryption process can not begin until you have done so.

*With an encrypted hard drive, you'll need to log in to your account as soon as your Mac boots up. Your Mac will NOT boot up and display the login window afterwards like it normally does. It will require you to log in first before it can boot up.

SOURCE: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4790

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How to encrypt a PC hard drive:

There are two methods to encrypting a Windows computer's hard drive. If your computer is running Windows Vista or 7's Enterprise or Ultimate version, or Windows 8 Enterprise or Pro version, you can use a built-in application called BitLocker. However, if your PC is not running any of the mentioned versions of Windows, you can use a third-party application called DiskCryptor.

First, I'll cover encrypting your hard drive using BitLocker:

1. Open Control Panel. To do so with Windows Vista or Windows 7, click the Start Menu in the bottom left corner and click "Control Panel." On Windows 8, click the Start Menu icon in the lower left corner. Click on the magnifying glass in the top right corner and type "control panel."

2. Depending on how Control Panel's view is set, you'll either need to click System and Security or, if your Control Panel is displaying many items, you'll need to find BitLocker Drive Encryption within the list.

3. Click "Turn on BitLocker."

If you're not running Windows Vista or 7's Enterprise or Ultimate version, or Windows 8 Enterprise or Pro version, you can use DiskCryptor. Here's how:

1. Download DiskCryptor by clicking "installer" here: https://diskcryptor.net/wiki/Downloads.

2. The company suggests that you create a LiveCD in case you run into booting problems later on. Instructions to do so are found here: https://diskcryptor.net/wiki/LiveCD.

3. After clicking "install" as mentioned in step 1, select "Run" when prompted as to what you wish to do with the download.

4. After the download completes, DiskCryptor will open.

5. Select the C:\ drive.

6. Click "Encrypt."

7. Follow the prompts to setup the encryption.

8. After the encryption has completed, back-up the volume header information to a USB drive. To do so, navigate to Tools at the top of the window and click BackUp Header.

*Using DiskCryptor means you will need to enter a password before your computer can boot. Create a hard-to-guess but easy-to-remember password. After entering the password, your computer will boot up normally and you will have to log in to your account as you normally would.

SOURCE1: http://www.pcworld.com/article/242617/how_to_use_bitlocker_to_encrypt_your_hard_drive.html

SOURCE2: http://www.pcworld.com/article/242614/how_to_use_diskcryptor_to_encrypt_your_hard_drive.html

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Encrypting Back-Up Drives:

Mac:

1. Plug your back-up drive to the computer via USB if it is not accessible via AirPort.
2. Open System Preferences by selecting it in the Dock, or searching for it by selecting Spotlight (the magnifying glass in the upper right corner).
3. Click Tme Machine.
4. Click "Select Disk."
5. Choose your back-up drive.
6. Check mark the box that says "Encrypt backups."
7. Click "Use disk."
8. Set a password to access the drive.

SOURCE: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14110

Windows:

The process for encrypting a back-up drive is very similar to that of encrypting your main hard drive. The difference is, you'll need to plug the back-up drive in before you can encrypt it.
For instructions on how to encrypt your back-up drive using a BitLocker-compatible version of Windows, click here.
If you're using DiskCryptor, the process is very similar to encrypting your hard drive. However, instead of selecting the C:\ drive, you'll need to select whatever drive your back-up comes up as. Make sure it's the right drive!