Podcast Episode Details

New Firefox Privacy Protections, Apple iOS Zero-Days, Facebook User Phone Numbers Exposed

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You’re listening to the Shared Security Podcast, exploring the trust you put in people, apps, and technology…with your host, Tom Eston. In episode 85 for September 9th 2019: Firefox will now block all third-party tracking cookies and more by default, serious vulnerabilities found in Apple iOS, and the latest on the huge database of Facebook users’ phone numbers found online.

Did you know that all electronic devices emit a form of electromagnetic radiation? Well recently we’re starting to see more scientific research come out about the potential health effects of using our mobile devices and other wireless electronics so close to our body. In fact, just recently a class action lawsuit was filed against Apple and Samsung for exceeding the radiation limit on the smartphones that they sell. And while this research is debatable in some circles, more and more experts are recommending keeping our smartphones away from our bodies. If this is something that concerns you one product that can help is a Silent Pocket faraday bag which can block all wireless signals emitting from a device. Visit silentpocket.com to check out their great line of faraday bags and other products to protect your digital privacy. Don’t forget, as a listener of this podcast you receive 15% off your order at checkout using discount code “sharedsecurity”.

Hi everyone, welcome to the Shared Security Weekly Blaze where we update you on the top 3 cybersecurity and privacy topics from the week. These podcasts are published every Monday and are 15 minutes or less quickly giving you “news that you can use”.

It should be no surprise that I’m a huge fan of Firefox. In my opinion it’s probably the best web browser out there that is truly focused on your privacy. And with the latest release of Firefox, version 69, Mozilla has made a change to its enhanced tracking protection feature by enabling this for all users by default. Enhanced Tracking Protection is a privacy control which blocks all third-party tracking cookies and more. Back in June Firefox enabled this feature only for new users but over the last few months of testing and improvements they are finally ready to enable this setting for everyone which is a huge benefit from a privacy perspective. Enhanced Tracking Protection works behind-the-scenes to keep websites from developing a profile of you based on how they are tracking your web browser behavior across different websites. These profiles are then collected and even sold to third-party marketing companies without your consent. In addition, Firefox is also now blocking cryptominers by default too. Cryptominers access your computer’s CPU slowing it down and draining your battery to generate cryptocurrency for someone else to profit from. Oh and if that wasn’t enough, Fingerprinting scripts are being blocked too but not by default. These scripts attempt to harvest information about your computers configuration when you visit a website. If you want to take advantage of blocking these types of scripts you’ll need to enable “Strict Mode” within your Firefox privacy settings. Eventually, Firefox plans on turning this blocking on by default in the near future.

Now I’ve also been recommending the EFF’s Privacy Badger as a great add-on for Firefox too. So it will be interesting to see how Privacy Badger compares to Enhanced Tracking Protection built in now by default into Firefox. Perhaps, we’ll do a comparison for you in a future episode of the podcast but in the meantime, if you are using Firefox make sure you update to the latest version to take advantage of these great new privacy protections.

The big news being discussed in the cybersecurity community recently was the big reveal Published on 6 years, 3 months ago