Jeff Wilbur – Internet Society https://www.internetsociety.org We are a global charitable organization empowering people to keep the Internet a force for good: open, globally connected, secure, and trustworthy. Thu, 25 Mar 2021 14:07:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.3 https://www.internetsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/cropped-ISOC-Symbol-Ground-navy-690px-1-32x32.jpg Jeff Wilbur – Internet Society https://www.internetsociety.org 32 32 Don’t Forget Cybersecurity on Your Back-to-School List https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2020/09/dont-forget-cybersecurity-on-your-back-to-school-list/ Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:20:20 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=122200

This opinion piece was originally published in Dark Reading. School systems don’t seem like attractive targets, but they house lots of sensitive data, such as contact information, grades, health records, and more. Schools are starting to reopen around the country – some physically, some virtually, and some a hybrid of the two. As a result, the […]

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Now Is Not the Time to Put Everyone’s Security on the Line https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2020/05/now-is-not-the-time-to-put-everyones-security-on-the-line/ Fri, 01 May 2020 11:27:50 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=113731

This opinion piece was originally published in SC Magazine. With social distancing the norm, we’re spending more time on the Internet doing more important things than ever – eg, working, learning, banking, trading, shopping, seeing the doctor and having family time – as well as streaming, gaming and interacting with our connected speakers. Shouldn’t we be certain, […]

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A Backdoor Is a Backdoor Is a Backdoor https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2020/03/a-backdoor-is-a-backdoor-is-a-backdoor/ Tue, 24 Mar 2020 12:35:39 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=111853

Beware of false promises and threats to encryption security online. It’s easy to understand why United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray would ask companies to provide a means for law enforcement to access private data and communications. “We’re all for strong encryption and… we are not advocating for ‘backdoors,'” he said […]

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Online Trust Audit for 2020 Presidential Campaigns Update https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/12/online-trust-audit-for-2020-presidential-campaigns-update/ Wed, 04 Dec 2019 11:00:00 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=108277

On 7 October 2019, the Internet Society’s Online Trust Alliance (OTA) released the Online Trust Audit for 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaigns. Overall, 30% of the campaigns made the Honor Roll, and 70% had a failure, mainly related to scores for their privacy statements. As part of this process, OTA reached out to the campaigns, offering […]

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How “Fresh” is That Privacy Statement? https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/08/how-fresh-is-that-privacy-statement/ Tue, 27 Aug 2019 14:56:08 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=104251

One of the best practices we advocate and measure in our Online Trust Audit is that privacy statements should have a date stamp visible at the top of the page. This is an issue of transparency and lets readers know when the statement was last updated. Combined with another advocated best practice – access to […]

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Accessible, Clear, and Appropriate: An Open Letter to Amazon on Privacy Policies https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/07/accessible-clear-and-appropriate-an-open-letter-to-amazon-on-privacy-policies/ Wed, 17 Jul 2019 14:41:13 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=103063

With great power comes great responsibility. Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, are becoming increasingly common. But can consumers count on these marketplaces to help safeguard their privacy? On Monday, coinciding with Amazon Prime Day, the Internet Society partnered with Mozilla and other organizations to publish An Open Letter to Amazon about Privacy. We call for […]

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10 Years of Auditing Online Trust – What’s Changed? https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/04/10-years-of-auditing-online-trust-whats-changed/ Mon, 22 Apr 2019 16:36:21 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=98837

Last week we released the 10th Online Trust Audit & Honor Roll, which is a comprehensive evaluation of an organization’s consumer protection, data security, and privacy practices. If you want to learn more about this year’s results, please join us for our webinar on Wednesday, 24 April, at 1PM EDT / 5PM UTC. Today, though, […]

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Consumer Electronics Show: Everything’s Connected, But What About Security and Privacy? https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2019/01/consumer-electronics-show-everythings-connected-but-what-about-security-and-privacy/ Fri, 18 Jan 2019 17:02:49 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=93622

We spent last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (aka CES) in Las Vegas, with over 180,000 of our closest friends. And with 4,500 exhibitors present, you’d have less than 30 seconds at each booth if you wanted to talk to all of them. Many articles have covered the cool new things, so in this […]

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Inspecting Gadgets: Don’t Forget the Asterisk When Buying Smart Devices https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/11/inspecting-gadgets-dont-forget-the-asterisk-when-buying-smart-devices/ Wed, 14 Nov 2018 16:59:20 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=91115

As we approach the holiday buying season, excitement is building for all the new IoT gadgets – “smart” everything for the home, fitness/health trackers and a plethora of connected children’s toys. But this excitement should come with a giant asterisk: * Are these products safe? We’ve all seen the horror stories – hacked baby monitors, […]

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National Cybersecurity Awareness Month = International IoT Security and Privacy Month https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/10/national-cybersecurity-awareness-month-international-iot-security-and-privacy-month/ Thu, 04 Oct 2018 18:47:37 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=88211

October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and as part of our work with the Online Trust Alliance and our Internet of Things (IoT) campaign, we think October also deserves another label… International IoT Security and Privacy Month. There are a number of significant activities and developments related to security and privacy. Here are a few […]

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Nest Alert: Protection From Pwned* Passwords https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/05/nest-alert-protection-from-pwned-passwords/ Thu, 10 May 2018 14:11:40 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=79219

A colleague just received an “Urgent Security Alert – Action Requested” email from Nest. At first glance it looked like either a phishing attempt or one of the way-too-often breach notifications we all receive these days. Instead, it was a real alert notifying him that the password he uses for his Nest account had been […]

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Space Invaders – Consumer Grade IoT in the Enterprise https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/04/space-invaders-consumer-grade-iot-enterprise/ Tue, 17 Apr 2018 14:27:29 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=77923

I used to love the old Space Invaders arcade game – waves of enemy attackers came in faster and faster while you tried to defend your base. With experience you could learn their tactics and get pretty adept at stopping them. For today’s enterprise IT staff, consumer-grade IoT devices must certainly feel like those space […]

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The Cyber Incident Tsunami – Time to Get Ready https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2018/01/cyber-incident-tsunami-time-get-ready/ Thu, 25 Jan 2018 15:13:46 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=72280

In advance of Data Privacy & Protection Day, the Online Trust Alliance, an Internet Society initiative, just released the Cyber Incident & Breach Trends Report (press release here), a look back at the cyber incident trends in 2017 and what can be done to address them. This report marks the tenth year OTA has provided […]

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2017 Online Trust Audit Released – What Did We Learn? https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2017/06/2017-online-trust-audit-released-what-did-we-learn/ Tue, 20 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.internetsociety.org/uncategorized/2017/06/2017-online-trust-audit-released-what-did-we-learn/

Today the OTA released the 9th annual Online Trust Audit and Honor Roll. This year’s Audit is our most comprehensive ever, assessing more than 1000 consumer-facing sites for their adoption of best practices in consumer/brand protection, site security and responsible privacy practices. Each year the audit raises the bar, using criteria that reflect the latest regulatory environment, attack […]

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Don’t Be a Tool – Verifying Subscriptions and Honoring Unsubscribes https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2016/11/dont-be-a-tool-verifying-subscriptions-and-honoring-unsubscribes/ Mon, 07 Nov 2016 20:10:25 +0000 https://www.internetsociety.org/?p=100009 Author: Jeff Wilbur This summer the email marketing industry suffered a setback due to “list bomb” attacks in which thousands of targeted users were unknowingly subscribed to tens of thousands of mailings. In these attacks, ESP infrastructure and highly-reputed brands were used as a means to effectively create a “denial of service” against user inboxes, […]

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