Shaheen N Abdul Jabbar

Posts Tagged ‘Canada’

A recent survey by the Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll on the internet traffic management in Canada suggests one in five surveyed supports the idea as long as all users are treated fairly.

From the Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) point of view, they are doing the right thing by reducing clogs during peak-use-time due to peer-to-peer file sharing services. However, I believe that type of service comes with a cost to regular subscribers. In order to execute such monitoring service, ISP will need to know activities of each and every subscriber which breaching their privacy. The Privacy Commissioner of Canada should be involved in the discussions that Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) are currently having ensuring the privacy of Canadians.

With regards to the Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey, I am curious if the survey ever educated the respondents with the details especially about the ramifications to the regular ISP subscriber if the ISP is allowed to shape internet traffic. According to the report by the Canadian Press, 54 per cent of the respondents did not know whether the traffic management affects them personally.

Couple this with two recent bills – the Investigative Powers for the 21st Century Act and the Technical Assistance for Law Enforcement in the 21st Century Act – just introduced before the House of Commons that will allow police to collect information about Canadian Internet users without a warrant and to activate tracking devices in their mobile devices and cars; wouldn’t it be a free pass to the privacy of every Canadian internet user?

The Canadian Copyright bill was passed yesterday, a bill that demands a little adjustment to our day to day life. Till now, no one cared who is using our internet connection or what are the files being downloaded or uploaded using it. No one cared of your unscrambled satellite videos from across the border. However that’s all changing even though you may not want it that way. I guess no one can withstand the pressure of the “big guys” for too long.

According to the law, for each piece of copyrighted material that you bring to your property illegally, you are paying a minimum of $500; which may go up to a maximum of $20,000 depending on what you do with it after you acquire it in your property. Definition of property includes, but not limited to, computers, video cassettes, USB sticks, and cable and satellite receivers.

Discussions are all over the media regarding the law; however our teenagers may not pay much attention to it. It’s very important that they know what they are doing from the basement with the internet you have. If they download an illegal copy of a music file, you as the owner of the internet may be liable to pay a minimum fine of $500. If they end up sharing that same file with others, you might end up paying $20,000.

How are they (the law enforcement) going to know about it? Every internet connection comes with an IP address assigned by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). It’s just the question of how long law enforcement would take to find out the the user of the IP address from the ISP.

So what if I use someone else’s open internet connection? It may affect both the owner of the connection as well as the person who used the connection. The person who used the connection can be found using the MAC address of the machine that used the connection.

It doesn’t take long for you to receive an “internet ticket” for illegal use of the internet or sharing it!

Very frequently, we hear news of stolen laptops that contains sensitive information which could potentially be anything from Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to corporate intellectual information.  The latest being the news in Canada that a consultant for the Provincial Public Health Laboratory lost a laptop that includes names, Medical Care Plan numbers, age, sex, physician and test results for infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis.

So how do we protect ourselves? Well, there is no hard and fast solution. However, we can be proactive.

First and the foremost, we need to be aware of the information that we carry along with us. If there is any information that is potentially sensitive, then it needs to be encrypted. There are various solutions in the market. Vendors such as RSA Security, Entrust, Pointsec and PGP are some of the major players in this arena.

Some solutions do not force the user to encrypt a data and is at the discretion of the laptop user. However others force you to do so. The latter ones are better if you know most of the information you carry are not for the public.

In any case, it would be good, if you do not advertise to the world that you are carrying a laptop. Remember those executive bags that we carry around, that tell the whole world that you have a laptop. Moreover, carry a laptop lock wherever you go. Some prefer the keyed ones, others the number locks. Either is fine as long as it prevents your laptop to be snatched away.

When you travel on business, try not to advertise the world that you belong to well known corporations. Remember those in-flight conversations that you have with your colleagues? That would help someone to follow you after the flight!