Security Foundations

[MUSIC] 0:00 Welcome to the Security Literacy course. 0:04 Thanks so much for joining us. 0:06 The Internet is an incredible resource for knowledge and communication. 0:08 Many of us use it multiple times a day, whether it's for work, or 0:12 school, or interacting with family and friends. 0:16 We often use it without a second thought about how our messages are actually sent 0:19 and received. 0:22 The reality is that the technologies we use are complex, and 0:24 involve many more people and devices than just you and 0:27 the person you're emailing, or the website you're visiting. 0:30 And with this additional complexity, 0:33 comes additional risk, often to your privacy and security. 0:35 This course will equip you with the tools and 0:39 knowledge necessary to keep yourself secure online. 0:42 You'll get a crash course in some of the most common ways that your privacy and 0:44 security can be threatened. 0:48 You'll develop a personalized framework for 0:49 thinking about your online activity through the lens of security. 0:51 And you'll establish some best practice behaviors, so that your personal data and 0:55 privacy remain intact. 0:58 One of the most common threats to a person's Internet security 1:01 is when an online service has a breach or a leak of their data. 1:04 This is where the private information that they hold 1:08 has been made public without authorization. 1:11 Chances are, you have already received a notification from a popular service 1:13 informing you that they had a breach and instructing you to change your password. 1:17 A great website for such breaches is haveibeenpwned.com. 1:21 It will search any email address against known service breaches. 1:24 Let me enter my own email as a demo. 1:29 And it looks like my address was part of a breach. 1:36 As it says below, last.fm, a popular music streaming service, was hacked, and 1:39 millions of user accounts were exposed. 1:43 I would immediately change my last.fm password if I hadn't already done so. 1:45 I encourage you to go to this site, right now, and enter your email, too. 1:50 I'll wait. 1:53 If the site reports that you have an account with a breached service, 1:55 and you haven't yet changed your password, do it now. 1:58 It's very important. 2:02 Also change the password for any sites that use the same password you use for 2:03 the breached site, and 2:06 don't be discouraged if you had an account show up as pwned. 2:08 It happens to the best of us, often through no fault of our own. 2:11 This is really one of the main risks about breaches. 2:15 For example, an attacker may take the passwords from a seemingly harmless music 2:17 streaming service and try to log into banks, or to forge other identities. 2:21 This is also why sites often encourage use of strong, unique passwords. 2:26 Good passwords are one of the easiest and 2:30 most effective ways to defend against this kind of attack, and 2:32 a great way to take your first step toward a more secure online presence. 2:35 As we explore online security, 2:40 it's helpful to keep a few important concepts in mind. 2:42 Anonymity, privacy, and authenticity. 2:45 You may already be familiar with these terms, but 2:47 it's worth revisiting in the context of online activity. 2:50 Anonymity, [SOUND] the ability to exist and, especially, communicate in a manner 2:54 that does not reveal any personally identifiable information about the source. 2:59 We often think about being anonymous as a form of privacy. 3:03 While there are similarities, you can often have one without the other. 3:07 And, in reality, achieving true anonymity online is quite a difficult task, 3:10 and well outside the scope of this course. 3:15 Privacy, [SOUND] unhindered agency to express oneself selectively, 3:17 with direct control over one's own information and explicit boundaries. 3:21 This is one of the most desired properties of our online activity, and 3:26 certainly one of the most threatened. 3:29 Authenticity, [SOUND] provide, with a high level of confidence, an assurance of 3:32 the identity of an individual or message through reliable and verifiable means. 3:36 The significance of this concept may not seem as obvious as the others when 3:40 relating to online security, but it is vital. 3:44 When considering privacy online, there's often a myth 3:47 that you don't have anything to worry about if you have nothing to hide. 3:49 Edward Snowden, a well-known figure in privacy and security, 3:54 has this to say in response. 3:57 Arguing that [SOUND] you don't care about the right to privacy because you have 3:59 nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech 4:03 because you have nothing to say. 4:06 Now that you've been introduced to some core concepts relating to online security, 4:08 and even had a taste of how it could affect you directly by checking your email 4:12 against known breaches, I hope that you have an increased interest in security. 4:16 In the next video, we'll build on this foundation by diving a bit deeper 4:21 into the parts of Internet traffic exposed during common online activities. 4:25