Death in the Internet age: How to prepare for a digital afterlife

Death is a haunting thought no matter what. But for those of us living blissfully in the Internet age of social networks and email accounts, mortality becomes even more terrifying when we tack on the fate of our digital existence.

Without the proper amount preparedness and clear-headed foresight, a digital life left forsaken might cause a lot of ... inconvenience.

Not only are there risks of fraud and identity theft with an unkempt digital afterlife, but there's also the possibility of exposing our darkest, digital secrets to unsuspecting (or overly curious) loved ones.

OK, maybe we don't all have secrets lurking in our various inboxes. But anyone hoping to maintain some degree of privacy after death needs to take action before the reaper comes knocking.

Google, Facebook, Twitter and other sites have various policies in place to deal with deceased users, so being aware of some of the options will help you maintain control over your information -- even from the grave.

Google: The company behind Gmail, YouTube and Google Plus has created a feature called "Inactive Account Manager," which allows users to decide the fate of their accounts once they are deceased or if the account becomes inactive for a long period of time.

The feature lets users choose to have their data deleted after three, six or 12 months of inactivity. It also gives the option of allowing a designated person to receive the data after a set period of time.

Before deleting data, Google will send a warning to a secondary email address or a phone number if one was provided. In instances of death, the warning can also be sent to a loved one.

Facebook: The social networking giant puts a lot of emphasis on user privacy, and this carries on even after a user dies. Facebook gives users the option to select a "legacy contact" to look after accounts, postmortem.

However, a loved one must request that an account be "memorialized" in the event of a death in order for the legacy contact option to take effect. Even then, no one will be able to log in or modify any settings, such as adding or removing friends or deleting content. Existing privacy settings will also carry over and cannot be changed.

The legacy contact can only write a pinned post, respond to friend requests and update the profile photo through a specific "manage" function. In addition, Facebook won't show a memorialized account in its "People You May Know" section nor will it send birthday reminders.

Twitter: The microblogging site expressly states that it will not provide account access to anyone regardless of his or her relationship to the deceased.

However, Twitter will deactivate an account if contacted by a family member or a person authorized to act on behalf of an estate. To do so, the person must present Twitter with a death certificate as well as a "brief description of the details that evidence this account belongs to the deceased," per company policy.

After 30 days, a deactivated Twitter account is permanently deleted. In some instances, Twitter says it may also remove images of deceased individuals that continue to circulate on the site.

Additional legal options: If account safeguards are not in place at the time of death, the issue of account access and data ownership turns into a legal matter -- and that can become really convoluted.

According to Hillery Nye, general counsel and chief privacy officer for location-based app maker Glympse, the best case scenario is when someone signs power of attorney (POA) over to a family member or estate executor and states specifically that the POA includes access to digital properties.

"This will allow them to take over or shut down those accounts, as they see fit, and prevent them from being misused," Nye said. "Without a power of attorney, your heirs will likely have to get a court order to gain this type of authority."

Nye noted if POA is not specifically applied to digital properties, then the trustee of an estate could potentially gain control over those accounts.

"In most cases, that's probably not what you want," Nye said.

So what happens if there is no estate plan or living will? The second best option is to choose a trusted friend or family member and supply them with access information to your various accounts and details on what to do with them.

"We keep telling people to protect their passwords, but in this situation you want to have one person in charge of your digital afterlife," said Ruth Carter, a social media attorney based in Phoenix. "You want to make sure someone has access to your passwords and can determine who gets the rights to your photos and other content you created."

For those who make absolutely no preparations for their digital afterlife, the fate of their assets could some day be decided by law. Increasingly, state legislators in the U.S. have been trying to enact policy to address the issue of digital account access after death.

The Uniform Law Commission (ULC), whose members are appointed by state governments to help standardize state laws, has been at the forefront of this issue.

For instance, last year the group endorsed a plan that would give loved ones access to -- although not control of -- the deceased's digital accounts, unless otherwise specified through a will.

But the proposal faced strong resistance from Internet service providers who cited concerns based on privacy, federal law and conflicts with terms of service agreements. After the push-back, the ULC revised its proposal, allowing Internet service providers to retain authority to determine how the digital assets are provided.

Yet as of now, only seven states have any type of legislation that deals with digital assets of the deceased. For privacy fans, that's a scary thought.

Hacking Team returns with encryption cracking tool pitch to customers

As law enforcement grumbles over the uptake in encryption services offered by technology firms, Hacking Team is keen to get on in the game and restore its client list through a new set of encryption-breaking tools.
Over the past year, police agencies worldwide, the US FBI complaining the loudest, have been battling the wave of encryption use which has steadily increased in popularity since the disclosure of government surveillance projects made by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Companies including Apple and Google are taking the personal security and privacy more seriously in the post-Snowden era. Google's latest mobile OS, Android L, will offer encryption by default, mirroring and keeping up with Apple's iOS 8 operating system. In retaliation to these movements, the FBI is complaining that encryption will cause terrorist and criminal cases to " go dark," hampering efforts to prevent criminal incidents.

This is where Hacking Team comes in. The secretive Milan-based firm provides surveillance tools and spyware to government agencies and law enforcement across the globe. Before this year, the firm's operations and customers were shrouded in mystery, however, everything changed when a hacker known only as Phineas Fisher infiltrated Hacking Team's corporate networks in February and made off with over 400GB of data destined to be dumped online.

The data leak contained emails, exploits and customer lists, leading to a mad scramble by security teams to patch software exploits sold by the company. Hacking Team was also forced to take its Remote Control System (RCS), used to run the spyware, offline as the suite's source code was released.

It is believed that a new version of the suite is on the horizon and some customers are now back online.

Hacking Team isn't finished in the world of surveillance and hacking, however. The Italian firm hopes to capitalize on the rise of encryption by offering tools to take law enforcement out of the dark -- whether technology providers like it or not.

In an email sent to a mailing list of current and potential customers sent on October 19 by Hacking Team CEO David Vincenzetti, Motherboard reports that encryption-breaking software is on the horizon. Within the message, Vincenzetti said:

"Most [law enforcement agencies] in the US and abroad will become 'blind,' they will 'go dark:' they will be simply be [sic] unable to fight vicious phenomena such as terrorism.
Only the private companies can help here, we are one of them."

Adding that "It is crystal clear that the present American administration does not have the stomach to oppose the American IT conglomerates and to approve unpopular, yet totally necessary, regulations," Vincenzetti says that Hacking Team is now finalizing "brand new and totally unprecedented cyber investigation solutions, game changers, to say the least."

It will be interesting to see -- if we do -- what Hacking Team has cooked up. Now the company is on Phineas Fisher's radar, having proved the firm's systems can be breached, however, there's no evidence to support the idea that Hacking Team will be able to come up with encryption-cracking tools suitable for use against modern devices, or even that the company will ever regain its former footing.

In September, Citizen Lab released the results of a new investigation into Gamma Groups' notorious FinFisher spyware, used for surveillance purposes by government agencies worldwide. According to the report, the sophisticated spyware suite -- able to remotely control systems, copy files, intercept Skype calls and log keystrokes -- is used by 32 countries across various agencies including intelligence and police units.

Vodafone admits hack, customer bank details stolen

Vodafone has admitted to a security breach which has led to the theft of sensitive information belonging to 1,827 customers in the United Kingdom.
Last week, the telecommunications provider released a statement saying that "unauthorized account access" took place between midnight on Wednesday 28 October and midday on Thursday 29 October.

The company says the cyberattack took place through email address and password credentials "from an unknown source" outside of Vodafone, and the firm's systems have "not been compromised or breached in any way."

Be that as it may, 1,827 customer accounts were accessed, giving the hackers data including names, telephone numbers, bank sort codes and the last four digits of their bank account -- potentially leading to identity theft and fraud.

"Our investigation and mitigating actions have meant that only a handful of customers have been subject to any attempts to use this data for fraudulent activity on their Vodafone accounts," the firm says.

Following the discovery of the data breach, the affected customer accounts were blocked until Vodafone was able to contact them and change their details.

Vodafone has been quick to react to the cyberattack, but customers will not necessarily get away scot-free. Armed with the stolen information, this could be enough for the cybercriminals to launch successful phishing campaigns and commit fraud. Phishing campaigns are likely to be the main problem, as armed with this data, criminals could dupe the Vodafone customers into handing over additional information.

It would only take a phone call or an email from a fake Vodafone representative to coax people into handing over additional information which could be used to access bank accounts or commit identity theft.

The company informed the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), the ICO and Ofcom of the issue on Friday 30 October, and has also contacted the banks of the victims to watch out for potential fraudulent activity.

The news concerning Vodafone comes in the aftermath of a data breach at ISP TalkTalk which has affected millions of customers. The UK telecoms provider says the cyberattack took place on the firm's website rather than core systems, but up to 21,000 unique customer bank account numbers and sort codes, 28,000 obscured credit and debit card details, 15,000 customer dates of birth and 1.2 million customer email addresses, names and phone numbers were accessed.

Apple TV review: A diamond in the rough - very rough

Let's get a few things out of the way first thing. This is not the be-all and end-all of set top boxes. Not even close. In fact, right now the Roku 4 bests the 2015 Apple TV in a whole bunch of ways. Steve Jobs once called the Apple TV a hobby and at no point in its history has it seemed more like a hobby than right now.

The third generation Apple TV felt like a finished product. A limited product, to be sure, but finished and polished. This new fourth generation Apple TV feels like the beginning of something, probably something very big... but almost too early, almost still-in-the-garage early.

Before I go further, I'd also like to establish my Apple TV bona fides. I have owned all three previous generations of Apple TV. There's even a hacked old Gen2 Apple TV in the gym currently running XBMC and Boxee (remember Boxee?). I have two generation three Apple TVs, one I just replaced with this new one, and another hooked up to my iMac and providing me with a fourth screen using AirPlay.

I've been doing set top boxes since they first came out. I go all the way back to VideoGuide. We have a Roku 3 in the garage and a Roku stick in the bedroom. I dropped a Chromecast on my Dad's TV so I can show him puppy pictures and videos when I go over to visit him. So, yeah, been there. Done video add-on boxes.

So, I know what a good set top box is like, and here's the thing: right now, the new 2015 Apple TV is not a good set top box.

Everything I'm about to tell you is fixable, either through software revisions or through growth in the ecosystem. But right now, the new Apple TV is disappointing -- enough so that I'm considering returning mine.

Here's why Snapchat may be more enjoyable than Facebook

Snapchat interactions are associated with more enjoyment and positive emotions than Facebook and other social media, according to a new study.

Snapchat is a mobile application known as a form of "ephemeral social media," which are platforms displaying shared content for a limited period of time (eg, 10 seconds).

"On the surface, many people view Snapchat as the 'sexting app,'" said Joseph Bayer, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Michigan and the study's lead author.

"But instead, we found that Snapchat is typically being used to communicate spontaneously with close friends in a new and often more enjoyable way," he said.

"At the same time, Snapchat interactions were perceived as having less social support than other social media. These findings open up important questions about the benefits and costs of different social media," he said.

Bayer and colleagues recruited 154 college students who used smartphones. The study used "experience sampling" - which measures how people think, feel and behave moment-to-moment in their daily lives - to assess the participants' well-being by texting them at random times six times a day for two weeks.

Researchers found that Snapchat interactions are associated with more positive emotions than Facebook and other social technologies.

Simultaneously, Snapchat interactions are viewed as less "supportive" than other types of interaction, including Twitter, texting, email, calling and face-to-face.

Bayer and colleagues also investigated what aspects of Snapchat use might cause the increased emotional reward. Their findings suggest that reduced "self-presentational" concerns are a major reason, such as not worrying if shared pictures seem ugly or conceited.

"Since Facebook has become a space for sharing crafted big moments such as babies, graduations and birthdays, Snapchat seems to provide users with a distinct space for sharing the small moments," said Bayer.

In addition, participants reported focusing more attention on Snapchat messages than archived content on platforms like Facebook, which may contribute to the increased emotional reward.

Bayer said one surprising finding that emerged in follow-up interviews was that participants viewed Snapchat as similar to face-to-face conversations because they were mundane, not recorded and typically occurred with close relationships.

The study appears in the journal Information, Communication & Society.