The Cocoon Blog
The Internet as it should be: private, secure and virus free

When it comes to the Internal revenue Service, what constitutes as “too invasive?” The IRS is trying to do its job by expanding its search for tax cheats to close the “tax gap.” What does this mass form of data tracking mean for our privacy, as the IRS potentially has the freedom to track our purchases, transactions, social media posts, and credit card history.

This type of tracking can be compared to Internet “cookies” that track more than just our favorite websites – including access to Social Security numbers, health records, financial transactions, etc.

“It also recently assembled $350 million in high-tech tools to do a lot of auditing, tracking and analyzing what people do on the Internet. The agency has used social media and other third-party sources in the past, but it has now increased its capability to do so from its own growing database of networks”. –Business Insider

 The IRS has also hired private industry experts to assist them in tracking digital financial transactions. These “private industry experts” will have access to our credit transactions, health records, and social security numbers.With private industry having access to our personal information, it is only a matter of time before our private data bleeds all over the Internet…

Social Media Too

They will also be analyzing Facebook and other social media sites. Currently,  the only way that the IRS can get in touch with Facebook is via this form:

“Private industry would be envious if they knew what our models are,” boasted Dean Silverman, as reported in trade publications. Silverman is the high-tech specialists who heads a group of recruited private sectors to update IRS technology to snoop on citizens using the internet. As expected the IRS declined to comment to national mainstream journalists on how they will use the new technology to sniff out online tax cheats. According to U.S. News and Report–IRS officials has already outline their plan in partnership with IBM and EMC to use their new technology for the following:

(1) Charting and analyzing emails and Social Media like Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.

(2) Targeting audits by matching tax filings to Social Media or electronic payments.

(3) Tracking individual internet addresses and emailing patterns.

(4) Sorting data in 32,000 categories of metadata and 1 million unique “attributes.”

(5) Maching learning across “neutral” networks.

Can Americans Avoid the IRS Internet Trap? –Global Research CA

Before you allow grandma to post to her Facebook page about her next big pie sale, make sure that she is posting to “friends only” and not to the everybody else!

Malware is no longer a threat that is exclusive to desktop operating systems. The RSA 2012 CYBERCRIME TRENDS REPORT white paper stated that 2011 marked the year of new advanced threats on a global basis. In 2012, cybercriminals are finding new and innovative ways to monetize non-financial data, while hacktivism is on the rise. They predict that “InfoStealers” for the mobile platform will emerge with Trojans that are designed to “keylog touch-screen input and monitor data traffic through the mobile device.”

The RSA Anti-Fraud Command Center (AFCC) reports that Zeus is responsible for 80% of all attacks against financial institutions and estimates the financial loss at over $1 billion in global losses since 2007.

Mobile malware is rising fast, infecting nearly 13 million phones in the world during this year’s first half, up 177 percent from the same period a year ago, according to Beijing-based security vendor NetQin.

NetQin also detected almost 3.9 million phones in China being infected with money-stealing malware that sends out text messages to trigger fee-based mobile services. The high number of infections would likely translate into the malware’s creators netting 3.9 million yuan (US$616,533) each day (+ 225 million US dollars in one year).  –Michael Kan, IDG News

The Cocoon iOS full-service mobile security and privacy app is now available at the App Store and will shield your personal information and online transactions from potential network sniffers, hacks, or other digital exposures – even in WiFi hotspots. You also have the option of blocking web tracking from online advertising, including Google and Facebook.

Some key features to notice on the GetCocoon iOS app include:

1-Eliminates Tracking: Cocoon encrypted browsing keeps your personal information, location, and IP
address private. Websites can only see Cocoon, not your computer.
2-History portability from device to device: Cocoon provides instant access to browsing history from
the desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone, or any other device connected to Cocoon’s free service.
3-Mailslots: Cocoon’s disposable mailboxes help protect email from SPAM and phishing by letting
users manage, read, or create mailslots (unique, automated email addresses) on-the-fly with any
device.
4-Protection from viruses: Cocoon serves as a barricade, protecting user devices from malicious
software, pre-scanning wanted downloads, and blocking unwanted downloads.
5-SSL protection on every network connection: Securely connect to the web, protecting passwords
and purchases even on public WiFi and cellular connections.

The Cocoon Team!

Last year Internet activist Eli Pariser spoke at TED about how popular search engines like Google uses data it collects on what we click and when we click it. What if you were curious about how bombs are made or about how terrorists operate? Could the information that you search for today cause Big Brother to kick you in the head tomorrow?

Maine State Rep, Diane Russel recently wrote at The Huffington Post that with the advent of social media we are watching our privacy rights disappear at a faster clip.

 The monitoring, tracking and even surveillance is so ubiquitous that most people don’t even realize it is happening. If they do, there are few solutions being presented, and it truly begs the question, “What can I do about it?” –Maine State Rep, Diane Russell

Do you ever wonder how much information you may unknowingly give away on the web? With the Mozilla collusion browser plugin you can view a digital map of where you have browsed and who is tracking you. If you are as shocked by the results as I was –  Time Magazine has eight great ideas for protecting your privacy online.

The Cocoon Team!

Who can forget the Facebook Beacon? (Beacon was primary to the Facebook ads platform in 2007.)

“Beacon will report back to Facebook on members’ activities on third-party sites that participate in Beacon even if the users are logged off from Facebook and have declined having their activities broadcast to their Facebook friends.”  – Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News

In September of 2011, Facebook’s privacy nightmares heated up at Nic Cubrilovic’s blog when he revealed that Facebook was utilizing invasive tracking of both logged in and logged out users.

“…logging out of Facebook only de-authorizes your browser from the web application; a number of cookies (including your account number) are still sent along to all requests to facebook.com. Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit.” –Nic Cubrilovic

It wasn’t long before Nic’s research findings went viral and Facebook was forced to address the latest (in a long string) of privacy brouhahas.

Last Friday, Techcrunch blogged Facebook’s response to the latest $15B Facebook Privacy Class Action Suit that was filed in U.S. Federal Court in San Jose, California.

Facebook has already responded to the case with a flat statement of denial of guilt. “We believe this complaint is without merit and we will fight it vigorously,” a spokesperson told TechCrunch. –Ingred Lunden

Facebook tracking revelations continue to play a game of cat and mouse while never admitting to the fact that they were tracking us. WE KNOW they were tracking us. THEY KNOW they were tracking us.

Cocoon makes it simple. We offer all Cocoon users the option to stop Facebook tracking.

Internet threats are huge today. Every time you turn your head it appears that somebody is getting hacked or compromised in some way.

At Virtual World Computing (VWC) we believe that everyone has the right to online privacy and web security. We also believe in sharing vital information with the online community in hopes that our contributions will enhance and assist people in making better Internet security and privacy choices.

It is in this spirit that we’ve selected ten of our best blog posts from 2011 to re-share with the Internet community – Enjoy!

The Top 10 Cocoon Blog Posts From 2011

1. [Video] Why Should Your Privacy Be Important To YOU 

In today’s online world, privacy is not a right that exists; it is an option that you must exercise on your own. Many people believe that they have to give up their privacy to be online and Cocoon wants to change this fallacy.

2. Cocoon’s 2011 List of the Top 10 Internet Privacy Threats

Privacy has become a red-hot issue in 2011. As more privacy organizations, advocates and researchers discover and disclose to the general public what social networks, governments, corporations, data miners/aggregators, advertisers and law enforcement collect;  public awareness of the impact of our digital footprints and  invasive online tracking tactics become exposed.

3.  Protecting Children Online

Whether it is identity theft, online tracking, or profiling, the Internet can be an open door to a child’s personal information. A Wall Street Journal investigation into online privacy last year found that popular children’s websites install more tracking technologies on personal computers than do the top websites aimed at adults.

4.  New Free Software Makes Wi-Fi Safe for Travelers

Free hotspots have become famously easy pickings for hackers setting up fake free Wi-Fi hotspots that look like the real thing (aka an “Evil Twin”). When an unsuspecting user logs on, what they are connecting to isn’t a real hotspot – it’s the hacker’s laptop. Once that happens, the hacker can use free software from the Internet (such as Firesheep, WiFi Pineapple and WiFi Robin) to hijack much of the information sent to and from the victim’s laptop).

5. Facebook and their 90 day tracking cookies…

According to Byron Acohido from USA Today, Facebook has been able to create a running log of visits that each of its 800 million members has visited in the previous 90 days. Once you are logged into Facebook, the site inserts a both a browser cookie and a session cookie into your web browser.

6. Consumer Privacy Should Trump Google’s Profits

Once again, the norm for big business is to place the onus on individuals to opt-out of being tracked and allowing our information to be inventoried. This is routinely done as ad networks sell personal user profiles to advertisers, but this is a new twist. Google is now using your Wi-Fi signal to help them sell location-based advertising.

7. Nine simple steps that you can take to better secure a public Wi-Fi connection

A hacker could easily create a fake Wi-Fi hot spot that looks legitimate. If you connect to the hackers Wi-Fi you will be directly linked to the hacker’s computer.

8. How to protect yourself on social networks

Malicious people are drawn to social networks due to easy access and the amount of personal data available to them. The more information that you place on these sites along with weak privacy settings has the potential to allow targeted social engineering attacks.

9. Does your Internet have malware?

It is obvious that relying on one solution alone to detect all Internet threats is not enough. The digital landscape has changed and the concept of adopting a layered security approach is a good idea. Cocoon, a Firefox plug-in is an awesome addition to add to your Internet toolkit.

10.  Recap on Cocoon Features

Cocoon was created out of the belief that everyone should have access to the Web, have a right to online privacy, and that the act of browsing the Web should not expose your computer to malicious code.

Our business is to protect your privacy and security – if we don’t do that we don’t have a business – so we take Internet security and privacy seriously.