ARE YOU PREPARED?
Faith-based guidance and practice in prevention, protection, interaction, and survival
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Collaborative workshops on assessing risks, mitigating crises, and managing contingencies
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Partner together to provide 24/7 emergency access, consultation, and threat analysis
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NEWS FOR YOU
Homeland Security Committee released their latest Terror Threat Snapshot for September, a monthly assessment of the Committee’s continuing effort to highlight the growing threat America, the West, and the world face from ISIS and other terrorists.
The following are three key points from the report: 1. Two Americans were seriously injured in a stabbing attack at the main train station in Amsterdam that Dutch officials said had a “terrorist motive.” The attacker was a 19-year-old, Afghan asylum seeker, who had traveled to the station from Germany. 2. A chief Al Qaeda bomb-maker was killed in a drone strike in Yemen. He was reportedly one of the most sophisticated terrorist bomb-makers on the planet and was credited with designing bombs to be hidden in laptops and mobile devices, resulting in the TSA requiring individuals to remove electronics from carry-on bags during screening. 3. The leader of the Islamic State released an audio message calling for more homeland attacks in the West. It made note of the recent disagreement between the U.S. and Turkey over jailed American pastor Andrew Brunson. 
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TIPS & ADVICE
IS YOUR FACE BEING USED AGAINST YOU?
Legal precedent has now been set for the first time involving Face ID. In an age where 75% of millennial mobile-device users enable biometrics as their security locks, that convenience has opened the door for government officials to review the contents of your device. Compared with the common alternative, passwords are much harder for law enforcement to obtain than physical characteristics used for biometric locks such as Face ID and fingerprint readers. That's because biometrics aren't covered by the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from self-incrimination such as giving up a password. (You may remember the case where the FBI was demanding that Apple unlock a suspect’s phone.) If you think this is only happening in the US, you are mistaken. Other countries have already followed suit.
How many potentially incriminating things do you have on your devices? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably zero. Let’s look at the bigger picture though. Inflammatory people you call or follow, controversial pictures, products, sermons you have…
Your browser. Email. Facebook. What’s App. Dropbox. Signal. The history of everything you’ve ever searched and everything you’ve ever said to anyone, is right there in those apps.
Multiple companies now make “forensic software” that can grab all of your photos, contacts — even passwords for your email and social media accounts — in a matter of minutes. Their customers include police agencies of various countries, militaries, and private security forces. All they typically need is an unlocked phone.
By now you should be asking yourself:
1) What am I carrying around with me that I don’t need?
2) Did I sign out of all my mobile apps so that they don’t automatically open?
3) Should I revert back to a strong password when traveling across borders?
Legal precedent has now been set for the first time involving Face ID. In an age where 75% of millennial mobile-device users enable biometrics as their security locks, that convenience has opened the door for government officials to review the contents of your device. Compared with the common alternative, passwords are much harder for law enforcement to obtain than physical characteristics used for biometric locks such as Face ID and fingerprint readers. That's because biometrics aren't covered by the Fifth Amendment, which protects people from self-incrimination such as giving up a password. (You may remember the case where the FBI was demanding that Apple unlock a suspect’s phone.) If you think this is only happening in the US, you are mistaken. Other countries have already followed suit.
How many potentially incriminating things do you have on your devices? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably zero. Let’s look at the bigger picture though. Inflammatory people you call or follow, controversial pictures, products, sermons you have…
Your browser. Email. Facebook. What’s App. Dropbox. Signal. The history of everything you’ve ever searched and everything you’ve ever said to anyone, is right there in those apps.
Multiple companies now make “forensic software” that can grab all of your photos, contacts — even passwords for your email and social media accounts — in a matter of minutes. Their customers include police agencies of various countries, militaries, and private security forces. All they typically need is an unlocked phone.
By now you should be asking yourself:
1) What am I carrying around with me that I don’t need?
2) Did I sign out of all my mobile apps so that they don’t automatically open?
3) Should I revert back to a strong password when traveling across borders?
Over 97 million username and password combinations were stolen this year through Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail. Most of us can agree that passwords are a nuisance. Since each website and most apps require that we log in with one, it forces us to deal with a staggering number of passwords. We can begin to see how it’s easy to mock the people using "12345678" for everything, because creating and recalling strong passwords that are unique to each website is overwhelming. Making strong passwords strong—length, uniqueness, variety of characters—makes them difficult to remember. Reusing passwords across the internet is dangerous too because if one site suffers a security breach, an attacker could access our entire digital life: email, cloud storage, bank accounts, social media, and more. What are we to do?!
Cue the superhero music… Enter the Password Manager
With a password manager, all you need to do is remember one super-strong master password and the password manager handles the rest, generating and saving a unique password for every account needed across the internet. It can even store them locally or have them sync across all of our devices - automatically filling in the form on the chosen websites.
Password managers vary in features, portability, aesthetics, and pricing so do some comparing to suit your needs. A few of the top runners in most security circles, in no particular order, are:
LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, Sticky Password, and 1Password.
