Interview with Scott Helme: The Whole Network Should Be EncryptedOver the years, a number of security researchers have managed to differentiate themselves from the crowd for the work they are doing and the drive they have managed to create in the industry and Scott Helme is one of the names that stand out. He’s also an international speaker as well as being a well-known security researcher who really likes to dig into network issues. He’ll probably go on a training tour with none other than Troy Hunt the man behind Have I Been Pwned that we interviewed back a while. We wanted to know how Helme sees the world of security how he sees the risks facing us in how encryption keeps us secure and what we should all do to be safer online. Here’s our chat with Scott Helme! TechNadu: First let’s talk about Hack Yourself First which is a workshop that you’re going to do alongside Troy Hunt. What’s it going to be about and why people should come to see you guys? Scott Helme: The Hyf Workshop is a two-day workshop where we learn everything about security from the viewpoint of an attacker, with the goal of learning how to protect applications. We cover many of the top 10 threats faced by online applications to explain them in detail, performing an attack on our demo application by ourselves and looking at steps toward remediation. TechNadu: You spend a lot of time researching the security of websites. What have you been working on recently and what can you tell us about 2019 state of affairs? TechNadu: Let’s just talk a bit about encryption. We’ve seen a growing number of websites use Háps, but there are still relatively low overall adoption rates. Is there a need to encrypt all, and do we want all websites to use Háps? Does that pipe dream have any downsides? Scott Helme: I think they can encrypt the whole site yes. Even if a webpage is static or contains no sensitive information, an intruder can still track you or make malicious changes to a webpage, such as malware insertion. Using encryption on your website now used to be downsides, but great effort has been made to eliminate these and often using encryption can be advantageous. Seo promotes improved performance, and a smoother website is just a few of the things website operators can see when switching to Háps. TechNadu: Encryption through contact apps has become a mandatory function following a few years ago Snowden’s Nsa scandal. Does he also play a role in the rise in website encryption? How have you seen these last few years change things? Scott Helme: I think Snowden has definitely opened our eyes to a lot of things and his discoveries have probably been a contributing factor to the recent rise in the adoption of H?s. That said, there was an immense industry-wide drive in the interests of security and privacy, and that was at the forefront of Háps. Let’s Encrypt and the Chrome Security Team certainly must be the biggest factors for me. TechNadu: In the last year or so you discussed Certificate Accountability a lot. What are some benefits and how can we use these to more quickly detect malicious websites? TechNadu: What about the bad actors that get their sites certificates? How are we to find that? Were we overrely depending on our browsers to tell us when we are in danger? Scott Helme: around certificates there’s a common misconception and whether a site is a good site or a poor site. We need to spread the knowledge that getting Háps doesn’t mean anything but an encrypted connection you might be a genuine website or a false website the encryption can’t help us out there. Recently, we have begun to see browsers remove the ‘ Safe ‘ text and other items that could confuse the user by giving a positive indication and instead only displaying a message to the user when a problem arises. We rely heavily on the browser to support us here, and while it’s awesome for everyone around the world to learn how to be safe online, I think the browser has to protect us by default or people will always be victims. Technadu: Tell us about the routine of your defense. What is it you are doing to stay safe online? Scott Helme: I’m very careful about the places I’m visiting and I’m giving my details. For example, if I buy something I’m going to find feedback for the store to make sure they are valid. Having thought about the reliability of doing so, links in emails or updates are always clicked and I always make sure my computers and browsers are up to date. TechNadu: The safety standards of the IoT industry are notoriously low. Have you got any smart devices in your house, and how do you and you keep them safe? TechNadu: We’ve seen a lot of talk about whether Vpns should or should not be used everyday. Where are you thinking on this? Use a Vpn, and if so which one? When picking one, what features will we look for? Scott Helme: I don’t think you should use a Vpn every day, but I’m using one when I’m traveling so if I’m in a hotel or airport I can have some extra privacy and security. I am using Freedome Vpn myself and you can get a deal for all your devices so I’ve got it on my laptop and tablet phone. We have to note that a Vpn isn’t an absolute protection and privacy workaround because the Vpn provider can still see what you’re doing, but it makes me feel a little more secure using Wi-Fi in busy public areas. TechNadu: How safe is the network today to wrap it up? What can be done to make things safer for everyone? Scott Helme: The internet is better than it has been but we still have a lot of work to do. The recent push toward HAPTS is a great start, but we need to continue pushing for HAPTS and look at other areas as well. Safety of the email client, and much more like IoT. Our rate of progress is rising and things will continue to improve year after year as long as we can sustain the momentum. Reviews and interviews for more Tech news guides.
Net neutrality rules have been developed with a single objective in mind-to make it easy for large and small businesses to find their place on the market. To this the Internet is an important aspect. This is once again the location where large sums of money come into play. On the other hand, small businesses in their own niches will not be able to compete against the giants. Consequently they will have difficulty reaching their target audience.
Rising monthly costs
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Final thoughts
At this time, Internet service providers are making sure that things are not going to change. We don’t believe it though. After all the abolition of Net neutrality has been done for a reason and we’ll find out why soon.