The European “Censorship” Games in Baku – online security tips for journalists

The European Games in Baku are underway, but under all the pizzazz lies the very disturbing issue of
censorship, the violation of human rights, and the safety of journalists reporting on the event in the gas and oil rich country. However, there are a number of online security tips for journalists to secure their data while covering the European Games in Azerbaijan’s capital city.

More than a billion dollars has been spent on the European Games in Baku, including the Olympic Stadium, making the first edition of the event a truly magnificent sight to behold. 6000 athletes from 50 nations are competing in the 17 day event which runs until 28 June, organised by the European Olympic Committee (EOC.)

The opening ceremony on Friday 12 June included a performance from Lady Gaga killing John Lennon’s “Imagine” (interestingly the line “no need for greed and hunger” was omitted from her rendition!) however, the event has been heavily marred by the Azerbaijani government clamping down on freedom of speech, seriously violating human rights and barring media outlets and human rights organizations from attending the European Games in Baku.

Look at the spectacular fireworks, look at Lady Gaga, look at the balloons escape (at a glacial pace – skip to 2:37) from a giant pomegranate– there’s no way that we’re a repressive government!
While the majority of EU leaders boycotted the opening ceremony of the European Games in Baku, due to the country’s poor record on human rights, surprise, surprise, some of HMA!’s least favourite internet dictatorial-led leaders were in attendance, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who watched the opening ceremony with fellow censorship comrade President Ilham Aliyev.

A number of human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the Human Right’s Watch, as well as several media outlets including a journalist from The Guardian were refused entry into the country for the 2015 European Games in Baku for calling attention to the violation of human rights there.

Rachel Denber from the Human Rights Watch said “Government repression is making the European Games historic for all the wrong reasons.”

Dozens of political activists, journalists and critics of the government have been locked up, many others have fled the country in fear of persecution according to Human Rights Watch. While Azerbaijan’s systematic approach to clamping down on freedom of speech is no secret, the government hopes the European Games in Baku (as they also hoped hosting the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest), will detract attention away from their appalling human rights record to establish future ties with Europe. But this has only highlighted Azerbaijan’s appalling human rights track record. #humanrightsfail
Online security tips for journalists covering the European Games in Baku
If you’re a journalist reporting on the European Games in Baku, or in fact any future events, you can beef up the security and privacy on your devices with these online security tips for journalists from Hide My Ass! and also from Alan Pearce who was commissioned by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) to protect media covering the event.

• If you need to connect to public Wi-Fi use a VPN which will stop anyone, including attackers, or other third parties from being able to access your confidential information when covering the European Games in Baku. A VPN will also give you access to any blocked websites you may need to access. Hide My Ass! is your best bet – we have a VPN server in Azerbaijan giving you fast, reliable access to information and services. Check out our tips on how to stay safe on public Wi-Fi hotspots!
• Do you trust the message you have received on your device? If you’re not 100% confident it’s from a trusted and reliable source do not click on it, and certainly don’t open any attachments or click on any links within the message. Alan Pearce recommends to disable HTML in your email programme via the Settings tag to avoid infection via email.
• Hide My Phone! is a great mobile privacy app for journalists covering the European Games in Baku (or other privacy-conscious people), make phone calls without being traced by governments, or any other unscrupulous third parties.
• Keep your laptop or mobile device in your sights at all times. Alan Pearce recommends “applying a coat of glitter nail polish over a laptop or tablet and then taking a photo of it with your smartphone can calter show if the device has been tampered with.”
• Set your smartphone passcode to automatically lock at a time that works for you. If you set it to lock every 30 mins and you’re only on it for 2 mins, you’re leaving your smartphone vulnerable to attack.
• Make sure that any websites you visit uses SSL. You will know this, as you will see “https” in the URL address. The “s” means secure. Look for “https” on every webpage you visit and if you don’t see it, then that part of your session isn’t encrypted.
• There will be times when you meet various different personnel while covering the European Games in Baku, but may not wish to give out your real email address. Use the Hide My Ass! anonymous email service to keep your personal email address personal!
• Leaving Bluetooth or NFC on is an open invitation for anyone to access your smartphone device and steal your personal data. A good rule of thumb to follow is always turn off Bluetooth, or any other services, once you finished using it or switch mode to “not discoverable.”
• Great online security tips for journalists also includes the apps Mobile Hidden Camera for Android and Secret Camera for iOS with both apps allowing you to take photos without the shutter sound, previous or playback.
• If you need to share files, try SpiderOak, recommend by Edward Snowden. Steer clear of using Dropbox, which Snowden calls “hostile to privacy.”
• Install anti-theft software which will allow you to remotely delete data from your phone if it falls into the wrong hands or you misplace it during the European Games in Baku. Android users can download “Where’s my Droid” and iOS users can download the app “Find My Phone.”
• Services such as Skype and Facebook can be, and are, intercepted on a regular basis. A more secure service is CSpace, which is an open-source encrypted chat service which allows people to communicate safely and securely, as well as transfer files.

Find more great online security tips for journalists (or anyone concerned about privacy) visit our blog and also look for tips from Alan Pearce to secure your devices at home and abroad!

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HMA! TIP: HOW TO RECOVER FROM HACKED ACCOUNTS

If you suspect that one of your accounts has been compromised (for example, your email account), it is extremely important that you carry out a full security-check of all your accounts and services, as well as taking action to prevent further damage and future security problems.

Keep in mind that time is of the essence – any additional time your accounts are compromised can lead to more damage and more problems. Don’t panic, but don’t postpone it either!

1. Change your passwords
Your first step should be to change your passwords – not only for the compromised account/service, but also for all accounts and services that relate to it.
For example, if your email account was hacked, the hacker can just reset passwords for all other services that are registered to your email address. The hacker can easily take control of all your other accounts.
To be on the safe side, it’s best if you change ALL your passwords.

Unable to access your account? Has the hacker changed your passwords already?
Check the affected services support pages for information on incidents like this. If they do not offer a solution on how to reset your password again, contact their support department and explain the situation. Make sure you include relevant information to confirm that you’re the legitimate account owner.

2. Damage Assessment
Get to know what possible damage has been done with your compromised account.
For example:

• Was your email account used to send spam or viruses to anyone in your address book?
• Was your account used for illegal purposes?
• Was sensitive information or data accessed or stolen from your account or computer?
• Has you incurred financial loss due to the incident?

3. Prevent it from happening again

• What lead to the hacked account?
• Have you been using a weak password? (select stronger passwords!
• Would security software have prevented the incident? (by installing anti-spyware/malware, antivirus and firewall software)
• Is your computer properly secured? (For example, use TrueCrypt for storing sensitive data, don’t store your passwords and other login-info in cleartext)

Note: Security problems like compromised accounts are not always caused by negligent behavior such as using weak passwords or missing security software. Outdated software and firmware can lead to situations like this as well, so make sure to keep all your software including your operating system itself up-to-date.

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HMA! TIP: HOW TO USE INCOGNITO MODE, CLEAR CACHE, AND TURN OFF LOCATION SERVICES ON GOOGLE CHROME

We recently showed you how to use incognito mode, clear cache, and turn off location services on Safari (Mac OS).

Fortunately all browsers contain features which allow you to:

– Surf the net without leaving traces on your computer (using “Private browsing” or “incognito mode”)
– Clear cached files (cookies, temp data, images, websites)
– Disable tracking / location services (to prevent websites from knowing your location)

This tutorial shows how you can turn off location services on Google Chrome, how to clear your machine from cached browsing data and how to use incognito mode.

To use “incognito” mode follow the steps below:

1. Click the ‘spanner’ icon
2. Select “New incognito window” or hit CTRL+SHIFT+N
3. A new browser window will open. While browsing in this window, you will not leave any traces on your computer like cookies, temporary internet files (cache), history, search history, etc.

To clear all types of cache, cookies and other browsing data, follow these steps:

1. Click the ‘spanner’ icon
2. Select Settings
3. Click Show advanced settings
4. In the “Privacy” section, click Clear browsing data
5. In the form that is now displayed, select Obliterate the following items from: the beginning of time
6. Check all items that can be cleared
7. Click “Clear browsing data”

To stop Google Chrome from sharing your location with websites, follow these steps:

1. Click the ‘spanner’ icon
2. Select Settings
3. Click Show advanced settings
4. In the “Privacy” section, click Content settings
5. In the dialog that appears, scroll down to the “Location” section. Here, we recommend that you select: “Do not allow any site to track my physical location.”

This will automatically deny any site requests for your location.

Don’t forget there are a number of other ways a website can still recognize you, so be sure to visit our Help Center and forum for more great advice!

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Strong VPN	Visit Provider
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IPVanish VPN	Visit Provider
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HMA! TIP: HOW TO USE INCOGNITO MODE AND CLEAR CACHE ON INTERNET EXPLORER

We recently showed you “How to stop websites from knowing your location”, to explain how a website or a service can still recognize your location even when you use a VPN or proxy.

We have covered how you can clear cached browsing data from your machine, and how to use incognito mode and clear cached files for Safari (Mac OS) andGoogle Chrome.

This tutorial shows you how to use incognito mode, clear cache and also provides other privacy and location options on Internet Explorer, as fortunately IE does not have built-in location services.

Firstly, you will need to make sure that you are using the latest version of Internet Explorer – visit Windows Update.

Now let’s take a look at the options we have in the “Tools” menu.

If you don’t see the “Tools” menu, just tap the ALT key whilst Internet Explorer is running and the menu will pop up.

Here we have:

Delete browsing history (CTRL+SHIFT+DEL)

This is a useful option which will clear all kinds of cached data that may reveal your location and which also lets websites know if you have visited them before (for example, if you visited a website using a foreign IP.)

In the following window you will need to select the following options and then click “Delete“:

-Temporary Internet files
-Cookies
-ActiveX Filtering and Tracking Protection data

InPrivate Browsing (CTRL+SHIFT+P)

This option opens a new browser window in “Incognito-mode“. This prevents the browser from caching any data and it disables extensions and toolbars, and also prevents it from using previously cached data that may reveal your location or recognize you.

You can use this function to test if a website is blocking or locating you by using cached data.

Tracking Protection

With the tracking protection feature you can download lists that help to block content from websites that are known to track your location and personal information.

Don’t forget there are a number of other ways a website can still recognize you, so be sure to visit our Help Center and forum for more great advice!

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Hide My Ass	Visit Provider
Strong VPN	Visit Provider
Switch VPN	Visit Provider
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IPVanish VPN	Visit Provider
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HMA! TIP: HOW TO USE PRIVATE BROWSING, AND CLEAR CACHE ON SAFARI (IOS/ IPHONE/IPAD,ITOUCH)

We recently showed you how to enable incognito mode, clear cache, and turn off location services onSafari (Mac OS), Google Chrome, Internet Explorerand Firefox.

Fortunately all browsers contain features which allow you to:

– Surf the net without leaving traces on your computer (using “Private browsing” or “incognito mode”)
– Clear cached files (cookies, temp data, images, websites)
– Disable tracking / location services (to prevent websites from knowing your location)

This tutorial shows how you can browse privately on your iOS device, such as on your iPhone, iPad and iTouch, and how to clear your machine of cached browsing data.

1. Settings
Tap the Settings icon (the gearwheel) as shown in the image below

2. Safari
Tap on “Safari” to get to Safari’s settings

3. Private browsing
Tap the “OFF” button next to “Private Browsing” to enable it.

4. To clear all types of cache, cookies and other browsing data, follow these steps:

Clear history, cookies and browsing data by using the buttons highlighted in red on the screenshot below.

And that’s it! Simple.

You will find more advice and tips in our Help Center and also in our forum. Or if you prefer, you can always drop us an email.

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Hide My Ass	Visit Provider
Strong VPN	Visit Provider
Switch VPN	Visit Provider
Pure VPN	Visit Provider
IPVanish VPN	Visit Provider
Hotspot Shield Elite	Visit Provider

HMA! TIP: HOW TO TURN ON PRIVATE BROWSING ON IOS 7

In our recent article “How to stop websites from knowing your location”, we explained how a website or a service can still recognize your location even when you use a VPN or a proxy.

Fortunately all browsers contain features that allow you to:

• - Surf the net without leaving traces on your computer (using “Private browsing” or “incognito mode”)
• - Clear cached files (cookies, temp data, images, websites)
• - Disable tracking / location services (to prevent websites from knowing your location)

This tutorial shows how you you can turn on private browsing in iOS 7. If you’re having any difficulty with activating private browsing, please continue to read to the end of this tutorial for some alternative workarounds.

To begin, tap the Safari icon to open your browser:

Then tap the “+” sign in the top right corner:

1. Now, you have a choice – do you wish to close all the previous browsers you have opened or start a new Private Browser?

1. Next, select the “Private” option in the bottom left corner:
2. 

Note: If you’re having trouble activating private browsing, please try a couple of these workarounds:

1. 1) On the Safari screen tap the blue + sign at the top right hand corner. Then tap the main search box (URL search bar) at top of the screen. The keyboard pops up and the ‘Private’ sign in blue should be in the left right hand corner.
2. 2) It’s also possible that  ‘Restrictions‘ are on. Go to Settings > General > Restrictions and if it says ‘On’ you will need to enter your pin, then go to the ‘Allowed Content’ section and under ‘Websites’ select the option for ‘All Websites.’

Look out for more HMA! tips or if you can’t wait, you can always head to our Help Center or drop us an email.

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Strong VPN	Visit Provider
Switch VPN	Visit Provider
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IPVanish VPN	Visit Provider
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