You may not be aware that larger size versions of LinkedIn profile pictures are available – that’s only if the owner had originally uploaded a higher resolution version. LinkedIn automatically resizes the uploaded pictures to a uniform “thumbnail” size of 60 pixels x 60 pixels, but the original is also made available for anyone to view.

Here’s how to view yours or anyone’s:

1. Hover over the profile picture.
2. A “magnifier” tool image appears in the bottom right of pic.
3. Click on the “plus” in the magnifier and the full-size picture will appear in a pop-up window.

If there is no larger picture available the tool does not appear.

Privacy tip: Resize your picture before uploading. 200 or 250 pixels maximum is big enough for a contact or potential contact to know it’s really you.

With access to *any* computer that has synced with an iPhone, or a little time to recover the plain-text password, the entire phone’s contents can be read in as little as 20 minutes, according to Elcomsoft, a well-known supplier of password decryption software tools.

From their crackpassword.com blog:

When developing the iOS 5 compatible version of iOS Forensic Toolkit, we found the freshened encryption to be only tweaked up a bit, with the exception of keychain encryption. The encryption algorithm protecting keychain items such as Web site and email passwords has been changed completely. In addition, escrow keybag now becomes useless to a forensic specialist. Without knowing the original device passcode, escrow keys remain inaccessible even if they are physically available.

Now the good news: iOS Forensic Toolkit can still recover the original plain-text device passcode, and it is still possible to obtain escrow keys from any iTunes equipped computer the iOS device in question has been ever synced or connected to. Once the passcode is recovered, iOS Forensic Toolkit will decrypt everything from the keychain. If there’s no time to recover the passcode or escrow keys, the Toolkit will still do its best and decrypt some of the keychain items.

Devices supported:

1) iPhone 3G
2) iPhone 3GS
3) iPhone 4 (GSM and CDMA models)
4) iPod Touch (1st, 2th, 3rd and 4th generations)
5) iPad (1st generation only)

Note, this product is not available to the public

“ElcomSoft restricts the availability of the toolkit to select government entities such as law enforcement and forensic organizations and intelligence agencies.”

My comment: Acquire means reading and copying *everything* off the phone, including email passwords and website passwords. Physical access to the phone is required, this cannot be done remotely.

In a hypothetical intelligence/surveillance scenario a phone could be removed from a bag or pocket, taken to a back-room, acquired and returned within an hour, whilst the owner is kept occupied with drinks, food, chat, “eye-candy” or a direct physical diversion!

Has your email address or password been exposed in one of the many recent and ongoing website hacks?

Check it quickly and easily at ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com

ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com has been created to help the average person check if their password(s) may have been compromised and need to be changed.

This site uses a number of databases that have been released by hackers to the public. No passwords are stored in the ShouldIChangeMyPassword.com database.

My comment: This website is legitimate and safe. It’s purpose is to help the public. It is not a tool for collecting email addresses. You only enter your email address on the site. They look it up on a list of hundreds of thousands of compromised accounts. You do not enter your password.

If your account does show up you should change your password EVERYWHERE it has been used on the internet.

Are you in control of your name online?

Do you even own your name?

Is (at a minimum) the .com domain of your name under your control and correctly registered?

The consequences of not owning your name

The consequences of not owning your name (if your name is uncommon or you are a person of notoriety) can be devastating to reputation, personal well-being and expensive to rectify. What comes as a shock to many is the fact that there is no blanket automatic copyright or right of ownership to one’s own name, according to the international and domestic rules of the domain registration authorities.

Smear campaigns that could have been avoided

Here at Highwick Associates we have been involved in multiple cases where the owners of successful businesses became targets of retribution initiated by the registration of their name (first+last) as a domain name by an adversary. This was followed by the initiation of an online smear campaign anchored by a derogatory website. Because of the significant weight that Google gives to the .com domain extension, these simple websites ranked at or near the top of page one of search engines within a few days.

Removal from search engines is hard

Getting such websites taken down or modified can be very tricky. If they contain “opinion” and are not libelous they are permitted by most web and blog hosting providers. And search engines Google, Bing and Yahoo will not remove anything from search results until the website or content the domain points to is permanently removed from the Internet.

Get expert help before you need to

The advice we give, self-serving though it may appear, is to get expert help to secure your name and brand BEFORE you need to.

Get control first, or lose it

If you don’t get control of your name first, someone else, anyone else, can. And you lose.

Image via Wikipedia

Did you know that your iPhone, Android phone, Blackberry or other smartphone records the exact location that each photograph was taken at? And stores that detailed info in the photograph?

It’s called Geo-Tagging and it’s a feature, not a deficiency or backdooor for spying or tracking. Geo-Tagging can be fun and can enhance the social aspects of photo sharing online. But it can also inadvertently reveal information that one might otherwise wish to remain private. Such as home addresses or the location of business trips and business partners.

A website called IcanstalkU.com covers this area quite well and, despite the name, does not stalk its visitors.

Of special interest are their simple instructions of how to disable Geo-Tagging on popular smartphones.

Disabling can be temporary or permanent and does not affect the photograph in any way.

Unless you implicitly want to share or track the location of your photographs we recommend disabling the function and leaving it that way.

Related articles by Zemanta

• I Can Stalk U site exposes danger of sharing photos online (sophos.com)
• I Can Stalk U – it’s a very scary thing: A warning about posting photos on Twitter (techvibes.com)
• Facebook Places a New Geo Location Feature Is Out (mwd.com)
• I Can Stalk U: New Site Posts Exact Locations of Twitter Users Posting Geotagged Photos (nytimes.com)

Image via Wikipedia

An anonymous poster has targeted Google’s ((Redacted)) ((Redacted)) in an extreme smear campaign, using the consumer complaints website Ripoff Report.

Highwick Associates monitors Ripoff Report on behalf of multiple clients, and to observe trends in the visibility and legal aspects of online reputation and online defamation.

On Sunday September 5 we noticed a new posting headlined “((Redacted)) is a pedophile and con artist.”

The poster penned a dramatic and detailed accusation, targeted directly at ((Redacted)) and only ((Redacted)) and went on to write “((Redacted)) during the day acts like he is a respectable business man but the fact is that he is a pedophile.”

The poster seems well aware of who ((Redacted)) is: “((Redacted)) always talks about how important privacy is to him”, leading us to believe that this is retribution for a Google privacy issue and not an issue with the man himself.

He/she concludes by writing: “He is a sick, horrible person who should be killed.”

The full posting is here.

In our experience postings such as this are often false and are intended to cause the maximum amount of damage to a individual’s reputation. In some cases the subject could be questioned or even arrested based on an anonymous claim, though it is unlikely that police would take action based solely on an unverifiable post that lacks any specific evidence.

Of course if these claims are untrue (which we very strongly believe to be the case) ((Redacted)) has been libeled and defamed. And is legally entitled to identify the defamer and to claim damages. However, the website, RipoffReport.com, has an absolute policy of never taking anything down, unless ordered to by a court in their home state of Arizona. And then only under certain conditions. The website is protected by US law that indemnifies the publisher from any liability for what is posted, even if it is untrue or libelous. Ripoff Report does require that all posters agree to terms and conditions and certify that what they post is true. Also all posts are moderated before appearing on the website and occasionally edited to remove certain personal information. Otherwise it goes online within hours.

Instead of being able to request or demand removal or deletion, the subject or target of a posting can post a rebuttal, which appears under the original accusation. The contents of the original post, rebuttals and counter-rebuttals are submitted to search engines. This report appears here in Google search.

A ((Redacted)) such as ((Redacted)), backed by the resources of Google, is in far better position to take legal action, should he choose to. However, until a judge rules otherwise the posting will almost certainly stay up.

We shall continue to monitor this case and others like it on the Wild West that is Web 2.0.

[Update 1: Ripoff Report has redacted part of the posting, pending the production of a police report or other evidence. See their comment below. We have done the same.]

[Update 2: Day and date corrected from Friday, September 5, which was incorrect, to Sunday September 5.]

[Update 3: Additional clarification of Update 1: "We have done the same" meant that we have also redacted data from our post, unconditionally.]

Microsoft recently commissioned a detailed study on the impact of and trends around online reputation.

The study was undertaken in part to contribute to “Data Privacy Day”, which falls on January 28, 2010. The survey results and conclusions available in a PowerPoint presentation.

Overview from the report summary:

This research examines the expanding role of online reputation in both professional and personal lives. It studies how recruiters and HR professionals use online reputational information in their candidate review processes, and how consumers feel about this use of their information. It investigates the steps consumers take to monitor and protect their online reputation.

We’ve uploaded the Powerpoint file to Slideshare.net and it’s viewable online here with a web browser.

[For a better viewing experience click the "full" button on the Slideshare toolbar to expand the presentation to full screen.]

Confused about Facebook’s new privacy changes? No surprise if you are, the changes are sweeping.

Here are two good up-to-date quality guides that I recommend.

From Reputation Defender (user-friendly with multiple screenshots)

From the ACLU Dotrights.org site (detailed, comprehensive, tabular grids showing options. Can be a bit intimidating for the novice)

Confused or not, you MUST be sure that you choose the correct settings to control what is public and private. The new Facebook defaults leave you quite exposed, with much of what you post on Facebook viewable by friends, enemies and strangers alike, unless you take action and adjust your privacy settings.

The other face of social media and the price to be paid for speaking out against a government.

Bloggers Receive Prison Sentences

Brand new from Google is the GOOGLE DASHBOARD account and data management tool.

Find out what you’ve created with Google’s many products and services, and what has been retained.

Only works if you have a Google account or use Gmail.

Note there is no option to remove yourself from Google services, but you can delete data and set privacy where available.

Details here: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/11/google-dashboard.html

Link to your dashboard (login required): https://www.google.com/dashboard

My take: A long overdue service from the scary-huge-don’t-be-evil Google monster.