Security & Privacy

We endorse free and open software, as well as a healthy privacy and security culture online. Four easy steps for privacy/security and against mass surveillance are:

• Email encryption with PGP/GnuPG: use the enigmail addon in Thunderbird, or GPGTools in Apple's Mail
• Private (audio and typed) chats and video conferencing with Signal or Wire (instead of Skype, which does not offer good privacy)
• Anonymous online browsing with the Tor Browser (browsing could be slower though)
• Plugins/Add-ons like NoScript or AdBlock Plus for Firefox (names may differ for other browsers)

Good instructions and a lot more software for privacy and against mass surveillance can be found here:

• Surveillance Self-Defense by civil liberties organisation Electronic Frontier Foundation
• prism-break.org (in English or German)
• Detailed instructions to install and use GnuPG and Jitsi on macOS or on Windows

Lectures about Security and Privacy are also held by the ZID and are announced on their course-offering-page.

Mathematics and mathematicians (and of course computer scientists and programmers) play a particularly important role when it comes to mass surveillance. Some discussion is ongoing in the AMS Notices, the LMS Newsletter, and math blogs like the n-Category Cafe. See the post "Math and Mass Surveillance: A Roundup" for a partial summary.

IT-Security Tipps

For further information about the following points please visit the ZID homepage (only available in German):

• Software-Security
• Hardware-Security
• Detecting PC infections
• Browser Security
• Mail Security
• Mobile Security