Who is Watching You?

Somebody's Watching Me -- Performed by Rockwell, Lyrics by Michael Jackson
(Who's watching)
(Tell me who's watching)
(Who's watching me)

I'm just an average man
With an average life
I work from nine to five
Hey, hey, I'll pay the price

All I want is to be left alone
In my average home
But why do I always feel like
I'm in the twilight zone
And

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy
I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Tell me is it just a dream

When I come home at night
I bold the door real tight
People call me on the phone
I'm trying to avoid
But can people on TV see me
Or am I just paranoid

When I'm in the shower
I'm afraid to wash my hair
'Cause I might open my eyes
And find someone standing there

People say I'm crazy
Just a little touched
But maybe showers remind me
Of Psycho too much
That's why

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy
I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me

(Who's watching me)
I don't know anymore
Are the neighbors watching me
Well, is the mail man watching me
(Tell me who's watching)
And I don't feel safe anymore
Oh, what a mess
I wonder who's watching me now
(Who)
The IRS

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy
I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Tell me is it just a dream

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy
I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Tell me who can it be

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Who's playing tricks on me

I always feel like
Somebody's watching me
Can I have my privacy
Somebody's Watching Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

A bit different of a discussion today, as I want to take a short break from extolling the virtues of estate planning to talk a little bit about internet security.  In the context of elder law, you may want to have a conversation with your parents or other elder family members about their internet security.  Indeed--you may want to look at your OWN internet security practices after you read this blog post!

In starting up my law firm, I was frequently "out and about" working around town at various places, like public libraries, coffee shops, or office buildings.  As I write this, I am sitting in the customer lounge of the Ford dealer here in Virginia Beach ​[https://www.beachford.com/] working away.  The Virginia State Bar has a pretty robust set of rules protecting privacy and governing security of client information that lawyers must follow.  Pretty quickly, I discovered that the antivirus program and other protections on my computer were great, but if I was going to conduct business using public wifi networks, my computer and everything on it were subject to attack and compromise by hackers.

Hackers can set up fake wifi networks that look real.  How do you know that "Starrbucks wifi" is a fake wifi network?  Or "F0rd Dealer Network" is real?  Could you tell by the misspelling of Starbucks?  Or the fact that the "oh" in Ford was really a zero?  Hackers will set fake networks up all the time using spoofing to fool you.  Or they can surf in on the same legit wifi you use everyday, and take your data.  Like the song above says--"who is watching me?"  We really need to know.

I did some research and got myself a VPN to protect my computer when I use the internet via wifi in a public place.  Its pretty cheap, and you can make it much harder for bad guys to hack you.  The best simple technical summary I can find of what a VPN is and how it works is at the following website:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

I dont intend to scare you by writing this blog.  I only want you to analyze your behavior, identify risks, and mitigate them.  And note, I became intensely interested in this topic as I noticed dozens of older folks coming into Starbucks one day and using the free wifi on their tablet to surf the net and read the news or look at Facebook.  Their computers and their data is at risk.  Help yourself and those you love--look into getting a VPN!