Guide to Securing your digital life – we go over some security steps everyone should be taking

guest · Oct 27, 2021

Securing your digital life, part one: The basics
In this first of two parts, we go over some security steps everyone should be taking.
October 25, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/features/2021/10/securing-your-digital-life-part-1/

Even those who consider themselves well educated about cyber crime and security threats—and who do everything they’ve been taught to do—can (and do!) still end up as victims. The truth is that, with enough time, resources, and skill, everything can be hacked.

The key to protecting your digital life is to make it as expensive and impractical as possible for someone bent on mischief to steal the things most important to your safety, financial security, and privacy. If attackers find it too difficult or expensive to get your stuff, there's a good chance they'll simply move on to an easier target.
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In part one of our guide to securing your digital life, we’ll talk briefly about that process and about basic measures anyone can take to reduce risks to their devices.
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For those who want to lock things down without going offline and moving to a bunker in New Zealand, the first step is to assess the following things:

What in my digital life can give away critical information tied to my finances, privacy, and safety?

What can I do to minimize those risks?

How much risk reduction effort is proportional to the risks I face?

How much effort can I actually afford?

Reducing your personal attack surface [...]
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guest · Oct 27, 2021

Securing your digital life, part two: The bigger picture—and special circumstances
We did the basics—now let's look at some more detailed steps to protect yourself.
October 27, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/10/securing-your-digital-life-part-2/

In the first half of this guide to personal digital security, I covered the basics of assessing digital risks and protecting what you can control: your devices. But the physical devices you use represent only a fraction of your overall digital exposure.

According to a report by Aite Group, nearly half of US consumers experienced some form of identity theft over the last two years. Losses from these thefts are expected to reach $721.3 billion for 2021—and that’s only counting cases where criminals take over and abuse online accounts.
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Case in point: last September, my Twitter account was targeted for takeover by an unidentified attacker. Even though I had taken multiple measures to prevent the theft of my account (including two-factor authentication), the attacker made it impossible for me to log in (though they were locked out of the account as well). It took several weeks and some high-level communication with Twitter to restore my account.

The attacker found the email address associated with my Twitter account through a breach at a data aggregator—information probably gleaned from other applications that I had linked to my Twitter account at some point.
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Everything counts in multiple accounts
You can do a number of things to reduce the risks posed by data breaches and identity fraud. The first is to avoid accidentally exposing the credentials you use with accounts. A data breach of one service provider is especially dangerous if you haven’t followed best practices in how you set up credentials. [...]
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guest · Nov 15, 2021

Securing your digital life, part three: How smartphones make us vulnerable
Phone scams, targeted phishing, and... pig butchering? The future is kind of scary.
November 15, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/11/securing-your-digital-life-part-3/

There are, by some estimates, more smart phones on this planet than human beings to use them. People who have never used a desktop computer use smart phones and other mobile devices every day and have much of their lives tethered to them—maybe more than they should.

As a result, cyber-grifters have shifted their focus from sending emails to gullible personal computer users (pretending to be Nigerian princes in need of banking assistance) and have instead set their sights on the easier target of cell phone users. Criminals are using smartphone apps and text messages to lure vulnerable people into traps—some with purely financial consequences, and some that put the victims in actual physical jeopardy.
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I recently outlined some ways to apply a bit of armor to our digital lives, but recent trends in online scams have underscored just how easily smartphones and their apps can be turned against their users. It's worth reviewing these worst-case scenarios to help others spot and avoid them—and we aren't just talking about helping older users with this. This stuff affects everyone.
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Safety takeaways
Scammers are most successful when they target people at their most vulnerable—by causing fear, leveraging loneliness, playing to greed, or weaponizing shame. That's how Internet scams have always worked. And the scammers have followed the money, from spam emails to dating sites to Yahoo Instant Messenger to Twitter and Facebook, and now to the green pastures of mobile apps.

To protect those you know who might be vulnerable to any of the tactics I've mentioned here, provide them with these rules of thumb: [...]
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guest · Nov 17, 2021

Securing your digital life, the finale: Debunking worthless “security” practices
We tear down some infosec conventional wisdom—there's a lot of bad advice out there.
November 17, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/11/securing-your-digital-life-part-4/

Many security and privacy practices are things learned second- or third-hand, based on ancient tomes or stuff we've seen on TV—or they are the result of learning the wrong lessons from a personal experience.
I call these things "cyber folk medicine." And over the past few years, I've found myself trying to undo these habits in friends, family, and random members of the public.

Some cyber folkways are harmless or may even provide a small amount of incidental protection. Others give you a false sense of protection while actively weakening your privacy and security. Yet some of these beliefs have become so widespread that they've actually become company policy.
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I brought this question to some friends on InfoSec Twitter: "What's the dumbest security advice you've ever heard?" Many of the replies were already on my substantial list of mythological countermeasures, but there were others that I had forgotten or not even considered. And apparently, some people (or companies... or even vendors!) have decided these bad ideas are canon.
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This article won't eradicate these practices, sadly—they're so embedded in culture that they will continue to be passed down and practiced religiously until the technological weaknesses that allow them to exist have faded into antiquity. But together we can at least try to end the madness for those in our circles of influence.
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